T is for Temptation by Jianne Carlo Read Free Book Online Page A

direction, giving the three females his back and the privacy to finish dressing.
    “Excuse me, ladies, I’m waiting for someone. Won’t be a minute.”
    “It’ll be a cold day in hell, Jake Mathews.” The terse mutter came from a stall two doors down, and he spied Tee’s strappy white sandals. She had pretty feet and wore red, really red, paint on her toenails.
    The impudent color had him hard again, and for brief seconds he thought it might be a fun way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon, painting those toes. From limp to full arousal in less than ten seconds, hell, she’d bewitched him.
    “Then I might as well get comfortable.”
    He turned to face the now-dressed fascinated women at the other end of the sumptuous room. “Would you three ladies mind if I relocated that chair to this end?”
    In mute, bewildered unison, they shook their heads and followed his movements as he grasped the padded arm of a gold upholstered chair, lifted it over his head, walked to the corner opposite Tee’s stall, and set it down. He slouched into the luxurious fabric and crossed his long legs at the ankles, mulling various strategies.
    “By the way, I have your mother’s crystal things. When did you say she needed them by?”
    A muffled curse spewed out from the stall.
    “I’m positive part of finishing school training eschews swearing of any sort.”
    Delicate laughter erupted from the three ladies who had all edged closer, wearing beaming smiles.
    Another expletive, this one clearer.
    “Come on out, darlin’,” one of the old biddies coaxed. “He can’t have done anything so unforgivable.”
    “Dearie, if I had a handsome young man like this waiting to say sorry and make up, I’d give in—soon.”
    The blue-haired woman flashed Jake a flirty smile, and he sent her a corresponding conspiratorial one. All three women wore cheeky expressions and, as one unit, they edged closer, sandaled feet shuffling over the marble floor.
    “And he does seem so apologetic. What’s your name, sweetie?”
    “Jake Mathews, ma’am, and you are?”
    The toilet door slammed open, and Tee grabbed his arm and swept in front of him.
    “I’m so sorry. I had completely forgotten the Trinidadian Crochet Club meets here on Mondays. We’ll get out of your way.”
    Tee pulled Jake to the far door, and he glanced over his shoulder and blew a kiss to his army of three.
    “I could kill you for that,” Tee grumbled as she headed out of the club, those long sexy legs of hers taking wide strides. In seconds they were at the area where he’d parked the car.
    “I’ll drop you off to the Main House,” he offered. “Have dinner with me tonight. We need to talk, Tee. I didn’t use a condom.”
    Jake winced at the deliberate deception inherent in those words, but in this battle any tactic courting victory came into play. She paled, and then a delicious hue matching the delicate rose petals swirling in the warm tropical breeze suffused her tawny skin.
    Tee always smelled flowery, and until recently he’d not been able to pin down the scent. Pretty pink roses with yellow centers bordered the circular driveway of her parents’ home, and he’d kissed her in front of them on the graveled path on his last visit. Passing a florist’s display two days later, he hardened the minute the scent hit him. Doomed to erection from the smell of roses, his prick thickened.
    Blast, not now. He concentrated on reading her expression. Rioting emotions flashed in her eyes, and she bit her lower lip and frowned at the car’s glossy black door.
    “Hell,” he muttered and tugged her into his arms and took possession of her mouth, sweeping his tongue along the taut seam of her lips in persuasion.
    Her sigh, scented minty and hot, warmed the rapacious cavern of his mouth, and she let him in. An insolent conqueror’s bravado drove him to cup her bottom and rub his erection against her pelvis. A drugging desire so potent, so caveman prehistoric wracked him, and he