Come Home to Me by Brenda Novak Read Free Book Online

I’d be building your reception area this morning.”
    She shifted Wyatt to her other hip. “You’re either a really nice guy—or a glutton for punishment.”
    “Are you asking me? Because if you are, I’m a really nice guy.”
    Wyatt, interested in this newcomer, had stopped crying. She wiped the tears from his face as she said, “You’re still going to be disappointed when I won’t sleep with you.”
    She refused to feel obligated, not when she’d warned him. She wouldn’t let anyone pressure her into making choices that were detrimental to her, no matter how grateful she felt for his friendship. That was the old Presley.
    He put a hand to his chest as if she’d wounded him. She expected him to accuse her of being too brash. Cheyenne would never have blurted out something like that. But she’d been frank on purpose, to highlight the truth: she wasn’t his type.
    Surprisingly, his response wasn’t what she’d predicted. “Who said you won’t sleep with me?”
    She gaped at him. “I told you—”
    “That you won’t trade sex for money. If I get a massage, I get only a massage.”
    “That’s true.”
    He nodded. “Then we’re fine. Because when we have sex, I don’t plan on paying you.”
    He’d said that with a straight face, but she could see a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “ When we have sex?”
    “I’m not saying it’ll happen, so don’t get mad. I’m just not ruling it out. In other words, if we ever reach that point, I’m open to getting physical. In case you were wondering.”
    She didn’t know how to respond. She’d accepted long ago that she’d never be able to attract the kind of solid citizens her sister did. So why was popular, handsome, someone-who-should-know-better Riley Stinson even giving her the time of day?
    He chuckled at her stunned silence. “Don’t tell me you’re that easily embarrassed. You started it.”
    She’d been trying to scare him off; she hadn’t expected him to say something equally shocking. “But...you’re my little sister’s friend.”
    “What difference does that make?”
    “I’m older than you are.”
    “There’s two years between us. Two years hardly makes you a cougar.”
    She jiggled Wyatt, who was getting fussy again. “It’s not just the age difference I’m worried about. It’s the other differences.”
    “And those are...”
    “Vast.”
    He tilted his head as he peered into her face. “Isn’t that the case with most guys you meet? Not many people have been raised the way you were.”
    “And Cheyenne turned out all right. That’s what you must be thinking. But you have to understand that Cheyenne is special. She could’ve been raised in any circumstances and survived them.” Somehow her sister had navigated their crazy childhood without ever screwing up. She’d left all the bad stuff to Presley, who’d tried everything once—and the most damaging things a lot more often than that. “She never made the mistakes I did.”
    “Which makes you...what? A bad person?”
    “Some people might see it that way.” His crowd typically did.
    “Well, I appreciate the warning. But Chey says you’ve gotten your life under control.” He searched her face. “Is that true?”
    Wyatt was struggling to get down, but she couldn’t let him because of all the tools and nails and wet plaster. “It is. I haven’t done anything wrong in two years.”
    “And ‘wrong’ includes...”
    “I haven’t had sex. I haven’t taken drugs. I haven’t even had any alcohol, other than an occasional glass of chardonnay.”
    “Then I’d say your recent track record’s better than mine,” he quipped.
    In what way? It had to be sex or alcohol; no one in Cheyenne’s group would risk the damage drugs could cause.
    “But two years isn’t that long,” she argued. “It’s not enough time to be able to trust me.” Lord knew she didn’t trust herself. That was why she had to stay away from Aaron. With one touch, he could make her forget