Want Me by Jo Leigh Read Free Book Online Page B

things out. Time to see where the lines were drawn.
    The last thing on earth he wanted was to be ashamed about anything to do with Shannon. So tonight, he’d walk her home and he’d sleep it off.
    Tomorrow he might curse himself for letting this chance go by, but better safe than sorry when there was so much at stake.
    Dammit, he was going to wake up to his second hangover in two days. The sooner he got back to his real life the better off he’d be. He looked again at Shannon as they reached the steps of the brownstone. Then again, as long as he had to be here, he might as well enjoy the visit.
    * * *
    S HANNON HADN ’ T SEEN N ATE at breakfast, and she was almost late because she’d dawdled, hoping. Then she’d castigated herself the whole way to the plant. Last night hadn’t been a date. She wasn’t sure precisely what it had been, but not a date.
    Despite the extra beer, she’d stayed up far too late. Her brain wouldn’t stop. Thoughts of his voice, his scent, how he looked in a suit were only the beginning. She imagined vividly his friendly touch on the small of her back sliding past her waist until his palm slowly brushed over the curve of her behind.
    A smile, then as his gaze hit her lips, the heat of his breath, the brush of a tentative kiss.
    An innocent look turned smoldering, unmistakable want.
    By the time she’d entered her office, she knew her first order of business wasn’t going to be a call to the deputy commissioner in charge of Union Square Park. That and everything else on her list would wait while she turned her total attention to creating Nate’s trading card. Maybe then she could stop obsessing.
    He was going to be staying at the house for several weeks at least, and wouldn’t it be nice and smart to hook him up with one of her friends from the lunch exchange? He’d be otherwise occupied while she pulled a new card or two for herself. The next lunch exchange meeting was coming up soon, and she had six new trading cards to prepare including Nate’s.
    She decided to do the copy first. After locking her office door, she opened a blank trading card template and started by typing.
    His profession was easy: architect and urban planner. No need to talk about his humanitarian efforts on the card. That information would be much more dramatic coming out when she talked him up.
    Marry, Date or One-Night Stand, another simple answer: Date. Only, wait. She deleted that and entered One-Night Stand. Then she deleted that. He certainly wasn’t Marry. Come on, she’d know if he wanted to get married. He wouldn’t be rushing back to Bali as quickly as he could if that were the case. Or would he?
    He hadn’t said anything about a woman. Did that mean there wasn’t one? Or was she someone exotic and adventurous, a woman who would steer clear of anything to do with New York. Who lived on the edge. Maybe a doctor from the World Health Organization, someone who put herself at risk to save lives in regions fraught with danger.
    That made sense. Nate had changed so much, and wasn’t there always a woman behind that kind of transformation? She should have known there was more to it. He’d probably gone to Indonesia full of the best intentions. But then he’d met her, probably saving a small village cut off from civilization, and he’d helped her, both of them hot and sweaty, sleeping in bits and snatches as they slowly patched together the survivors. They were bound to be hyperaware of each other, especially when he heard her accent. French, had to be French. She’d be beautiful, naturally.
    Shannon sighed as she realized she’d typed a long line of B s all the way across her document.
    Okay, she would go with One Night Stand and move on.
    His Favorite Restaurant was easy. It was undoubtedly something in Paris or Hong Kong or Monaco but screw that, she was going with Molly’s Pub. He was certainly comfortable there. He’d laughed a lot. He’d made her laugh. His stories were preposterous and