Free Tempting Meredith by Samantha Ann King Page A

“Did Darrell tell you?” Sometimes her TAs earned extra money cat-sitting when she went out of town.
    “No.” He grinned, his blue eyes twinkling with secrets. A flush of red across the bridge of his nose and his cheek bones made him seem younger, more vulnerable. “Ready for more?” he asked smugly. Yeah, so much for vulnerability.
    He’d gotten lucky with the cat. No way could he pull another fact like that one out of his bag of party tricks. “Sure. Go ahead.”
    “This vein running along the top of your foot is your heart line. You have secrets.”
    The ache in her chest throbbed, but she ignored it and said brusquely, “Everyone has secrets.”
    He cocked his head and studied her face, not her feet. Although her feet were very happy with the attention his hands were giving them. “Yours are deeper than most. That’s why this vein is so prominent.”
    She tried to make her voice light and teasing. “What kind of secrets?”
    “Sexual.”
    She laughed and relaxed. Everyone had sex secrets.
    “You like a little kink.”
    She stiffened. “No.” Not anymore. That hadn’t worked out well for her.
    “Have you ever tried it?”
    “I thought you were reading my feet, not playing twenty questions.”
    He chuckled. “So that’s a yes.” He lifted one foot and peered at the bottom. “You don’t like being short.”
    She rolled her eyes. “My feet didn’t tell you that. My shoes did.”
    His thumb pressed into her arch again, sending her protests skittering. “You have a high arch, which means you like to be in control.”
    “Actually, it means I’m missing a joint in the top of my foot. But never mind that. Don’t you like control?”
    “Depends on the situation.” He lowered her foot back to his lap and began that bone-melting massage again. He looked thoughtful but didn’t speak for a while, long enough that she relaxed.
    “What didn’t you like?”
    “Hmm?”
    “About the kink?”
    She sighed. “The way the guy dumped me after.”
    His hands stopped. “He couldn’t handle it?”
    “I guess hypothesizing that your girlfriend is a whore is more exciting than the actual experiment required to prove it.” No, that wasn’t right. Dylan had loved the actual experiment. He just hadn’t loved her afterward.
    Charlie blinked. Perhaps she should have put it in layman’s terms. Something like, My boyfriend dumped me after I simultaneously fucked him and his roommate.
    “Kink doesn’t make you a whore.”
    “Depends on the kind of kink.”
    “As long as it’s consensual.”
    She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. It’s not like we’re in this for the long term. One hookup. If it’s good, a few more before you leave town. Then we move on.”
    He leaned toward her and touched her chin with the tip of his finger. His calluses were rough and warm, comforting. “Whoa. Slow down. Is that what you think this is? A hookup?”
    She hadn’t wanted to discuss it, but maybe it was better to get it out there. He’d probably be relieved to know that she had no expectations beyond sex. “Charlie, I’ve had a nice time, but let’s not make this into something more than it is.”
    His eyes narrowed as if he was studying her. What was he thinking? Was he deciding if she was worth the effort? Huh. What effort? She was easy. Maybe he was thinking about the fun he could have with the sexual deviant. Two weeks of no-strings-attached sex?
    A slow grin spread from his lips and crinkled the corners of his blue eyes. Oh yeah, he was definitely thinking about sex. One finger drifted down the side of her neck, over her breastbone, then veered left to the swell of her breast before circling her nipple and leaving behind a tingling heat. She watched and wondered how long before he got to the good stuff. Not that his hands didn’t feel nice. But she wanted her clothes gone. She wanted his fingers teasing her bared nipples. He had sexy hands. Darker than the rest of him, lean between the prominent knuckles. She liked