Shadow Ridge Read Online Free PDF Page A

fine.”
    “Probably. But he obviously felt inferior to you or he wouldn’t have even said anything about your weight.”
    Miles snorted. “Yeah, right.”
    “Seriously. There you are, winning all night long—”
    “I lost to him.” It would seem cowboy there had the upper hand anyway.
    “ —And you walked out on that floor with me. That wannabe cowboy was one of the first guys to try to buy me a drink and I told him no. So you see he felt inferior to you. Plus I watched you play. You have a certain confidence about you. It’s like you’re sure of what you’re doing—never nervous—never afraid of the challenge. Not too many people can say that.”
    Okay, maybe she had a point. He was a rather confident guy, but he would imagine it’s because he always had to be confident. He was always the chunky kid—the guy who weighed too much in high school—the guy most people wouldn’t have given a second thought too if he wasn’t as outgoing as he was. He had jocks as friends but never once had he had a cheerleader as a girlfriend. “You’re better for the fat girls,” Janice Dickens had said as she had sauntered off in her red and white pleated cheer skirt. They could be his friend, but they couldn’t be his girlfriend.
    He perfected his confidence as he got older , but he would admit what started to bring in some of those slightly skinny girls had been his power and his money. Janice, now divorced from her still a ball playing husband, was definitely willing to spread her legs for him. Sadly, he had taken her offer and then, as if he needed the vindication of the way she treated him while he was the vulnerable yet confident senior in high school, he got up, pulled his pants on and told her thanks for the night. He walked away leaving her naked in bed when he had just come inside the condom he wore inside her. He had even tossed the condom in her bathroom before leaving. He thought about it now and realized it was harsh, maybe even wrong, but at the time it felt good to be the one to walk away. Being fat wasn’t easy, but money, power, prestige and confidence had eased the way for him.
    But this woman—he couldn’t figure her out. She didn’t need his money. She didn’t seem all that impressed with his position. Why did she say yes? He needed to know that.
    “Why did you say yes to me?”
    She smiled sweetly yet again and that had him aching to kiss those beautiful plump lips. “I’ve already said I have to be enticed to open the package. It’s kind of like a present. I like to have it wrapped really pretty and I like to open it to discover what’s beneath. So no, you’re not my typical type. But when you cornered me in the hall like that…you reminded me of an alpha and I like alphas. And when you leaned in,” her eyes closed and that smile on her face widened as her hand went to the V in her décolletage. “You made my panties wet.”
    He choked on his water and she opened her eyes.
    “Guess you didn’t think I talked like that, huh?”
    “Uh…no. I guess I didn’t.”
    “Typically I save stuff like that for the bedroom. I like it a little dirty for speech—still classy, but a little dirty.”
    “Good to know.”
    “But if you weren’t making my panties wet now I wouldn’t have said anything.”
    “I’m making them wet now? How’s that.” He grinned as he leaned in toward her. He had made sure he sat leg to leg with her. She gasped when his hand went back to her knee.
    “You keep doing that.”
    “Touching your knee?”
    “Yes.”
    “And what does it make you think about, Bethany?” He slid his hand a little higher, under that sexy black pencil skirt it couldn’t go too far.
    “What it would feel like if you kissed me.”
    Kiss? Well from what he was doing he thought maybe she wanted to feel his hand go higher.
    “Would it feel as good as what you’re doing now?”
    “Only one way to find out.” He slipped his fingers through her hair and held her head in perfect kissing