Any Way You Want It Read Online Free PDF

here? It was time to go back to the hotel and crawl into bed, as she’d been longing to do all night long.
    She glanced back at the bar again, looking for what, she didn’t know. Darn, she was flustered.
    “Okay, let’s…” Her words faded as she turned back to her friends to find herself staring at a V of chest and dark hair. Both familiar.
    “Were you leaving?”
    Maggie hesitated. Something inside warned her she should just say yes and head back to the hotel. After all, she was out of her element with this man. He had probably just come over now because he realized that, silly person that she was, she had actually thought he meant what he’d said earlier. So, now he felt obligated to come speak to her.
    “It’s still loud in here. And hot,” he said, tugging at his shirt, which again drew her attention to his chest. He gestured to one of the side doors leading to the street. “Want to step outside with me?”
    Maggie hesitated. While the bar had emptied out considerably, the pop music did make it hard to talk. And humidity did make the air thick and damp. Although she noticed he didn’t appear sweaty at all—not even flushed. She suspected she did.
    She glanced at Jo and Erika. Erika grinned, widening her eyes with encouragement. Jo wasn’t as eager as Erika, but she didn’t give any signal that she thought Maggie should avoid him.
    Maggie nodded. “Sure. It is kind of loud.”
    Again that amazing smile appeared. He started to reach out as if he intended to touch her, perhaps place his hand on the small of her back, but then he dropped it back to his side.
    “This way,” he said, again gesturing to the side door.
    They stepped out onto the sidewalk, a cracked slab of stained concrete. The street they stood on ran perpendicular to Bourbon. Bourbon was still alive with partyers, despite the hour.
    “I’m Ren Anthony, by the way,” he said offering his hand.
    “Maggie Gallagher,” she said, accepting his hand, immediately remembering his hands as he held the mic. She’d thought he had nice hands then, but touching them, she realized they went beyond nice. They were…lovely. Long fingers and broad palms, an artist’s hand, strong and sculpted, but with a slight roughness of calluses, as if they’d known physical work too. Her body reacted instantly; energy zinged up her arm and throughout her body. Then he released her.
    “Does anyone ever sleep in this city?” she asked, grabbing onto the first thought that came into her mind.
    Ren turned to watch a large group of what appeared to be middle-aged men and their wives wander down the middle of Bourbon, loud and giddy.
    “During the day,” he said. Then he turned back to her. “Did you come here to sleep? Because if you did, you are in the wrong place.”
    She recalled her friends sharing a similar sentiment with her earlier. Although Maggie hardly saw it as a sign, Erika would. Maggie wasn’t that impractical, though. After all, New Orleans was a party-all-night kind of place.
    But she did consider his question. “No. I didn’t come here to sleep.”
    “So what did you come here for?”
    Maggie met his gaze, realizing for the first time since they’d stepped outside that she’d been avoiding looking at him. But he’d managed to ask the question of the night, and that surprised her. What had she come here for? What did she expect from this vacation?
    For the first time, she considered the idea seriously, that it might not just be to relax. Maybe she was looking for the fling that her friends said she needed. She considered telling him that, but she didn’t have the courage. Her gaze left his and dropped back to the stained sidewalk.
    “Does my eye bother you?”
    Maggie’s head snapped up. What? Why would his eye bother her?
    Then for the first time, she realized why one eye looked so different. She’d noticed it was different back in the bar, but out here, surrounded by streetlights and the lights of the other buildings, she could see