Free Everything She Needs (The Everything Trilogy) by K.L. Shandwick Page B

walked with him towards Sloan Square Tube station.
    “Can I ask something?  Well … it’s more of a request really?” He flicked his eyes quickly to meet mine as we walked along the road awkwardly avoiding contact with each other.
    “Sure ,” I said, trying to sound lighthearted.
    “W ill you wear exactly what you’re wearing right now to dinner tonight?  I haven’t really been able to enjoy how you look with our heavy conversation today.”
    I chuckled , and he grinned, his dimple showing for the first time today. “Really, you want me to wear this old thing?” I tried to downplay my earlier effort to look great.
    I snickered when he looked away for a second to cross a road, feeling del ighted that he commented on it.
    He turned his head back when we were safely on the sidewalk , and his hungry eyes glanced very slowly down the length of me. “Lily, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more perfect on you, and you know how I feel about your choices of attire. You’ve got great taste, but this…” He tugged lightly at the material near my waist.
    “ Dayum! The color, the cut, the slit at your thigh. Jesus, Lily, you kill me. Every time I think you definitely can’t top the outfit you’re wearing, you do exactly that.”
    I smiled a little, but his gaze was full of arousal and was becoming intense. It was a look that was dangerous for me.  I could get lost in it, and I forced myself to look away from him.
    I was glad that he could still manage to appreciate me wh ile I was fully clothed, and he hadn’t been trying to seduce me earlier. His head turned to me, a smile playing on his lips, but he wasn’t being cocky. This wasn’t the Alfie that played with my feelings. I liked this one much better.
    We arrived at the tube station , and Alfie awkwardly pulled me in for a hug.  Well, it started out as a friendly goodbye hug, but he couldn’t quite let me go and his arms tightened just as I was about to pull back.  His face nestled in my hair, and he inhaled sharply. “God, Lily, I’ve never held a woman that fit in my arms so perfectly and smelled as good as you…ever.”
    I pulled back then, and gave him a half smile, but didn’t comment.  I let my arms go loose , and he had no choice but to do the same.  I knew I had to manage this thing between us, and I couldn’t afford to be lax about the effect he always had on me, or I would be miserable again in no time.
    His handsome face looked pained to be leaving me , and he turned to walk away.  I stood watching him.  His head turned back in my direction; there was a vulnerability to him as his eyes locked with mine again. “Seven pm… Cutty Sark.”
    I nodded, and the bustle of the crowd entering and leaving the station swallowed him from my view. I rang Jack. “You took your time, everything okay, honey?” He sounded concerned.  I told him that I was fine and that my talk with Alfie went better than I expected.
    “I got a few answers to some things that were real issues for me.” Jack was crunchi ng noisily down the line at me.
    “Jack, what are you doing?” He chuckled .
    “What can I say, I was bored. I hope Roslyn wasn’t going to do anything special with that smoked salmon and cream cheese in the fridge cuz it’s gone now, but there are a few crackers left.” I giggled.
    “Jack, you’re a Gannet, and we were supposed to h ave the lasagne my mother made.” 
    “We are… it’s in the oven.  Do you want me t o put the garlic bread in now?” By the time we finished our conversation, I had walked home. He was standing in the opened doorway, both of us still talking on our cell phones to each other.
    “So you’re just going to put your heart out there for this guy to kick all over the street again?” Jack had served lunch for us both and was putting the remainder of the lasagne in a plastic box to take home for later, whilst he was talking to me.
    It was obvious, from his flared nostrils and the large ‘O’ his mouth