For Seven Nights Only (Chase Brothers) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Or maybe he’d just never seen anyone who didn’t go out of her way to be seen, but either way, she took his breath. “Holding your hand.”
    The breeze carried with it the vanilla scent of her shampoo. Her eyes flashed with irritation. “I told you, this isn’t about you and me.”
    “Relax, woman.” He squeezed her hand, knowing it would probably annoy her more. “This is all part of my lesson. Loosen up a little. Make your dog not hate me.”
    “What difference does it make if my dog hates you?”
    He shrugged. “Men don’t like drama.” Understatement of the century. Which really made him wonder why he’d gotten himself involved with her. His whole life, he’d managed to avoid emotional entanglements, and now he’d committed to an unprecedented seven dates with a woman who wanted a long-term relationship. The only good thing was that she’d made it clear he’d never be that man, so at least they didn’t have any misconceptions between them.
    Her eyes narrowed. “So my dog hates you, and that makes me drama?”
    He laughed. “Tension equals drama. If you’re so tense that your dog is glaring at me, you’re going to have a hard time getting the right kind of attention.”
    “And you holding my hand fixes this how ?”
    “If your dog thinks you like me, he might stop snarling. Besides, if you can tolerate me touching you without getting your panties in a knot, then you can relax under any circumstances. And you really need to relax.”
    She laughed, albeit stiffly. “You’re right.”
    “And if nothing else, you’ll enjoy a palpable sense of relief when I let go, so it’s a total win-win.”
    Her shoulders relaxed a notch. “Just let go before we get to the park, okay? I don’t want anyone thinking I’m…taken.”
    “Absolutely no one would think that,” he said, mainly because he certainly wouldn’t.
    She still watched him as they walked, so he’d braced himself for an argument when she said, “You don’t like dogs, do you?”
    He took a sip of his coffee before he answered. “Your dog spent all of my visit last night gnawing on my ankle.”
    Her mouth fell open. “Why didn’t you say something?”
    “I figured if you feed him like you did me, he might be due a good meal.”
    She glared.
    He laughed and gestured ahead, where the trees of Cadman Plaza Park crowded the view. “Hey, I knew where the dog park was, didn’t I?”
    Her eyes narrowed. “You Googled it.”
    “Guilty. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like dogs. And you can’t say I didn’t think ahead. This one is off leash,” he said of the dog area at the Brooklyn War Memorial. “Much easier to bump into someone that way.”
    “That’s so contrived.”
    “And that’s why you don’t have a date.” He bumped her shoulder and dropped her hand. “Relax. This is nothing. We are fully clothed and in the same very crowded, very public space. We might as well be standing next to each other in the grocery store. So what kind of guy are you looking for?”
    “One who cleans up well and has a handle on proper language usage.”
    “That’s it?”
    She threw her arms wide, nearly smacking him in the face. “That’s impossible .”
    He took a half step away from her—probably her plan all along—and took a sip of his coffee, which by then was almost cold. “That can’t be it.”
    She shoved her leash hand in her back pocket, again drawing his attention to her ass, or what little bit of it was visible beneath the hem of that sweater. She’d probably hate that, which only served to amuse him. “My sister is getting married on a yacht in New York Harbor exactly two weeks from today. I cannot afford to be any more discriminating than that.”
    “The wedding is on a boat?” The mere mention of a boat summoned all of his nopes. He hated boats. Hated water. A swimming pool full of bikini-clad women, he could handle. But anything bigger? Not even if his life depended on it. It was a good thing she didn’t like him.