Bourbon Street Blues by Maureen Child Read Free Book Online Page A

past unnoticed. It was as if everything else in theworld drifted away. All he could see, all he wanted to see, were her eyes. Like the soft, dreamy gray of fog spilling in off the ocean, they held depths that a man could get lost in.
    He knew it was dangerous.
    Hell, stupid, even.
    But Holly Carlyle was the kind of woman a man would find hard to ignore.
    Holly held her breath.
    There was something here, between them. Had been right from the start. Something electric. Elemental. And if she moved the least bit, she was half-afraid she might shatter whatever spell was holding them in place.
    A danger bell started clanging inside her head, but she silenced it.
    He lifted one hand to stroke her cheek and Holly felt the heat of his touch sizzle deep within her. She inhaled slowly, hoping the calming breath would steady her. It didn’t.
    As if from a distance, she could hear the contractor working in the other room. But he might as well have been on Mars. To Holly, it was as if she and Parker were alone on the planet. Her knees went a little wobbly. Her heartbeat quickened in anticipation.
    Oh, what she needed at the moment was a freezing-cold shower to douse the flames licking at her insides.
    Holly knew better than to give in to the urges that were tearing at her. She’d learned the hard way that she had to be careful when a man made her feel this way. Much more careful than she was being at the moment.
    Because right now, all she could think about was Parker James’s mouth—and wonder if it tasted as good as it looked.
    She licked suddenly dry lips. “Are you fixin’ to kiss me, Parker James?” she asked, deepening her Southern drawl.
    One corner of his mouth tipped up briefly. “I’m thinkin’ about it, Holly. How d’you feel about that?”
    Well, she was feeling like a fireworks display was going off inside her chest. Nothing she’d experienced before had ever come close to what she was going through right now.
    Looking into Parker’s eyes, she wanted things she’d never imagined before.
    Hot, delicious, needy things.
    She swallowed hard, slowly reached out and slid both hands up his chest and over his shoulders. She shouldn’t. She knew she shouldn’t. And she knew just as well she couldn’t help herself.
    She just had to know if the electricity she’d felt at his touch would intensify when his lips met hers. Deliberately, slowly, she rolled out each word. “I’mfeelin’ like a little less thinkin’ and a little more kissin’ might be a good thing.”
    That mouth of his curved again, and this time she caught a flash of dimples. “My daddy always taught me it was bad manners to argue with a lady.”
    She moved in closer and nearly sighed as his arms came around her waist. “Your daddy sounds like a very wise man.”
    “You’re still talkin’,” he said.
    “You best find a way to shut me up, then.”
    “Do my best.”
    His mouth came down on hers, and it was as if the world rocked, tilted, then came right again in the space of a single heartbeat.
    He must have felt it, too. His arms tightened around her waist, a muffled groan rippled from his throat and he deepened the kiss. His tongue darted past her lips, dipped into her warmth and tasted her passion.
    Eyes closed, body electrified, Holly answered his passion with her own. Never, she thought wildly, never had she felt anything like this. She hadn’t even guessed she could feel like this.
    His big hands swept up and down her back, his fingers dancing along both sides of her spine. She held on tighter, clinging to him now, meeting his kiss desperately, hungrily. She wanted to feel more. Tofeel his hands on her skin, his body inside hers. She wanted…too much.
    And as soon as that thought splintered her brain, she broke away from him, forcing herself to take a step back. Her mouth was still humming, she could still taste him, smell him, and she locked her knees to keep from bonelessly sinking to the floor.
    “Why?” he asked, reaching for her