Read The Darkest Link (Second Circle Tattoos) for Free Online

she had in her purse if her scarf failed. She reached into her bag to find it and tied it around her head.
    “I like this,” Kenny said, fingering the knot under her chin gently. The way his eyes crinkled at the corners made her feel all kinds of gooey inside. Perhaps it was a good thing they lived a long drive away from each other. His very presence made it difficult to remember why she was taking some time off from men. But a little harmless flirtation was adding to the adventure of a few days off work. There couldn’t be any harm in that.
    Once inside the car, Kenny took her hotel details and plugged them into his phone. “There are few downsides to the classics, but lack of sat-nav has to be one,” he said, turning the radio on. “Ready?”
    “I feel like Thelma and Louise about to drive over the edge of the cliff,” she said with a laugh.
    “Close. That was a 1966 Ford Thunderbird, eight years younger than this baby. Does that make me J.D.?”
    “That depends. Are you planning on driving me to a motel, having your wicked way with me on the dresser, then stealing my life savings?”
    “I know a motel, don’t know if they have a dresser, but more than willing to do a drive-by to find out.”
    Lia laughed. “I was joking.”
    “I wasn’t. Say the word, Red.”
    He revved the engine several times, the low growl sexy as all hell, and grinned as he roared out onto the street. Lia watched his hand as he shifted the stick. He caressed the gear stick. The more she stared, the more turned on she became until she had to cross her legs and look out of the window.
    Damn him for getting her so hot and bothered. She spared a glance back toward him, just as he turned to face her. And he winked. Because he knew.
    And that just turned her on even more.
    * * *
    Reid waited for Lia in the opulent lobby of her hotel. Giant chandeliers reflected warm light off gold accents but did little to distract him from the fact that Lia was in her room freshening up. Not that she’d asked him to go up with her, but it was better for both of them that he was down here while she was up there changing into some other outfit that he couldn’t wait to see. Because the very idea that she was currently naked wasn’t helping the semi hard-on he’d had since she’d crossed her legs in the car. Watching her fidget, he wondered what it would be like to still her. To fuck her so completely that she couldn’t focus on anything but him and the way he made her feel.
    They’d made small talk as he tried to convince himself that sliding his hand up her knee was a really bad idea, and got to know one another a
little
better while he tried to bury thoughts of fucking her on random pieces of furniture. Plus, his dick was acting like a teenager faced with his first skin mag. As the questions touched on something personal, both of them had pulled back. In his mind, the less she knew about him as a person, the less personal this encounter would be, which would make it easier when she pulled her car off his lot for good. Or so he told himself. Repeatedly.
    He looked at his phone. Eight thirty. The elevator pinged and the gold doors slid open. Tourists, who were the number one reason he avoided Orlando, poured out into the lobby in varying shades of beige, white, and sunburned. And then there was Lia. Red-and-white polka-dots danced on the full skirt, and the revealing low-cut V left him itching to adjust the front of his pants one more time. She’d changed shoes: peep-toed heels with polka-dots to match the dress. A wide patent belt emphasized her narrow waist and the flare of her hips. He’d take a woman with curves any day of the week. It was ungallant for sure, but he let her walk toward him so he could watch her hips sway from side to side as she crossed the checkerboard-tiled floor.
    “Enjoy that?” she asked as she approached him.
    “So much that I might just let you walk a couple of feet ahead of me so I can check out if the back looks as good