Read Online Ready for You by Celia Juliano - Free Book Online Page A

think your sister’s coming to Sunday dinner at my parents’. I notice she’s a talker once she gets a few glasses of wine in her.”
     
    “Now who’s taking a low shot?”
     
    “I like to play dirty.”
     
    She opened her mouth briefly before smiling. Her eyes sparkled again, a playful twinkle. He squeezed her hand back into his.
     
    “What do you want to know?” she said.
     
    “The answer to my question.”
     
    She studied his face before she began. “My best friend, Jenny, was a little wild, in a good way. We’d been friends all our lives and she was over at my house almost every day. She lived with her grandparents and had no siblings. We were sixteen and I’d been dating this guy. Santo caught my boyfriend and me…” She looked out the window.
     
    “In a compromising position?”
     
    She fingered his hand and leaned back. “Mm-hum. My parents didn’t like him anyway, so that was the excuse they needed. For my seventeenth birthday a month later, Jenny gave me a box of condoms, which my mom, ever the snoop, found in my dresser drawer. I’m sure you can imagine the reaction.” They studied each other, eyes alight with amusement.
     
    “Probably not much worse than when I didn’t go to college and then got my girlfriend pregnant.”
     
    “Your parents seem more reasonable. Mine didn’t care that I hadn’t used any. I caught him with another girl the day before my birthday. I may have said some nasty things to my parents, mostly about how they couldn’t criticize since they only got married because my mom got pregnant with Santo at sixteen. I kind of blasted him too. There were a few more incidents and they were more than glad to see me go to San Diego for college. They worried about my influence on Isabella--she’s five years younger. They said I had a dirty mouth and worse behavior. Jenny tried to defend me, but they didn’t want to hear it. She couldn’t stand Santo for nicknaming me dirty girl when we were little, among other things. She said he was the dirty pig. I loved her like a sister.”
     
    He almost laughed about Santo, but Chiara’s far away look stopped him .“ You keep in touch?”
     
    “She died at twenty five. My parents wouldn’t come to the funeral. There was hardly anyone there. Just me, a few other friends and ex-boyfriends of hers.”
     
    “The anti-family thing?”
     
    She nodded. He pulled her into him and she leaned on his chest.
     
    “Sorry,” he said.
     
    Her head nestled close to his heart. Their hands intertwined.
     
    “Thanks. I guess I ruined the mood.”
     
    “Was there one?” Rocco said.
     
    He closed his eyes and inhaled. The air, her scent, filled his lungs, almost oppressive but heady, with citrus, spice, and sex mingled.
     
    “I guess I should get home,” she said.
     
    He listened to their breathing, in and out in time with each other. A knock tapped on her window and she gripped his thigh with a quick, low gasp. He turned the key and rolled down the window. He leaned across her. The rain had stopped, just a few droplets dripped from the trees.
     
    “Hey Rocco,” Juan said, “Warren needs help with that pipe.”
     
    “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
     
    She reached for the door handle as he closed the window.
     
    “I’ll drive you home.”
     
    “It’s only a few blocks. I can walk.”
     
    He pulled away from the curb before she could open the door. “Which house?”
     
    “On the corner of the next block, other side.”
     
    He made a U-turn when he got there and stopped in front of her car parked in the driveway. His stomach gripped. “Lunch next week?”
     
    “Where?” she said.
     
    “I’ll call you.”
     
    She nodded and scooted close to him. Their eyes locked. She placed her hand, trembling, on his cheek and kissed him. Before he could think, his arms slid around her and pulled her so close he felt her nipples harden. Her hand eased onto his inner thigh as they kissed. He pushed away and rubbed his