Read Pleasure My Lustful Heart: A Romance Novella for Free Online Page A

there with me. Stay here. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
    The enticing aroma of the heated braciola filled the hallway as I carried the container back to the office from the lunchroom. I also brought two paper plates plus plastic forks and knives. Not elegant, but serviceable. “Smells great,” I said.
    “Maybe I should have brought a bottle of wine,” Gregg said.
    “Don’t need wine,” I told him. “You got me with the braciola.”
    The food was as delicious as he’d said it was, and we both dug into it.  At the end of the lunch there was one braciola left in the container, and after each of us insisted that the other have it, we agreed to split it. “You see,” he said, placing half on my plate, “we can come to a friendly decision, after all.”
    “Are we going to spoil this treat with merger talk?” I said. I was in truly good spirits by this time, and didn’t feel like delving into anything troublesome.
    “No, no, no.  Absolutely nothing like that. That’s not why I’m here.” He shoved the trash from our lunch back into the brown bag they came in, then deposited the whole package into my wastebasket. He looked at me, waiting for me to respond. Then, “Aren’t you going to ask me why I came?”
    “ Why should I ask? You’re going to tell me, anyway.”
    He smiled. Beautiful white teeth. Full,sensual mouth. When I’d met him yesterday, I didn’t care. Now I was beginning to care. “I’m here because I know I made an awful impression last night,” he said, “and I was afraid I’d sunk our relationship before it ever got started.”
    “Relationship?” I said. “I didn’t know we had a relationship.”
    “There I go getting pushy again. What I mean to say is the relationship I hope we can have.”
    “More than as a merger partner, you mean.”
    “Forget about a merger.  I want to know you, merger or no.”
    “Why?”
    “Well, for one thing, you like good food.”
    “Don’t forget the wine,” I said.
    “The wine was from last night. We’ve turned that page. We’re starting all over, from today.”
    “Okay.”
    “Look, Kit, I like you because you’re real people. And I haven’t known anyone real in a long time. You’re special. You say what you think. You’re pretty and smart and funny and I like the sound of your voice and the way your hair flows over your shoulders.”
    That’s a line that could win an Academy Award, I thought. But I didn’t say it. Because on some deep level, I wanted it all to be true. What I did say was, “You’re very kind to say those things.”
    “I was hoping we could spend some time together. I’m going fishing tomorrow, and I’d like you to come with me.”
    “Fishing? I’ve never been fishing in my life.”
    “No problem. I’ll show you how. I have a cabin on Wiley Lake, and a little boat with a motor. It was all Dad's. He left it to me. Pretty rustic, but also very beautiful. It’s only an hour’s drive. We can spend the day on the water. The whole weekend is supposed to be perfect weather. Please say you’ll come with me.”
    Fishing. A cabin at the lake, an hour from home. A boat out on the water.  I’d be trapped for the day with the man Pa had told me to be wary of, who had a risky plan he was trying to sell, and who had a suspicious reputation. But he was also the man who was beginning to stir a hunger in me, despite my concerns.
    “Sounds like fun,” I said.
    What the hell, Kit. Take a chance.
     
     
    CHAPTER 7
    Gregg picked me up early the next morning, and though he was all smiles, he said very little as we drove, which surprised me. By 9:30 we arrived at his cabin, the last half mile or so on a dirt road off the highway.
    It was a log cabin in a clearing, right out of a storybook. You almost expected to see a young Abe Lincoln come walking out the door. There were two steps leading to a tiny porch under an overhang of the roof, and a stone chimney running up one side of the cabin. Inside, it was all one big room,