Take Me Under Read Online Free

thoughts and feelings were all that important to a guy like Ben. He probably thought of her in the same way he thought of all the other plain, nice women in town. Women who were friendly acquaintances, but who were never going to make a blip on his sexual radar.
    Trying to convince herself she didn’t particularly want to be a blip on Ben Hudson’s radar—which was a complete and total lie—Reese answered his question about her car. “It broke down about five miles up the road. I had to call and have it towed, but the guy from the garage was nice enough to drop me off.”
    “Dave?”
    She nodded. “That’s right.”
    “Well, if I’d seen your car outside,” he told her, rubbing a hand across his hard jaw, “I sure as hell wouldn’t have just let myself in.”
    “I’m sorry I reacted like that.” She forced herself to hold his gaze and stop fidgeting. “With the screaming and all.”
    “Don’t be. I’m sure I’d scream if I found some strange guy unloading groceries in my kitchen.” The corner of his mouth twitched again. “Especially if I happened to be bare-assed naked at the time.”
    “I wasn’t naked,” she argued with an embarrassed laugh. “I was wearing a towel.”
    “Come on, Reese.” There was a bit of the devil in his glittering gaze. “The least you can do after splitting my eardrums is play along with my fantasy.”
    “About you stumbling upon some strange guy in your kitchen?” she snickered, arching her brows. She was surprised by how easy it was to tease him. And how much fun.
    “Smart-ass,” he shot back, the slow smile on his lips kicking her pulse even higher. Uncrossing his arms, he pushed his hands in the front pockets of his jeans, the casual position doing incredible things to his broad shoulders and his muscular bod. She wanted to ask how often he had to work out to look like that. Wanted to ask if the bump on his nose was from a fight or an old sports injury. If he’d always been this gorgeous, or if he’d grown into his rugged good looks as he got older . . .
    She was saved from embarrassing herself when he asked a question of his own. “So, are you happy with the place?”
    She nodded again, leaning her hip against the old-fashioned kitchen sink. “I love it. The hardwood floors and French doors are incredible. The whole house is beautiful.”
    “Good. I had a feeling you’d like it.”
    He had? The few times she’d been around Ben, he’d always been nice to her, but had more or less kept his distance. It seemed strange that he would think he knew her well enough to have any idea of her personal tastes.
    “You seem . . . different,” she murmured, surprised that she’d let that little observation slip out. She was usually better at keeping her thoughts to herself.
    “You mean friendlier?”
    “Um . . .” She hedged, not wanting to be rude.
    “It’s okay. It’s true that I’ve never been all that talkative around you, but only because it put me in a bad mood.”
    She blinked again, wondering what he was talking about. “What put you in a bad mood?
Me
?”
    He gave a masculine snort and shook his head. “It wasn’t you. It was the fact you were married to that worthless prick and I couldn’t do what I wanted.”
    Baffled, she asked, “And what was that?”
    Her toes curled against the kitchen floor at the sound of his low, husky laugh. “Why don’t you come out to dinner with me tonight and we’ll talk about it then?”
    Reese was embarrassed by the wide-eyed, deer-caught-in-the-headlights look she knew had just crashed over her face. He wanted her to go to dinner with him? She shook her head, thinking she must have heard him wrong. Men like Ben Hudson didn’t date women like her. The conversation didn’t make any sense, unless her mother really
had
put him up to this.
    She stood up just a little bit straighter and scowled. “Whatever my mother might have told you, Ben, I don’t need a sitter. I’m perfectly capable of taking care