Chick with a Charm by Vicki Lewis Thompson Read Free Book Online

having sex. He would be willing to have it right now in the back of this cab, but he had no condoms and a small part of his brain was still operational, thank God. He was counting on her to have condoms in her apartment.
    From inside her trendy backpack lying on the floor of the cab, Lily’s cell phone played the opening bars of “Witchy Woman.” She leaned down to pull out the phone, which made her scent swirl in the backseat.
    Griffin clenched his teeth as a surge of desire made him long to grab her. It was amazing to him that he’d never kissed those full lips.
    She flipped open the phone. “Hi, Anica.”
    He had to look away, because the sight of her mouth moving as she talked to her sister made him long to grab the phone away and thrust his tongue in deep. And that would only be the beginning. He had plans for that mouth she loved to decorate in lipstick the color of ripe cherries. Before the night was through, he wanted cherry-red lipstick marks all over himself.
    “Yes, everything’s cool,” Lily said. “I’m on my way home.”
    Nothing on Griffin was cool. He’d waged a constant and often unsuccessful battle during the cab ride to keep his penis calm.
    “Never mind,” Lily said. “It’s all under control.”
    Griffin had the oddest feeling they were talking about him, but that made no sense. How would Lily’s sister know about this sudden fixation of his?
    “Yeah, I promise I won’t do anything you wouldn’t do. Talk to you tomorrow. Bye.” She closed the phone and reached over to tuck it into her backpack.
    Then she glanced over at Griffin. “Anica worries about me. She knows I’m . . . uh . . . interested in you.”
    “It sounded as if she might be warning you away from me.”
    “She just doesn’t want me to do anything I’d regret. She’s my big sister, after all. But I can’t see how she’d object to us going out for coffee.”
    “Then why didn’t you tell her we were doing that?”
    Lily looked away. “Let’s just say I have a history of flying in the face of good sense. It’s better that she doesn’t know we’re together. She wouldn’t believe I could keep it to a coffee date.” She faced him again, her expression resolute. “But that’s what we’re going to do.”
    Like hell. He waited for his conscience to kick in, but nothing happened. It seemed that he was determined to seduce this woman whether she wanted him to or not. Funny thing, his instincts told him she did want him to, no matter what she said to the contrary.
    After what seemed like the longest cab ride in history but had taken less than ten minutes, they pulled up in front of a four-story brick apartment building that resembled many others that were sprinkled throughout the city.
    Griffin dug in the inside pocket of his sweats and came up with the fare. If they actually went for coffee, which he doubted, he could cover that, too. He followed Lily out of the cab and up the cement steps to the front door.
    His heart was going crazy with anticipation, but he’d have to keep his cool until the issue of the dog had been settled. They couldn’t get naked until the dog—was her name Daisy?—had been allowed out to do her business. Griffin liked dogs a lot and he didn’t want to put this one through misery.
    Lily paused in the small hallway where the mailboxes took up one wall. “I’m on the third floor, and there’s no elevator. You can wait down here if you want, while I go get Daisy.”
    “That’s okay. I’ll go up with you.” But as he followed her up the stairs, he regretted the decision. He’d wanted to see her apartment, sort of get the lay of the land where this seduction would take place later on, but doing so meant having the chance to ogle her shapely rear all the way.
    It meant following the trail of her scent, both her spicy perfume and her pheromone-laden woman’s aroma. The exertion of climbing made him breathe all the more deeply, until his impulse control began to dwindle. Much more of