About That Kiss by Jayne Addison Read Free Book Online Page B

was at all bothered by Kevin showing up, he wasn’t revealing it. Sure, he’d been acting proper with Diana since they’d gotten here. But what about the drive over? They’d come in two cars. Nick had insisted on driving. Eddie had insisted on driving. Diana had mediated them into two cars.
    “I’ll ask Diana, thank you,” Kevin rejoined.
    Diana laughed. “Wait till I tell you what this brother of yours has been up to. And I don’t mean with me.”
    “Hey, Eddie.” Gilbert Benson, the forty-nine-year-old, balding proprietor of Gillie’s, called to him from behind the bar. “Come here a minute.”
    “Be right back,” Eddie said, speeding off at the summons.
    “Can I get you to dance with me?” Diana turned coquettish eyes up at Kevin.
    “I’ve promised to dance with you at our wedding.” Kevin smiled lovingly. “Can I get you to sit down with me?”
    “Well,” Diana joshed. “Since you’ve promised in the presence of witnesses, I guess you can get me to sit.”
    Nick gave some coins in his pocket a restless jingle as he looked at Joy. “What do you say we give these soon-to-be-married folks a little time to themselves? How about dancing with me?”
    Joy’s stomach immediately lurched, while her heart began pounding against her ribs. His question had stopped her from following Diana and Kevin as they started for the table.
    “Well…I…ah…” Joy stammered.
    Nick held on to Joy’s gaze with his eyes. “You can’t put a man through what I went through at lunch, then refuse to dance with him.”
    “The anchovies?” Joy asked dumbly, doing what she could to catch her breath. He was giving her the sexiest smile imaginable.
    “Damn right! The anchovies.” Nick put his arms around her and brought his body closer to hers, then waited for her to acquiesce.
    With her heartbeat driving hard and fast at her throat, Joy brought a hand up to dangle tentatively around his neck. He joined his fingers lightly at the hollow of her spine. Joy placed her other hand on his shoulder. His head dropped down. Hers lifted up.
    Keep it slow, Nick mentally telegraphed to the blond singer on the platform.
    Don’t let him know how I feel, Joy silently begged, making herself as stiff as she could.
    “Did I tell you how much I like the suggestion you gave me to do a series on the new East End economics?” Joy asked in a nervously rapid speech while he started swaying with the sensuous beat of the music. Were their feet moving? Or was it just their bodies? A whole series of heated fantasies were flashing in her head, all of them with Nick Tremain in the leading role, in varying stages of undress.
    “I only came up with the suggestion from something you said. That makes it all your idea,” Nick murmured.
    “No. It was your idea.” The shoulder of his sweater was wonderfully soft against her chin. “I don’t even remember what I said to give you the thought.” Her fingers were close to his hair. She wanted to touch.Just one quick touch. Could she do it without him knowing?
    “You were talking about wineries—that started the ball rolling. I just gave your idea a broad stroke. It wouldn’t be anything without your punchy title… ‘Secrets of the new East End economics—people and families.’ I love it.”
    Joy felt Nick’s lips brush up against her cheek. She was certain it was accidental, but in the state he already had her in, it was more than enough to make the small steps she was taking go all haywire. Her foot tangled with his. She had to clutch his shoulder with the hand that was already there and grip his neck with the crook of her arm so as not to lose her balance. For half a second he teetered with her before steadying both of them.
    “Okay now?” Nick asked gently, pulling his head back to see her face. He studied the pink, flustered cheeks and the way her eyes self-consciously cast about for someplace to center on other than him.
    Joy could have died on the spot. She was that embarrassed.