Read Online Love Is the Drug by K. E. Saxon - Free Book Online Page B

her sails, so to speak, pretty quickly.” She ran her hand toward him along the edge of the ancient, slightly chipped, red tiled countertop of the island, then swept it up to settle on its flat surface. “Hey, by the way, the other citizens have been surprisingly mute on the subject. I figured I’d be bombarded these past two days, but I hadn’t had one single visitor until Nora Lee showed up.”
    Jason scrubbed his palm over the back of his neck. “Good.”
    “So—you’re back early. Weren’t you having a good time?”
    Jason cleared his throat. “Yeah. Sure. It was...” Sshhit! “Listen, Julie. Here’s the deal: I had it all lined up, was looking forward to it in fact, but then”—he reached out and placed his hand over hers—“I just kept remembering how great it felt to have you pressed up against me, how much I liked having you there.” Her eyes widened and her pupils dilated. He took a step closer. “So, I thought: Why go to Dallas when there’s a super cute, sexy alternative right here in Buffalo Pass?” He moved into her space then and lifted his hand to her cheek. “What say, Julie? You game?”
    Her brows drew together as she focused her gaze on his. “Am I game?” Then, before he could answer, her brows lifted and her jaw dropped open a bit. She pulled away from him. “Are you asking me to have an affair with you?”
    He frowned. “Not really an affair—that’s much more complicated than what I have in mind. This would be more of a—I don’t know—a simple arrangement to feed a natural urge. You know, relieve some stress so we can function better as business partners. And it would be convenient as hell, too.”
    Her cheeks turned from pink to red. Then the blush traveled down to her neck and chest. “So, let me get this straight: You want to have sex with me as a stress reliever ? Because it’s convenient ?”
    Jason couldn’t help it, he smiled a little. “Well, I certainly didn’t mean that it should be that utilitarian of an exercise,” he joked as he placed his hands on her shoulders. “It’d be a helluva lot of fun too, I can promise you that.”
    She yanked out of his hold and stepped back several paces. He could tell by how rapidly her chest was rising and falling that he’d pissed her off. But good.
    He took a step closer, lifting his hand out toward her. “Hey, don’t be offended, okay?” He shrugged. “If you don’t want to do it, fine. It was just an idea.”
    She looked away, tucking her hair behind her ear and biting her lower lip. “Okay,” she said, crossing her arms over chest.
    He blinked. With a grin, he said, “Okay? You’ll do it?”
    She swung her gaze to his. “ NO! I meant , ‘okay, I’ll try not to be offended.’” She dropped her hands to her hips, shaking her head. “God!”
    “Sorry,” he said. Okay, back to Plan A.
    Except.
    That hadn’t worked so well.
    Shit.
    Plan C it would have to be. It’d probably be cheaper to just buy new bar bells than to have them shipped. He’d donate them to the YMCA or something when he left.
    Hey, he could do this. It’d probably even make him finish the designs faster.
    * * *
    Julie was standing at the kitchen sink a few hours later, cleaning potatoes and carrots for the stew she was about to make. Jason was behind her, seated at the table, his table top drafting board positioned at an angle in front of him, a pencil wedged between his teeth and another one tucked behind one ear. He’d been working on the design for a couple of hours now.
    She lifted the colander and let the water drain a second before tucking a cloth underneath and transferring it over to the island where she’d placed her cutting board and knife earlier. For about the thousandth time, she glanced at him, wondering what he thought of her now. And castigating herself a little—just a little—for being so quick to nix the fuck buddy idea. Oh, she knew that’s what he’d been driving at, he’d just refrained from using the