Love Is Lovelier by Jean Brashear Read Free Book Online

William on their walks.
    A quick slash of white teeth. “Mr. Will and Bo would be honored,” he answered. “Perhaps I’ll call her myself and invite her to visit—” a waggle of dark eyebrows “—with the suggestion that she ask her G-mama to drive her.”
    A dangerous man, William Armstrong. Anne experienced the headiness of being pursued and, despite all the worries that surrounded her, couldn’t help but think that she hadn’t felt so…female…in a very long time.
    “You are ruthless,” she said, but couldn’t suppress her smile or the little lift inside her. “Now stop flirting with me and buy me dinner.”
    “Dinner you may have.” He captured her free hand and brought it to his lips. “The other…not a chance.”
    Anne held her breath in anticipation as his mouth hovered over her skin.
    Warm breath whispered against her flesh, and she shivered.
    He came no closer.
    But his smile said he’d noticed.
    He’d been around for months with increasing frequency, but suddenly, everything seemed to be moving too fast. If she weren’t careful, she could be swept off her feet by this handsome, charismatic man only too easily.
    But she couldn’t falter now, not when her children’s legacy seemed to be more precarious by the day.
     
    O UT ON THE STREET , a man withdrew into the shadows, observing the couple who approached the gleaming black Jaguar. After the woman was seated, her escort shut the door and rounded the hood, a smile playing over his features. He settled into the driver’s seat, and the car started with a predator’s throaty roar.
    The observer flipped open his phone and punched two keys. “He’s with her again,” he said to the party listening. “Want me to follow?”
    “Not tonight,” was the answer. “Stay where you are for now. Let me know when he brings her home.”
    “If he does. They looked pretty cozy to me.” He chuckled at his own joke.
    “Hmmph.” A long drag on a cigarette. “I don’t like this. I don’t have anyone to relieve you tonight.”
    “They’re old. Chances are, they’ll only have dinner, then call it a night. Though she’s pretty great-looking for an old lady.”
    Another pause. “I’m calling the boss. I don’t like this,” he repeated and hung up with a click.
    The observer closed his phone and settled in to watch for girls lifting their shirts, practicing for the Mardi Gras parades just around the corner.
     
    “W HERE DID YOU find this place?” Anne asked as she shucked the spicy shrimp. “The food is amazing.”
    “It’s not exactly your kind of environment.”
    Her eyebrows rose. “Which would be—?”
    “White linens, candlelight. Fresh flowers.”
    She glanced around at the modest shotgun cottage,located on a street in a part of town she’d never visited. Its walls were simply decorated with old Mardi Gras posters, and the metal tables were covered with plastic. “We have a candle.”
    “In a dime-store pot.”
    “Yet you brought me here.”
    “I thought you needed messing up.”
    She was certain her brows neared her hairline now. “Funny, I only thought I needed more napkins.” An errant impulse prompted her next remark before she could censor it. “Of course, I could just lick my fingers.”
    His eyes darkened. His nostrils flared. “Then we wouldn’t have to flip a coin, after all. We’ll be headed straight to my house.”
    “Oh?” She didn’t look away, though she felt a little like she was baiting a wild animal.
    He opened his mouth to respond, but she didn’t give him the opening. “What about that corn on the cob you promised me?” Coward, she said silently.
    With a small sound of impatience, William signaled the lanky teenager who’d served them.
    “Anything I can do for you, Mr. Armstrong?”
    “Tell Miss Celia she’s outdone herself,” William said with a wink. “The lady would like the corn on the cob. And leave us with a pile of napkins, please.”
    “Yes, sir.” The young man wheeled to