From Now On by Louise Brooks Read Free Book Online

few minutes, Mark pulled away.
                  “How’s that feel?”
                  “Good,” Jo said, squinting at him as he crossed in front of her desk.
                  “You know, it might help if you loosened your hair a little,” he said, indicating her braid. “It seems awful tight.”
                  “You think?” Jo asked, reaching up to touch it.
                  “It couldn’t hurt.”              
                  Jo tugged at the rubber band holding the braid together and ran her fingers through the twists, quickly releasing her long, thick hair. It fell down her back in a cascade, framing her face in such a way that it seemed to soften the angles that could at times appear harsh. Unaware of the effect she was having, Jo shook her head, allowing her hair to fall where it wanted.
                  When she looked up, Mark was watching her with something like desire in his eyes. Not that Jo had seen that look often, at least not focused on her, so she might have been wrong. But he seemed a little flustered all of a sudden.
                  “You, uhh,” he stuttered. “Feel better?”
                  “Yeah, thanks.”
                  He nodded. He grabbed at the bag of food and missed, having to reach for it again. “I hope you’re hungry,” he said as he reached inside to remove whatever culinary delights he had brought today. The bag tore and the sandwiches bounced onto the floor. “Sorry,” Mark muttered as he reached down to pick them up, narrowly missing the corner of the desk with his forehead.
                  “Let me help.”
                  Jo came around the desk and squatted beside him, wiping up a small mustard spill with a torn corner of a sandwich wrapper.
                  “Thanks.”
                  Jo looked at Mark and smiled. “It’s the least I could do.”
                  Mark did not return her smile. Instead, he studied her face for a long moment before he reached for her, stroking his thumb against the fullness of her bottom lip. Jo caught her breath, her eyes drawn to his so that she felt trapped, unable or unwilling, to look away. Quivers ran up and down her spine, every nerve in her body suddenly awake. Mark stroked her lip again, then her chin. He was going to kiss her. She could see the intention in his eyes, could almost feel the softness of his lips.
                  But then he pulled away.
                  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, quickly rising and moving across the room. “I should go.”
                  “Mark—”
                  “I’ll see you,” he said as he slipped through the door.
                 
     

Chapter 11
     
                  Jo studied her face in the mirror, wondering if she was an idiot.
    The eyeliner was way too much. She never should have let the lady at the makeup counter talk her into it. She’d been content with the blush, to add a little color to her cheeks, and the mascara. But somehow she walked out of the department store with two hundred dollars’ worth of makeup that she wasn’t even sure what to do with. Really, what did one do with a lip pencil?
                  She ran her fingers through her hair again, dislodging the carefully arranged curls at her temple the hairstylist had insisted on creating. Too much, she thought again. The whole thing was too much.
                  Jo had seen the look in Mark’s eye Friday when she took her hair out of its braid. He had been attracted to her, had even wanted to kiss her. It had been a long time since Jo had been with a man, but not so long that she didn’t remember that look.  So, she had thought, if she wore her hair down more often, if she made an attempt to look prettier, he might not