Barefoot and Pregnant?. Colleen Faulkner

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СКАЧАТЬ smile played on her lips. To sneak out would be totally out of character for her. Elise Montgomery always went by the book. She always followed the rules, and the rules were that if your boss paid five hundred dollars for bad chicken, you ate it. But she could already tell that Zane Keaton was not a man who played by the rules.

      “Ah, you found her, Zane.” Richard Milton, a prominent local attorney, approached them.

      Zane lifted a brow.

      “Elise Montgomery, the real estate agent I was telling you about. You want to make a large land purchase in this county, she’s the person to know.”

      Elise felt her face grow warm with embarrassment.

      “You’re a real estate agent?” Zane asked looking to her, as if he didn’t quite believe the attorney.

      She nodded. “That’s right.”

      “Well, I’ll leave you two kids alone. Call me if Elise finds what you’re looking for.” Richard walked away.

      Elise smiled at Zane. “So you’re looking for land.”

      He lifted a broad shoulder. “Maybe. So, you still game?”

      “Game?” she asked.

      “For getting out of here.” He pointed to the door.

      “Come on, Ellie, it’ll be fun,” he whispered when she didn’t answer right away. His breath was warm in her ear. The chemistry was wicked. “And just a little naughty. Tell me you like to be naughty once in a while.”

      She looked at him in wide-eyed surprise and he winked.

      The man winked…it was like right out of an old black-and-white movie she liked to watch on Sunday afternoons when she should be working.

      “Okay,” she exhaled, tantalized by the thought of just walking out. “But I need to tell my friend Liz that I’m going. She gave me a ride here.”

      He took her empty glass from her hand and placed it on the tray of a passing waiter. “Tell her you won’t need a ride home.” He pointed at her. “Now I’m giving you two minutes to meet me at the door. Then we make our getaway.”

      Elise watched Zane walk away, feeling a little numb. Was this the night she had dreamed of since she was little girl, tucked in at night by a nameless nanny?

      She found Liz at the bar. “I won’t need that ride home.”

      Liz grinned. “How’s he coming on that checklist of yours?”

      “Too early to say,” Elise confided. Inside her chest her heart was pounding. Her pulse fluttered. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had made her feel this way.

      Liz nodded with a conspiratory look. “Call you later,” she mouthed.

      Elise made a beeline for the door, her black clutch purse tucked under her arm. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. She did feel naughty and she had to admit, the feeling was wonderful.

      Zane was waiting for her just outside the hotel’s reception area. He offered her his elbow. His smile made her feel like a million bucks.

      “I figure we’ll make a grand exit,” he said as he strode forward, his chin high as if they were royalty.

      “We get out on the beach and we throw our shoes into the dunes and make a run for the water.”

      Elise laughed. “I can’t really walk on the beach. I’m wearing hose.”

      He opened the door that led onto the hotel’s veranda. “Hose, shmose. Take them off.”

      Take them off? Elise felt as if her brain was on overload. Stand on one foot and peel her panty hose off on a public beach?

      Zane led her across the hotel’s Victorian-style veranda and down the steps that led to the white sand beach. “Okay, twenty questions.”

      “What?”

      “Let’s play twenty questions. Well, my version.” He walked around to the back of the staircase and kicked off one shoe and then the other. “I ask a question. I give you my answer and then you give me yours.”

      She gingerly removed one high-heeled leather shoe and then the other. The feel of the sand through her hose on her feet was deliciously warm. “What kind of questions?” she asked suspiciously. Usually on first dates—and she figured she could classify this as a date—she stuck to safer conversations such as where she went to college and what the NASDAQ was doing.

      “Easy stuff,” Zane said. “Like your favorite color. Mine’s black.”

      “Black? Black’s not a color.”

      “Sorry. It’s my answer. Black is my favorite color. Let’s see, black like a moonless night. Black like the backside of a penguin. Yours?”

      She laughed. “Mine’s green.” She paused. “Green like a man’s face after he’s tasted his mother-in-law’s potato salad.”

      He laughed. “Now you’re getting the hang of it. Come on.” He opened and closed one hand. “Off with the hose. I swear, I don’t know how you women wear those things.”

      She grabbed the rail of the step, then hesitated. Did she put her hands under her skirt, or try to wiggle the waistband down through the material of the dress?

      Zane spun around, presenting his back to her. “Go ahead. Do what you have to do get them off. No one’s looking.” He made himself busy rolling up his pant legs.

      Elise took a deep breath and reached under her dress and grabbed the waistband of her hose. She gave a yank, got them down around her thighs and lifted one foot. “Whoa!” She swayed as she lost her balance in the soft sand.

      Zane caught her before she went down, his eyes comically squeezed shut. “Got ya.”

      Using Zane’s muscular forearm to balance herself, she quickly slipped out of the hose. “Done,” she said as proud of herself as if she’d just sold a half-million dollar piece of property. She stuffed the hose into her pumps.

      “Ready?” he asked.

      She nodded.

      He grabbed her hand and pulled her along. “Okay, question number two. “Chocolate or vanilla ice cream?”

      “Soft serve?”

      He grinned.

      “Swirl.”

      “Definitely swirl,” he agreed. “I like you already.”

      As they walked across the beach toward the water, they covered questions three and four. By the time they reached the edge of the cool, frothing ocean, Elise wanted a turn at asking the questions. “Okay,” she said laughing at his last answer. “Here you go, favorite sport to watch. Mine’s baseball.”

      He looked at her, with obvious surprise as they СКАЧАТЬ