Read Ain’t Misbehaving for Free Online

to dinner.”
    That struck Kay as a terrible idea. Every instinct told her that being surrounded by people would do nothing to loosen up Mitch. So she’d convinced him that they just had to climb that fire tower of his today. In the process, he’d tried to maintain that quiet reserve of his, but how long could a man stay formal while carrying a woman on his back? And as she’d suspected from the beginning, he had an irrepressible sense of humor.
    “You’re getting heavy,” Mitch complained.
    “You’re not even breathing hard,” she pointed out.
    “Give me a chance. We’re not even near a mattress.”
    She blinked, staring in delighted surprise at his dark, wavy hair. That remark was definitely risqué. He was really warming up. And she was determined to get some full-blooded laughter out of him if it killed her.
    Her arms were curled loosely around his neck. A bottle of wine and some plastic cups in a brown bag were snuggled between his back and her chest, inside Mitch’s jacket. His forearms had a firm grip on her thighs, and she had the delightful sensation of being carried off like pirate’s booty into the middle of absolutely nowhere. Piggyback wasn’t a romantic position, but it was certainly suggestive, though her fanny was taking most of the cold wind. If she’d worn a full skirt today, she could have pulled off a somewhat more modest posture, but heck, a little end justified the means.
    “Where’d the white streak in your hair come from?” she asked conversationally. Her finger stroked that half-inch-wide streak of crisp hair; she’d been wanting to touch it from the first minute she’d seen it. “Genetic thing in your family?”
    “No, I earned it carrying two-ton women around in my youth.”
    He was the stingiest man with a secret she’d ever met. “Do I have to tell you one more time that I could have walked?”
    “And had your feet soaked and your shoes wrecked from the brush. Down. ”
    She slid, rather unglamorously, down his back to the ground and was given a second and a half to restore her skirt to propriety before he turned around.
    “I should have peeked at what my hands were holding all this time,” he remarked.
    “After all your grousing, you should be so lucky. Why—” But she could see why they’d stopped. It only looked like the middle of nowhere. Half hidden in dead vines was a metal ladder leading up to the planked floor of the fire tower. In the dusky woods, it hadn’t been immediately visible. She studied the lower steps first, and then her eyes slowly trailed up, and up again.
    “It’s rather a long distance to the top,” she commented.
    “About three stories’ worth.”
    “That platform up there doesn’t look solid.”
    “It’s very solid.”
    “People can get shortness of breath if they go too high.”
    “You’re scared of heights.” Mitch sounded resigned.
    “Certainly not,” she assured him, and gulped. “You first.”
    “No way.”
    A latent burst of propriety made her remind him politely that she was wearing a skirt.
    “I already noticed. And I’ve already had my hands on your fanny, so it’s too late to worry about modesty. If you fall, you’ve got a cushion. Me. So it’s ladies first. I won’t look.”
    Which was fine, only she hadn’t taken ten steps up before he remarked on her terrific legs, the stinker. Actually, from his position Kay knew he couldn’t really see her legs. From the instant she’d lied about her acrophobia, he’d flanked her every move. His long arms stretched above hers and he made mischievously sure his body was surrounding her with every step. No wonder she was dizzy. It had nothing to do with soaring above the trees…but those steps did keep coming.
    She glanced back to look at him. His grin was wicked, his eyes were dancing and his cheeks were ruddy. She had a feeling he hadn’t done anything quite so crazy in years, which was enough of an incentive to drive her up the rest of the way. So her heart was