Free My Kind of Girl by Candace Shaw Page B

an accomplished young woman as
is Reagan and Brooklyn so you ladies will be fine.”
    “ Thanks, Sean. Still
waiting for Brooklyn to say yes. I know she loves her job at the
accounting firm, but we need her expertise in that field. Plus,
she’s an awesome photographer.” Zaria stood when a hostess stepped
over and whispered something in her ear. “Gotta go.” She turned
toward Traci. “Nice meeting you.”
    Once Zaria left, he turned his focus
back on Traci. “So where were we?” He hoped like hell that she was
still aroused by his last comment to her before Zaria had
arrived.
    “ Leaving.”

Chapter Six
    Leaving? Did I really say
we were leaving? However, that’s exactly
what Traci was doing after Sean paid for her dinner, and they both
waved at their friends who were cutting a rug on the dance floor.
She didn’t know what had possessed her to even say that. Sure she
was thinking it, but she never meant to speak it into existence.
She considered telling him she was just kidding. However, the way
he licked his lips and stared at her as if he was going to push the
table out of the way and devour her in the middle of his
brother-in-law’s restaurant, made her keep quiet. Besides, she was
still on cloud nine from spending all day with him. Plus, after
seeing him with his shirt off, made her want to witness it again …
but next time up close and personal. Maybe even run her hand down
his chest or glide it along the eagle’s wings.
    She followed him silently to the door
of the restaurant, wishing like hell she had her glasses on instead
of her contact lenses that were bugging the heck out of her eyes.
She could see fine without her glasses or contacts, but sometimes
when going out to places with low lighting, she preferred to have
either or in order to read the menu without squinting.
Unfortunately, she’d been in a hurry because Caitlyn—who lived in
the same loft apartment building—had a pet peeve of being late, so
Traci had rushed to put them in just as the doorbell rang. Now they
were irritating her, and she’d neglected to toss her eye drops in
her purse. It had been on her list of things to do before leaving,
but once Caitlyn had arrived and reminded her of the time of their
reservation, Traci shook her hair wrap down, swiped her purse from
the kitchen island, and headed to the last trolley that would get
them there in a timely manner.
    However, there she was standing
outside with irritated eyes while praying that her short, flared
leather skirt didn’t do a Marilyn Monroe blow up as she waited with
Sean for the next trolley to arrive. Since he’d parked his car at
the Peabody and walked the few blocks to Beale Street, he decided
to leave his car there for now. Traci still couldn’t believe she
formed her mouth to invite him to her little one room loft. She’d
invited only two other men there, but it was after plenty of dates,
and they didn’t go past first base. She hadn’t even been on a date
with Sean, and she was fantasizing about sprinting past all of the
bases to a home run.
    Sean had grabbed her hand earlier as
they’d walked through the crowds of people still waiting to get in
and it was still nestled in his. Her fingers intertwined with his
was warm and comforting like a bowl of homemade chili, and she
almost didn’t want the trolley to arrive anytime soon just so she
could be joined with him for a little while longer. At the same
time, she couldn’t wait to get back to her apartment to be joined
with him in other ways. When the Riverfront Loop trolley arrived,
not once did he let go of her hand. In fact, he squeezed it harder
when they stepped onto the almost full trolley, and he glanced over
his shoulder to grace her with an alluring smile. After he paid for
them both, he led her to an empty seat and pulled her onto his lap.
She was surprised she didn’t protest, but A) there wasn’t anywhere
else to sit and B) that’s where she wanted to be: nestled in his
strong arms that were now