Chesapeake Blue Read Free Page B

big Italian eyes. Seth imagined the girls were already tumbling for him like bowling pins.
    "How's the play?"
    "It rocks. Totally rocks. West Side Story. I'm Tony. When you're a Jet, man."
    "You stay a Jet." Seth dumped shirts haphazardly in a drawer. "You get killed, right?"
    "Yeah." Kevin clutched his heart, shuddered with his face filled with pain and rapture. Then slumped. "It's great, and before I do the death thing, we've got this kick-ass fight scene. Show's next week. You're gonna come, right?"
    "Front row center, pal."
    "Check out Lisa Maxdon, she plays Maria. Total babe. We've got a couple of love scenes together. We've been doing a lot of practicing," he added and winked. "Anything for art."
    "Yeah." Kevin scooted up a little. "Okay, so tell me about all the Euro chicks. Pretty hot, huh?"
    "The only way to get burned. There was this girl in Rome. Anna-Theresa."
    "A two-named girl." Kevin shook his fingers as if he'd gotten them too close to a flame. "Two-named girls are way sexy."
    "Tell me. She worked in this little trattoria. And the way she served pasta al pomodoro was just amazing."
    "So? Did you score?"
    Seth sent Kevin a pitying look. "Please, who're you talking to here?" He dumped jeans in another drawer. "She had hair all the way down to her ass, and a very fine ass it was. Eyes like melted chocolate and a mouth that wouldn't quit."
    "Did you draw her naked?"
    "I did about a dozen figure studies. She was a natural. Totally relaxed, completely uninhibited."
    "Man, you're killing me."
    "And she had the most amazing…" Seth paused, his hands up to chest level to demonstrate. "Personality," he said, dropping his hands. "Hi, Anna."
    "Discussing art?" she said dryly. "It's so nice of you to share some of your cultural experiences with Kevin."
    "Um. Well." The killing smile she was aiming in his direction had always made Seth's tongue wither. Instead of trying to use it, he fell back on an innocent grin.
    "But tonight's session on art and culture is now over. Kevin, I believe you have homework."
    "Right. I'll get right to it." Seeing his history assignment as an escape hatch, Kevin bolted.
    Anna stepped into the room. "Do you think," she asked Seth pleasantly, "that the young woman in question would appreciate being whittled down to a pair of breasts?"
    "Ah… I also mentioned her eyes. They were nearly as fabulous as yours."
    Anna took a shirt out of the open drawer, folded it neatly. "Do you think that's going to work with me?"
    "No. Begging might. Please don't hurt me. I just got home."
    She took out another shirt, folded it. "Kevin's sixteen, and I'm perfectly aware his major interest at this time is naked breasts and his fervent desire to get his hands on as many as possible."
    Seth winced. "Jeez, Anna."
    "I am also aware," she continued without breaking stride, "that this predilection—while hopefully becoming more civilized and controlled—remains deep-seated in the male species throughout its natural life."
    "Hey, you want to see some of my landscape sketches from Tuscany?"
    "I am surrounded by you." Sighing a little, she took out yet another shirt. "Outnumbered, and have been since I walked into this house. That doesn't mean I can't knock every one of your stupid heads together when necessary. Understood?"
    "Yes, ma'am."
    "Good. Show me your landscapes."
    LATER, when the house was quiet and the moon rode over the water, she found Cam on the back porch. She stepped out, and into him.
    He wrapped an arm around her, rubbing her shoulder against the night's chill. "Settle everyone down?"
    "That's what I do. Chilly tonight." She glanced up at the sky, at the ice points of stars. "I hope it stays clear for Sunday." Then she simply turned her face into his chest. "Oh, Cam."
    "I know." He stroked a hand over her hair, rubbed his cheek against it.
    "To see him sitting at the kitchen table. Watching him wrestling with Jake and that idiot dog. Even hearing him talking about naked women with Kevin—"
    "What naked