After the Morning After Read Online Free

than two minutes later saw what I thought was a tall, gorgeous Italian guy striding through the lobby. His hair was wet, and I could tell he’d dressed in a hurry, because his shirt was unbuttoned —he has quite a chest, by the way. Tori, you should be congratulated—”
    “But you digress,” Addie said with an impatient glare.
    “Oh no,” Bella said with a wicked grin. “No, I don’t. His chest was quite a thing of beauty. But anyway, he was looking around like he’d lost something—or someone —and me being a public servant, I went over and asked him if everything was all right. I just had to do my duty—”
    Victoria narrowed her eyes. “I’ll just bet you did.”
    “Serve and protect, Tori,” Bella reminded her in a singsong voice, “serve and protect. Anyway, he said everything was okay, but just to be sure, I got specific and asked him if the pretty little black lady I’d just seen run out like she had stolen something had done anything illegal to him or his person—”
    Insulted, Victoria drew herself up indignantly. “Well, really! I have never —”
    Bella simply spoke over her. “And he flashed me a smile so sexy it almost made me rethink my stance on poaching, said, and I quote, ‘Yes, ma’am, she stole somethin’, all right, but it’s nothin’ I didn’t mind losin’. But I reckon I’ll catch her, and as soon as I do, I aim to get some of mine back’—said it just like that, ‘ mahn back.’”
    Arms crossed, Victoria sniffed and muttered, “‘ Reckon ?’ He would never, not in a million years, say—”
    “Mm, sounds yummy,” Addie purred. “Does he really sound like that, Tori?”
    “Oh, so now you want my input?”
    “Shit, Tori, just tell me what the man sounds like!”
    “Well, first of all,” she said with a chiding look at Bella, “Scarlett O’Hara here exaggerates. And besides that, she has an absolutely horrible Southern accent.”
    “Damn it, Tori. Stop stalling!”
    Despite her reservations, Victoria got swept up in their enthusiasm. She smiled as she remembered that one night long ago. Her heart hammered, her breath quickened, and her brain stuttered out an instinctively honest answer. “He sounds…he sounds…dangerous.”
    Smirking, Addie said, “So now I know why you refused my invitation to sleep over that night.”
    “No, he’s not the reason. I didn’t stay over because”—she hesitated and then decided to be honest—“I didn’t really know you guys, and I didn’t feel comfortable staying. I wasn’t ready to go home yet, so I decided to stop in at the hotel for another drink. I bumped into Sanjay at the bar.”
    Two faces went completely blank for a moment and then, “ You picked him up ?”
    “No!” Victoria said vehemently. “At that time I’d known him about six months because we worked together.”
    “Sanjay? Like that doctor on television? Sanjay Gupta?”
    “Yes, but this Sanjay is much hotter.”
    “I’ll second that,” Bella muttered.
    Addie smiled. “He is, is he? And shame on you, Bella, for not sharing the news about him a long time ago.”
    Bella’s shrug was patently unconcerned. “I couldn’t. I figured Tori had her reasons for not saying anything, and it wasn’t up to me to tell.”
    “Really?” Victoria asked. “Then why on earth are you squealing like a stuck pig now?”
    “Your comparison leaves something to be desired,” Bella muttered with a frown, “but to answer your question, you opened up more tonight, and I just figured it would be okay.”
    Addie put his teacup neatly in its saucer. “Is he the one you’ve chosen? Or are you already seeing him, and we just don’t know about it?”
    “I’m not seeing him. It was only for one night.”
    Bella smiled. “Will you start to see him now, though, is the question.”
    “It’s complicated, but the short answer to that question is I don’t know. I’m thinking about it.” And with that answer, she was done talking about it. Her face said it all