All Things Pretty by M. Leighton Read Free Book Online Page A

exactly what I was
thinking.”
    Her stiff posture and angry expression ease.
“You wish I was thinking about your ‘below the waist’.”
    “Hell yeah, I do. A beautiful woman like
you, what man wouldn’t?”
    She cocks her head to one side and watches
me. “Lance is very jealous, you know. Aren’t you aren’t afraid of
what he’d do to you for saying things like that to me?”
    “Men take crazy risks for the love of a
beautiful woman.”
    Something sad happens in her eyes. “But it’s
not love you’re after, is it Sig?”
    “Is it love you’re after?”
    She pauses before she answers thoughtfully,
“Isn’t everyone?”
    Before I can respond, the elevator doors
open and she turns to walk out, her pace slower than it was when
she left the living room upstairs. We make our way to her car in
silence. I wait for her to click the remote that opens the door and
then I reach around to open it, effectively trapping her between me
and the car.
    “Can I tell you something?” I ask her
softly. My dick twitches when her big doe eyes fall to my lips and
stay there. She nods. “I promise you won’t know I’m even here. Just
let me follow you.”
    Her eyes finally rise back up to mine and
she nods again. “Please don’t disappoint me.” She says it quietly.
Earnestly. Like she’s talking about much more than just this
conversation. I feel a stab of guilt, knowing that not only will
she be disappointed, but she’ll likely get into some amount of trouble in the end, when all is said and done.
    Out of necessity, I brush it off and put on
the glib guy that I’ve always been. “Baby, I never disappoint.”
    One side of her mouth tweaks up in a
humorless, lopsided grin. “ Everyone disappoints.”
    With that, she drops down into the driver’s
seat and waits, without meeting my eyes, for me to close the
door.
    Who the hell is this woman? And who has hurt
her?
     

CHAPTER ELEVEN- TOMMI
     
    I glance back at Sig’s handsome face,
partially concealed by the sexiest sunglasses I’ve ever seen. He’s
leaning to the right, his wrist draped casually over the steering
wheel of his big truck. He looks relaxed. Competent. Sexy.
    Sexy, sexy, sexy! Why does that word keep
popping up in my head?
    Because he is. Everything about him is sexy.
His smile, his voice, his eyes, his walk, his body. Even his stupid
truck. Somehow he manages to make it look sexy, like a motorcycle
on four jacked-up tires.
    Stop being so ridiculous!
    I pull my eyes to the road ahead just in
time to slam on the brakes to keep from rear-ending Toyota in front
of me. I bite back a curse, straightening my arms and legs as my
car comes to a screeching halt. When the little old woman manages
to make her left hand turn, I let out the breath I sucked in and
glance in my mirror one last time. Sig is smiling, a smug smile
that says he knows what I was thinking. It’s both infuriating and
exhilarating enough to make my stomach flip over.
    It’s easier to ignore him after I pick up
Travis. I pull alongside the curb right in front of where he’s
standing and lean over to open the passenger side door. “Sorry I’m
a couple of minutes late,” I tell him as he gets in.
    “Whatever,” he says, jerking his baseball
cap lower over his eyes. Even without his telltale tick, I can see
that he’s agitated. I’m never late. I make a point not to be. He is
very sensitive to any disruptions in his schedule that are
perpetrated by others.
    “Did you take your meds today?”
    Travis turns to look at me with eyes the
exact shade of mine. “I always take my meds. Stop asking me shit
like that!”
    I don’t think anything of his defensiveness.
He’s always like this after school. It stresses him out to try and
be normal, as he calls it. The symptoms of his Asperger’s seem to
have worsened since Lance has been requiring more of my nights.
Unfortunately, I’m stuck, which means Travis is, too. At least for
a while longer.
    A subject change is in order. “Guess