All For You (Boys of the South) Read Online Free PDF Page A

that?” I want
to take the words back. He can skewer me, with anything that remotely
resembles a sexual remark.
    He grins, and my
stomach roils. God, can’t I have peace in a building my dad
owns? “You’re pretty damn intimidating.”
    Pressing my hand
against my chest, I gape at him. “I’m intimidating? I’m
not the one who ran Forrestville High with his crew.”
    “Smart girls
are intimidating to dumb jocks.”
    “You were
co-valedictorian, West.” If he thinks he’ll flatter his
way into getting me to agree, he has another thing coming.
    “Wasn’t
just talking about book smarts.” His grin falls and he leans
forward a little. “You could see through me… you saw
through all of us with those pretty grey eyes, and I’m asking
you to look at me, really look at me, and tell me I’m the same
person.”
    I look at him, into
his chocolate eyes, and almost step away. If I didn’t know
better, I’d say that he does look sincere, that the smug jock
is gone, but a week of apologies, both spoken and in the form of
breakfast deliveries, doesn’t erase years of knowledge.
    Fear guides my
words. Fear and anger over how he thinks I’m so easily swayed
by carefully chosen phrases. “I don’t see anything worth
my time.”
    He stands, crossing
the small distance between us. His mouth is inches away and I can’t
stop staring at his lips. I know how he tastes, how he uses those
full lips of his to make a girl cry out his name. How he devastated
me with his kisses, with his touch.
    With his lies.
    My hands come
between us, intent on shoving him away, but I can’t bring
myself to touch him. His fingers curl around my wrists, like brands,
marking me and reminding me that with one touch he can weaken my
resolve.
    I hate that I’m still attracted to him. There should be a biological
law written in the textbooks that read: Once
a guy is a jerk to you, then you shall no longer want to mate with
him.
    Or something like
that.
    “That’s
too bad.”
    “Why?” I
lick my lips, not to entice him, but because they’ve become as
dry as my throat.
    “Because
you’re worth all of mine, and then some.”

Chapter Five

    West
    I want to kiss
McKenzie so bad that I’m about to combust.
    She’s still as
tempting as the first day I saw her, hair the color leaves in fall
flowing down her back, wearing a short skirt and red cowgirl boots.
    Red .
I’d had fantasies for months about her in those boots.
    But she hadn’t
noticed me, not one damn time, until I made her notice me.
    Until I found out
her dad cut our grass, and sometimes she helped him. I remember
seeing her from my window, her strong arms push mowing the front
lawn, her toned calves flexing as she walked.
    A decent human being
would have taken the opportunity to have brought her some water and
made small talk. Instead, I made sure everyone called her lawn girl
and cut her down at every opportunity.
    Only the more I
pushed, the more I taunted, the more determined she became to ignore
me. Me, Weston Diaz, captain of the soccer team while merely a
sophomore, star student, and liked by teachers, administrators, and
students.
    Who wouldn’t
want to be my friend? Who wouldn’t want to date me? Be seen
with me? Be acknowledge by me?
    McKenzie Walsh, the
girl I fell in love and lust with at first sight.
    And here we are
again. She’s determined to ignore my efforts. But unlike last
time, I’m determined to do the right thing.
    “I can’t
take back what I did to you, what I said to you or anyone else about
you, but what I can do is hope.” My fingers are still wrapped
around her slender wrists, and she has no idea what it does to me.
She has no idea that by her allowing me to touch her, even like this, makes me want to drop to my knees in
thanks.
    Her gray eyes search
my face, shiny and bright. “Hope?”
    I nod. “Hope
you’ll give me a chance to prove I’m worth your time.
Worth getting to know now, three years later and on your terms,” I say. Since she won’t