Read Online Nightie Night: The Lingerie Series (Stir Sticks & Stilettos) by Yvette Hines - Free Book Online Page B

lick them from corner to corner.
    He swallowed. “Have you decided?” he
asked in a calm voice.
    I wasn’t sure how he’d pulled that
tone off and gotten himself under control so fast when I felt like I was going
insane with lust. Yes, I had decided, I wanted to get to know this man and
having a meal with him was perfect place to start. “Lasagna. I’ll have the
lasagna.”
    “Perfect. I’ll do the same.” Rising,
he crossed the room in a steady strut.
    I enjoyed watching the play of
muscles below his shirt and the round tightness of his ass. My palm itched to
stroke them and feel the firmness.
    Grabbing his cell phone from the
edge of his desk where he’d tossed it earlier, he called the restaurant. He
chatted for a moment with the owner or whoever worked there proving that they
were familiar with him, a regular customer.
    “That’s two.” He laughed, tilting
his head back and giving a deep rumble. “No, Gino I’m not that hungry. A lovely
lady has actually agreed to eat with me.” He glanced in my direction and
winked. “Next time we’ll come in.”
    A warmth of joy spread from my core
up and through my arms and leg then surrounded my heart. Next time. Since this was technically the end of our assignment together and we were from
separate departments there wasn’t any need for us to ever work with each other,
definitely not see each other. However, his words let me know he considered
possibly seeing me on a personal level. I hoped.
    “I guess you’re a first name basis
regular?” I said when he ended the call.
    Sitting on the edge of his desk,
Aaren folded his arms over his broad chest and looked at me. “Yes, I am. I
found the place when I first moved here from upstate Maryland. I’ve been eating
there for at least once— No, I’m lying—  Twice a week since then. Lunch or
dinner. So, I know that it is family run. Gino and Ammalina have been married
for forty years with five kids between the ages of nineteen and thirty-six, all
of whom work there. The oldest two are married.”
    “Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten
faithfully at a place to know more than the person’s name behind the counter
and they can tell me my coffee and pastry order.”
    He shrugged and glanced down at the
floor, crossing his feet at the ankle. “I like good food and the family
environment.”
    I wished he wasn’t so far away. I
had enjoyed him sitting beside me, but there was technically no reason for him
to be so close again. Damn.
    “So, what would Gino and his wife be
able to say about you?”
    Lowering his hands, he placed them
on the desk and pushed himself away. “That I work too many long hours.” He moved
back toward me but claimed the chair on the other side of the table instead.
    “I can’t lie and say that’s me. I
come in early most times to get a jump on things, but this internal audit.” My
hands waved over the table full of print outs, graphs and our laptops and I
said, “Has given me new evening hours and put my life on a bit of a hold.”
    Titling his head, he gazed at me.
“Really? So, what would Kalan be doing on a Friday night if not stuck here with
me?”
    “Arguing with my family.”
    His brow furrowed and he slowly
lifted an eyebrow and sat back. “You and your family don’t get along?”
    Even though his tone was neutral,
something in it let me know that he had some problem with people that didn’t
get along with their family.
    “Oh, no.” I laughed just thinking of
my family and the anarchy that would be going on in my parents' living room
even now. “We’re too close. All of us still live in the area and get together
often. But we are highly competitive like Christmas flag football
'championships'.” I made quotation marks in the air. “Game nights and
everything else in between.”
    “Wow. How many is it of you all?” He
ran his hands through that thick brown hair of his and a short lock escaped and
fell on his forehead.
    The need to reach out and twirl it
around my