All Night Woman: A Contemporary Romance by Abbie Zanders Read Free Book Online Page B

“Not like that.  I think he meant that Brandon is hounded constantly because of his looks.”  She paused, looking at him over the rim of her coffee mug.  “I imagine you have the same problem.”
    He shrugged, a casual and elegant lift of those broad shoulders.  “Some women seem to be completely unaffected.”  His eyes, a clear, perfect shade of blue, locked onto hers as he spoke the words.
    Liz shifted slightly.  They weren’t flirting, right?  So why was it getting warmer in here?  No, that surge of heat was coming from inside her body, not from the baseboard.  A horrible thought struck her:  thirty-five was too young to start having hot flashes, wasn’t it?
    “That’s probably a good thing,” she said carefully, keeping her inner monologue to herself.
    “How do you figure?”
    Without missing a beat, she said, “Keeps you humble.”
    He laughed then, and she couldn’t help but smile along with him.  For such a good-looking man, he was very easy to be around.  Maybe that’s because she was viewing him as a person instead of a potential something more.
    “That’s me.  Humble to a fault.”
    She stared at him for several long moments.  Maybe she had misjudged him.  He seemed like a nice-enough guy, and any man who could laugh at himself couldn’t be too conceited.  His brother and his son were decent guys, so logic suggested that maybe he was, too. 
    “Humility is a virtue, isn’t it?”
    “I don’t think so.” He lifted up his hand and ticked them off, one by one.  “Prudence, justice, temperance, courage, faith, hope, and charity.  Nope, no humility.”
    It was her turn to raise her eyebrow at him.  “Catholic school?”
    “Till seventh grade,” he confirmed with a twinkle in his eye.
    “What happened in seventh grade?”
    “I hit puberty,” he said almost apologetically.  “The plaid skirts became just a little too distracting, I’m afraid.”
    Dear Lord.  The man really had no idea how charming he was.  Good thing she had already decided he was off-limits, or she might be tempted to pull her own high-school Catholic girl uniform out of the closet.  It was a little tight, but it still fit, which was a tremendous source of pride.
    “Do you like cupcakes?” she asked on a sudden impulse. 
    “Is there anyone who doesn’t like cupcakes?” he countered.
    Instead of answering, she got up and went to the other side of the kitchen, opening up the cupboard on the far left.  She returned a moment later with a two-pack of iced chocolate cupcakes, a candle, and two small plates.
    “Are they the kind with the cream on the inside?”
    She snorted.  “Of course.”  Liz removed the cellophane wrapping and placed one filled cake on each plate.  “I don’t usually eat this stuff,” she told him as she stuck a candle in hers and lit it, “but it is my birthday.”
    “Do you want me to sing Happy Birthday?”
    “No,” she laughed, then pursed her lips to blow out the candle.
    “Wait!  Did you make a wish?”
    Liz’s eyes met his, and in that moment, she knew exactly what she was going to wish for.  Without taking her eyes from his, she smiled.
    And blew out the candle.
    * * *
    H oly shit.  Those eyes .  He’d originally thought they were blue, but now he realized they were more like a smoky gray with cobalt undertones.  But it wasn’t the unusual color that had him discreetly shifting to alleviate the sudden tightness in his slacks.
    It was the look she gave him.  Miles didn’t have to ask what she had wished for.  In that brief, one-second eye contact was an entire night of hot, sweaty, mind-numbing sex. 
    He blinked, and it was gone.  Her long, dark blonde lashes fluttered against her healthy-looking pink skin (now flushing a lovely rose) as she broke eye contact and turned her attention to her plate.  She removed the candle and lifted the cake to her lips.  He’d never considered a pre-packaged cupcake a particularly erotic food, but then, he’d