How To Host a Seduction Read Online Free Page B

fair to him. Or me, for that matter. I can’t handle living my life worrying about what sort of stunt he’s going to pull nextand what the fallout will be. Marriage! We’d only dated three months.”
    â€œI accepted Josh’s marriage proposal after three days. ”
    â€œYour decisions aren’t subject to public scrutiny. If I accept a marriage proposal after three days or even three months, my mother’s parenting skills come under fire. Her party spins my acceptance to mean she raised a confident daughter. The opposing party spins it to mean she has no control over her wild child. I prefer not to start the debate. I don’t enjoy the spotlight in my face, and the media loves writing about guys who flaunt the rules.”
    â€œChristopher is one of the neighborhood kids, Ellen. I’ve known him since I was ten years old.”
    She might have laughed at Lennon’s casual description of “neighborhood kids,” which brought to mind a motley gang riding bikes or playing ice hockey on frozen ponds in the winter. But like Ellen’s own, Lennon’s upbringing hadn’t exactly been traditional. She’d been raised in the exclusive Garden District of New Orleans, where kids lived in mansions and toured the continent during summer breaks.
    â€œWhat’s your point?”
    â€œMy point is that I’ve known him a long time. Christopher may enjoy adventurous hobbies, but he’s no adrenaline junkie. He just likes to have fun—which is something you could use a little help with, I don’t mind saying.”
    She should have known Lennon would drag her back here despite evasive maneuvers. “You call driving a car in circles at a hundred miles an hour fun? ”
    â€œHe plays hard, but that’s only because he works so hard. He’s incredibly driven. Just like someone else I know.”
    Her pointed stare left no doubt that she considered Ellen guilty of the same crime.
    â€œWell, I don’t spend my weekends jumping out of airplanes, or scuba diving for sunken treasure.”
    â€œI don’t always go into the Gulf with Josh on his week-long fishing excursions—and we make out just fine. A couple can enjoy individual interests. What’s wrong with that?”
    â€œI don’t equate the risk factor of deep-sea fishing with rappelling down a mountainside in the Rockies.”
    â€œIt could be dangerous if Josh was caught in a hurricane.”
    â€œJosh won’t be caught in a hurricane unless he’s an idiot. They have meteorological satellites that track storms.”
    Lennon was still battling that smile when Ellen slugged back the last of her latte and set the mug on the table.
    â€œHe thrives on breaking the rules,” she said. “I was just his challenge du jour. ”
    â€œYou don’t believe Christopher cares about you?” That wiped away the last of Lennon’s humor. “Ellen, the guy’s crazy about you. I know because he told me.”
    He told me, too.
    With a sigh, she decided to make the argument she’d intended to reserve for herself. “If he was so crazy about me, then why couldn’t he compromise and do things the right way? Why did he just let me go? He made a few token phone calls and that was it. I haven’t heard from him in three months.”
    â€œYou wanted him to chase you?”
    Ellen winced at how petty that reasoning sounded. And yes, she would even consider that her need to know he was the one might be petty in some regards. But she’d spent most of her life trying to prove herself—to her family, to the press, to her supervisors, to herself. Was it really so much to ask to be reassured that the man she marriedwould always, always believe in her, no matter how rough-and-tumble life got? No matter how much baggage she came with?
    â€œIf he’d been the one, he would have been willing to compromise, Lennon, willing to find some way of