Tempt Me Tonight Read Online Free Page A

her lip, and tried to move on. “Your dad? Your sister? She must be all grown up now. How are
they?
”
    “Dad lives in Florida—he remarried. And Jana just moved to Ohio. She got a job there and met a guy. She’s twenty-five now.” He didn’t look particularly happy about any of it, but Joe’s family life never
had
been particularly happy, and she regretted bringing it up.
    Time to go. “Well…it was, uh, nice to see you.” She pointed absently toward the pool tables. “I’m gonna go catch up with Debbie and Kenny.”
    She started to walk away—when a warm vise closed around her wrist, stopping her. She glanced down to see Joe’s large, tanned hand—and dear God, moisture surged between her thighs, just from that.
    She jerked her gaze up to his, still deep blue and penetrating.
    “It was nice to see you, too, cupcake.”
    Their gazes held for another scintillating moment.
    And then he let her go, and she was treading across the floor, but she didn’t feel it beneath her, didn’t feel the greetings suddenly being passed her way by old friends or the hug from Kenny—all she felt was Joe’s stare on her backside and the tingling sensation still pulsing in her panties. And there suddenly wasn’t a
bleck
to be found in her mind. Nope, it was all about
wow
now. And
mmm.
And maybe
ah.
    And as she went about returning all the hellos and trying to make sure she called everyone by the right name as she answered questions about her job and her life, she kept hearing the words her father had imparted a very long time ago, when Joe had first kissed her in the bleachers at a basketball game and asked her to the fall dance.
That boy’s trouble. Pure trouble.
    He’d been so right.
And in more ways than you even know, Dad.
    Who’d have thought
now,
though, at the age of thirty-two, Joe Ramsey would still be dealing out trouble to her? Yet here it was—a
lustful
kind of trouble, and an innately
adult
kind of lust, filling her body with a more consuming need than she’d felt in…oh God, maybe ever. How the hell had
that
happened?
    “Wanna play, Trish?” Kenny asked.
    She flinched, but then saw he held up a pool cue. For a second, she’d had the crazy notion he could read her mind and knew she was thinking dirty thoughts about his best friend. She lifted a hand to wave off the cue. “No, no thanks—I’ll just watch.”
    “Aw, come on—I’ve already beat on
these
two guys.” Wiping thinning blond hair off his forehead, he motioned to his previous opponents, the vaguely familiar one donning a John Deere T-shirt, and another guy wearing a Ford cap over scruffy brown hair. She began to feel a bit overdressed, even just in capris and a silky camisole. “And I beat all the girls
last
week. I need some new blood.”
    She laughed lightheartedly but was secretly thinking—
No way in hell.
She’d never played pool in her life, so she wasn’t about to start now in a room where she already felt uncomfortable. “Well, if you’ve beat all of
them,
you’d definitely beat
me.
Afraid I’ll have to be a spectator.”
    “I’ll
play you again, honey,” Debbie offered, wrapping both her arms around one of his. She smiled up at him so dreamily—still, after all this time—that Trish suffered a small twinge of wistful jealousy over their happiness.
    Kenny touched his finger to the tip of Debbie’s nose. “I’ve got different games planned for you later, lambchop,” he said on a slightly intoxicated chuckle. “But you’re no competition when it comes to pool. I need to find somebody I’ve never beat before. New blood. Fresh meat.” He spread his arms to the bar at large, starting in with more bravado. “Come on, who wants to get their ass whipped in a friendly little game of pool?”
    “You’ve never beat
me.
”
    Trish looked up to see that Joe had ambled across the room to make his way into the crowd. Crap. She’d thought she’d escaped him. Now, as she studied him, she wondered if anyone could see the