Tempt Me Tonight Read Online Free

pushed to his feet. Wow. If the profile had been good, the full frontal was no less than devastating. A snug white T-shirt bearing the Porsche logo stretched across his chest. He was bigger than in high school—not muscle-bound, but the kind of guy you knew could win a bar fight hands down and probably
had
won a few. And his eyes—oh God, his eyes were still just as blue, even from across the room. She stood frozen in place as he moved toward her, trying like hell to look as confident as she’d planned before coming inside. Of course, that had been before Joe.
    His gaze paralyzed her further. “Hey, cupcake.”
    Damn, his voice had gotten deep. And the old pet name was almost enough to bury her.
    “Hey,” she managed.
Why couldn’t you be fat and bald and ugly?
And why on earth hadn’t Debbie told her? Debbie had told her a considerable number of things about Joe over the years, but she’d neglected to mention that he’d turned out sizzling hot.
    He looked to Debbie. “Deb.”
    “Hey, Joe.” Debbie lifted a hand but looked uncomfortable, even though Trish knew Debbie saw him all the time.
    The most gorgeous blue eyes God had ever made turned back to Trish, reminding her once more—this really
was
God’s country. “Been a while.”
    A lifetime.
Are you thinking of it, too? That last night? Hell, that whole last summer. All that kissing and touching.
“Yeah.”
    “I’m gonna go talk to Kenny,” Debbie said in a rush, then flitted across the room before Trish could stop her. She firmly planned to murder Deb for leaving her, but she had bigger things to deal with at the moment.
    “What brings you to town?” He spoke in so unhurried a manner that Trish thought she must have imagined his surprise at seeing her—he was utterly cool and collected, his every word somehow seductive.
    She swallowed, trying to clear the nervous sludge from her throat. “Just here to help my parents with some legal issues.”
    He tipped his head back lightly. “Heard they’re selling the diner.”
    She nodded. “Retiring. They’ll just be running the farm now.” Her dad had always kept a herd of beef cattle in addition to running the restaurant on Main Street.
    “So…Deb says you live in Indy.”
    Another numb nod on her part.
    “And you’re a lawyer, right? She said you work at a big firm downtown. Sounds like things turned out good for you.”
    “Yeah.”
Although you wouldn’t know from my sparkling conversation that I have half a brain in my head.
Time to rectify that, act more like a normal person just running into an old…
friend.
“She tells me you bought Shermer’s Garage.” He’d always loved cars and had worked there repairing them in high school. It’s where he’d gotten the money for the used Trans Am.
    He nodded. “I specialize in foreign makes now, though.”
    Yeah, she knew that, too. Given that he was still Kenny’s best friend, it was impossible not to know things about him. Not that she’d asked. Okay, maybe she had. Occasionally. Just casually, whenever his name came up.
    But she didn’t see any reason to act like she and Debbie sat around talking about him all the time, so she didn’t admit she knew. And she even considered telling him she was happy he’d done well for himself—but instead she simply forced a small smile and said, “That’s great. So…how’s your family?”
    He shoved his hands in his front pockets and she cringed inside, remembering. His mom had died. Less than a year after Trish had left Eden. A bad car accident. She’d cried for him when she’d heard.
    “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I mean, Debbie told me about your mom back when it happened.” For some reason, she couldn’t quite meet his eyes any longer—the topic was too awful, and she’d just tossed it carelessly out between them without meaning to.
    “It’s okay, Trish—it was a long time ago.”
    She raised her eyes automatically—it was the first time he’d said her name. She sighed, bit