Read Online Tempting Isabel (Paradise South #1) by Rissa Brahm - Free Book Online Page A

collisions with the earth because of the inconsistent stone streets of her Vallarta.
    Yeah it’s the cobblestone, or the waiter, or the mop bucket, Isabel, that’s the issue. Right.
    Whatever, she was just glad to have her hand in his, for balance and for the seemingly perfect fit of their fingers.
    Don’t get used to this, Isabel! Just don’t.
    They reached his parking spot on the street back at the Five Breezes Resort, and she smiled at the hot red sports car. Such a bachelor, but one with damn fine taste. And rarely did one of her evening companions open the car door for her. It was sweet. He was sweet.
    And God, too damn sexy.
    But he made her feel just as sumptuous. She felt his eyes indulge from behind and sensed him examining her every curve as she smoothly and deliberately folded herself into his passenger seat.
    “Thank you,” she said, getting wetter between her thighs with the idea of him above her. Soon. But, God, not soon enough.
    With a wink and that delicious smile of his, he shut her car door. And at that exact moment, a bus passed, followed by a tidal wave from a Vallarta street puddle. It rose up and over him. And his car. And clear over to the sidewalk.
    Isabel shook her head, scared to look. When she did open her eyes, she saw Zack dripping wet outside her window, like a sad, wet dog, a look of awe on his face, his hard chest heaving.
    And there it is.
    Case in point for her one-date rule. Thankfully, a minor one. Past examples on her sexual escapades—a fender bender with John a month back, and three weeks ago, Drew from Germany had incurred a huge bruise to the head, and to his ego, from a tree limb they’d walked under—all served as important reminders for why she’d made her rule in the first place. If broken, the puddle or the concussion no doubt led to something far worse, far more permanent.
    Never again.
    She pulled a scarf from her purse and put it on the leather-upholstered driver’s seat as he moped around the front of the car, not even attempting to wipe the muddy street water from his face. She couldn’t see his expression, but it didn’t matter when the clouds opened for another round of rain. She almost laughed, but caught herself so that when he opened the car door, he was greeted by her infinitely warm and empathetic smile.
    With one soggy foot inside, he picked up her scarf. “No, please, take it. I don’t want to ruin this. The car’s a rental anyway. And I am hopelessly waterlogged, it wouldn’t even help.” He tossed the scarf onto her lap as he squished into the bucket seat.
    “It was my fault, anyway,” she muttered, even though he couldn’t possibly understand why.
    “Yeah it was. If you weren’t so goddamn gorgeous, attracting the attention of every man, woman, and roadside puddle…or rather, lake…” He snickered, one sultry eyebrow raised.
    She reached over the gearshift and with the tip of the scarf, she tenderly wiped away the rolling droplets cascading down his nose. “Strange, because I didn’t notice any one else’s attention but yours.” She smirked, blinked then stared—God, she could drown in those sea green eyes.
    “Mmmm.” The deep rumble in his chest hit her ears. Her answer pleased him.
    And his obvious hunger pleased her. But it was when his lip curled with sinister delight, and his forever-gaze deepened, and the rain turned from pattering to pounding all around them, that the all-out crescendo of the combination made her core’s ache billow to overwhelming lust for this man. This stranger.
    Only one beat passed before their hands reached for each other in unison, and mouths crashed. An inhaling, all-powering kiss. Fast and furious and rain soaked. Breath caught and found, then lost again. Too much, and not enough.
    *
    “Let’s get back to your room,” she panted through entwined lips, “and get you out of these wet clothes.”
    And his reply? More depth, more fire, more insane heat infused into the connection their lips had