Cooking up a Storm by Emma Holly Read Free Book Online

with a surprisingly strong hand. Her fingers wandered over his swollen balls, then up his thick, stiffened shaft. Icy-hot tingles spread out from his groin as her dainty thumb dragged up the nerve-rich under-ridge. Mon Dieu , her touch was incredible, far more arousing than he’d expected. When she reached his glans and pushed the cloth of his trousers into its pulsing curve, he had to gulp for breath.
    ‘You’re almost as big as Bill,’ she murmured.
    Caught by surprise, Storm barked out a laugh.
    Abby immediately released him and covered her adorable mouth. ‘I can’t believe I said that. I am so sorry.’
    He wiped a tear of amusement from his eye. ‘That’s perfectly all right. Size isn’t everything.’ He grinned at her wail of mortification. ‘I take it you have a boyfriend.’
    ‘I used to,’ she admitted and scuffed the toe of one sensible shoe atop the other. ‘Maybe I should take you to your room now. I mean, just take you to your room, not…Oh, dear, I really shouldn’t have done that, should I?’
    He took her trembling shoulders in his hands and squeezed until she met his eyes. ‘I’m glad you touched me. I enjoyed it very much and I hope you will do it again. However,’ he added, as she bit her lower lip, ‘the fact that you did commits neither you nor I to anything. As far as I’m concerned, every stage of a seduction requires permission.’
    Her eyes went so wide he could see the whites all around. ‘Are you planning to seduce me?’
    He swept his thumbs in a half-circle around her shoulders. ‘If you give me half a chance.’
    ‘I’m not sure I’m ready to be seduced.’
    When he smiled, her eyes followed the curl of his lips. ‘Don’t worry,’ he assured her. ‘I prefer to move slowly, to anticipate each small concession: the touch of a hand today, tomorrow a kiss or a smile, the day after that a slow dance under the moon. Hunger is the best sauce, you know.’
    She blinked, her thick golden lashes sweeping down and then up. ‘You’ve done this a lot, haven’t you?’
    The comment threw him off balance, but he was careful not to show it. ‘Once or twice,’ he admitted because lying could only cause trouble down the road.
    ‘Hah.’ She swept loose tendrils of hair off her forehead. ‘I doubt it’s only been once or twice.’
    ‘Experience can be a lovely thing,’ he said mildly.
    She cast a doubtful glance from under her brows. With a pleasant skip to his heart, he realised he was going to have a bit of a chase after all. But his smile must have annoyed her. She crossed her arms and set her feet like a diminutive member of the riot police. ‘I don’t believe there was anything in that pasta but good cooking,’ she declared.
    He spread his hands as if to say: have it your way.
    ‘Do you want the job or not?’ she snapped, as much as a woman with a voice like a kitten could snap.
    ‘Absolutely,’ he said, though he wanted much, much more than a job.
    With a suspicious frown, she led him on a tour of the inn, her crisp demeanour intended, he was sure, to keep him at a distance. She pointed out the staff locker rooms, the herb garden and the entrance to the now-closed north wing. He’d be staying in the south wing, she said, along with the waitress he’d met earlier. The rooms weren’t anything fancy, but he’d have his own bath and he could change the furnishings however he liked.
    ‘And nothing leaks,’ she added, as though that should be the deciding factor.
    He looked around the cosy sitting room. ‘I like it,’ he said, and he did.
    An adjoining door led to a bedroom and, from there, to a pleasantly spacious bath. The furniture was all ‘found’ items, big fat chairs and scratched secondhand tables. Only the upholstery was new, a cheery cream - and - navy check dotted with scarlet diamonds. Another landscape photograph hung in the sitting room, this one of herons flying over a flooded marsh. He could picture himself living here after he bought the