By the Book: A laugh-out-loud feel good romantic comedy by Nancy Warren

Author:Nancy Warren [Warren, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781928145318
Publisher: Ambleside Publishing
Published: 2017-12-18T18:30:00+00:00

“Come in,” he said.

“Thanks.” She presented him with a bottle of chilled white wine. “I wasn’t sure. But it seemed kind of warm today for red.”

“This is perfect,” he said, but something in his tone made her feel the way the fly would after giving the spider a present—as though she were being toyed with before being eaten.

She entered the apartment and the feeling of strangeness didn’t leave her. He had a small round table set for two outside on his patio. Near the door, there was a tub of herbs, which impressed her, and there were metal lanterns containing candles. Once they were settled with glasses of wine, he flipped off the lights inside his apartment, and she found her sense of displacement growing stronger.

The sun had already set and there was only a sliver of moon. The air was still warm from the unseasonably hot day, but in the dark, with a hint of fresh herbs scenting the air, she felt as though she were in the south of France or Italy.

With her companion seemingly so mysterious and this patio so visually disconnected from the rest of the world, a turmoil of sensations stirred inside her—mystery, uncertainty and the hot, enticing spice of desire.

In an attempt to drown that desire, she gulped wine too quickly and chattered manically about how excited the kids were that Luke was coming to talk to them next week. “I decided to assign them all an article to write after you’ve done your session. We’ll go through them as a class and vote on the best ones. Perhaps the best three. And then, if it’s all right with you, you could pick the winner.”

“I think I could pick a winner,” he said, his voice seeming surprisingly deep all of a sudden.

“Thank you.” She picked up her glass to drink more wine and discovered it was empty. Wow. That was fast. She checked to see if he used really small glasses, but they were a generous size. She must be thirsty.

As she put down her empty glass, he rose to fill it. “Are you hungry?”

Hungry. She was so hungry every part of her felt empty and screaming for fulfillment. Why did he have to have all the appearance and attributes of a sexually exciting man and always fall apart at the critical moment? Anyway, for all the nuance she heard in his voice, he was obviously talking about food, and if she was smart she’d switch to drinking water.

“I’m ready for dinner,” she said carefully. “And may I have a glass of water?”

“Sure. I’ll be just a minute.”

In less than a minute he’d filled her wineglass and set a glass of water in front of her. He disappeared inside and in no more than ten minutes, reappeared with two plates. Lighting a couple more candles on the table, he illuminated a dinner that could have come from any five-star restaurant.

“Mmm. Tuna?” she guessed, staring at the steak-like piece of fish, with some kind of vegetable salsa on top, complete with rice and spears of baby asparagus.

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