Hers for the Evening Read Online Free PDF

HELLACIOUS WEEK AND AN EVEN WORSE day. Seth hadn’t made it home for dinner, instead grabbing a bite from the deli across the street and eating it in the quality control lab. The steel wool tests weren’t working, dammit. The problem was driving him nuts, and the issues were reaching crisis stage, customers calling. His only defense was that he’d told Walter the July-end release date wasn’t doable, but the pressure was on. He walked in the door at nine, and the house was dark. Except for a candle on the step down into the dining room. Setting his briefcase by the front door, he followed the candle’s flame. There was another by the sliding glass door leading out to the deck. Built on the side of the hill, the house was a split-level style with a granny room underneath and an upper and lower deck. A third candle flickered on the outside stairs leading to the lower deck. And the hot tub. Christ. He read the signals. Courtney was feeling frisky. She’d have the wine out, a sexy melody playing, the jets frothing, scented candles, imagining a romantic evening. And he wouldn’t even be able to get it up. He was pathetic. His wife shouldn’t have to beg for sex, but he was so fucking tired. They’d end up having a fight and go to bed without speaking. Especially when he told her he’d need to head back into work on Saturday morning.
    Well, hell, best to get it over with.
    Opening the sliding glass door, sure enough, he heard the music over the bubble of the water jets. Living in the mountains, it cooled off at night a lot more than in the valley. From the head of the stairs, he could see the steam rising off the water and the play of candlelight across the trees. Hidden by redwood, dogwood, liquid amber, Pacific madrones, and birch, the deck was secluded. She’d be naked in the water. Waiting for him. He willed his cock to twitch but all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for a day and a night. He took the stairs like a soldier to the battlefield.
    “Hi, honey.” Courtney gave him a sexy, sultry smile that made his heart speed up. “I’ve got a glass of your favorite merlot already poured. Get in the tub.”
    He bent to kiss her, her breasts bare as she rose out of the water to meet his 28
    Three’s A Crowd
    lips. “Sorry I missed dinner.” He began stripping out of his jeans. Working in the lab all day, he didn’t dress in suit and tie.
    “That just means we’ll have lots of leftovers tomorrow, and I won’t have to cook,” she said brightly.
    Naked, he slid to the seat beside her and she handed him the wineglass. He closed his eyes as the jets beat against his back. “Christ, this feels good. Thanks, sweetie.”
    “I understand how hard you’ve been working.”
    He patted her knee in appreciation and sipped the tart merlot, feeling the tension start to ease out of his body. He stretched his neck trying to get the kinks out.
    “Tell me where it hurts,” she whispered.
    “Everywhere, but my neck and shoulders are the worst.”
    “Let me give you a rub.”
    Shit. That was a prelude. He didn’t see any way to avoid it, so he slid one arm along the tub and gave her his back.
    Courtney had marvelous fingers. “That’s perfect, baby, thank you.” The rub was great, but he prayed her hands wouldn’t start wandering.
    “I was thinking we needed a getaway together before the girls come home.”
    He cracked one eye open. “I can’t manage the time off right now—”
    She nipped his earlobe, then licked it. “I don’t want you to take time off. We’ll do one night. Down to the central coast for some wine tasting.”
    There was so much damn weekend work to get the product back on track.
    “Not this weekend,” she said, interpreting his silence. “Mid-month. Before the girls come home after summer finals.”
    Seth considered his obligations to his job versus his obligations to his wife. She put up with a lot crap—lost evenings, lost weekends. He had people working for him, good managers,