The Avery Shaw Experiment Read Online Free PDF Page A

he could spend almost seventeen years with a girl like you and never make a move, because no straight guy could do that.”
    My stomach did this weird flip. Had Grayson always been so sweet? I hadn’t thought so, but he’d been incredible since the moment I jumped in his shower.
    I leaned into him, sagging against his side, and the next thing I knew, my arms were around his waist and I was hugging him. He stopped walking and hugged me back. When his arms pulled me tight against him, all of the tension left my body.
    “I didn’t realize you were so nice, Grayson.”
    The warm sound of Grayson’s chuckle rumbled pleasantly against the side of my face that was resting on his chest. “Damsels in distress have always been my Achilles’ heel, but don’t let that fool you. I’m really not that nice.”
    “Yes, you are.”
    “No, I’m not. If I was nice, I wouldn’t be having such a hard time not grabbing your butt right now.”
    I gasped and shoved away from him. He let me go but caught my hand and intertwined our fingers. His holding my hand made me blush even worse than his perverted comment had.
    Since I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, I didn’t notice when he stopped walking until I was yanked to a halt. He stood in front of a small bistro with a questioning look. “Hungry? Dinner’s on me tonight.”
    The restaurant was dark and cozy with soft lighting. Grayson helped me out of my coat, then held out my chair for me before taking his seat directly across from me at the small, candlelit table for two.
    The moment was so surreal. I always knew Grayson was charming. There was a reason he’d dated most of the girls in school, and yet they still kept lining up to be his next fling.
    Seeing Grayson Kennedy in action and being the focus of his attention were two entirely different things. He wasn’t doing it on purpose to seduce me or anything, but even set on “friendly,” he was freaking me out a little.
    The server brought out glasses of ice water, and I started chugging mine because Grayson was making me so nervous.
    “You might want to slow down there, slugger, before you get a . . .” I winced and Grayson laughed. “. . . headache.”
    As Grayson watched me, his eyes sparkled in the dim light, making him look like he’d just stepped off the set of a Hollywood movie. Aside from his tall, broad frame and amazing body, Grayson Kennedy had the entire package where looks were concerned. He was Spanish Fork High’s golden boy: hair the color of amber, eyes so blue they looked unreal, and golden skin that didn’t have a single blemish, freckle, or scar.
    His teeth were perfect, and he spent so much time smiling that the gesture on him was a work of art. He even had this one adorable dimple that only showed itself when he was really, truly happy about something. That dimple was present now.
    I broke the silence with a nervous laugh. “This is awkward, isn’t it?”
    Grayson pursed his lips until they turned white because he was trying so hard not to laugh at me. “Awkward? What’s awkward?”
    He knew darn well what I was talking about! Grayson was always torturing me like that. I asked him why he did it once, and his answer had been because it was fun to make me blush. Well, mission accomplished, Mr. Kennedy. I was beet red. Again.
    He was waiting for an answer.
    “You know . . .” I squirmed in my chair. “This. Us. Being here like this.”
    Grayson suppressed another laugh. “Being here like what?”
    “I don’t know. This restaurant is so . . . atmospheric, and you helping me with my coat and pulling out my chair.” I was now so red that my face was going to stain permanently. “It just feels, I don’t know, sort of like . . . like a . . .”
    “Like a date?” Grayson asked. He wasn’t laughing anymore. He met my eyes with a startling intensity.
    I couldn’t find my voice, so I just nodded.
    He gave me another heart-stopping smile. “That’s because it is a date, Avery.”
    I felt