Read Online Starstruck by Anne McAllister - Free Book Online

After all, he still has twenty- six somethings that he owes you, doesn’t he?”
    Liv had forgotten that. Oh Lord, she groaned, me and my big mouth.
    Still, she wasn’t completely prepared when she picked up the phone that evening to hear a gruff, sexy voice say, “Hi.”
    “Who is this?” She knew damned well who it was. There wasn’t another voice like his anywhere. But why was he calling her?
    “I see you’re just as determined to deflate my ego now as you were last night,” he said, laughing softly. His laughter sent prickles all the way down to her toes, and she sat down abruptly on the wooden kitchen chair.
    “Oh, Mr. Harrington, what can I do for you?”
    “Come on, Liv,” the voice cajoled. “I thought we were friends. You can’t call a guy by his last name after you’ve undressed him and put him to bed, can you?”
    “I did not undress you!”
    “Well, not entirely, maybe,” he allowed. “Made me more comfortable, let’s say.”
    “Let’s not say anything, Mr. Harrington!”
    “Sorry, I’m just teasing.” She could tell he was grinning. She could see him now in her mind’s eye, the quirk of his mouth, the mischievous glint in his tiger’s eyes. “I’m just really calling to say thanks. I appreciated the blanket. And your letting me stay.”
    “I … you … you’re welcome,” she stammered, disconcerted by hi sudden sincerity.
    “Did it make things awkward for you?”
    She sat up straighter. He cared? “Well, um, no … but — ”
    “I tried to get out before the kids woke up,” he went on. “And none of the neighbors saw me leave. I walked down to a supermarket parking lot and called a taxi from there.” He sounded breathless, a bit hesitant and worried. Nothing like the devil-may-care Joe Harrington immortalized in print everywhere. Imagine, a Joe Harrington concerned about the proprieties of a situation. Liv smiled.
    “No, it was, um, all right,” she told him. No sense in bringing up Frances’s thoughts. Those were entirely her own fault after her reference to the twenty-six somethings he owed her. “Well, good-bye.”
    “Hey, hang on,” he said quickly, the diffident, nervous Joe suddenly vanishing. “There’s a little matter of the twenty-six kisses I still owe you!”
    Liv felt the heat leap to her cheeks. Why had she ever said that to Frances? She would never live it down! “Don’t be ridiculous,” she blurted. “Frances just made some silly remark about you calling me while I was out of the office, and so I said … Frances thinks you’re just too … too — ” Couldn’t she say anything without sticking her foot in her mouth?
    “Marvelous for words? Sexy for my own good?” Joe filled in, laughter rich in his voice.
    “That’s the general idea,” Liv agreed dryly. “Anyway, forget it.”
    “I don’t want to forget it,” he murmured, his voice velvety in her ear. Goose bumps broke out on her arms. “But,” he went on in a more normal tone, “there’s nothing much I can do about it right now. Tomorrow I’m flying to Hawaii for two days, and then I have to give a series of talks in Texas and Oklahoma or thereabouts. Then, I think, it’s on to the East Coast to sway the Bostonians and New Yorkers with my words of wisdom.”
    Liv felt a momentary stab of disappointment, which she just as quickly banished, as he outlined his itinerary. Life was complicated enough without wishing she had a man like Joe Harrington in it, even briefly. “Sounds like fun,” she said brightly. A change from early Madison eclectic, which was the only thing on her horizon, anyway.
    “Oh sure.” Joe’s tone was ironic. “Once you’ve seen one airplane, you’ve seen them all. And one hotel room is pretty much like another.” He sighed. “But it’s something that I promised myself I would do.”
    “I’m impressed,” Liv told him sincerely, and she was. She had thought he was just a handsome face and a little talent, but there was clearly more to him than