Read Online The Charmer by Kate Hoffmann - Free Book Online

that right?” he asked, rechecking his watch.
    She shook her head, trying to avoid staring at his body. “No. I don’t like clocks. There isn’t any need for them here.”
    Alex frowned, raking his hand through his hair. “What about when you have to be somewhere on time?”
    “I never have to be anywhere on time. I get there when I get there.”
    Alex chuckled. “I wish I could live like that,” he murmured.
    She glanced over her shoulder at him. He was so beautiful, all muscle and hard flesh. Her fingers twitched as she held out her hand. “You could. Here, give me your watch.”
    “No. This is an expensive watch.”
    “I was just going to put it back in the refrigerator.”
    He thought about the notion for a second, then smiled and slipped it off his wrist. “When in Rome.”
    She opened the fridge and put it inside the butter compartment. “You’ve been liberated. Doesn’t that feel good?”
    “How do you know when to get up in the morning?”
    “I usually get up when the sun rises,” she explained. “Or when the dogs wake me.”
    “Don’t you have to be to work at a certain time?”
    She shrugged. “I keep my own hours.” She opened a cabinet and pulled out two cans of dog food. “Here, make yourself useful. The can opener is in that drawer.”
    “I thought I had made myself pretty useful last night,” he murmured.
    Tenley felt a warm blush creep up her cheeks. “You want to talk about it?” she asked.
    “You…surprised me. I wasn’t expecting…”
    “Neither was I,” she said. “I was curious.”
    “About me?”
    She nodded. “Sure. You seemed like you were interested.”
    “I was,” he said. “Am. Present tense. But I’m even more curious about something else.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Whether it might happen again?”
    A tiny smile curved the corners of her mouth. “Depends upon how long this storm lasts.” So it wouldn’t be just a one-night stand. Tenley wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She wanted to spend more time with him, even though she knew she shouldn’t. But she liked Alex. And he lived in Chicago, so sooner or later, he’d head back home.
    A brief, but passionate affair, one that wouldn’t be dangerous or complicated. As long as she kept it all in perspective. It wouldn’t last long enough to become a relationship. And if it didn’t become a relationship, then she couldn’t possibly get hurt. Still, she had to wonder what he was thinking about it all. Why not just ask? “What if it does happen again,” she asked. “And again. What would that mean?”
    He gave her an odd look. “It would probably mean we’d have to go out for condoms?” he teased. Alex paused, then shrugged, realizing that she didn’t find much humor in his joke. “It would mean that we enjoy each other’s company. And that we want to get to know each other better?”
    “Then it wouldn’t be a relationship?” she asked.
    “It could be,” he said slowly.
    “But if we didn’t want it to be?”
    Alex drew a deep breath. “It will be whatever you want it to be,” he replied. He glanced over his shoulder, clearly uneasy with the turn in the conversation. “Maybe we should check out a weather report so we can plan our day,” Alex suggested. “Where’s your television?”
    That was it, Tenley thought. She knew exactly where he stood and she was satisfied. Neither one of them were ready to plan a future together. Still, if she did ever want a man in her life, someone who stayed more than a few nights, Alex would be the kind of guy she’d look for. “I don’t have a television,” she said.
    He stared at her in astonishment. “You don’t own a television? How is that possible? What about sports and the news?”
    “There’s never a need. I have a radio. They do the weather every hour on the station from Fish Creek. It’s over there in the cabinet with the stereo. But you really don’t have to check the weather. The storm is going to last for a while.”
    “How do