Read Online Road to Seduction (Kimani Romance) by Ann Christopher - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Ann Christopher
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one of those ugly plastic chairs and smash it through the closest window.
“So we’d be…what? Friends with benefits? Sex buddies?”
“Of course not.” Offended now, she drew herself up and crossed her arms over her chest, all wounded dignity and unshakable pride. “I’m not the sex buddy type.”
“I know that.”
“Our friendship is the most important thing. I don’t want to jeopardize it because of our attraction.”
“Neither do I.”
“So we need to address the attraction and get past it.”
Eric was all for addressing the attraction. It was the getting past it part he had problems with. “So…we’d have…what? An affair for a few months and then—”
“Oh, no.” She shuddered at the suggestion. “I’m leaving soon anyway, remember? For South Africa? No. I think a night would do it. Two at the most.”
A black rage descended on him, so dark he could barely see her through his dimming vision. It only got worse as she watched him, her expression chirpy, bright and annoying as hell, and it took him a good ten seconds to force a response up and out of his tight throat.
“A night…or two? That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
This idea was so repugnant…so inconceivable…so unbelievably freaking idiotic, that he would have laughed if he could have unlocked his throbbing jaw long enough to smile. Worse, a vein was now pulsing in his temple—he could feel it—and this…this… woman was about to cause him to stroke out or have a heart attack right here in the middle of an animal hospital where they probably didn’t even have the equipment necessary to revive him. With his luck they’d probably slap him on a gurney and crack his chest open right next to a collie getting his balls clipped.
A night with Isabella would never be enough, not with the way he wanted to gorge on her body and revel in her. He wanted to make love with her…laugh with her…explore her, in a way he’d never done before.
This was the last thing he’d wanted or expected. Life as a player was pretty good, after all—but there was something so right about deepening the relationship with Isabella, so comforting, so logical that he just couldn’t ignore it. He was already emotionally closer to Isabella than he’d ever been to another woman. Why not take it a little further and see what was there?
After several deep breaths he was able to choke out a couple sentences. “How about this.” Something in his voice, whichsounded hoarse and dangerous, even to his own ears, seemed to pierce Isabella’s blithe attitude, and she watched him with a new wariness. “How about we have sex, spend a little more time together and see if we can build a relationship?”
She goggled at him for an arrested moment. Her expression, which hovered somewhere between startled amusement and abject horror, did nothing for his ego, which was already critically wounded and on life support. And that was before she emitted a weird hiccupping sound that erupted into full-blown hysterical laughter. Seething, he watched as she clutched her side and doubled over, clinging to one edge of the table for support.
“You?” Gasping, she straightened, wiped her streaming eyes and tried to catch her breath. “In a relationship? The man who gets hives if a woman leaves a toothbrush in his bathroom? The man who’s never, to my knowledge, been with the same woman for longer than a few months? The man who thinks staying all night at a woman’s apartment is a commitment like marriage? You? Why would I pin any girlish hopes on you? Do I look that s-stupid and self-destructive?”
Laughter bubbled up and overcame her again and she bent at the waist. Cursing, he vibrated with righteous anger, but then it occurred to him that it couldn’t really be righteous if her little assessment was correct.
It was worse than that, actually. She had him dead to rights.
He should’ve known all those long talks he’d had with Izzy over the years would one day come
“So we’d be…what? Friends with benefits? Sex buddies?”
“Of course not.” Offended now, she drew herself up and crossed her arms over her chest, all wounded dignity and unshakable pride. “I’m not the sex buddy type.”
“I know that.”
“Our friendship is the most important thing. I don’t want to jeopardize it because of our attraction.”
“Neither do I.”
“So we need to address the attraction and get past it.”
Eric was all for addressing the attraction. It was the getting past it part he had problems with. “So…we’d have…what? An affair for a few months and then—”
“Oh, no.” She shuddered at the suggestion. “I’m leaving soon anyway, remember? For South Africa? No. I think a night would do it. Two at the most.”
A black rage descended on him, so dark he could barely see her through his dimming vision. It only got worse as she watched him, her expression chirpy, bright and annoying as hell, and it took him a good ten seconds to force a response up and out of his tight throat.
“A night…or two? That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
This idea was so repugnant…so inconceivable…so unbelievably freaking idiotic, that he would have laughed if he could have unlocked his throbbing jaw long enough to smile. Worse, a vein was now pulsing in his temple—he could feel it—and this…this… woman was about to cause him to stroke out or have a heart attack right here in the middle of an animal hospital where they probably didn’t even have the equipment necessary to revive him. With his luck they’d probably slap him on a gurney and crack his chest open right next to a collie getting his balls clipped.
A night with Isabella would never be enough, not with the way he wanted to gorge on her body and revel in her. He wanted to make love with her…laugh with her…explore her, in a way he’d never done before.
This was the last thing he’d wanted or expected. Life as a player was pretty good, after all—but there was something so right about deepening the relationship with Isabella, so comforting, so logical that he just couldn’t ignore it. He was already emotionally closer to Isabella than he’d ever been to another woman. Why not take it a little further and see what was there?
After several deep breaths he was able to choke out a couple sentences. “How about this.” Something in his voice, whichsounded hoarse and dangerous, even to his own ears, seemed to pierce Isabella’s blithe attitude, and she watched him with a new wariness. “How about we have sex, spend a little more time together and see if we can build a relationship?”
She goggled at him for an arrested moment. Her expression, which hovered somewhere between startled amusement and abject horror, did nothing for his ego, which was already critically wounded and on life support. And that was before she emitted a weird hiccupping sound that erupted into full-blown hysterical laughter. Seething, he watched as she clutched her side and doubled over, clinging to one edge of the table for support.
“You?” Gasping, she straightened, wiped her streaming eyes and tried to catch her breath. “In a relationship? The man who gets hives if a woman leaves a toothbrush in his bathroom? The man who’s never, to my knowledge, been with the same woman for longer than a few months? The man who thinks staying all night at a woman’s apartment is a commitment like marriage? You? Why would I pin any girlish hopes on you? Do I look that s-stupid and self-destructive?”
Laughter bubbled up and overcame her again and she bent at the waist. Cursing, he vibrated with righteous anger, but then it occurred to him that it couldn’t really be righteous if her little assessment was correct.
It was worse than that, actually. She had him dead to rights.
He should’ve known all those long talks he’d had with Izzy over the years would one day come
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