Catch by Toni Kenyon Read Free Book Online

just talk to the fish."
    "You talk to the plants too." He blushed. "It's okay, I won't tell Gina - she can think you're the bastard from hell. It'll be our little secret."   Tamsen tapped the side of her nose.  
    "You’d better not," he warned.
    "Or what?"
    He couldn't help himself; she was playing with him and he liked it. "Or I'll have to punish you."
    "Really?"   A smile creased the edge of those engaging lips.
    He leaned back in his chair, taking pleasure in playing back.   "Yes.   Really."
    "I might enjoy that."
    "Then we might both be in real trouble."  
    Steve made a timely appearance with their lunch.  
    Matt said, "You're looking a little harried, mate. Lunchtime rush getting to you?"
    "I'm over it." Steve mopped his brow, and shuffled off at twice the speed he he'd moved last time.
    Matt watched Tamsen delicately pick a scallop out of the tomato-and-caper sauce, allowing the fork to linger far too long in her mouth for his liking.   He decided to attack his own lunch before the temptation to attack her overcame his appetite for food.  
    "So you still haven't told me what a potential tree hugger's doing in corporate law."
    "My mother told me I was going to law school."
    "That was it?"
    "You haven't met my mother; she's not a woman to be crossed."  
    "Sounds like she could have taken lessons from mine."
    "Oh, great, more things we have in common - tortured, dysfunctional childhoods."
    She smiled.   A drop of tomato sauce hung to the side of her lip; he wanted to lick it off.   She said, "I don't really remember mine being too tortured, but then I did spend a lot of time in fantasy land, playing with fairies and elfin folk."
    "Interesting.   I'd never have gotten away with that."
    "Why not?"   She looked puzzled.
    "Fairy folk are all a bit too pagan for my family.   Staunch Roman Catholics and all."
    "Hellfire and brimstone, huh?"
    "Absolutely - I spent most Friday nights sitting with my mother saying decades of the Rosary.   I could never understand why the other kids never had to do that."
    "On your own?" She asked.
    "I'm an only child." He laughed. "Mom said she'd never go through that again after I arrived." He'd always had guilt about the pain he caused his mother, she'd never let him forget it, either.
    "Do you think it taught you anything,the Rosary stuff? You know, helped you with life?"
    "I haven't ever really thought about it." He pondered the question for a couple of moments. It intrigued him that he'd forgotten those countless Friday nights.   "I suppose it taught me discipline and that you didn't have to go to church to have some sort of contact with God - you could talk to Him anywhere."
    "But you still did the Sunday church deal?"
    "You betcha, the whole damn nine yards.   We'd traipse off to church on a Sunday – Mom and me."
    "What about your dad?"
    "I don't know.   He always seemed to get out of it for some reason that escaped me.   He used to drop us off and then pick us up, but we were never told why he didn't have to go."
    "You didn't ask him?"
    "Er, no."
    "Enough said."
    They sat in comfortable silence for a while, enjoying the garden and their meals.  
    As driven as he was by a lustful desire to tear the clothing off her, Matt found himself happy to just sit and watch this beautiful woman consume her food.   She had an incredible sensuality and grace about her, savoring every mouthful.   He found it unimaginably erotic watching her.
      Tamsen glanced up at him. "Why are you watching me eat?"
    "Because I can."
    "Do you always invite people to lunch so you can stare at them?"
    "No, only beautiful, intriguing, intelligent people."
    "Sheesh, you're forward."   Tamsen put her eating utensils down.
    "I haven't even started with you yet."   He steepled his fingers, appraising her from over the top of his manicured fingernails.
    "What do you mean?"
    "You're still wearing your dress, aren't you?"
    "I was the last time I looked."   Her eyes never left his.
    "Why don't you come