Free The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) by Anna Katmore Page B

Spanish lesson was over. A very physical part of me was quite happy about that fact.
    Hands on her hips, I leaned my forehead against hers and, with a grin, looked into her eyes. Until some strange sort of disappointment struck. Lauren’s eyes weren’t pretty. They were dark and striking. But they fit nowhere into the delicious candy spectrum.
    For Christ’s sake, this wasn’t supposed to bother me right now! Not when I had her half undressed in front of me. But once I started to wonder, my thoughts went totally astray. Was it normal for girls to have such thin eyebrows? Lauren’s were no thicker than a line drawn with a charcoal pencil. She must pluck them. Jeez, did that hurt? And did all girls do it? What the hell for?
    My gaze ran lower over her flawless face. No spots, no birth marks, and, just for me I was sure, no lipstick today. I swallowed, looking at those lush lips I should’ve been kissing.
    “Chris, is something wrong?” she asked in a soft voice, obviously unsure if she should smile or frown at me. She went for both.
    “Nope, everything’s fine.” I gave her the smirk she needed to relax again and leaned in to kiss her. Only, our lips never touched.
    “Mom, we’ve got a guest for dinner! Is that okay?” a voice boomed through the house, through my door, and through my brain—making me jerk back.
    Drawing in a quick breath, Lauren jumped, too. “Was that your brother?”
    Most definitively. And he hadn’t come home alone. Ethan and Sue…on a date in our house? Dammit, I just had to see that.
    Lauren and I could make out any other day. This, however, was extraordinary entertainment and got top priority. I let my hands slip away from her hips and raked them through my hair. “Uh, yeah…” Now what to say to end this tutoring session without kicking her to the curb? After all, it wasn’t her fault that I wouldn’t ask her to eat with us. “I thought Ethan would come home later, but since he’s here now, I have to help him with…uh….his school project,” I said, pulling the excuse from thin air. “It’s a biology assignment, and I promised to work on it with him. He needs it done by tomorrow.”
    Lauren’s frown deepened as I buckled my belt and then picked our clothes up from the floor. “Really?”
    No, not really. “Yep. Sorry.” I handed her the black top I’d peeled her out of not two minutes ago and began buttoning my shirt in haste. “Do you mind if we continue the lesson some other time? Maybe tomorrow or this weekend?”
    Lauren knew my no dinner, no lunch, no sleepover rule, so she didn’t complain when I rushed her to the door, chin low, still struggling with these goddamned shirt buttons. Something was going terribly wrong down there, but there was no time to right it. I all but shoved Lauren out of my room.
    Okay, that was a bit harsh, so I corrected my bad behavior by sliding my fingers through hers and pulling her along with me. She shouldn’t get the feeling that she was being kicked out of my house—which, let’s face it, she actually was.
    Ethan walked straight for his room, only raising his eyebrows at us in a feeble greeting. Susan appeared right behind him and—
    Jesus Christ . Had she been on the catwalk tonight?
    She’d abandoned her jeans and usually decent shirts for a dress that put even Lauren’s Saturday-night outfits to shame. Tight on top, flaring at her thighs, it was a striking red that called up the bull in any guy. Hot damn, Miss Miller!
    Letting my x-ray gaze run up her body to her face, which was completely spectacle-free this evening, I didn’t miss her checking me out in return. From her clandestine look, she & I was starting to become a serious possibility in her book. Was it because she hadn’t gotten what she was after from Ethan? Or had the little flirtation in detention already had an impact?
    As we passed in the hallway, I smirked and winked at her. Her cheeks turned red with alarm. Like being ripped out of a daydream, her eyes