Bid Me Now Read Online Free Page B

about him. How old is he?”  
      Miri sighed and set her chopsticks down. “Perhaps thirty or thereabouts. Why do you want to know, anyway?”  
    “Because you’re hiding something. How tall?”
    Miri’s mind flooded with the memory of his chest at eye level. “Tall? Actually, he’s very tall. Maybe six two or three. Very dark hair in one of those buzz cuts. Dark gray eyes. And he’s got the most gorgeous…” Miri stopped dead as Bree’s blue eyes rounded. “That’s all I can remember,” she mumbled, feeling her cheeks turn pink.  
    “Gorgeous what…?”
    She was so screwed. “Nothing. You want more wine?”
    “Marisa Jamieson, you wolfette. You were about to say ass , weren’t you? He’s got the most gorgeous ass!” Bree waved a chopstick in the air and hooted gleefully. “Oh, my, you know what this means? You’ve had a hottie attack! About effing time.”  
    True enough, the man had a perfect backside, but no way was she about to admit that little detail to her sex-mad roommate. “It means no such thing. Okay, he’s good-looking in a sexy-rough kind of way, but that’s all he’s got going. He’s a total pig. Actually, he caught me staring at it.”  
    “What, not his…?”
    “ No! His butt.”  
    Bree looked disappointed. “Oh, is that all? Hell, girl, that’s what they’re made for. What else?”  
    Miri sighed and leaned back in her chair, wondering if the adage “a problem shared is a problem halved” applied to a humiliation. “It was just so embarrassing. Then…”  
    Her roommate’s face shone with expectation. “Then what?”
    Miri giggled despite the horrible memory. “My skirt fell open when I sat down, and he stared at my leg. Like, really stared. But that wasn’t the worst part. You know I broke a heel?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    Miri lowered her voice, feeling as if she were confiding some terrible but delicious secret. “As it broke, I tripped and fell into his arms. No, not quite true. He caught me.”
    Bree mock-gasped and fanned her face with a hand. “You, in a man’s arms! Holy shit! Did he do you on his desk?”
    “Of course not !” Miri got up and grabbed the bottle of wine, feeling the need for alcohol. She was hot herself and frankly, she didn’t need the memory of those arms set in motion again.  
    It came as a relief when the phone rang. Balancing the handset between cheek and shoulder, Miri poured her wine and mumbled a “hello” at the mouthpiece.  
    “Is this Miri Jamieson?”  
    Miri snapped to attention so fast the phone fell in the sink and Bree snorted a loud laugh. With a fierce shush at Bree, she picked up the handset and said calmly, “Yes, it is.”  
    “Nick Brannagh speaking.”
    As if she needed the jerk to remind her.   She would know that deep, sexy voice anywhere. “Oh, it’s you .”
    Apparently he didn’t notice her icy tone. “I’m calling to invite you to lunch tomorrow.”  
    Miri hovered a finger over the end-call button, thinking how good it would be to cut him off. Better still, wait until he was mid-sentence and then cut him off. “I have a full calendar…” she paused to throw an empty noodle carton at the giggling Bree, “tomorrow afternoon. So it’s not…”  
    “What about we meet for coffee instead, say, eleven-thirty?” he cut in smoothly. “You choose the place.”  
    Miri was furious, mostly with herself. She really, really didn’t want to see him again, but his rich resonant voice was heating every nook and cranny in her body, and her mind had lost most of its ability to focus. “Well, I guess the Round Bean Café in the town center would be okay.” She tried to organize her brain into a logical train of thought. “Exactly what is this about?” she blurted in a rush, realizing too late this should have been her first question.  
    “Right, I’ll meet you there.”  
    He hung up before she could ask him again.
    “Full calendar, my ass! Have you got a date with Mr. Sex-on-a-stick?”