Free His for the Taking by Julie Cohen Page B

take the Bronx out of the girl.’ She pulled out a head of lettuce and a tomato and tossed them in a high arc in his direction. ‘In honour of your apology, I’ll even let you make the salad.’
    Nick caught the lettuce in one hand and the tomato in the other. Zoe bent to get some pots and pans out of a cupboard, affording him a view of her shapely behind. Nick couldn’t help but stare.
    She most definitely wasn’t his type. Nick liked delicate, small women. Women he could tuck under his arm, carry things for, feel tall and protective next to. Women with small hands and feet and high voices and soft bodies. Women, as a matter of fact, a lot like Zoe’s sisters.
    But Zoe had something, all right. Enough of something for him to want to cross the kitchen and put his hands all over her.
    More than that, actually. He wanted to cross the kitchen, turn her around to face him, bury one hand in her golden hair, spread the other against her perfect backside, and kiss her senseless. And then he wanted to lift her onto the kitchen counter and pull those jeans down her long, strong legs.
    ‘We can look through Xenia’s desk after supper,’ she said.
    Her voice brought him back to reality. Fortunately, she was turned away from him so she couldn’t see what his little spontaneous fantasy had done to him. Quickly, he pulled out a chair and sat himself and his raging erection down at the kitchen table.
    ‘So what are you going to do when you see your dad again?’ she asked, and he welcomed the opportunity to think about something other than her wrapping those legs around his waist.
    ‘I want to ask him why he left and didn’t come back. And I want to tell him what he did to us. You know, my sister was convinced for a long time that he left us because she wasn’t good enough.’
    Nick shook his head, remembering how fierce he’d felt when Kitty had told him that, one tearful night after her high-school prom. ‘She spent a long time feeling that she could never succeed; she went through a divorce and everything.’
    ‘Does she want to see your dad, too?’
    ‘I called her to tell her I was coming down here and she was okay with it, but she says she’s past it now. She’s gotten married again and she’s really happy. I think she feels that love conquers everything, even a bad parent.’
    She opened a can of tomatoes with quick, agile turns of her wrist. ‘Do you agree?’
    ‘I think that love would have to be pretty damn special to conquer everything.’
    ‘You’re right. It would.’ She held a knife out to him by the handle. ‘You going to do any work, Boy Scout? I thought you were hungry.’
    Fortunately, talking about his father had deflated his arousal pretty effectively. Nick stood, took the knife, and brought his vegetables to the counter where she’d set up a chopping board for him. He was standing close to her, and for the first time he noticed she had a clean, citrusy scent. She must have put on perfume at her apartment, as well as changed her clothes.
    He imagined stepping closer to her and pressing his lips against the column of her throat and breathing in more of that perfume.
    Uh, uh. Down, Nick.
    Talking about his father had distracted him from desire, but it should tell him something else, too. He was only in NewYork for a short time. And he had no intention of striking up a relationship with somebody whom he’d be leaving soon. He wasn’t that kind of a guy.
    He’d spent nearly twenty-four hours in Zoe’s presence without noticing that he was attracted to her. He’d just have to un-notice it.

CHAPTER SIX
    P LEASE , L ORD, MAKE him have some clothes on.
    Zoe sent up the quick prayer as she walked into the building, waved at Ralph, and waited for the elevator to come.
    She’d been doing so well for the past twenty-four hours. She’d managed the afternoon and the evening with Nick constantly by her side without jumping on him. Of course, her hands had been full most of the time because she’d