An Outrageous Proposal Read Online Free

you’re up to something,” she said thoughtfully.
“What is it, Sean?”
    “Not a thing,” he said, all innocence.
    “Well, that’s good.” She nodded and reached down absently to
rub at the arch of her foot. “I mean, we both know anything else would just
be…complicated.”
    “Aye, it would at that,” he agreed, and admitted silently that
complicated might be worth it. “Your feet hurt?”
    “What?” She glanced down to where her hand rubbed the arch of
her right foot and smiled ruefully. “Yeah, they do.”
    “A long day of standing, wasn’t it?”
    “It was.”
    She sipped at her champagne and a log shifted in the fire. As
the flames hissed and spat, she closed her eyes—a little dreamily, he thought,
and he felt that fist inside him tighten even further. The woman was unknowingly
seducing him.
    Logic and a stern warning sounded out in his mind, and he
firmly shut them down. There was a time for a cool head, and there was a time
for finding out just where the road you found yourself on would end up. So far,
he liked this particular road very much.
    He set his glass on the table in front of them, then sat back
and dragged her feet onto his lap. Georgia looked at him and he gave her a quick
grin. “I’m offering a one-night-only special. A foot rub.”
    “Sean…”
    He knew what she was thinking because his own mind was running
along the same paths. Back up—or, stay the course and see what happened. As she
tried to draw her feet away, he held them still in his lap and pushed his thumbs
into her arch.
    She groaned and let her head fall back and he knew he had
her.
    “Oh, that feels too good,” she whispered, as he continued to
rub and stroke her skin.
    “Just enjoy it for a bit then,” he murmured.
    That had her lifting her head to look at him with the wariness
back, glinting in those twilight depths. “What’re you up to?”
    “Your ankles,” he said, sliding his hands higher to match his
words. “Give me a minute, though, and ask again.”
    She laughed as he’d meant her to, and the wariness edged off a
bit.
    “So,” she asked a moment later, “why do I rate a foot rub
tonight?”
    “I’m feeling generous, just becoming an uncle and all.” He
paused, and let that settle. Of course, he and Ronan weren’t actually brothers,
but they might as well have been. “Not really an uncle, but that’s how it
feels.”
    “You’re an uncle,” she told him. “You and Ronan are every bit
as tight as Laura and I are.”
    “True,” he murmured, and rubbed his thumb into the arches of
her small, narrow feet. Her toes were painted a dark pink, and he smiled at the
silver toe ring she wore on her left foot.
    She sighed heavily and whispered, “Oh, my…you’ve got great
hands.”
    “So I’ve been told,” he said on a laugh. He slid his great
hands a bit higher, stroking her ankles and then up along the line of her
calves. Her skin was soft, smooth and warm, now that the fire had chased away
the chill of the afternoon.
    “Maybe it’s the champagne talking,” she said softly, “but what
you’re doing feels way too good.”
    “’Tisn’t the champagne,” he told her, meeting her eyes when she
looked at him. “We’ve not had enough yet to blur the lines between us.”
    “Then it’s the fire,” she whispered, “and the rain outside
sealing us into this pretty room together.”
    “Could be,” he allowed, sliding his hands even higher now,
stroking the backs of her knees and watching her eyes close as she sighed. “And
it could just be that you’re a lovely thing, here in the firelight, and I’m
overcome.”
    She snorted and he grinned in response.
    “Oh, yes, overcome,” she said, staring into his eyes again, as
if trying to see the plans he had, the plans he might come up with. “Sean
Connolly, you’re a man who always knows what he’s doing. So answer me this. Are
you trying to seduce me?”
    “Ah, the shoe is on the other foot entirely, Georgia,” he
murmured, his