Read All Night Woman: A Contemporary Romance for Free Online Page A

bio. 
    Holly didn’t look entirely convinced, but she nodded and gave her friend a hug.  “Happy Birthday, Liz.  I’m sorry it didn’t end on a better note.”
    Liz returned her smile, but with obvious effort.  “Are you kidding?  We’ll be laughing about this for years to come.”
    “Just not tonight,” Holly said.
    “Just not tonight,” Liz agreed.

Chapter 5
 
    A s humiliating experiences went, the night ranked right up there at the top of the list.  Setting aside the fact that she’d over-imbibed, she had also done the bump-and-grind on stage in front of a packed audience with a couple of guys who were at least ten years younger than she was.  If that wasn’t bad enough, she had thrown up on a staff member and spent the next several hours in a police station.
    And now the hottest, sexiest guy she had ever met was driving her sorry ass home.
    Way to go, Elizabeth Christine Benning .  Since her mother wasn’t there to utter the dreaded full-name admonishment, Liz stepped up and did it herself.
    She sat as far over on the passenger side as possible, hoping that she didn’t smell like vomit.  She didn’t think she did; the humiliating faux pas had been pretty straight-forward and the Security guard’s shoes had gotten the brunt of it, but she’d given herself an extra spritz or two of her favorite rose-scented body spray just in case.  That and the tin of peppermint Altoids she was currently munching her way through should cover the worst of it.
    He – Miles - smelled absolutely wonderful, of course.  His dark, rich scent – Obsession for Men, if she wasn’t mistaken – filled the truck’s interior.
    Liz sighed.  She was a sucker for Obsession.  Had been ever since she first smelled it on a guy in the grocery store.  She ended up stalking him for several aisles that day, until she finally got up the courage to ask him what cologne he was wearing.  He had been appreciative.  His pregnant wife, not so much.
    And why did Adam’s brother have to look like a slightly older version of Damon Salvatore?  Vampire Diaries was one of Liz’s never-miss shows.  In her mind, Ian Somerhalder’s character represented the epitome of everything a man should look like.  Just her luck that his doppelganger had to show up just when she was at her finest.
    It was official.  The universe was out to get her.
    * * *
    T he blonde – Liz – didn’t say much.  She remained quiet, as far away as she could physically get in the relatively small cab interior.  Miles shot occasional glances her way, thinking that maybe she had fallen asleep, but she hadn’t.  Her pretty blue eyes were open, reflecting the muted lights of the dashboard GPS.
    He opened his mouth more than once, thinking a little light conversation might ease some of her obvious discomfort, but strangely enough, he was at a loss.  That was not a problem he had often; one of the reasons he was a successful salesman was his knack for sensing and being able to say what people wanted to hear.
    “I’d forgotten how bleak everything looks around here in January,” he said finally, wincing when he realized he’d actually talked about the weather .
    “Yes,” she agreed, so softly he barely heard it over the white noise of the defroster.
    He waited for the standard questions:  Oh, are you originally from around here?  How long has it been?  Where do you live now? – but none came.  Unused to such a response (or lack thereof), he had a few questions of his own:  Was she shy?  Not feeling well?  Embarrassed?  Or just wiped out?
    Never once did he consider she wasn’t interested.  He’d seen the spark in her eye the moment she’d laid eyes on him, the same spark that he’d seen in countless other women’s.
    Maybe she was playing hard to get.  Some women did that, thinking that men enjoyed the illusion of the hunt.  He was on the fence about that.  Sometimes he liked a challenge; other times he appreciated the efforts of a woman