Read Online The American Earl by Kathryn Jensen - Free Book Online

about the thing she’d done with their hands in the restaurant. But she was gone. He heard water running in her bathroom. Sighing, he shook his head.
    Matt waited impatiently outside the door to her suite for the water to stop running. Why he waited, he wasn’t sure. He heard her feet padding across the floor of the adjoining suite. She was humming to herself, sounding delightfully content and pleased with herself.
    He stepped close to the door separating her private quarters from his domain. “Abby?”
    The humming stopped. “Did you want me, Matt?”
    â€œYes.” Yes! he thought wildly. I want you out of those clothes and in my arms. “Would you come in here for just a moment?”
    There was a delay while he imagined her pulling a robe over her nightdress, then she appeared in the doorway. She had indeed put on a simple pink cotton robe. And it almost concealed the fact that she wore nothing beneath it. Unfortunately, her attempt at modesty failed to account for two crucial factors. The lamps in the room backlighted her figure, so that her long, slim legs showed through the fabric. And her nipples were raised, poking little brown dots through the pale cloth.
    Matt swallowed, then swallowed again, his throat suddenly so dry he doubted he could speak. Her hair cascaded in poppy-red waves over her shoulders, and her eyes were soft, sleepy, and unafraid. The nervous energy of their earlier encounters was gone. She looked as if her only desire was to climb between two sheets and fall asleep fast. But he only wanted to get into bed…with her…definitely not to sleep.
    â€œYes?” she repeated.
    He stepped closer. She smelled of bath soap, minty toothpaste and the fabric softener in her robe. A good clean country girl, he thought. He wanted to gather her to him, bury his face in her lush, damp red mane…inhale her, taste her.
    â€œOn second thought,” he began hesitantly, “maybe you should jot down just a few notes before you go to bed. Include a few personal observations about the Gremmels—meal choices, their son’s name, hobbies. I keep records of that sort of thing. You might forget by morning.”
    Abby looked puzzled. “All right.”
    She started to step back into her suite, but his hand shot out and closed around her wrist, stopping her.He stared at his fingers as if they were mutinous employees, acting without his permission.
    â€œAnything else?” she asked, her voice sounding husky. It sent a flash of heat through his body. Heat that settled low within him and simmered.
    He might have snapped his hand back and said no. But as Abby turned toward him, the sweetness of her breath crossed his face, and he unwisely focused on her lips, softly parted. Her mocha eyes widened as they took in his expression.
    Later, Matt realized that what happened next had been inevitable from the start. He pulled Abby into his arms and kissed her hard and long. He kept telling himself that at any moment she would let out a protesting screech, or, at the very least, shove him away. But she did neither. And without some negative response from her, he couldn’t stop moving his lips over hers…couldn’t stop teasing the corners of her sweet mouth with the tip of his tongue…couldn’t stop drinking in her lovely essence.
    She didn’t exactly return his kiss, but she didn’t reject it either. This intrigued him. Clearly, she wasn’t a woman who gave herself over to every man who made a move on her. He had somehow known that from the moment she popped into his office that Friday afternoon. She was perky and playful, but could be serious when the occasion demanded. She wasn’t a shallow flirt or a sleep-around girl, so why was she letting him get away with this?
    It was impossible not to test her.
    Keeping her lips busy, he slowly moved his hand between their bodies and cautiously rubbed his thumb across one nipple through her robe. She