LEAD ME ON by Julie Ortolon (find a book to read TXT) 📕

“Yes. You?”

“Not hardly. I’ve spent so many summers here, I’m practically a local. How long you staying?”

“Three days.” Linda toyed with her necklace. “Two nights.”

“I’d be happy to show you around in exchange for the chance to pick your brain.”

Oh right, Alli snorted, like that’s all he’s interested in. Her brain.

A smile softened Linda Lovejoy’s face. “I might be interested.”

“Good.” Scott straightened, which at least got his backside off the desk. “Why don’t I let you get checked in while I wash off a few pounds of sand? I’ll meet you downstairs and we’ll talk about where to have dinner.”

“All right.” Linda watched him go, her gaze openly straying to Scott’s buns as he walked away. Okay, so he had some pretty incredible buns, Alli decided.

“God Almighty,” Linda breathed when he was gone. “Is he for real?”

“I’m not sure,” Alli said, hardly believing what she’d just witnessed. The man walks in, says “Hi, I’m Scott,” and two minutes later he has a date!

“I wonder if he’d mind skipping dinner so I can eat him instead.”

Alli’s jaw dropped so far her chin nearly hit the desk—and the messages he’d left there.

Chapter 4

Scott was just getting out of the shower when he heard a knock at the door. Dr. Lovejoy must be more eager than he thought. “Just a minute!” he called as he pulled on a pair of trousers. Still drying his hair, he opened the door.

Instead of the tall, leggy Ph.D. he found sweet Allison St. Claire. Her eyes widened at the sight of his bare chest before her gaze darted away. A pink blush stained her cheeks and he felt an answering flush of heat spread low in his belly. Damn, she shouldn’t be able to do that to him now that he had somewhere else to focus his attention.

“You, um...” She cleared her throat. “You forgot your phone messages.”

She held out the same three slips of paper she’d tried to give him earlier. He stared at her slender fingers and the heat coiled into a knot. Down, boy, he told his body, good girls are off limits. He plucked the messages from her hand, careful not to touch her. “From Hugh, I presume.”

“Actually,” she said in that sweet Southern-lady accent, “one is from your editor asking if you’ve sent the fax she needs. Another is from your publicist wanting to know if you’ll agree to an interview with Publishers Weekly. The last one is from Hugh Ashton. He wants to know—”

“Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but—” He cut himself off as he remembered that rudeness had always been a good defense in the past. “On second thought, do me a favor.”

“All right.” She looked up at him with innocent blue eyes that widened when he started ripping up the messages.

“Tell my editor and my publicist I checked out and you don’t know where I went. As for Hugh, tell him to back off.” He leaned toward her and her scent filled his nostrils, making him want to shake her and tell her to back off, too. “Remind Hugh I’m down here trying to follow his advice, which is to take some time to do some serious relaxation. I can’t very well do that if he’s calling me five times a day. Can you tell him that for me?”

“Yes, certainly.”

He pulled back to a safer distance. “Speaking of ‘serious relaxation,’ what room is Dr. Lovejoy staying in?”

If possible, Allison’s eyes went even wider as his meaning apparently sank in. “The Crow’s Nest. There.” She pointed to a door at the top of the stairs, catty-corner from his suite. “Although ...” She trailed off, frowning.

“Although what?”

She surprised him by glaring back. “Although I hardly think an intelligent woman like Dr. Lovejoy would be flattered to learn you consider her as nothing more than a means to aid your ‘relaxation.’ ”

Scott laughed. “You think only stupid women enjoy recreational sex?”

Her cheeks went all the way to red: fire-engine, I-can’t-believe-you-said-that red. “I—I wouldn’t know.”

“Let me tell you something, sweetheart. Some women aren’t any different from men when it comes to sex. Unless I’m way off the mark, Dr. Lovejoy is down here looking for the same thing I am. If that notion bothers your delicate sensibilities, I suggest you not watch.”

“Yes, well...” She gathered herself up to her full height, which didn’t even come to his chin. “If you’ll excuse me.”

She turned with dignity, and walked toward the stairs.

Guilt hit him full in the face. God, he really could be a bastard sometimes. Well, if nothing else he didn’t have to worry about her tempting him anymore with her dainty manners and sexy sweetness. She’d probably give him a wide berth for the rest of his stay.

Anger and embarrassment followed Alli all the way down to the apartment in the basement. She would simply forget the last few minutes ever happened or that Scott Lawrence even existed. The rude, arrogant, obnoxious... toad!

“Hey, Alli,” Adrian called from the sofa where he lay sprawled out in shorts and a muscle shirt, drenched in sweat. Fortunately, he’d spread a towel to protect the furniture so she wouldn’t have to fuss. “You’ll be happy to know Chance and I finished the jogging trail today. It now runs completely around the island. Of course, after working on it all day, Chance wanted to try it out. God, I swear, he might be a skinny geek, but he can run even me into the ground. He’s a total klutz at t’ai chi, though, so I guess we’re even.”

“Does everything with men have to be a competition?” she demanded hotly as she moved around the combination counter/bar that divided the kitchen from the dining and living area.

“Long day for you too, eh?” Adrian said, apparently noticing she was not in the best of moods.

“Yep.” She slammed a metal mixing bowl onto the counter.

“You want some help with dinner?”

“No, it’s my turn,” she answered as she took