Free Melt For Me (Against All Odds Book 3) by Elisabeth Naughton Page A

under her.
    “I’m here because two weeks ago I was sitting at my buddy Ryan’s table during this dinner party he and his wife were throwing, trying to feign interest in some boring conversation about rocks or dirt or some shit like that.”
    She remembered him talking about Ryan Harrison that summer they’d spent together. He’d met Ryan and Ryan’s friend Mitch during his freshman year of college, when he’d joined the baseball team. They’d both been seniors and had taken him under their wings. And their friendship had lasted, long after Ryan and Mitch had graduated and moved on.
    “I looked around that table,” Tate went on, “and realized I was totally out of my element. I mean, I love those people. Ryan and Mitch are great. And their wives are truly awesome. But the woman Ryan’s wife, Kate, had set me up with was some geology professor I didn’t have a single thing in common with. And as she droned on about rock fissures and tectonic plates, my eyes literally crossed and I had one of those ‘what the fuck am I doing?’ moments. Right there at the table. All I could think was…why the hell am I wasting my time on some chick I’m not even attracted to? That’s what I’ve been doing for nine stupid years. Looking for someone who could take your place.”
    Ella’s heart pounded hard against her ribs as Tate moved a step closer.
    “Thing is,” he said softly, reaching for a lock of her hair near her shoulder and twirling it with his fingers, “I realized right then that no one can. You are the only woman I want, Ella. The only one I’ve wanted since I was twenty-two. I know you think I’m some Casanova with the groupies, but I’m not. Ninety percent of the time, it’s all for the cameras. To spread gossip so we make it into the tabloids and keep people talking about the band. I usually kick them out of my room before anything happens. The rest I try to pretend are you. But they’re not. They never could be.”
    Something inside her melted. Just cracked and turned to a warm, flowing liquid that swept toward nine years of heartache and regret.
    “You told me that this wouldn’t last.” He tucked the hair behind her ear, sending tingles over her skin wherever his fingertips touched. “Do you remember that? When we were standing on the sidewalk in front of your house, the last time we talked? You said we’d each move on with our lives and never look back. But it has lasted. It hasn’t faded a bit for me. And unless you can tell me that it’s gone for y—”
    She didn’t think. She reacted. Rose up on her toes and pressed her mouth to his, unable to hold back anymore.
    He stiffened against her, and when she realized she’d shocked him, she dropped to her heels. “Sorry. I’m sorry.” Heat rushed to her face, and she pressed her hands against her cheeks. “I shouldn’t have done that. I just—”
    His arms closed around her, and he hauled her up against all his tantalizing heat before she could get the flimsy excuse out of her mouth. Her hands landed on his chest. But it was his eyes she focused on. His sexy, blue, spellbinding eyes, locked only on her.
    “Like hell you shouldn’t have,” he said in a husky voice. “Do it again, Ella. Do it again right now.”

CHAPTER FIVE

    T ate couldn’t believe this. Ella was kissing him. No, not just kissing him. She was all but devouring his mouth in a way that made him see stars.
    Her tongue swept along his as her hands slid up his neck and her fingers tangled with his hair. Her body felt like heaven against him, her mouth tasted like salvation, and when her nails scraped his scalp and she groaned into his mouth, every muscle in his body went rock hard and ready.
    She drew back long before he was ready to let her go, breathless and shaky, and lowered her heels to the floor while she rested her forehead against his chin. “I…this is crazy.”
    No, it was perfect, and he wasn’t about to let her try to talk herself out of it, not when she