Windfall Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyebrows—canted upward. “Unless, of course, you have a date?”
    Right on cue, the back dock door banged open, and Cherise began flip-flopping down the steps to the parking lot. I looked over David’s shoulder and expected him to mist away—like Djinn usually did—but he just turned to take a look as well. Which meant that he’d decided not to leave, but just to disguise himself with a minor use of his powers, a don’t-see-me kind of magic that would direct Cherise’s attention away from him . . .
    â€œWhoa! Who’s the hottie, Jo?” Cherise asked, focused directly on David. She came to a hard stop, wiggling her tanned toes in the designer flip-flops. Those bright blue eyes swept him head to toe, narrowed, and sparkled. “My, my, my. Holding out on me. Bad friend. No biscuit.”
    It was possible that David was just in the mood to be part of the human world for a while. He did that, sometimes; that was how I’d met him. It had taken me days to figure out that he wasn’t entirely human, but in my defense, I was just a little distracted at the time with people trying to kill me.
    What I was afraid of, though, was that David was visible to Cherise because he was too weak to magic himself out of being seen.
    If that was the case, I couldn’t see any sign of it in his body language. He looked relaxed, open, and friendly.
    â€œHi. My name’s David,” he said, and held out his hand. Cherise took it and made the handshake look way too intimate.
    â€œ I can be a friend. A really, really close friend.” She pursed shiny, Maybelline-enhanced lips, and sent me a pleading look as she leaned into his personal space. “So, when you get tired of him, can I have him?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œTrade you a date with Johnny Depp.”
    â€œCherise, you don’t have a date with Johnny Depp.”
    She sniffed. “Well, I could . If I wanted. So I suppose the arrival of Mr. Hottie means we’re not going shopping.”
    â€œWould you go shopping if he showed up for you?”
    â€œYou’re kidding, right? I would have shopping surgically removed from my system. And you know how much of a commitment that is for me.” Cherise gave me a preoccupied kind of smile, tearing her attention away from David for about point oh two seconds, and finally heaved a theatrical sigh. “I suppose I’ll just have to go abuse my credit rating all by myself. Although I plan to shop heavily, and it would be handy to have some nice, strong man to carry my—”
    â€œGo,” I said. She lifted an elegantly sculpted shoulder and flip-flopped off toward her red convertible, hips swaying, alien tattoo doing a funky hula to the motion. Yeah. She’d be carrying her own bags, sure. When hell opened a hockey rink.
    â€œDid I interrupt something?” David asked, and moved back into kissing distance again. “I know how seriously you take a mall visit. Wouldn’t want to stand in your way.”
    He was teasing me. I leaned in, too, brushed his lips with mine, and stared deep into his burning bronze eyes. Teasing could go both ways.
    His pupils widened and drank me in.
    â€œThe mall doesn’t open until ten,” I whispered into his parted lips. “Plenty of time.”
    His kiss took control and dissolved me into sparkles and tingles and a massive surge of heat. Damp, urgent, passionate lips, demanding my full attention. I felt myself collapsing against him, wanting badly to be horizontal somewhere with a lockable door. Jesus, he made my whole body shake.
    â€œI missed you,” he said, and his voice had gone low and rough, hiding in the back of his throat. His thumbs caressed my cheekbones, drawing lines of heat like tattoos.
    â€œShow me.”
    â€œRight here?” He looked pointedly down at the gravel, asphalt, and thin grass. “Looks uncomfortable. Then again, I remember how much you like public