Pursued by the Playboy Read Online Free PDF

whether to feel insulted or amused by the primly worded message.  Especially since he’d awoken expecting to feel Kate’s delectably curved body snuggled against his, had actually anticipated another stimulating round of lovemaking this morning before heading off to work.
    Instead, he was greeted by cool sheets and an even cooler note.
    He considered calling or texting her, but decided it wouldn’t do to appear too needy.  It was barely five in the morning, and he wasn’t due in the OR until seven. 
    He took his time showering, dressing, eating breakfast.  He even stopped to clean up the debris of last night’s dinner, stacking the plates and cutlery in the dishwasher, dumping the used coffee grounds from the brushed steel Rancilio Silvia espresso machine , rinsing out and carefully drying the porta-filter.   His clean ing lady would empty the garbage when she came later that day.
    In the ten minutes it took to drive to the hospital, he thought up and discarded a half dozen ways of skirting around the barriers that Kate was still clearly determined to erect.  He didn’t even question why he was so set on pursuing her, as prickly and self-contained as she appeared.  Except that the sex was phenomenal.  And the lively intelligence that shone from her eyes and the passion with which she embraced her career was invigorating.  Here was a woman who said what she thought, and took the time and effort to actually reflect on issues that transcended the superficial.   She was ambitious, yes, but only for what she herself could achieve.  Not grasping or avaricious, not interested in him for the money he had or the social cachet he could provide.
    After years of drifting in and out of casual connections with women whose main attraction was skin-deep and as satisfying as the froth of a poorly-made cappuccino, he felt an exhilarating sense of anticipation, as if he were on the verge of discovering a completely new species of female. 
    Kate was nothing like the women he was used to—his family members excluded.  The animation of her face, the expressions that flitted across her features while they’d talked over lunch and then dinner, were vibrant, full of life.  Nothing like the over-painted vapid creatures of his past, every wrinkle Botoxed or Restylaned out of existence, every imperfection lipo-suctioned, every curve surgically enhanced to defy gravity. 
    Something simple, but unexpected, he thought:  that would work.  A picnic at Fairmount Park ?  A leisurely ramble through the Italian Market with a stop for cannolis and coffee?   Or maybe an afternoon at Penn’s Landing.  Wasn’t there a music festival scheduled there this weekend? 
    And an early night of course, back at his place, or hers if she preferred.  He was curious to see where she lived, and what new facets of her personality would be revealed by her home environment.  He’d call her this afternoon to make plans for the weekend. 
    Pulling in to his parking space, he whistled jauntily as he locked up and headed for the hospital elevators. 
     
    ###
     
    She turned out a lot more difficult to pin down than anticipated.
    First there was journal club, at which she was presenting th at evening.  Then there was her Saturday morning brunch with Jake, which apparently was a standing tradition that had started every other week with his parents and then continued even after the elder Steins had moved south .  Then she claimed to have a manuscript submission deadline, and as the junior researcher on the project she couldn’t very well pawn off the final revisions of the paper on her co-authors, could she?
    They finally agreed to get together Sunday evening for dinner at an intimate hole-in-the-wall restaurant around the corner from her apartment. True to form, she resisted anything that smacked of traditional dating.  “I’ll meet you there,” she told him.  “Seven o’clock.”
    Her brisk tone notwithstanding, he felt he’d just won a