Free Slapping Leather by Desiree Holt Page A

Rawhide just seeing him made her body react with
instant need, a need she’d been doing her best to ignore or neutralize since
her conversation with Katie. Still, just the touch of his hand and her bones
turned liquid.
    Stop it, stop it, stop it. You
set boundaries. Keep them in place.
    “Hi, yourself.” He grinned. “Put your order in
yet?”
    “What? Order?” Her brain didn’t seem to be
functioning.
    “For your food?” he chuckled. “It does my manly
pride good to think I can render you speechless. But I assume, since you’re
here, you’re planning to eat.”
    “Oh. Yes.” She wet her lips. “I’m, uh, getting
takeout.” She looked around the small space to see if anyone was paying
attention to them. Someone from the Lucky L or a client.
    Alex was still close enough that his mouth was
right at her ear. “Everyone’s too busy getting their own orders to even glance
at us.” He kept his voice pitched low enough so only she could hear him beneath
the babble of sound around them. “There’s nothing wrong with us sitting at one
of those tables out on the patio and sharing a meal like all these other folks
are doing.” He nodded in that direction. “A lot of people are out there, and I
don’t think anyone’s gossiping about them.”
    “But…but…” She searched her mind frantically for
an excuse. Any excuse to avoid the intimacy of a meal with him. “Your sister
and her husband are clients of mine. How would that look?”
    “Jesus, Liz.” The smile disappeared. “It would
look like you’re paying attention to clients and their family. Now, come on.
Let’s spend a pleasant hour together outside in the sunshine. I promise not to
order you to strip naked so I can paddle your ass.” The grin flashed again. “I’m
saving that for later.”
    Even as she bit back further objections she felt
the strong flash of heat through her body at his words. And from his point of
view she was being ridiculous. He had no idea the storm of conflict
raging in her mind.
    “Okay. But I pay for my own food.”
    “You drive a hard bargain, woman. But all right.
Just this time.”
    This time? No, no, there
wouldn’t be another time. No personal socializing. Hard and fast rule, Liz.
Remember? Don’t set yourself up again. And didn’t you say you’d handle this?
Yeah, right.
    She was finding it harder and harder to cling to
those rules. She kept hearing Katie’s voice in her head. Maybe this time the
risk is worth it.
    Alex’s low, sexy laugh rumbled in her ear. “If
you’re finished having that mental conversation with yourself, our food’s
ready.”
    Liz startled, forcibly shut down her brain, and
stepped up to the counter to pay for her food. Okay, lunch in the open. How bad
could it be? And maybe she could get her message across to him in a casual
environment.
    But then no more of those incredibly
satisfying sessions at Rawhide.
    Well, damn. She’d certainly gotten herself into a
real mess. She’d been better off when she wasn’t having sex at all.
    But a lot more miserable and
frustrated.
    Maybe her only choice was to tell him the truth.
But, oh, hell…
    They took their food to a small vacant table at
one end of the outdoor patio, settling beneath the bright red umbrella that
shielded them from the sun. Liz opened the packets of sweetener and stirred
them into her iced tea, then busied herself opening the ketchup packets and
squeezing them into a neat pile on the plate with her French fries. Then she
salted her food carefully and finally cut her burger in half with the plastic
knife.
    “Think you’ve spent enough busy time avoiding
conversation?” Alex’s voice was tinged with amusement.
    Liz looked up to see him watching her with those
hot, blue eyes, and her thoughts scattered like leaves in the wind. It
distressed her that he could affect her so strongly, and she had to work hard
to keep the bad memories from pushing their way back to the surface.
    He’s not like that. It won’t
happen