Read Online The Playboy by Carly Phillips - Free Book Online Page A

have such devoted sons, Mrs. Chandler.”
    “Raina, please, and yes my boys are the best. They’ll make wonderful husbands too. Just ask my first daughter-in-law. She nabbed Roman, the world traveler. Rick’s a little easier since he doesn’t have to be convinced to settle down. But you—”
    “Ahem.” Rick cleared his throat loudly. “Mom, I like to romance women on my own, without your help.” Rick squeezed Kendall’s hand and she blushed a shade darker than her hair.
    “So you admit to a budding romance?” Raina asked, pleased.
    “Just leave the dishes, Mom,” Rick said, ignoring her. But Raina wasn’t deterred. Rick had never brought a woman to their family dinners before and Kendall’s presence spoke louder than anything Rick could have said.
    “Cynthia will be here first thing in the morning to clean. Meanwhile, Kendall and I need to get going. I promised I’d help her bomb out a room or two so she could sleep in a clean house tonight.”
    “Nonsense. She’ll stay here,” Raina said in the voice that shook her sons’ composure when they were young boys. “That place is a pigsty, not fit for a human being and a couple hours’ worth of cleaning won’t change that. No insult intended, Kendall.”
    The young woman shook her head. “None taken. But I can’t impose.”
    “You’d never be an imposition.”
    “You’re sweet, but I’m used to being on my own.” “And you young people want your privacy?” Raina guessed, relieved Kendall had turned her down. With a house guest, she’d have killed her prime opportunity to walk the treadmill when her sons weren’t around. When she’d concocted this scheme she should have labeled herself a heart patient, not a patient with a weak heart who had to curtail activity, but she hadn’t been thinking ahead.
    Rick rose and Kendall followed. Then he placed a lingering hand on the small of her back. “We’re not going to answer anything private, Mom.” He leaned over and kissed her good night.
    Long after Kendall had thanked her and gone off with Rick, Raina’s joy remained, making it difficult to wind down. She hadn’t seen her middle son laugh so freely in ages, not with a woman as the reason, anyway. Not since that Jillian had broken his heart. But that was the past.
    Kendall was the future. And though Rick didn’t believe he’d marry again, Raina knew better. Thanks to Kendall and her impulsive nature, Rick would come to believe it too.
    Rick held the car door open for Kendall, then strode around to his side and got in, buckling his seat belt before turning toward her. He held his hand high and she slapped it in return. “Mission accomplished.”
    “You think?”
    “I know my mother and she definitely believes she saw sparks flying between us tonight.” Because they had been, Rick thought.
    But that was for another time. Shadows tinged the fragile skin beneath Kendall’s eyes as exhaustion obviously set in. She needed rest.
    “She’ll call off the push for a daughter-in-law?”
    He shook his head. “I didn’t say that.” He twisted his wrist and the ignition kicked in. “If anything she’ll step up her campaign.”
    “So what was the point of tonight?” Kendall asked. “She’ll no longer be pushing other women on me. Instead she’ll focus all her attention on the one with the most potential.”
    He glanced over in time to see her open and close those lips that tempted him so.
    “You mean me?”
    He grinned. “I most definitely mean you.” But Rick sobered fast because he had something more pressing to discuss with her. “Kendall, what kind of relationship did you have with Brian?”
    She stiffened in her seat, laughter replaced by intensity. “I don’t think that’s relevant.”
    “Sure it is. You said he did you favors and you felt you owed him.” Shades of their bargain had risen when he’d heard Kendall’s description, making him uneasy. “We’re entering a similar arrangement. I just don’t want you