Hometown Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

couldn’t think straight when he touched her. She tried to formulate an answer while she strolled through his living room. Wow, his loft was amazing. This was no starving artist’s hovel filled with cinderblock bookshelves and Salvation Army castoffs—it was an open floor plan loft that could be featured in Architectural Digest with twenty-foot ceilings and five-foot windows dropping from the open-beamed ceiling. She finally turned to him with an answer. “I’m not sure.” It wasn’t as if she wouldn’t welcome something more than a one-night stand with Simon, but she certainly didn’t expect it. Hell, she didn’t expect most of the things that Simon had said and done since she’d run into him at the Crow’s Nest. She’d never expected him to charm her—especially after she made it known she was a sure thing. She never expected him to be so sweet and attentive. She never expected to be introduced to his friends. And she certainly never expected him to look at her as if he cared about anything beyond her sexual satisfaction. As if he cared about her. “So you tell me what this is.”
    He took her hands in his and waited until she met his gaze. “It’s a beginning.”
    “Well, that certainly sounds safe enough, doesn’t it?” No commitments, no expectations except for the inevitable ending. “Okay.”
    “I don’t do hookups—not since junior year in college anyway.”
    “I don’t do hookups either. This is special, you’re special.” And wasn’t that the truth?
    “Good, then we’re on the same page.”
    “If we were on the same page, you’d be kissing me.”
    “Then I take it you don’t want anything to drink or eat?”
    “I want you.”
    His face broke into a grin and he kissed her, stealing the breath from her lungs. Her purse fell from her shoulder and she barely registered the thud on the hardwood floor as he lifted her. Her sandals slipped off her dangling feet, and then he started across the huge room toward the bedroom without ever coming up for air.
    She could kiss him forever. The closer they got to the bedroom, the more the kiss changed from teasing and tempting to pure seduction. Halfway there she wrapped her legs around his waist and her eyes shot open when she came into contact with his erection. She might have groaned but then he could have too—it was hard to tell over her pounding heart and the blood rushing through her ears.
    He held her bottom and pulled her tighter against him. “God, you feel amazing.” He slid her down his body until her feet hit the floor, her toes curling into the thick wool carpet. His hands traveled from her waist, under her top, and up her sides as his thumbs slid over her stomach, sending a sudden tension to her muscles, goose bumps skittering over her skin, and liquid heat searing her core.
    Never one to be shy about her body—years of ballet had killed any sense of modesty she may once have had—she pulled off her top and let it drop to the floor, leaving her in a bra and jeans. She reached for the front clasp only to have him stop her.
    “Hold on.” He pulled her hands away and held them behind her back as he kissed his way from her neck to her ear and nipped at the lobe in a move that shot sparks right to her breasts. “Slow down. Undressing you is my job.”
    Elyse swallowed hard and nodded. For the first time in her life, she was incapable of speech. Okay, she could do this—as long as she didn’t have to stand too much longer, because his mouth on her neck, her ear, and her shoulder while he traced the edge of her white lace bra with the tip of his pointer finger made her knees weak.
    She tugged the shirt from his khakis. At his raised eyebrow, she smiled and blew out a breath. “If undressing me is your job, then I can only assume undressing you is mine.” She slid her hands under the soft cotton and raked her nails over his abs, enjoying the way they rippled beneath her fingers. She pushed the offending T-shirt up to