The Kissing Season by Rachael Johns Read Free Book Online Page A

she’d put up between them. “Thanks for a lovely evening, Matt. I’ll see you around.”
    He took a step toward her and grinned, determined to override her sudden formalness. “I’m counting on it. How about we make plans for a second date right now?”
    She raised one beautiful brow and he could tell she was covering a smirk. “This was
not
a first date.” From the tone of her voice, he didn’t know whom she was trying to convince more. Him or her.
    “It felt like one. I bought you dinner, you asked me twenty questions—” He took another step.
    She opened her mouth to object but he cut her off.
    “Just so you know, I never sleep with a woman on the first date.”
    “Those questions? I was merely being polite.” She raised her chin a little and looked him dead in the eyes. “And just so
you
know, I never sleep with charmers, so it looks like we’re both safe.”
    In reply, he leaned forward and kissed her.
    She moaned a little, the bags dropped to the ground, and he felt her body go soft against his. Placing his hands against her butt, he dragged her closer against him than was perhaps appropriate in public and deepened the pressure of his mouth against hers. One slide of his tongue and she opened up, every bit the participant. The kiss in the Elliot’s showroom had been good, but this one reminded him why he hadn’t given up when she told him she wasn’t interested. She tasted of chocolate and cookies and sweet-to-heaven goodness and he never wanted to pull back, but he could tell he was on borrowed time. It was only a matter of seconds before she realized what she was doing, remembered her declaration that she wasn’t interested and tore away from him, pretending to be offended or annoyed.
    Summoning all the willpower in his body and ignoring the pounding pain at his groin, he broke contact first. “As I said, Hannah Elliot, I’ll be seeing you soon.”
    With that promise, he turned and walked off to find his family without a backward glance.

CHAPTER FOUR
    O H L ORD , H ANNAH couldn’t believe she’d fallen into the trap of a date, because no matter what she’d said to Matt, tonight had been as date-like as if he’d whisked her off in a limousine to a candlelit dinner at a five-star restaurant. And she’d enjoyed it far more than she’d have enjoyed such a scenario. And oh, that kiss... If they weren’t in public, she would have yanked him closer to her and started ripping off his clothes.
    Jeez.
What kind of game was she playing?
    Shaking her head as he strode off into the night, she bent to pick up her bags and the hat that fell off as she did so, and then tried to still the wild and inappropriate beating of her heart. She shoved the stupid hat under her arm and vowed to toss it in the first garbage bin she saw.
    “Well, well, well, quite a show you put on there, sis.” At the approach of Luke and Nikki, her chance of escape evaporated.
    Hannah closed her eyes and fought the urge to drop her head into her hands and wail. Of course it was too much to ask that none of her family had borne witness to her fall from grace. Not that she’d actually had very far to fall, but still.
    “Evening, Luke. Hi, Nikki.” She forced a perfectly saccharine smile for her brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law. “Enjoy the night?”
    “Not as much as you, it seems.” Luke gave her a look as if he’d caught her rampaging through the houses of old ladies.
    “Leave her alone,” Nikki said, giving him a stern look. “Hannah’s an adult. She can have some fun if she wants to.”
    “Thank you, Nikki.” Hannah felt pleased she’d taken the time to choose Nikki a funky handbag for Christmas and not gone with a box of boring soaps.
    “Hey, I think it’s great,” Luke said.
    “You do?” asked Hannah and Nikki together. As the oldest sibling, Luke usually sided with their father. They both believed her too easily led astray by inappropriate men.
    “Yes. Matt is a good, smart, savvy businessman. He’d