Read Online Last Virgin In California (Mills & Boon Desire) by Maureen Child - Free Book Online

front seat.
    “Why’d you do it?” he asked.
    She stopped and stared up at him. “Do what? Get the jackets for the kids?”
    “No,” he said dryly. “Invent penicillin.”
    “Funny.”
    “Thanks. So…why?”
    Lilah shrugged, trying, unsuccessfully, to make light of the situation. “The kids needed the jackets and it was a good deal for both sides. The store gets a tax write-off and is able to do something for thecommunity and the kids get new winter jackets. Everybody wins. Why wouldn’t I do it?”
    “Most people wouldn’t have gone out of their way to go and talk some department store into donating clothes.”
    She smiled at him. “As you’ve already pointed out more than once, I’m not ‘most people.’”
    “Point taken,” he said and watched her as she sat on the seat and swung her legs inside. He closed the door, walked to the driver’s side and got in himself before looking at her again and saying, “All I wanted to say was, it was a nice thing to do.”
    Just a little uncomfortable, as she always was when being thanked for something, Lilah pulled her head back and stared at him in mock amazement. “Gee…is this a compliment I hear?”
    “Could be.”
    “And me without my journal again.”
    “You keep surprising me,” he said.
    “Good. I do hate being predictable.”
    “I like predictable,” he said and fired up the engine.
    “Now why doesn’t that surprise me?” she murmured. Quickly, she hooked the seat belt then turned her head to look out the side window. He put the car into gear and backed out of the drive onto the road.
    Lilah barely paid attention to the passing scene. Instead, her mind rattled along at its own pace,dredging up one thought after another. She’d been happy to arrange for the new jackets for the kids. It hadn’t taken much effort—if there was one thing Lilah was good at, it was talking to people—and after all, it had worked out well for both sides.
    But she never had been comfortable with compliments. She preferred doing her volunteering and then slipping away into the mist—like the Lone Ranger, she thought with an inward smile.
    They drove through the main gate, and waited for a break in the cars to join the traffic. Once they were a part of the streaming line of lemmings, Kevin spoke up, breaking the silence in the car.
    “At least Sea World shouldn’t be crowded. This time of year and all, there aren’t many tourists.”
    Grateful that he’d apparently decided to drop their earlier conversational thread, Lilah looked at him and smiled.
    He was right. When they pulled into the parking lot twenty minutes later, they had their choice of slots. The weather probably had something to do with that, she thought. Leaden skies and a cold, wintry wind would keep even the locals away from the park. It was almost as if they’d been given the place to themselves for the day.
    Kevin watched her as she studied the pamphlet and decided what she wanted to see first. Somethinginside him shifted uncomfortably. She was just so damned…tempting.
    She always had a rumpled, tousled look that made him think of rolling her around on silky sheets—and as that thought strolled through his mind, it was all he could do to keep from reaching for her. But it wasn’t just what she did for his body. He liked how her mind worked. Even when it frustrated him. Talking to her was like walking in circles and her sense of humor was a little unsettling at times, too. But the sound of her laughter was enough to set off sparklers in his bloodstream.
    And now he knew that she was thoughtful enough to arrange for kids to get brand-new jackets. And that she was selfless enough to be embarrassed about it when he found out and faced her with it.
    She couldn’t be more different from his ex-wife. Alanna couldn’t see further than her own reflection. She’d tossed him over without a thought, to get the one thing she’d wanted and wasn’t able to get without him.
    Entrance to the United