Read Online The Delacourt Scandal by Sherryl Woods - Free Book Online

sure. In fact, I’m starving.”
    She offered him a tentative smile. “To tell you the truth, Tyler, so am I.” She took a deep breath and came to a decision. “What can I do to help?”
    “Stay out from underfoot,” he suggested. “Great chefs need space. We can’t have a beautiful woman diverting us from the task at hand.”
    Even though she knew she shouldn’t be, she waspleased that he considered her a beautiful distraction. “Then by all means, let me make myself scarce. I want you to be entirely focused, if that means we’ll get to eat sooner.” She gestured toward the chaise. “I’ll be right over there, tucked safely out of your way. Just don’t forget all about me and eat everything yourself.”
    “Don’t worry, Maddie. You’re not exactly forgettable.”
    His words lingered after he’d gone inside. Despite all the warnings, the alarms, the stern lectures, she couldn’t help replaying them, a smile on her lips.
    She moaned softly. You are in such big trouble, Madison Kent.
     
    When the blackened snapper was ready and the corn was dripping with melted butter, Tyler went outside to call Maddie. She was curled up where he’d left her, sound asleep. For a moment he stood where he was, studying her.
    Though she’d admitted to being twenty-six, he couldn’t help thinking that she looked like little more than a girl with her tousled hair and a face devoid of makeup, except for a hint of pink on her lips.
    She might look like a sweet innocent, but she kissed like a woman, with all the passion and intensity and hunger that could make a man forget all of his own rules. Though he’d set out to take greedily when he’d kissed her earlier, she had given all he asked and more. The responsiveness had shaken him more than a little. He could have taken her then and there, but it would have been a terrible mistake for both of them.He couldn’t give her what she needed, couldn’t be as open and honest as she deserved.
    Even so, he’d started to feel things he hadn’t felt in a very long time, things that went beyond sex and into the depths of emotions he’d vowed never to risk again. It was good that he was leaving soon for Baton Rouge.
    Maddie stirred, drawing his attention back to bare legs and tempting curves.
    “Bad idea,” he muttered, tearing his gaze away. He took a few steps back, then said loudly, “Maddie, dinner’s ready.”
    She came awake at once, bright-eyed and smiling. “Did you say something about dinner?”
    He grinned at her eagerness. “It’s on the table.”
    She bounded up and headed inside without sparing him a backward glance.
    “I guess I know what your priorities are,” he called after her.
    She waited for him, grinning impudently. “It’s important to set goals and stay focused.”
    “Is food your only goal?” he taunted.
    For an instant a shadow seemed to pass over her face, but then the smile was back. “Hardly. Just the most immediate one.” She looked over the table. “Oh, my, this looks heavenly. How did you learn to cook?”
    “Self-taught. The rule in our house when it came to fish was that whoever caught them had to clean and cook them. I didn’t mind the catching or the cooking, but I hated the cleaning. Now I buy mine at the fish market, ready for the skillet.”
    “Isn’t that cheating yourself of some male ritual or something?”
    “I prefer to think of it as time saving.”
    “What about the corn?”
    “No mystique to that. It doesn’t take a lot to soak it and cook it on the grill. The grill is man’s best friend, next to his dog, of course.”
    “Do you have a dog?”
    “No, which is why I’m so fond of my grill.”
    The conversation stayed light and general during dinner and cleanup. When the last dish was back in the cabinet, she turned to him.
    “Hey, I thought you promised me dessert.”
    “I did.”
    “Something perfect for a hot, sultry night, as I recall,” she said, her expression bright with anticipation.
    Tyler reached into