Read Online Taming Tanner by Drea Riley - Free Book Online Page A

crush on Tanner for as long as she could remember, even though she knew he was way out of her league. The thought that he might actually be interested in her was disconcerting to say the least. Tanner Saldana could have any woman he wanted, so surely his feigned interest in her now was just him being his usual self, and trying to make her feel included like he’d done when they were in school together.
    That pissed Sophia off. She didn’t need Tanner’s pity interest. Men hit on her regularly now, not that Tanner would know that. Damn him for embarrassing her. Well, two could flirt just as easily as one.
    No matter which way she’d turned, her childhood-friend-turned-grown-up-heart-throb had been there, towering over her with his domineering six foot seven frame. She hadn’t minded the blatant way his eyes had traced her every curve. In fact, the more he was preoccupied with eyeing her, the more time she had to size him up and commit his visage to memory. She kept her voice pitched low as she leaned forward to give Tanner a good look at the cleavage he’d been eyeing all weekend.
    Memories that were right up there with Tanner climbing out the watering trough butt-naked the summer they graduated high school. He’d been a lot slimmer then, definitely not the buff, gilded god that was seated before her now. She’d been ready to die and go to heaven when she glimpsed the golden globes of his ass. There hadn’t been a tan line, which told her he spent plenty of time in that trough without his drawers on when he was supposed to be mending fences on his uncle’s ranch.
    Oh yes, these new images of him were memories she’d be taking back to East Texas to fill the long, lonely nights as she finished her apprenticeship with T’Zara Martin and earned the rights to be manager of the newest locale in the chain of Sweet Seduction storefronts.
    Finding her tongue, she spoke again, “I’ll let you in on a little secret, amigo, they are bigger than you can handle.”
    She winked at him and grinned as the table broke into more laughter. Pushing her plate away, she stood from the table and begged her excuses.
    “I promised Mr. Martin I wouldn’t let T’Zara overwork herself in the kitchen, what with La Niña so close to coming, and everything. I am gonna go check on the final preparations for your cake.” She bent low to first hug Letty, and then leaned across the table to receive another hug and a kiss on the cheek from Jeramy.
    In the process, she somehow managed to get some whipped cream from her uneaten dessert on her hand. Before she could pull back across the table, Tanner half-rose from his seat, grasping her hand and pulling it near him. Slowly he licked the fluffy cream from the length of her pinkie finger before she regained her breath and brought her hand to hide behind her back.
    “Sugar, you wound me. You are exactly the kind of woman I'd like to handle.” Tanner spoke in a whisper close to her ear so that only she could hear. “And if I can’t, I'll die a happy man for the trying.”
    The roguish cowboy had the nerve to grin, baring that damn dimple that used to make her soak her panties back in the day.
    Stepping back and blinking, Sophia laughed. “As I said, Tanner, you haven’t changed at all, you Lothario. You don't fool me one bit. Always were the one to flirt fast and loose with the ladies, but I’m no sucker and you can kiss my whole ass.”
    “Mark the spot, baby, and name the day. I’ll gladly clear my calendar,” Tanner responded with a wink.
    Sophia laughed again before rolling her eyes and giving a double-handed wave to her boss’s oldest daughter who had run up to the table and was busy demanding that Tanner compliment her on her dress.
    The little flirt had her mother’s heart-shaped face and a caramel complexion that made Sophia want to eat her up with a spoon.
    “Mijoy, you mind that devil you’re standing next to, eh, mi Amiga . He thinks he is so smart.”
    “Smart?” the little