Read Online The Stud by Barbara Delinsky - Free Book Online Page B

everything.
    "Don't look at me that way, " he told her. "I've been on the go since I was twenty-two, and computers only came in big after that. When would I have the time to learn to use one? I've always done just fine paying a typist. " He scowled. "But let me tell you, revisions are a pain in the butt. "
    "When do they have to be done?"
    "Last week. "
    "Oops. "
    His scowl faded. "Yeah. Oops. " His mouth curved into a lopsided smile, and his eyes did focus on her then. They seemed suddenly warmer, then warmer still and filled with sexual innuendo.
    Jenna tore her gaze away, only to have it land on his legs, which were nearly as compelling.
    "Problem with the shorts?" he asked. "I'll have you know that in the middle of all that garbage with my editor, I kept thinking about what to wear today. Totally aside from the fact that it's summer and the plane can get warm, I thought it'd be good for you to see my legs so they won't be such a shock later on. "
    She forced herself to look more casually at the appendages in question. They were well formed, firm and long, as tanned as his face but hairy. "I've seen men's legs before. In fact, I've seen yours before. "
    He frowned. "When?"
    "The summer between college and business school. Don't you remember? Caroline and I were traveling through the Greek islands. You met us on Crete. "
    "Oh, yeah, " he said with a smile that spread over his face as memory returned. "I made you call home first thing, because neither of you had bothered to call the parents and they were frantic—which I knew because I'd had the misfortune to call home about something else entirely, and they let me have it like I was the one who was lost!"
    "We weren't lost. We just couldn't get to a phone. "
    He snickered. "I've used that excuse too many times myself to buy it. You didn't want to call home. But, hey—" he raised a forgiving hand "—I can understand that. It was the first time you'd been away alone. The freedom you felt was heady. "
    Jenna smiled at the memory. "It was that" She took a breath. "Anyway, you spent a couple of days with us, mostly at the beach. So I've seen your legs. "
    "You've seen a lot more if you were at the beach with me. "
    "You were wearing a bathing suit. "
    "Not much of one, if I correctly remember those days. "
    He did. His bathing suit had been small and sleek. Jenna remembered admiring him in it, but that was all she'd done. He was Caroline's elder brother, twenty-eight to her twenty-two, and though they came from similar backgrounds, he lived such a different life from Jenna that she never dreamed there might be any entanglement between them.
    There certainly was now, and those long, tanned, hair-spattered legs made her all the more aware of it. She cleared her throat. "Yes. Well. " Praying that driving would distract her from his imposing presence, she started the car. "Do you want to go back to the house and drop your things off?"
    "I'd rather eat. I'm starved. " He was scanning the stores and businesses that lined the road. "There used to be a terrific steak place around here—Terry's, Carrie's—"
    "Corey's?"
    "That's it. Is it still open?"
    "Uh-huh. Want to go?"
    "A-S-A-P. "
    In less than ten minutes, they were at the restaurant, but it was nearly forty minutes before they were seated and another forty minutes before their food arrived. Jenna saw the expectant looks Spencer sent their waitress and waited for him to explode at the delay the way some other men would have. But he didn't. He shifted in his seat and went through two baskets of rolls, but he didn't complain about the wait Instead, he kept Jenna talking about McCue's, about people they both knew, about Caroline and the kids.
    When the food arrived, he ate his own, plus half of what Jenna left on her plate. "I need all the energy I can get, " he explained with a mischievous look.
    "Spencer, " she complained.
    "What?"
    "That's embarrassing. "
    "Sorry. I couldn't resist. "
    Wiping the smugness from his face, he