More Than Lust (Courthouse Connections Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

Colombia that will take me away for a month or so if all goes well.” He paused, took a good look at this woman who’d attracted him so strongly even before they’d met, and shot her a self-deprecating grin. “If I’d met you before asking for this assignment, I’d have reconsidered.”
    “Really?”
    He liked that she didn’t accuse him of lying to soften her up for the kill. “Yes, really. I should have called Sam Kramer when I first got home and had him get Marcy to introduce me to the hottest redheaded attorney in Harper Wells’ army of young female prosecutors. I’ve always had a thing for redheads, particularly if they’ve got a brain as well as a body that turns me every way but loose.”
    “I doubt Marcy would have sicced you on me if you had.” She gave a nervous little laugh. “We may both be in the business of law enforcement, and I definitely am a redhead, but she knows that we come from worlds way too far apart to ever think about trying to arrange a merger.”
    “Even for a wild weekend fling now, and more of the same when I get back?” Gray couldn’t help imagining having Andi in his arms…his bed. He could see himself enjoying debating law and politics with her in the privacy of this boat or his condo, and showing her places and things she’d enjoy for the first time with him. He’d never done that with a lover before, because the debutantes he usually dated had experienced pretty much the same amusements as he had.
    Maybe someday I’ll persuade Andi that a man and a woman can have a more lasting and meaningful relationship when they merge divergent qualities into one more interesting whole. I’ve always had a feeling that the best partnerships might be forged that way. Meanwhile, though…
    He slowed Miss Barbara , pulled out of the boat traffic path, and angled her so they’d have a good view of the Skyway from the port side. Turning to face Andi, he asked, “How about it, pretty lady? Are you up for seeing where this chemistry takes us?”
    For a minute her expression turned serious, but then she grinned at him. “Well, maybe a fling since I have to admit that you attracted my attention from the minute I saw you. But certainly not more than that.”
    “Why not? Are you afraid I’ll gobble you up the way the big bad wolf threatened to do with Little Red Riding Hood?” He shot her a grin to take the bite off his question.
    “Not really. Marcy was the one who scared me off the idea of any more than a wild weekend with you, by implying quite seriously that your mother scares her. If your mom intimidates Marcy Kramer—one of the least timid and most put-together women I know—I know damn well that she’d scare me half to death if you ever brought me home to meet her.”
    “According to ‘Mommy Dearest,’ there’s high-society and then there’s WASP high-society. Only WASP upper-crust society meets Elizabeth Winston Syzmanski’s exacting standards,” Gray said, his tone as disparaging as he could make it. “Mother apparently took pleasure in warning Marcy back when I had a crush on her before either of us was old enough to date that she’d never let me go out with a Jewish girl, no matter how beautiful and talented she might be, and no matter that her parents had been accepted to membership at the country club where we both attended Cotillion.”
    “Cotillion?”
    “The ballroom dance classes, slash etiquette sessions, that club members’ kids are forced to attend for three summers so we won’t embarrass our parents when they finally let us out into polite society away from their watchful eyes. I hated every minute of it, except for getting to put my arms around the prettiest girls. Marcy was the hottest of the hot back when she was in sixth grade and I was in eighth.”
    “My God. That must have made Marcy feel terrible. I hope your mother didn’t say that to her in front of other people—or you.”
    Gray laughed. “Mother isn’t quite that crass. I didn’t find