Read Online Obsession (Southern Comfort) by Lisa Clark O'Neill - Free Book Online

Christmas party by saying she had no idea he couldn’t hold his eggnog or calling him Doctor Hot Lips.  Any of the things that she would normally have done if it had been someone else he’d been kissing.  Set their relationship back on its familiar course.
    Kathleen picked up a pajama set without really seeing it. 
    So why hadn’t she called him?  And why had her stomach and her lungs attempted to perform Vital Organ Origami every time she’d put her hand on the phone?
    “Oof.”
    Kathleen was pulled from her reverie when she crashed into something, hard.
    “Oh hell.  I’m sorry,” she said to the brown-haired woman she’d just mown down, causing her to spill her newly acquired lingerie purchases all over the floor.
    “No, no. It’s okay.” The woman bent down to start shoving lacy undergarments back into the pink-striped shopping bag.  “It was my fault, really.  I’m in a hurry and wasn’t watching where I was going.”
    “I’m sure that’s more gracious than I deserve,” Kathleen said, squatting down to help.  “It was probably my land pontoons that tripped you up.”
    The woman looked confused until Kathleen gestured to her boots.  Being tall, her feet were slender, but not exactly petite.
    “Oh.” The woman smiled, her brown eyes crinkling as she returned her attention to the scattered lingerie.  “Well, I can relate.”
    She gestured to her own foot, which looked to be about the same size as Kathleen’s, or maybe even a little bigger.  Something about her struck Kathleen as familiar.
    “Do I know you?”
    “I don’t think so.”  The woman shook her head, flipping her sleek brown hair out of her face.  “Um…” she nodded toward the item still clutched in Kathleen’s hand.
    “Right.” Kathleen looked down at the… what the hell was this thing, anyway?  Some kind of bright blue, fluttery, lacy thing that escaped immediate identification “Sorry.”  She thrust the whatever it was into the woman’s bag.
    “No problem.  Thanks for the help.”
    A faint pink blush tinged her cheeks as she hustled out the door of the boutique.  Kathleen shook her head, musing that you really never knew what went on beneath someone’s conservative business suit until you knocked over their bag of kinky underthings.
    “That’s a new look for you.”
    “What?” Kathleen turned to find Sadie, clutching her own bulging pink bag, peering with interest at the pajama set Kathleen still held in her hand.
    Kathleen looked down, realizing that she’d picked up something from the sale rack, a leftover Christmas set that said: “Santa’s jolly because he knows where all the naughty girls live.”
    Good lord.
    “The pants are extra -long,” she sniffed, having no idea whether or not that was true. “You know what a hard time I have finding things to fit my legs.  And besides, it’s on sale.”
    With that, she headed toward the counter, Sadie’s chuckle ringing like impish sleigh bells in her ears.
     
     
    JUSTIN heard the boisterous voices through the partially closed door, and hesitated outside Natasha’s room. He’d already taken a few minutes to drain the dregs of his temper, but he wasn’t sure he was up to dealing with a crowd. He clutched the plant, second guessing the instinct which had inspired him to purchase the gift in the first place.  To hell with it.  He’d already bought the thing and he was standing right here.  Besides what was he going to do with it?  Take it home?  He might have a medical degree, but he did not possess a green thumb.  Left with him the poor daisy would be, well, pushing up daisies, so to speak, within a week.
    He rapped gently on the door.
    “Come in!”
    Justin cautiously edged inside, bracing himself for the inevitable when he saw who Natasha’s guests were.  He nodded at Shelley and Hannah, two of Natasha’s coworkers from Jugs, who both greeted him with enthusiasm, not to mention the bold wink he’d come to expect from Shelley.  Over