Free Without You by Julie Prestsater Page B

portable scanner thingy.” She held up a red wand about a foot long. “We need to get all these into a digital format so we can start.”
    She was prepared, I’d give her that. If I would have known what we were doing sooner, I would’ve sent the photos to Isabelle so she could have, at least, scanned them. The idea of making a slide show sounded like fun, but having to scan and crop them all was going to take all night.
    On second thought, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.
    God, I’m a dick . Maddy had a boyfriend yet it wasn’t stopping me at all from wanting to get her back. I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she roamed around getting her devices ready. She wore dark skinny jeans that showed off her amazing ass and perfect thighs and a light blue Captain America T-shirt. I rolled my eyes thinking about her fascination with Chris Evans after she saw him as Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four. The infatuation only became worse when he was ninety-nine percent naked throughout the movie, What’s Your Number? . That had been fun to watch with her. Not . Maybe it was a good thing she hadn’t gone on the road with me. I had met the guy once and he was cool. And good looking.
    She was in deep concentration as she moved throughout the room plugging cords into the wall and stringing them back to her laptop that now sat on the pool table. She inspected both sides of another cord before inserting one end into the laptop and the other into the scanning wand. Grinning, I watched as she bent over. Thoughts of placing my hands on her curvy hips and pulling her against me filled my mind with passion. I had to look away before she caught me staring at her.
    When she was satisfied with her work, she pulled a hair band off her wrist and piled her silky brown hair onto the top of her head and twisted it into place. The length of her neck was exposed as she stretched, rolling her head in a circle with her eyes closed. She completed the act with a long breathy sigh. Sexy. I remembered when I had that effect on her with just a slight press of my lips to her throat. Damn, what I would have done to be able to brush my lips against her skin right then. My day would have been complete.
    Instantly, my pants felt a little tighter and I needed to do something to stop my growing erection before my twelve-year-old self came back and embarrassed me.
    “Want something to drink before we get started?” I pushed myself up to stand and walked away from her into the kitchen.
    “Water would be great. I overdid it on the tequila the other night.”
    Looking back over my shoulder, I noticed she was moving the pictures around on the table. She stepped back with her fingers pressed to her mouth, obviously trying to work something out. She kicked off her flip-flops and made herself at home just like she did when we were together. She didn’t like to wear shoes. Her mother would joke about how she loved to be naked until she was about five. She teased her saying if she didn’t want to wear clothes, they were going to take her to kindergarten in the buff. Apparently, that scare tactic worked. She wore clothes, but she still loved to run around barefoot like she belonged in the wilderness. I loved that about her, that she was so carefree and always willing to go with the flow. She had this calming way about her that made everyone feel at home. I still couldn’t believe she was seeing a lawyer. From what Luke had said, the man rarely went anywhere without wearing a suit. Does she relax like this, without her flip-flops, when she’s around him?
    When I came back with a few bottles of water, Maddy was taking in the room, looking around since it was the first time she had been there. I didn’t make the big purchase until I finished the first tour. Before that, I didn’t need it for the privacy and the security it provided.
    “You didn’t do any fancy decorating, huh? This place looks like a perpetual bachelor pad.”
    Well, I did call it my man cave. “I