All the Pretty Poses Read Online Free PDF Page A

desire, like obsession.
    The pain, like annihilation.
    I thought I was over him. For years, I’ve
thought I was over him, but seeing him again…even for three
minutes…right out of the blue…God, it was like being hit by a car
going ninety miles an hour. All over again. The instant I saw him,
everything I ever felt for him came crashing back down on me, like
an avalanche. One that it took me half my life to crawl out from
under.
    But then, finding out what he did with
Pandora just a few minutes after our eyes locked… it was like
losing him all over again. The disappointment was devastating. I
spent the night holding back tears, both old and new, reminding
myself that I left Reese behind a long, long time ago. As I finally
drifted off to sleep, I kept reminding myself that I have to leave
him in my past, not let him touch my now in the tiniest
way.
    Yet here I am, listening to his proposition,
actually considering it, because he’s dangling the one carrot that could make me question whether or not I should turn
around and walk away. For good. Forever.
    “What if I’m married? Did you ever think of
that?”
    For the blink of an eye, I see his nostrils
flare in anger, but then Reese surprises me by giving me a
half-grin, his sparkling eyes intense as they shine down into
mine.
    “You’re not married.”
    “And how do you know that?”
    “Because if you were mine, I would never, ever let you dance like that.” Reese takes another step
closer to me, reaching up to touch my cheek with the very tip of
one finger. “Unless it was just for me.”
    I’m breathless. I shouldn’t be. But I am.
“Maybe he just likes to watch me dance,” I say, struggling to keep
from falling under the spell of his closeness.
    “I wouldn’t blame him. I loved
watching you. But I didn’t love everyone else watching
you.”
    Reese’s eyes flicker down to my mouth, making
my lips tingle again. I’m stuck in some surreal place between what was and what is . Some part of me is teetering on the
edge of the ocean of passion and desire that Reese and I once
drifted within. But another part of me, the scarred part, remembers
what it felt like to drown in those waters.
    Helpless. And all alone.
    I take a step back. “Well I guess it’s a good
thing I’m not yours then, right, Reese?”
    “But you could be,” he says softly, not
moving any closer, eyes just as intense.
    My heart is aching in my chest. The girl in
me, the one who loved him so deeply so many years ago, wants to run
to him, to throw myself in his arms and ask him where he’s been all
this time. But the woman in me, the woman who had to clean up the
mess of that girl, the one who suffers the echoes of all those
tears, knows that there is nothing to run back to. There never
was.
    “Is that what this is about? You getting
another shot at little Kennedy?” I can’t keep the bitterness from
my tone, so I don’t even try. “Because I’m not that little girl
anymore.”
    “Oh, I can see that.”
    “I won’t retrace her footsteps, Reese. You
should know that now. If you make this offer, and if I accept,
it’ll be strictly professional.”
    Reese sighs. “I want to help you, Kennedy. I
really do. And I will. But I won’t deny that I want you.” He
takes one easy step toward me. “Or that I intend to have you.”
    My insides quake. His words…the memories…that
look in his eyes…
    But I reach down deep for the strong Kennedy
that rose from the ashes of the girl that knelt at Reese’s feet. I
wrap myself in her confidence, in her resolve. It’s her that
gives Reese my most stunning smile. “Then I hope you’re okay with
disappointment, because there’s no way in hell I’d go down that
road again.”
    Reese nods his head regally, a silent Touché . It’s as I turn to walk away that he lands his
parting shot.
    “Just don’t expect me to help you resist me,
Kennedy. In fact, I promise you that I’ll make it as hard as I
can.”
    My legs falter only for a moment