Want Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

nodded.
    “No idea. I don’t think too far into the future, to tell you the truth. Everything is so immediate and real in a way I have a hard time describing. It’s interesting to be back here, to shift my perspective.” He touched the edge of her bed. “I like your room. It’s calm, and it’s pretty, but there’s still you all over it.”
    She would have liked to have asked him more about his other life, but she went with the program. “What do you mean, me all over it?”
    He walked over to her dresser. “Playbills, perfume, ticket stubs, lectures. I’m surprised you didn’t end up on the stage. You loved it so much as a kid.”
    “Some people would say I’ve made my life a stage.”
    “What would you say?”
    She waved the comment away with her free hand. “Sales, marketing. It’s all just acting, isn’t it? Anyway, I imagine Mom is getting antsy. We should go down.”
    He nodded, but turned to take another sweeping look at her small room. “It’s home but it isn’t,” Nate said softly.
    Shannon wasn’t sure if he was speaking to her or himself. “What?”
    “I’m glad I’m here. I’d forgotten I had memories I wanted to keep.”
    “About New York?”
    “No. This house. This family. You.”
    “Me? I was the pain-in-the-ass Princess. What would you want to remember about that?”
    “You were the prettiest little girl I’d ever known. By the time I was getting ready for NYU, you’d gotten even more beautiful. Now, you’re…”
    She could feel the blush again and realized it was going to be a problem. “I’m…?”
    He inhaled deeply. “We should go eat.” He walked past her and out the door.
    Shannon touched her cheeks, willing them to cool off, wondering what had just happened.
    * * *
    N ATE HAD WOKEN UP BEFORE the alarm. He’d adjusted to the time change, being in the Northern Hemisphere, and the sounds of the city. He hadn’t done as well with adjusting to the beds.
    At the hotel he’d never found the sweet spot, so those nights had been crappy. Myles’s bed was even worse. It sagged in the middle, so no matter where he started, he ended up sinking, his back curving unnaturally. While in the hottest shower he could stand, he’d debated changing rooms after Danny left, but that would be weird seeing as it was now Mrs. Fitz’s sanctuary.
    So, he’d work in a couple of massages while he was here. The shower had helped get the kinks out, but now he was running late. He finished shaving, then wiped the shaving cream away. Making sure the towel around his waist was secure, he opened the bathroom door and bumped right into Shannon.
    He decided to ignore that his startled squeak was almost the same pitch as Shannon’s. “Sorry, sorry.”
    She’d backed up a couple of steps, pulling the top of her robe together. “No, I just didn’t expect…”
    Her gaze had gone from his face to his chest. And stayed there. He checked. The towel hadn’t fallen.
    She let go of her robe to gesture at his body, at least from the neck down. “When did all that happen?”
    He chuckled. He’d been a skinny kid, but he’d done a great deal of hard manual labor overseas, and when there were lulls, he kept himself ready. He returned her gesture, although his wave was focused more around the breast area. “When did all that happen?”
    “Point taken,” she said, with an uneasy laugh. “But hey. Nice.”
    “You, too.”
    “Now go away. I need to shower.” She sounded friendly, unaffected, but he’d seen the telling blush as she pushed past him in a sudden hurry. “You better not have used up the hot water.”
    “Would I do that to you?”
    She turned, her gaze flickering to his chest before meeting his eyes. “Please.”
    “Yeah, okay. But it wasn’t my fault. Have you ever slept in Myles’s bed? I kept waking up thinking I was being smothered.”
    “So, no hot water left?”
    “I wouldn’t linger if I were you.” He couldn’t, either. Not without embarrassing himself. Partly her