Because You Want Me (Falling for You, Book One) Read Online Free PDF

danced with me, filling all my senses until nothing existed outside of our kiss.
    The lust dove back to the forefront when she pressed her body into mine, taking my bottom lip between her teeth and tugging. I wanted to say fuck the drink. I was already drunk off her, bound to make all sorts of romantic missteps I'd regret in the morning. I wanted more than the feel of her flesh wrapped around my flesh. I wanted to trace every inch of her with my fingers. I wanted to hear her story.
    I froze, a thought bringing everything to a standstill.
    I needed a girlfriend—and there was already these stirrings inside me...
    Instead of reading more into it than you need to, just run with it.
    Her eyes held so many questions and I decided to answer the easiest one: what's next?
    I took another kiss, inhaling her deep before I released her with a smile. “Let's grab a drink.”
    Eddy's held all the charm of a proper San Francisco watering hole. Wood furnishings that dueled with the industrial beams and exposed metal bones of the building. Eco meets tech. Neutral colors surrounded us, gray and black chairs and tables filling the blank space. An ebony bar stretched the length of the room, scattered with women and men buzzing around them like flies.
    I steered Penny toward the end of the bar. Two unoccupied stools were in the line of sight of a pink haired bartender, but offered us a degree of privacy.
    My proposition could either be met with interest—or disgust. If this weird night was going to come crashing down, I wanted as few people as possible to witness the nosedive.
    We settled in our seats, rubbing our hands together and letting the warmth in as the chatter rose around us. The change of venue was a good thing. The music at the club was meant to encourage less talking and more movement: dancing, grinding. I was a fan of both but here, I got to see the woman beneath the smoke.
    And she was beautiful. Not in an overt, in your face kind of way that I usually went for. The makeup she wore actually did more hiding than accentuating. I wanted to wash all of it away so I could see all the layers of green and brown and gold in her hazel eyes. The delicate nostrils that flared as she pretended she was taking in the room and not watching me watch her told me that she was stubborn. Feisty. And those lips—the gloss was all but gone and I could make out the contours of her mouth. A mouth made for kissing.
    She made a face at me before she turned away, trying to get the bartender's attention. “My mother always said it was impolite to stare.”
    “She should know better than anyone how impossible it is to not stare at you. You're beautiful, Penny.”
    The look she gave me was so incredulous that it made my fingers twitch into a fist, ready to take on whatever demons had convinced her to take compliments with a grain of salt. Before I could tell her that it wasn't a line, the bartender breezed toward us, her double nose rings gleaming as brightly as her smile.
    “What can I get for you two?”
    She ordered a vodka tonic with lime and I seconded her order.
    “No bourbon?” she asked, eyebrow lifted in surprise.
    “Not tonight,” I winked.
    Any light in her eyes dimmed a couple of notches. “You're trouble, aren't you, Xander?”
    I knew what she wanted to hear. She wanted me to lie and say that she was safe with me. For the first time in years, I wanted the words to be true. The best thing I could do for her was to be honest.
    “It sounds like we both have a bit of family drama,” I began, dredging up my own sordid situation. “I'm at the head of the family business, but my father's primed to give the reins to my sister.” I relaxed in my seat, mentally sinking onto the psychiatrist's couch, ready to spill all the skeleton's in my closet. What was it about her that made me feel safe? Like she cared? Was it the way she listened so intently? Or the quiet solidarity in her eyes, a kindred look of someone used to being disappointed by