Skin Deep. Tori Carrington
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Название: Skin Deep
Автор: Tori Carrington
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
isbn: 9781474017800
isbn:
“So…you like?” she asked point-blank, propping a slender hand with purple-painted nails on a too curvy hip. Was that leopard skin?
“Um,” he said, struggling to a better sitting position on the too soft couch. He didn’t dare stand for fear that he might injure himself. “‘Like’…isn’t the word I’d use, exactly.”
Was it him, or had suggestion just darkened her eyes?
“Then what is the word you’d use?”
Siren? Luscious? Hot? “Different,” he said.
The cat lifted his head from his position on the television. Michael was sure that if Mr. Tibbs had been able to roll his eyes at him, he would have. He glared at the tom, and gestured vaguely toward Kyra.
“Is there any particular reason for your…this…”
“Transformation?”
He hiked his brows. Transformation? As in a permanent way of living? As in out with the old, in with the new?
As in there was no way in hell he was going to survive with her looking like that twenty-four/seven?
He gave a deep, loud mental groan. He couldn’t handle two minutes with Kyra looking like that. How was he going to endure an entire friendship? “Um, that’ll do.”
She plucked up the clothing he’d dropped earlier, then swaggered toward the kitchen. Her gait was unsure, gutsy, making her look that much sexier. She opened the chrome garbage can and dropped the items inside, brushing her hands together as the lid closed.
She looked at him and he felt the urge to look away, as if merely meeting her eyes would reveal his true feelings.
“Does there have to be a reason? I mean, aside from my being long overdue for a reality check?” She twisted her lips. “I’ve lived twenty-four years looking like an old maid. It’s about time I looked more like the women my age.”
No woman your age looks like this, he wanted to tell her. But the words never made it past his lips. Sure, other women might dress that way, but not one of them could pull off the look the way Kyra did with so little or no effort. There was a quirky innocence, a playful charm, that made Kyra even sexier and impossible not to notice—as certain parts of his body could attest to. A curious naiveté and irresistible daring that made her look like one-third dressed-up teen, two-thirds single, professional female on the make.
Michael wanted to bang his hand against his head until it started working again. Until he stopped drooling after his best friend and started thinking with the parts of his body that mattered. Until he stopped wanting to throw her onto the couch behind him and explore those succulent breasts and plunge into her sweet-smelling flesh, those high heels piercing the air behind his back.
Instead he tugged on his shirt collar until he choked himself.
“Are you ready?” She struck a pose that was one-hundred-percent challenge. “It’s time to go out to let the world know the new Kyra has arrived.”
3
KYRA ACCIDENTALLY DROPPED the tiny beaded handbag the shop girl had assured her went with her outfit. Which wasn’t all that difficult considering that the purse looked as though it had been designed for a Barbie doll rather than a grown woman. But it was cute and so unlike anything she would normally buy for herself that she’d decided to go for it. And she now stood staring at where it lay on the sidewalk, wondering how she was going to pick it up.
She started to bend.
“Ah…I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Michael rumbled from behind her.
The sidewalk outside Lolita’s was hot enough to steam rice on. Kyra could feel the heat shimmer up the parts of her legs not covered by her stockings. It filled her with a sense of anticipation that hardened her nipples. At least, that’s what she told herself. That Michael’s distracted behavior since she’d emerged from the bathroom might have anything to do with her feelings was too complicated to consider.
Kyra tapped her finger against her glossy lips and considered her dilemma. She’d have to rethink the way she went about everything from here on out. If she had bent to retrieve the bag, as she would have done naturally before, she would redefine the term “mooning” with a view of her hot-pink thong panties. Crouching would have given anyone in front of her a view from the other side.
Michael cursed under his breath and snatched up the bag for her. “What do you have in there? Your lipstick?”
“Lip gloss,” she corrected. And that’s about all that fit into the bag. She didn’t see the point in carrying it at all, really. Except that it had been nice to watch Michael pick it up for her.
She smiled at him and continued toward the door of the club.
She felt fingers encircle her bare arm and gasped when Michael jerked her back and away from where she was about to open the door.
“You’re not going in there,” he said for the fifth time since they’d left her apartment.
“Why not?” she asked. Hopefully now that they stood outside the club she’d get an answer. Before he’d merely gaped at her, doing the fish-out-of-water-mouth-moving bit.
“Because you look like…that,” he finally said.
“Michael, we’ve been over this. This—” she gestured at herself “—is the new me. And the sooner people get used to it, the better off for everyone.”
“I’m never going to get used to it.”
She reached out and patted his cheek. If her hand lingered a little longer than it should have, it was because she enjoyed feeling his stubble sting her skin she told herself. “You will. You’ll see.”
From behind his back he produced a lightweight jacket she recognized as his. She knew he kept it in the back of his SUV for winter early-morning golf outings. He tried to drape it across her shoulders and she successfully stepped away from him.
“What are you doing? It’s hot as blazes out here.”
“But the air-conditioning is on in there.”
“Good,” she said, “maybe it will cool me down.”
“No, you don’t understand,” he said, his gaze dropping to her neckline. “The air conditioner is on in there.”
She stared at him blankly. “You’re not making any sense, Michael. Now, will you stop being such a stick-in-the-mud and come on?”
She heard him mutter a line of curse words and felt her smile widen. She found she liked frustrating him. He was usually the one in control, the one giving her advice, the one always solid and commanding. That she had managed to gain a little bit of control in their friendship made her feel…well, powerful somehow. More adult. And more than СКАЧАТЬ