Hot Summer Lust Read Online Free

barely-there half-smile that touches his eyes. A million butterflies erupt in flight inside my stomach. The brief flash of his teeth looks white against the dark-bronze tan of his face. His male beauty stuns me, and makes me momentarily forget everything else but those lips. His hotness is romantic and extreme in the moonlight.Intense and addictive. Strangely, my mouth waters.
    “You always follow the rules,” he drawls as a statement, not a question, like he’s amused by this.
    “Sometimes,” I say . It’s true, I usually do. You can get detention for a week if you don’t follow every instruction the nuns give. I do n’t even want to think of how many Hail Marys I’d have to recite if they knew what I’d done today. Or what I’m thinking about now.
    Then I remember: I’m done with all that. I’m a free woman now.
    And this – this man – makes me want to break all the rules. That cool, cocky jaunt to his manner and the way his dark hair curls in thick locks the way only a man’s hair could – it makes me want to do … something reckless. It makes me want to do what he tells me to do.
    “I just want to talk to you. About somethin’ important.”
    Through that slight tone of sophistication, there it is: a hometown drawl. Something about the way he drops his g like hot molasses makes me think about his mouth, the way his tongue might feel, the way his lips might taste. It makes that throb between my legs do a little kick-start. I feel myself clenching in places I didn’t even know I had muscles.
    “What’s your name?” he says.
    I hesitate . I’m not sure why. Giving him this will create a small intimacy between us, the beginnings of a familiarity that’s almost unbearably enticing. It scares me a little how much I want to give him, already. “Sadie.”
    “Sadie,” he repeats, as though he likes the sound of it. “I’m Eli as. Elias Hayes. ”
    “Elias ,” I whisper before I can stop myself. Another slow flicker of a smile, anothe r strum. He’s watching me like he’s waiting for a reaction of some kind. I’m not sure what he’s expecting, but my curiosity is piqued.“What did you want to talk to me about?”
    “Come out here and I’ll tell yo u. No one’ll mind if you come on out and talk to your new neighbor for a minute or two, will they?”
    “New neighbor?”
    “I just bought the property next door.”
    “Oh.” This surprises me, even though it shouldn’t. After al l, he was there .
    Watching me.
    I try to put the memory of my own crazy, naked behavior out of my mind by distracting myself with this new information. He seems young to be buying his own farm. Especially one that’s over a thousand acres. Ours is only four hundred. Which is why we have trouble making a living it out of it.
    Anyway, I guess it’s true. No harm in talking.
    I know, though – I know – that talking won’t be enough. Not with him. I can already tell that he’s too alluring to resist. His draw is like that coolness of the water on a hot summer day. I can tell just by looking at him – the bronzed skin of his arms that are hair-roughened and warm-looking, his black hair with its dark strands flicking down the back of his sweat-damp neck – that he’ll smell good. Like hay a nd heat and lust. Already, I know it.
    I’m good at resisting temptation, though. I can handle talking.
    At least I can try .
    The front door’s locked, and my mother keeps the key on her key chain, which is probably in the pocket of her dress, in her room. Carefully, as quiet as I can, I raise the screen. I gl ance over and see that Frannie’s still fast asleep. So I crawl through the window and walk barefoot across the porch, down our front steps to where he’s sitting under the oak tree. It’s only then that I realize my sleeveless white cotton nightie is short, and maybe a little sheer, in the bright moonlight. I probably should’ve put something else on.
    He’s watching me.
    I can see the color of his eyes clearly