Love's Rhythm Read Online Free PDF Page B

Nick’s eagerly awaited call to Lauren for her nineteenth birthday. Aslin had been employed the next day. Lauren had taken weeks to placate.
    Or so Nick had thought. It seemed she hadn’t been placated at all.
    Maybe you should go now, Nick. She hasn’t exactly made you feel welcome.
    So why did the memory of a kiss keep teasing him? The memory of Lauren’s fingers in his hair, her tongue touching his teeth, his tongue, her breasts crushed to his chest…
    His head swum. His cock throbbed.
    Had she kissed him? Out on their old school’s playground? Somewhere between braining him and him passing out…twice…had she kissed him? And if she had, what did that mean?
    “Err…” the new arrival perched beside Lauren said, looking decidedly unsettled.
    He gave her a wry smile, pulling himself more upright in an attempt to hide his rather insistent erection. “What Lauren is trying to say is I was a grade-A jerk back then. An innocent, rather clueless grade-A jerk, but a grade-A jerk all the same.”
    The woman flicked Lauren a sideways glance, as if waiting for her to join the tête-à-tête.
    Lauren didn’t. She pushed herself to her feet, wiping her hands on her thighs. Thighs, Nick noticed, that still looked amazing in snug pants. “I’m sorry I knocked you out, Nick,” she said, looking very much not sorry. “But Jennifer here says you’re going to be okay, so if I you want to tell me where your car is…?”
    Nick shot Jennifer a grin. “ You say I’m okay? Are you a doctor?”
    Jennifer grinned back at him. “Vet.”
    He laughed, his head throbbing in time. “Of course you are.” He swung his gaze to Lauren where she stood, a few feet away from the bed, her hands tucked under her armpits, her teeth gnawing on her bottom lip. The urge to climb from the bed—he still didn’t know who it belonged to, but something told him it wasn’t Lauren’s—surged through him. Climb from the bed, walk to Lauren, capture her face with his hands and kiss her senseless.
    But he didn’t. He may be a rock star to the rest of the world, but right here, right now, he was just the ex-boyfriend who’d turned up unexpectedly, ergo, he had some explaining to do. And some questions to ask.
    “Are you married?”
    So, not taking the tactful route today, Blackthorne?
    He bit back a curse. Okay, the hit on the head obviously had done more damage than he suspected. Like destroying any ability he had to control what was coming out of his mouth.
    Lauren gaped at him. Jennifer snorted. “No, she isn’t, but she’s got a—”
    “Another appointment,” Lauren burst out, hurrying over to Nick. “So, if you can tell me where your car is?” She curled her fingers around his upper arm, just above his elbow and gave him a gentle tug.
    Two things happened at once. Dull pain laced through his head at the shift in position of his upper body and his breath caught at the sudden and altogether vivid memory of Lauren’s fingers against his arm in their old school’s playground a second before he kissed her.
    A heartbeat before she kissed him back.
    His gaze locked on hers. “You did kiss me.”
    “You kissed him?” Jennifer squealed.
    Lauren’s eyes grew wide. “I-I…”
    Nick rose to his feet, slowly, until he stood directly before her, their thighs brushing, holding her stare the entire time. “You kissed me,” he repeated on a low murmur. “Just like this.”
    He lowered his head and took her lips with his. They were soft, as he remembered them being. Soft and sweet and warm. He stroked the tip of his tongue over them, an exquisite tension spreading through his body as they parted. Her tongue touched his, hesitant, almost shy. It was enough. Enough to bring their past, their passion, their desire, rushing back to him. He groaned, low and unabashed, and plunged his tongue deeper into her mouth, his hands snaking around her waist to snare her shirt in two tight fistfuls. She whimpered in reply, the sound pushing him over the