Barefoot With a Stranger (Barefoot Bay Undercover Book 2) Read Free Page B

leaving at ten thirty a.m., and then she did the unthinkable and shut off her phone.
    Just that little act of defiance sent a shiver of anticipation through her, a little frisson of tension that made her feel like anything could happen. Anything and everything.
    She glanced up at the man on her right and caught him eyeing her as well. Silent in their secret companionship with only the background sounds of unhappy phone calls and explanations still going on inside the overly warm van, it was like they were magnetically pulled to each other.
    “You need anything to make it through the night?” he asked.
    Um…sex. Lots of it. “ I’ll buy a toothbrush and can sleep in my clothes.” Or naked. She swallowed, her throat dry.
    “You can borrow a T-shirt, if you want.”
    His voice, with just enough of a timbre of implication, rolled over her, warming her so much that she turned to the rain-streaked windows, tempted to press her cheek against the cool glass. Instead, she let the blur of the Atlanta airport pass by.
    Chessie had never had a one-night stand, didn’t do the hookup thing that was considered the norm among many thirty-year-olds. The whole idea was just too damn spontaneous for a planner like her. But this situation was different. Weird. Electrified. Off anything that resembled a plan.
    Screw a plan.
    No, no. She fought a secret smile and a tingling in her lower half. A plan was not what she wanted to screw tonight.
    “Here we are,” Mal said, shifting slightly in his seat, making her unable to think about anything except how his leg felt pressed against her. It was hard, thick, and strong. She’d never really thought about a man’s leg before. She was a shoulder and biceps kind of girl. But his leg…
    Lust had clearly fried her motherboard.
    He met her look with the slightest hint of amusement in his dark eyes. Like he knew something about her that even she didn’t know. That was part of his appeal, she noticed. Always a very subtle, tacit hint that he knew what she was thinking.
    And she was thinking about legs. And…other parts.
    She let out a sigh as the van pulled under the hotel overhang, the lights of the lobby looking warm and inviting on the cool, December night.
    “You okay?” Mal asked, leaning close to her ear so his breath fluttered some of her hair and launched a landslide of goose bumps.
    “Yeah, sure. I mean…” She wet her lips and looked up at him. “Are you?”
    They were dancing around the obvious. Are we doing this or not?
    He broke into a slow grin that made her stomach feel like a butterfly garden during a windstorm. “Define okay, Francesca.”
    And did he have to say her much-hated name in a way that sounded like a warm breeze over flower petals? She wanted him to say it again and again, in her ear, against her mouth, as he got on top of her and—
    “Out to the right, please,” the driver barked as he stopped the van and silenced her thoughts.
    Blood thrummed in her head as she waited her turn to climb out from the corner at the way back, but Mal was on her right, so he had to go first, giving her a bird’s-eye view of his ass in jeans.
    A gorgeous ass. A strong ass. An ass custom-made for a woman’s first one-night stand. She couldn’t wait to get a handful of that ass.
    And why the hell shouldn’t she? No one even knew where she was, not a brother, cousin, or overprotective grandfather to put the brakes on this hairpin turn the night was about to take.
    He stood on the sidewalk, giving her a hand as she hopped out of the van. And then he kept holding it as they walked into the lobby. His palm was rough and masculine, his fingers strong and protective.
    Her heart flipped around helplessly, like that of a teenage girl about to get felt up for the first time. The whole thing was so sexy and illicit, so blissfully impromptu.
    The registration line was long, and they ended up separated for a bit while they each checked in. Yes, it was nice not to be forced into an awkward