Read Online Kristen Blooming by Jenny Penn - Free Book Online Page B

friends left her with her assurance she was all right, but Brandon could hear the lie in her tone. He waited, though, until they were completely alone before finally speaking.
    “Want me to take you home?” Brandon glanced down as he asked that question, struck by how clear and smooth her skin was as she lifted sad gray eyes up to meet his.
    Kristen hesitated for a moment to lick her lips and draw his gaze down to their perfectly arched bow before whispering an answer that about broke his heart.
    “I don’t want to go back out there…but I have to get my stuff.”
    “Don’t worry. I’ll go get everything,” Brandon assured her but didn’t make a move to leave.
    It was almost impossible to tear himself away from her side, a part of him needing to feel her warm and safe and tucked into his side.
    Brandon didn’t question the needs swirling through him. He simply accepted them. After all, how could anything that felt this good be wrong?
    It couldn’t be.
    Kristen shifted beneath his arm, lifting her head finally to gaze up at him with such longing Brandon felt his heart quiver and clench. Her words about broke him. They came out with a soft, whispery voice filled with shame and embarrassment.
    “I made a fool of myself, didn’t I?”
    “No,” Brandon answered instantly, irritated that she would even think such a thing. He put the blame exactly where it should have been placed. “Duncan was being an ass.”
    Her cheeks pinkened slightly at that word, and Brandon knew instantly he should have chosen another word.
    “Sorry,” he apologized. “I just get a little worked up when jerks pick on such pretty girls.”
    Kristen blinked, and he expected her to take the compliment with a soft smile, but her brows gathered in a look that was more disapproving than pleased.
    “So, if he’d thrown an ugly girl into the pool, you would have let her drown?”
    “No! Of course not.” The suggestion was insulting, but Kristen didn’t back down. She just sat there staring up at him, waiting for an explanation he really shouldn’t have to give. “It was just an expression.”
    “Then you don’t think I’m pretty?”
    “Yes, of course I do. I think you’re very pretty. The prettiest girl here.”
    “Now you’re lying.”
    Brandon felt himself growing red as she flustered him with her blunt honesty. He wasn’t lying but knew he sounded it as he tried desperately to convince her of the truth. “No. I am not. You are the prettiest girl here, to me.”
    “Really?” Kristen blinked, and he sensed her doubt. It had him smiling as he lifted a hand to brush a stray strand of hair that had curled and stuck to her cheek.
    “Really.”
    Their gazes caught and locked, and he felt hypnotized almost instantly. Despite the fact that the time and location were all wrong, Brandon couldn’t resist taking a little taste of the paradise that awaited him. When his head dipped, he felt Kristen shift a little closer, her own chin lifting so that her lips met his for a gentle brush before starting to pull back, but Brandon wasn’t ready to let go.
    He tightened his arm around her, letting his hand slide down over the smooth curve of her shoulder and glide across the graceful arch of her back. He pulled her in closer as his mouth broke open over hers. The tight purse of Kristen’s lips gave away beneath the strength of his own, and before she could respond, his tongue swept out to claim possession of her mouth in a carnal mating that only fueled Brandon’s desires.
    He wanted her. He needed her. Right then and there.
    He’d never been hit so hard by a bolt of lust, and he lost all control, knew that he was scaring her. Brandon felt Kristen tremble against him and expected her to push him away when suddenly her arms were twisting around him as her tongue finally began to lift and twist against his in a duel as old as time.
     
    * * * *
     
    Only it was all new to Kristen. She’d never felt anything like this. The feel of the