Twist (Siren Publishing Allure) Read Free Page A

eyes seeming to glimmer with intrigue. His tongue traced a leisurely course over his beautiful red lips, the action enticing and arousing in a way that Lana had never experienced. The sight flowed from her eyes into her brain, causing an intense ache in her groin.
    He waited until the waitress was gone and then leaned closer. “Are you okay? You look a bit flushed.”
    She met his intense gaze, suddenly feeling a need to reciprocate his forwardness. “I believe the word ‘overheated’ would better apply.”
    Fred chuckled, tilting his head in appreciation. “The woman has sass. I have always believed that a gesture can be as enthralling as a touch. Want to play?”
    The very tip of her tongue drifted over the underside of her top lip. Reversing direction, she trailed it over the bottom of her top teeth and then with a flick sucked it into her mouth.
    He took a long drink from his glass, twisting his tongue around a piece of ice. She considered the gesture and retorted as she pushed her hair back, trailing her palm down her cheek. Lana leaned her chin into her folded knuckles and began to nibble on the tip of her pinky, encircling it with her tongue.
    A dramatic exhale of air escaped his lips, and Fred smiled. Lana noticed that he was moving slightly, probably from bouncing his leg under the table. She felt his foot slide up her calf and tilted her head, raising her eyebrows. “That is a bit more than a gesture.”
    “I’m cheating. Your fault.”
    She laughed. “Why is it my fault?”
    “Ask me later. Do you like 3-D movies?”
    “I love them, why?”
    “I have been told that a really good one is playing in North Haven. Want to go?”
    “I would love to. When?”
    “If we hurry up and eat our meal, we will have just enough time to drop off your car and get to the movie.”
    She stuck a fork full of lobster into her mouth, the stuffing divine, as always. As she chewed, she stared at him thoughtfully. He didn’t take his eyes from hers as he sucked a shrimp into his mouth, ripping off the tail shell.
    “Okay. How do you know where I live?”
    “What makes you think that I do?”
    “Because it would be impossible to calculate making it to the movie on time if you didn’t.”
    “Good point. I’m a computer geek, remember?”
    “Yes, I remember. Did you run an in-depth history on me?”
    “Just a partial one while I was sitting in the parking lot. It gave me the details that Facebook didn’t.”
    Lana knew that her friends often ran profiles on prospective dates and she probably should have done one on Fred. “You’ll have to show me how to do that.”
    He smiled, finishing off his shrimp as she ate her lobster casserole. They skipped coffee and dessert. Fred suggested that he could stop at a coffee shop for two cups to go, to save time. Lana drove straight home, putting her Yaris in the garage and then sitting on the front stairs to wait for him. When her phone rang, she figured that he had gotten lost like everyone else.
    “Where have you been?” asked her stepdaughter Mona in a cranky voice. “I stopped by with the kids, and you weren’t home. They wanted to see you. You didn’t answer your phone either.”
    “I was in a restaurant and I turned it off.”
    “You were where ?”
    “I went out to dinner.”
    “ With who ?” Her tone gained volume in anger.
    Fred’s car turned into the driveway, and she grinned as he got out, shrugging. “With the same person I am going to a movie with. I gotta go, my chariot just arrived.”
    “ What ?” she demanded.
    “I’ll talk to you later, Mona.” Lana hung up the phone, turning it back off.
    “Was that suspicious? Do you have an unspoken boyfriend or something?”
    Lana rolled her eyes, slowly shaking her head in exasperation. “That was my stepdaughter, Mona. She is bent because I wasn’t home to watch her kids. Whenever she says the kids want to see me, it means she has a date and wants to dump them on me for the night. C’est la