So Hot For You by Melanie Marks Read Free Book Online

sort of adorable. And hunky. And mysterious, in a hunky, adorable kind of way.
    For a moment or five, I stared into his gorgeous green eyes, hypnotized. Then, I sort of got a grip, almost. I mean, enough to notice stuff, like he was still smiling at me, amused like—which was sort of nice, only there was this gleam in his eyes that made me tug at the hem of my dress, suddenly self-conscious. ‘Cause the skirt was short. Wild short. How much had I shown him while I was bending over that display? The way he was staring at me made me pretty sure I didn’t want to know.
    Justin wet his lips, eyeing me like I was a piece of candy and he was really, really hungry.
    “You look different at school,” he said.
    I acted as though I’d never seen him before. Why? I’m not sure exactly. Sometimes I just like messing with people’s minds. “You go to my school?”
    He blinked, and set his jaw, looking surprised, and sort of frustrated, like he couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed him.
    “Yeah,” he finally said, with maybe a little air knocked out of his sails. “We’ve never actually been introduced though. I’m Justin North.”
    Which, of course, I already knew. Totally knew. I knew all about him. I knew he was new to our school and yet he’d dated almost every girl in it. I knew he was a total player, and I should run away from him. But as I mentioned, he was adorable and gorgeous and all that kind of stuff. And he had this trance-thing going. It was hard to move, let alone run away from him. I couldn’t even look away from him.
    “I’m Kali,” I said, gesturing at the nameplate on my chest. His eyes followed the gesture. Weird, embarrassing mistake—on my part. I mean , it was like I’d given him permission to stare there. And he did.
    Okay, to be fair though, I do have to admit: he was right. I do look different at work than at school. For one thing, I dress up for work, try to look sophisticated. That day, I was wearing a killer black dress and I’d fluffed my hair and used hairspray and everything.
    “Yeah, I know you’re Kali,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “I’ve known that for a while now.”
    Prrr !
    Unfortunately, the way he said that, all I’m into you big time like, got me sort of breathless and weak in the knees. (I’m such a sap!) Still, I was careful not to show any excitement over it. After all, he may have noticed me, but he’d never done anything about it. Never talked to me, or called me, or anything. Besides, I already knew he noticed me. Lots of times I felt his eyes on me at school. But, that’s all he ever did—watch me—usually with a girl on his arm. Which sort of made him a dog. Albeit, a gorgeous dog. But still a dog.
    “Can you take a break?” he asked, drawing in close to me, close enough that I could smell his woodsy, pinecones and trees scent. Unusual smells for a guy—but Mmmm . He moved in closer still, making me want to jump on him. “I’ll buy you a coke or something.”
    No. Bad. Kali, resist!
    I started straightening a rack of blouses I’d already straightened. “Can’t,” I said. “Working.”
    But still, he didn’t leave. He stood by, watching my every move. I started to re-think my dress. It got me attention all right, but attention—apparently—was weird. Attention made me sweat.
    “Well then, maybe, we could go out sometime,” he said, sounding frustrated. “Have dinner. Go to a movie.”
    A date? He was seriously asking me on a date?! This dress had magic powers or something.
    I stared up at him. Well, pretended to. Really I looked at his shirt, not into his eyes, because they were too hypnotic and made me think of …things. Romantic things, too, of course. Like kissing and yanking off his shirt. But odd things too. Meadows … trees … forests. Outdoorsy stuff. Weird, I know, but it seemed I could actually hear birds singing. Birds. Singing. What the …?
    Whoa, Kali. Get a grip .
    To help with reality—and ditch the birds—I asked Justin