Too Hot to Handle: A Boys of Summer Novel by Katie Rose Read Free Book Online Page B

carrying his basket.
    —
    Nikki leaned against the wall, finally able to breathe. What the hell had just happened? Nothing, she reminded herself. Other than the fact that the man she was secretly drooling over had just stopped by and invited her to a romantic dinner on the beach.
    Her gaze switched to the roses. This guy had all the moves. He hadn’t touched her, but it hardly mattered. The same delicious desire she’d felt in the shower had come back tenfold after having him in her room when she was practically naked. The terry-cloth robe seemed entirely too tight and chafed against her sensitive skin. Worse, the blood still moved thickly through her veins, and every cell of her body seemed alive and quivering with sensation.
    Sex.
    It pooled in her breasts, burned in her belly and between her legs, where she still throbbed…
    Nikki groaned. What the hell was she going to do? She couldn’t go out with him. Jake was cocky enough as it was without her adding any fuel to that fire. Yet she couldn’t deny the sexual chemistry that sparked between them. Never had she experienced anything like it: the simplest touch or even a glance turned her on.
    She wanted him. It was as simple and complicated as that.
    Agitated, Nikki began pacing the room. She couldn’t let this happen. Whatever it took, she was going to get this attraction under control. She wasn’t some lovesick teenager having her first crush. She was a woman, a powerful, successful woman, and wasn’t about to jeopardize everything for a night of sex.
    Even hot, blind, unthinking, bang-the-hell-out-of-me-into-oblivion sex.
    That thought made her hesitate. Maybe it was the moon, or hormones, or pure insanity. Maybe he really was too hot to handle. Or maybe the loneliness was beginning to get to her. Totally confused, she did what she always did when she felt that way.
    She called her sister.
    —
    “This had better be important,” Natalie said, snatching up her cell phone as she climbed out of the tub. “Marcus is out of town, the kids are at a sleepover, and I was enjoying a soak.”
    Nikki could just picture her sister in her fabulous gray-and-white marble bathroom, splashing water all over the floor. She was married to a famous real-estate developer in Miami and enjoying the fruits of his labor.
    She and her sister had been polar opposites ever since she could remember. Natalie was blond, flirtatious, and beautiful. High school had been a blast for her, and she never sat home alone on a Saturday night. Predictably, she got married right after graduation to a diamond in the rough who had gone on to make a fortune. Nikki was the focused one, the one who got straight A’s, the one who excelled in soccer. Yet she’d always felt like a geek around guys, stammering over her words, uncertain how this game was played.
    Natalie had tried to warn her about Jack, but Nikki couldn’t hear her at the time. She hadn’t been able to see past his good looks to the lack of character underneath. He was a jock, handsome, and all the girls wanted to be with him. The slick façade hid a self-centered, narcissistic man.
    And she was desperately afraid of making the same mistake again.
    “So what’s up?”
    “I think I’m losing my mind,” Nikki admitted ruefully.
    “I seriously doubt that.” Natalie couldn’t hide the amusement in her voice. “Wait until I get a towel.”
    She heard her sister rustling around in her fabulous bathroom. “Okay, spill. Is it a guy?”
    Damned if her sister didn’t nail it.
    “It’s a client, but he’s a baseball player.” Nikki winced as she confessed this. “It’s bad.”
    “Oh my God. So tell me, what did the bastard do?”
    “It’s not like that.” Nikki sighed. “Jake Baldwin is a flirt, a playboy. He’s dated everyone including his chiropractor. He embodies everything I’m against except—”
    “You have the hots for him.” Natalie giggled. “Oh, Nikki, I’m so glad.”
    “What?” she asked, incredulous. “This