Impulse by Lass Small Read Free Book Online Page A

places?”
    “Pretty much.”
    “Who do you work for?”
    “Several...organizations.”
    “Amy Abbott...” Did he deliberately pause? “Are you the Pilgrim the name implies?”
    “Ah, yes. An innocent.” That was the truth! “Actually, the Pilgrims would have been strong women who had to have spines of steel to have gone onto the Mayflower and survived here. We’ve been around that long in this country.”
    “Women in general, yes, but you mean your own family?”
    “Oh, yes.”
    “Mine, too. Besides Billy Cougar, or whatever his name really was, we’ve been here all along.” He watched her.
    “If this is Show and Tell, tell me about Charles Cougar. What do you do?”
    “The family is involved in many things. I happen to be in manufacturing. It’s a thankless job. Not the romantic sort to entrance a lady. It deals in facts and figures, unions and contracts, deadlines and overruns on occasion.”
    “What would you prefer to do?”
    “Manufacturing,” he replied simply. “I find it a challenge. I have a great sense of supplying things people need. I love it. I only meant it’s rarely something for social conversation.”
    “You have no desire to be a pirate?” That had been what she’d expected him to say, and she could have believed his doing that much more quickly than for him to be contentedly bogged down in the nitty-gritty of manufacturing, for God’s sake!
    “A pirate! ” He raised his unruly eyebrows. “I’m a law-abiding man with no tolerance for cheats. Ah, here’s the pizza. Sit still.”
    He moved too smoothly for a law-abiding man. He moved like a dangerous man. He was like one who knew how to get from here to there, see everything in between and not be seen himself.
    He said he was law abiding and had no tolerance for cheats. Cheats like Amy Abbott Allen who had insinuated herself into the Cougar clan? If he found her out, before she vanished into oblivion, how angry would he be? What would he say?
    He returned to hand her one of the kitchen towels instead of a paper one that would blow away. They sat companionably, sharing the pizza and wine.
    He was relaxed and his conversation was amusing. He looked around, but he only rarely looked at her.
    When he did look at her, Amy felt it to her core. Her body reacted to him so strongly that she began to doubt if she wasn’t quite stupid to become involved even so casually with Charles Cougar.
    He tidied up the debris, and Amy began to think how awkward it would be to say she would be going to bed. It was the first time in her entire twenty-four years she’d been in this particular situation, alone with a strange man.
    He was extremely, potently male. What if she said, “Come on to bed,” just like that? She looked at him in speculation.
    He glanced up at her as if her look commanded his response. Then he handed her the cable guide. “I think there’s a film at ten that I’ve been wanting to see. Take It Easy with Me! ”
    She was jolted by his words. He knew what she intended for him? He knew she planned to seduce him and he wanted her to be kind? “What?” she asked in some embarrassment.
    “Have you seen it? I understand it’s above the average. Shall we give it a try?”
    He wanted her to watch TV? That was a shock! He must feel quite safe with her. She found his feeling safe was a little annoying. She felt a bit petulant but opened up the guide and there it was listed: Take It Easy with Me! It came on in ten minutes.
    He put some brandy on the end table before he busily opened out the sofa bed! Then she realized he was telling her in a very ordinary way, “Why don’t you get the other pillows from the bedroom? We’ll watch in perfect comfort.” He stopped and gave her a look. “You do want to watch it, don’t you?”
    “Sure.” She thoughtfully went in to the bedroom and returned with four additional pillows. What a scene for a seduction! Pillows, TV, bed opened out. Yeah.
    Could his seduction be tonight? Her nerves