My Only Exception Read Online Free

earlier. Sometimes I thought about how nice it would be to read minds. It would alleviate a whole lot of angst for me. I figured the best thing to do would be to act like nothing had happened —like the whole song incident had never occurred.
    When I got to him, I sat on the arm of his chair. “You rang?”
    Sarcasm was always my fallback when I wanted to hide the way I was really feeling. And right now I really wanted to jump in his lap and let my lips have their way with him. Really.
    Sensible, guarded Presley wanted to maintain the easy friendship with the underlying flirty-ness that was always in residence with Braden. It was so much safer.
    Then maybe when he left, I’d be able to hold the pieces of myself together. If not, Wyatt would have his work cut out for him…again.
    *  *  *
    Braden’s eyes trailed their way down my body and then back up. He grinned when he saw the way I was raising my eyebrows at his blatant perusal.
    “You look beautiful tonight, Presley.” Before I had a chance to respond, he went on. “I liked having you front and center watching me. The only problem with having you that close... was that I couldn’t take my eyes off of you.”
    I swallowed, slightly stunned he was laying it all out like that. He’d never been quite so verbal in his pursuit of me. It had always been playful banter for the most part.
    Right now, he looked anything but playful. He looked like he was two seconds away from pulling me to him and doing God knows what in front of a room full of people.
    I sucked in a breath.
    And the next thing I knew I was pulled onto his lap, my face inches from his. My dream and my nightmare coming true all at once.
    “Well hello,” I breathed.
    Holy crap , this was getting serious. It had been easy to deflect Braden’s advances when they weren’t so direct. Now, even if I wanted to, it would be hard to do without outright telling him to back off. And I found the last thing I could imagine doing right now was deflecting his advances. Truly, I was a few seconds away from making some advances of my own.
    Braden gave me a sexy half grin. “I was hoping for a more...I don’t know… intimate greeting than that.”
    I bit my lip to keep from grinning back. “Yeah? Oh, I’m sorry. Hello, sweetie.” I smiled sweetly and raised an eyebrow at him. “How’s that?”
    He watched me for a moment, his face growing serious again, before pulling me closer until my mouth was mere inches from his. “I think we can do better than that.” His voice was sultry and sent warmth pooling in my stomach completely against my will. The guy knew how to work his voice to spin a web that would catch even the most resistant girl. And I was probably the most resistant girl he’d ever encountered… up until now.
    Sliding a hand through my hair and gently grasping the base of my neck, he tilted my head and closed the distance between our lips, pulling me into one of the most passionate kisses I’d ever experienced.
    The mind-boggling kind. The kind that made you want to be in a room alone so you could give in to whatever came next.
    It was so mind-boggling, in fact, that I completely forgot about the room full of people, my determination to not get involved with Braden, and, honestly, my own name.
    And running through my mind was OMG, this is not happening. I shouldn’t be letting this happen. But then there was another, louder, inner voice saying, Why the hell not? Enjoy now, worry about the consequences later. Life is short.
    And guess which one I listened to?
    You bet.
    Tonight, I was going to enjoy some friendly flirtation with Braden. Still, I was determined more than ever not to let it go any further than it already had. Just the fact that my restraint with him was so fragile proved the point that, with Braden, I’d have to be extra-careful.
    He was my weak spot.
    When Braden finally pulled away, I was left sitting there staring at him, feeling soundly ravished. The only things that snapped me