True North Book 3 - Finding Now Kate and Sam by Allie Juliette Mousseau Read Free Book Online Page B

messy yesterday and my shirt and sweater got the worst of it.”
    OH MY GOD, I THREW UP ON HIM ! I was mortified. “I’m so, so terribly embarrassed. Please, let me replace the items, it’s the least I can do.”
    “It’s okay,” he said calmly. “I found a bucket under your kitchen sink. They’re soaking.”
    “I’ll take care of it. I’ll have your leather cleaned professionally too.” I got to the kitchen quickly and brought the bucket to the bathroom where I had a washer/dryer combo and threw them in.
    “Jacket was spared.” He smiled like it was no big deal, while I wanted to sink into the floor. “So, what do you like to eat?”
    I was struggling now. I thought of saying something sarcastic to show I wasn’t going anywhere with him. But I wasn’t an ungrateful bitch and couldn’t bring myself to do it, not after everything he’d just done for me.
    “Lunch, then we’re even,” I insisted.
    “I’m not keeping score, Jolie. If you don’t want to go to lunch with me, you don’t owe me a thing.”
    Why couldn’t he be an asshole? It would be so much simpler if he were an asshole.
    “I like Kells.” At least I could pick a familiar place.
    “Kells. That’s the Irish pub?” He smiled.
    “Yeah.” What was I doing bringing him to my apartment and now bringing him to my only haunt? I was all kinds of confused and I must have looked it too, standing in the middle of my tiny studio between the bathroom and him, not sure what to do with myself.
    “Do you mind if I grab a shower first?”
    “No! Of course not. Please do.” I diverted my eyes from his already half naked body so I didn’t imagine his wholly naked body in my shower. “Fresh towels are in the cabinet.”
    “Thanks.”
    I looked back up and he was wearing the sexiest smile I had ever seen. He didn’t walk, he sauntered into the bathroom.
    I sat down on my bed, staring at the loveseat where he’d slept. The most insane desire spread through me to get up and lay down where he’d been. To feel his leftover presence. I imagined the warmth of him on the couch. My breath quickened. When you’ve closed yourself off from human touch for so long, the smallest amount can seem like so much. I closed my eyes and breathed through the craving.
    Soon enough, I started my new battle. What the hell was I going to wear? It was a Saturday and I couldn’t go in my professor’s clothes, which would look more than stupid. But it would keep a wall between us and establish precedence.
    I spoke to myself quietly. “Okay, I can do a pair of black business pants and a white blouse.” Not fully casual, but not entirely stuffy. I waited a moment. My heart didn’t palpitate so I guessed it was a safe choice.
    I got dressed in the kitchen while he was showering and listened to him while he sang. He had a beautiful, melodic voice with a rough edge. He would obviously be a phenomenal singer behind a microphone.
    A few minutes later he came out in his jeans with his torso still glistening with mist and his hair wet. I noticed a small black and silver yin and yang symbol pierced into his right ear. What the hell is he doing here with me?
    I wasn’t stupid, I knew what I used to look like—that girl would have loved the attention, but I wasn’t her. I was Catherine, his professor. This guy could have any girl he set his eyes on.
    Oh … I got it. Maybe he thought a roll in the sack would give him an easy A? But then I remembered he’d started the flirting before he knew I was the professor.
    The buzzer on the washing machine went off. I threw his t-shirt in the dryer and laid his sweater flat on the rack.
    He sat back on my love seat, sipped his coffee and asked, “So where are you from?”
    Wrong question … “I was going to ask you the same thing,” I diverted.
    “Oh yeah? I told you a little bit yesterday. I’m from Williston, North Dakota. My family owns a lot of property that way.”
    “That’s right, you told me the story about your friend