Now and Then Read Online Free

unruly emotions this man brought to the surface.
    Just another minute.
Then she’d go.
    “Brynn,” he said, his already deep voice deepening even further to a tempting low rumble. Only a ghost of the smile they’d been sharing remained on his lips.
    A minute that ended too soon, because she knew that look. And whatever words or actions were about to follow, she had to stop them. This, tonight, had been perfect and she didn’t want anything she’d have to say, any explanation she’d need to make, to ruin it.
    “I should get going,” she preempted, checking her watch for effect. She choked for real and then, checking again, said, “Oh shit—shoot, darn it,
shoot
—four hours?”
    Ford laughed, sliding off his stool and coming around to help her with her jacket. “Guess we lost track of time again.”
    Again.
He said it like it was just yesterday and not ten years ago when they’d talked until the coffee shop closed, then moved back to the front stoop of her dorm, where they talked some more until security strolled through whipping that Maglite around at three in the morning. Ford had stood so close, looking down into her face, into her eyes, and she’d whispered his name,
Fred
—yeah, the wrong name as it turned out because the tall, dark, and desperately cute guy in front of her was named
Ford,
not Fred like she’d somehow gotten in her head—killing whatever moment might have been and sending them both into punch-drunk peals of laughter.
    But now with Ford standing so close, his big hands running down her arms, maybe it felt like yesterday to her, too. Like that twelve-hour tour of the campus and all the days and nights that followed were
just that close.
Still within reach.
    Like taking it would be as simple as turning around within that tight space in front of him so their bodies brushed with the motion, letting her fingers drift against the planes of a stomach that still looked as trim as it had in college, tipping her head back and—
    And it was
definitely
time to get out of Dodge.
    Pasting on a smile that wasn’t 100 percent sincere, Brynn stepped well out of brushing/drifting/tipping territory and shot Ford a friendly glance over her shoulder.
    “This sure was nice, Ford,” she exclaimed, her belly still in turmoil from those freaking jacked-up butterflies and their ceaseless assault.
    One dark brow arched at her, but then Ford was nodding, smiling pleasantly, too. “Sure was.”
    A light pressure settled at the small of her back, and even through the layers of her jacket, sweater, and shirt the sensation of Ford’s big hand resting there was like touching a broken Christmas light when she was a kid. Slightly shocking and definitely a bad idea to allow to go on. But that low charge running over her skin, spreading warm and slow…she hadn’t been able to resist it then, either.
    What were a few steps, right?
    Wrong.
Because then they were outside the bar, the chill night air and flurries not doing a thing to cool the heat winding through her veins.
    A couple of rapidly chattering women bustled past them, their animated conversation filling up the night before it dropped off as they rushed down the sidewalk together toward the next streetlight.
    The fingers at her back flexed, urging Brynn around so she was again facing Ford. Only this time when their eyes met, he was still touching her and—just
wow.
The palm now curved around her waist was waking a simmering sense of anticipation within her she had no right indulging in.
    If only it didn’t feel so good.
    Drawing a deep breath, she braced for what Ford’s eyes were promising would come next. He would ask for her number and she’d let him down as easily as she could. It wouldn’t be fun and there wouldn’t be any sense of conquest in it, because the only one missing out would be her. And then because Ford was Ford, and most definitely as sweet as she remembered him to be, he’d take her letdown like a gentleman, letting her off easy with a