Walk on the Wild Side 13 by Christine Warren

Author:Christine Warren
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780312947910
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2008-06-03T03:06:41+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

KITTY EXAMINED THE MAP AS SHE WALKED, TRYING TO get her bearings and plot her route at the same time. She didn't want to stay out too long, since at some point today Max would take her back to see her father, but she needed a distraction. Bad. If she sat around in her room all morning, she would have nothing to do except brood about kissing Max Stuart. And wrapping her leg around Max Stuart. And nearly letting Max Stuart have sex with her in an alley like she was some kind of cheap hooker.

Feeling the heat of embarrassment stain her cheeks yet again, Kitty forced the memories aside and focused resolutely on her sightseeing plans. None of those other options boded well for her sanity.

Smiling at the attendant who held the hotel door open for her, Kitty stepped outside and glanced up from her map. She didn't plan on getting lost, and her sense of direction wasn't bad, but even if she had gotten confused, she didn't imagine it would be difficult to find the Savannah again.

The hotel's rich, earthy stone façade stood out among the whites and grays and reflective glass surfaces of the other buildings, and its landscaping made an even more striking contrast to the other hotels. She hadn't noticed so much yesterday, but then she'd been with Ronnie and that had made her a little nervous. Today, she could really appreciate the resort's unique beauty.

Provided she kept her mind off Max Stuart's masculine beauty.

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Instead of featuring lush landscaping and the seemingly obligatory fountain in the forecourt, her father's hotel looked as if it belonged in this desert-and-scrub-brush environment, as if it had grown in this place and could survive and thrive even if the earth around rose up and reclaimed the rest of the city. Its plantings consisted of thorn trees and acacia, tall exotic grasses, and stunted shrubs suited to a place where water was scarce and the sun unrelenting.

Kitty breathed in the warm, dry air, as foreign to her as the gnarled branches of the huge, unfamiliar tree at the center of the hotel's semi-circular drive. To her, heat was heavy, wet, lush.

It wrapped around you like a coat everyone resigned themselves to wearing outside between Arbor Day and Halloween. This heat felt light and clear and fiery, like whiskey, and sharp, like clear blue flames. Despite herself, she was fascinated and seduced. She felt energized and aware and uncomfortably at ease. Almost as if she belonged here, or in some other place remarkably like this, half-remembered from a long-ago dream.

Considering the last day and a half, that kind of thinking could prove to be dangerous.

"Did you need a taxi, miss?"

The doorman's question startled her, dragging Kitty back to reality.

"Oh no," she said, her smile sheepish. "Thank you, but I'm fine. My mind was just wandering, so I think I should follow my mamaw's advice and let my feet follow."

Glancing left and right, Kitty made sure the path was clear, then stepped off the curb to cross the drive and let her gaze drop back to the map.

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