Beguiling (Tempting #2) by Alex Lucian Read Free Book Online Page B

Then she shook out her hair and it messed up her rhythm so she had to brace herself on the upper cabinet doors. “Scarlet, what the hell are you doing? Get down from there.”
    She laughed, carefully moving her feet so she could turn and face me. Her facial expression was all unpracticed vixen, the way she was biting her lip and narrowing her eyes was almost enough to make me laugh. But I wanted to get her down before she fell and died or something.
    “I’m breaking into the stash,” she said far too loudly to make me comfortable.
    I reached my hands up, trying to grab around her hips and pull her down, but she swatted them away.
    “Quit hitting my hands. You’ve done that enough today, okay? Let’s just get you down.”
    “Nooooooo,” she wailed, pushing out her bottom lip in a ridiculous pout that should not have been cute. “Lemme just get this one bottle in the back. Real quick.”
    “Scarlet, lean down and let me help you.”
    She propped her hands on her hips. “I want to keep drinking.”
    “No problem, but let’s just do this quietly; I don’t want to wake up your parents.”
    Then she tipped her head back and laughed, a light tinkling sort of sound. But any fascination I may have had at hearing it was abruptly halted when her laughter made her sway to the side. I clamped my hands on her waist, feeling the press of her hip bones against my palm. I gripped tighter, clamping my teeth at the same time, because this was so fucking inconvenient.
    “Quit laughing and let me help you get down.”
    “Fine. Party pooper.”
    “Well, that’s a first for me. Now come on.”
    Her hands slid up my forearms and stopped on my biceps, the action making her lean forward, her hair falling over her shoulders in one long slide. When I swallowed, it was noisy as fuck, but she didn’t seem to notice, her eyes locked on my shoulders and chest. Her breathing picked up when I slid my hands up her side to brace under her arms. The sides of her breasts were hot against my skin. Scarlet bent at the knees and stepped down from the counter, holding me so tightly I knew I’d have marks from her fingernails.
    Once her feet finally touched the floor, she looked up at me and grinned. Then grabbed my ass. “Thanks, champ. You’re so handy to have around.” I jumped back from her, looking around like I was waiting for her dad to walk in shooting flaming arrows at me. Holy fire flaming arrows. She pointed up at the top cupboard. “Snap to it. It’s the blue bottle in the back.”
    I rubbed a hand on my ass and narrowed my eyes at her. “I don’t think we should do this.”
    “Why not?”
    “Well, I don’t think your parents will appreciate us getting smashed in the house while they’re asleep.”
    Scarlet kept staring at me, eyes never leaving my face. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes just a little bit glassy, but they were so dark and direct that I stood a little bit straighter.
    “They’re not here.” When I nodded and opened my mouth to respond, she moved forward and slapped a hand over my lips. “They’re not here for six weeks.”
    “Oooomph,” I mumbled from behind her hand, then plucked it away from me. “Ouch. What is it with you? You either slap my hands or cover my mouth. It’s not fucking cool.” Then I narrowed my eyes at her. “Where are they?”
    She leaned a hip on the counter behind her and shrugged. “My dad takes a sabbatical every summer to study and pray and plan out sermons. I’ll probably meet up with them the last week so we can vacation together.” She wetted her lips, not in a way that was practiced or even meant to be seductive, but my cock stiffened anyway.
    I had two choices: I could leave, make her chug some water, take some Advil and go to bed; or I could open that fucking cupboard, pull down the vodka and get wasted with the preacher’s daughter on a night when she didn’t want to castrate me.
    Naturally, I made a sharp pivot and yanked the door open. Lifting my eyebrows