Read Anyone but Alex (The English Brothers Book 3) for Free Online Page B

ballroom standard The Way You Look Tonight . “This is one of my favorites.”
    “It’s not a good idea, Jess,” he said, her words, “ Only me ,” fresh in his head. He thought of Cameron’s warning, about the little girl who trusted him once upon a time. He reminded himself that he was not the sort of man who deserved someone like her, on any level.
    “I don’t care.” Her eyes flashed, meeting his with intensity before softening with a small, cajoling smile. “Don’t friends ever dance together?”
    “I’m the wrong person to ask. When I’m dancing with someone, I’m generally trying to get into her pants.”
    “Oh,” said Jessie, pushing away from the low cem ent wall to stand before him. “Then it’s okay, because I’m wearing a dress.”
    She drew his hand to her hip , under his jacket, placing his palm flat against the smooth satin, and he pulled her toward him as his fingers spread, then tightened. She bent her head back to look up at him, her lips catching the ambient light from the ballroom, shiny and full, heart-wrenchingly lovely. She placed one hand on his shoulder and held up the other, waiting for him to take it in his. Knowing what a very bad idea it was to slow dance with Jessica Winslow on the secluded balcony, he still couldn’t help himself from reaching for her, from stealing this one fleeting moment before telling her goodbye.
    She gasped lightly as his fingers curled around her hand , and he cut his eyes from their joined hands to her face. Her tongue slipped between her lips to wet them, and Alex watched, fascinated, his chest heaving from the feeling of holding her so close.
    With dance steps well-practiced at Simon West’s School of Dance, they made the best of the small space, their movements tight. Alex tried not to look at her face, which was so beautiful and unguarded he could barely stand not to lean down and kiss her. He lifted his chin and stared, instead, over her shoulder at the lights of the cars moving back and forth on the street below. A dozen cars going somewhere. A dozen people who had no idea how much the world had changed in the past hour.
    Jessica Winslow was home after fourteen years. She was stunning and witty and warm, and she wanted to be friends… Friends.
    Hmm , Alex thought. She hadn’t withdrawn that offer.
    He pulled her closer, feeling desperate to assuage the heaviness he’d feel when the song ended and she walked away from him. No one had ever looked at him as Jessie did, and now that she’d reappeared in his life, even for a handful of weeks, he couldn’t bear to let her go. She had offered him her friendship, and Alex was helpless to refuse it.
    He looked at the stars, silently promising that he wouldn’t make a move on her—he couldn’t, wouldn’t , let himself have her, wouldn’t let himself ruin her by letting anyone think she was one of the “Professor’s Girls.” He would be careful and discreet, as proper as a parson, if that’s what it took to know her again.
    “Jess,” he whispered close to her ear . He felt her tremble lightly in his arms. “If the offer’s still open, I’d like to be friends.”
    She leaned back, h er lips tilting up softly as she searched his eyes. After a long pause, she finally answered. “It’s still open.”
    “Okay, then.” He gulped softly, surprised by the leaping in his chest, the sudden lightness of his head. “Friends.”
    “Friends,” she said, giving him an encouraging smile before leaning forward to rest her cheek on his shoulder.
    “ Um. What does that look like, exactly?” he asked against her hair, closing his eyes, inhaling the light scent of tea roses mixed with Black and knowing that he’d buy another tux before he’d launder the jacket she was wearing tonight.
    “It could look like lunch…on Tuesday, if you’re free. I know it’s Thanksgiving week, but —”
    “I’m free,” he answered. “ We’ll be discreet.”
    “Alex, it wouldn’t bother me to be seen with