Read Online The Better to Bite by Cynthia Eden - Free Book Online Page A

tonight.”
    Right.
    Brent was closing in.
    “Be careful,” Cassidy told me, and then she hurried away.
    I exhaled on a long, hard breath.
    “Problem?” Brent asked, glancing over at Cassidy’s fleeing figure.
    “No.” I smiled. I’m so good at the fake smile these days. “Just a little girl talk.”
    His hair was wet from the shower, and he smelled clean and fresh. No more black paint on his face. Back to being All-American. All-American was growing on me. He walked around me, and opened the truck door. I wasn’t really expecting that gentleman move from him. It was nice. I slid inside and eased onto the leather seat. He slammed the door behind me and hurried around the truck.
    When he turned on the engine, a blast of hard, pounding rock filled the car.
    We both laughed as he turned down the volume. “Sorry,” he told me with a flash of a shy grin. Shy? Him? “I like to get into the mood before a game. The music pumps me up.”
    Then he leaned over me. Real close. I lost that deep breath I’d taken earlier. His mouth was so near to mine that I thought he was going to kiss me.
    But he just grabbed the seatbelt behind me and pulled it over my shoulder and clicked it in place near my waist. “Got to buckle up,” he said.
    The guy was a boy scout. Cute, smart, and law-abiding. When he found out about the whole law-abiding part, my dad would be in heaven.
    I was actually pretty close to that sweet spot myself. Maybe my bad boy days would be over.
    He cranked the truck and pulled out of the empty lot. I didn’t see Cassidy anymore. No telling where she was. But I had the weird feeling she was around, watching me.
    You should’ve come with us.
    “I’m really glad you came to the game,” Brent said, and my gaze darted to his hands as they gripped the steering wheel. Strong hands, tanned. “Even though I got the impression that football wasn’t your sport.”
    I laughed at that. “I don’t actually have a sport.” Thank goodness.
    “Give football a chance,” he told me. “You might be surprised by how much you like something new.” We were on the main road now. I’d looked up his address online so I knew where he lived. We’d have to slip away from this road soon and snake through the woods as we headed up the mountain.
    “You were good,” I said when I realized the silence in the truck had stretched a bit too long. “Like…really good.” Almost steroid good, but a girl wasn’t supposed to say that on a first date, right?
    I saw the white flash of his teeth as he grinned. “Thanks.”
    “Is it always a slaughter like that?” Perhaps slaughter wasn’t the best word, but it was the only thing that sprang to mind.
    He shrugged and steered the truck to the left, toward the darker woods and the twisting roads that waited. “Lately it is.”
    And why is that?
“You’re not on steroids, are you?” Oh, crap. The blurting again. I’d really meant to hold that question back until at least the second date.
    But, to my immense relief, Brent just laughed. “Nah, I’m drug free, trust me.”
    “Good to know.” Now Dad wouldn’t have to bust the football team. Maybe.
    His right hand reached out and caught my hand. His thumb brushed over my knuckles. “I like you, Anna.” His deep voice filled the car. A hint of the South flavored his words, rolling them just a little. “You say what you think, don’t you? No holding back with you.”
    Usually people were turned off by that habit, but Brent didn’t seem to be pulling away. “Maybe I should hold back more.”
    He spared me a brief glance. “Maybe you should let go more.”
    I swallowed and wondered why things suddenly felt so intense. “Wh-what—” I’d just
stuttered.
So not me. I cleared my throat and tried again. “What happened with you and Valerie? One day you’re the lead VIP couple on campus, and the next you’re not?”
    His hand pulled away from mine. I could so kill a mood when I wanted. It was a talent.
    “It wasn’t quite