Shut Up and Kiss Me Read Free Page A

but here, the trendiest nightclub in the city, no less—a place where most young women in New York would give an arm and a leg just for a spot on the guest list.
    He’d followed her and her friend to the bar, watching from afar as Mila’s discomfort continued, wondering at her refusal to follow her friend to the dance floor and growing more and more interested in her by the second.
    She wasn’t the typical INFINITY habitué, nor did she seem like any woman he’d ever had the pleasure of meeting, and that was what intrigued him most of all. These feelings only deepened upon speaking with her, and though she’d said very little before falling into her coughing fit, he’d easily depicted a light accent that he guessed was Southern. Her shyness, her obvious and utter discomfort around men—both with the bartender he’d watched try to flirt with her and now with himself—only made her more appealing to him.
    He wanted to know her. Actually, that was only half true. He wanted to know anyone that wasn’t part of his usual circle of people, full of self-serving, pompous, and utterly unstimulating men and women. He wanted different, he’d been craving different, and different had just walked into his club.
    Even better, different didn’t know a thing about him. He could have told her his name was Rick or Joe or Bob, and she would have had the same reaction. He was a nobody to her, and that thrilled him more than her oddly transfixing eyes or the way her nearly see-through dress seemed to hug every single solitary plane and curve of her lithe, toned, and sexy-as-hell body.
    He was sick of high society, and he was sick to death of the insipid, vapid women that came with the lifestyle. Even worse were the wannabes, the hangers-on, the rubberneckers, the women and men who were constantly throwing themselves at him in the hopes that he would invite them to a party, date them, or worse…marry them.
    He was thirty-one years old, nearly thirty-two. He’d been almost everywhere, seen everything, and subsequently was no longer impressed with any of it. He wanted different. He needed different. Only lately, he’d been starting to see that different wasn’t exactly attainable. His money always got in the way. It either excited or upset people, but either way it hindered his ability to simply get to know someone, and vice versa.
    Only this morning, he’d decided that he wasn’t going to let that happen anymore; he just hadn’t figured out how, exactly…not until this very moment.
    But instead of garnering the reaction he’d hoped for, Mila seemed to want to run from him, and now, with the aid of her tiny, angry friend, it seemed she just might get her wish.
    So, second on his list of things to do…play nice with the tiny woman.
    “ Can I offer you a drink, Nikki?” he asked, offering her yet another smile.
    “ No thank you,” she replied politely—too polite. Her dark eyes snapped back to Mila and her gaze instantly softened. Though she said nothing, the look in her eyes implied everything. She was silently asking her friend what she wanted to do.
    And just like that, Will respected her, despite her obvious distaste for him. She, like Mila, was also different from what he was accustomed to.
    Mila’s eyes slanted toward him, her cheeks blushing the moment their gazes connected, and Will continued to smile, enjoying her reaction to him—enjoying every damn thing about her, actually. Or at least as much as he’d learned in the past fifteen minutes since spotting her.
    “ I’m fine,” she said, her Southern lilt washing warmly over him. “I swear, Nikki, everything is fine. I’m fine.” She blushed again, as if her overprotective friend was furthering her embarrassment.
    “ So…” The corners of Nikki’s mouth turned up, finally hinting at a smile. “Should I stay and have a drink?”
    Mila seemed hesitant, and for a moment Will was positive she’d chosen Nikki over him. So much so that when she shyly shook