Read Online So Irresistible by Lisa Plumley - Free Book Online Page A

could make her blush. He wanted to hold her hand some more.
    He wanted to lose himself in her. And since Shane was there to experience every sloppy emotion he usually suppressed . . .
    “The craziest thing is,” he said, unable to squash a smile as he looked at her, “this feels so right , right now.”
    “Everything feels right in a brewpub past midnight.”
    “It’s not just that. It’s you.”
    Her arched brows suggested a healthy skepticism that Shane couldn’t help respecting. Gabby laughed. “Wait till you know me better. If you’re impressed now, you’ll be floored later.”
    “I don’t doubt it.” He took a pull of his porter, realized he didn’t want to be too drunk to remember this night, and set the bottle aside. “What do you say we skip the ‘impressed’ beginning and go straight to the ‘floored’ middle?”
    “Why not go right to the end?”
    “Because that’s not the fun part.”
    “But everything happens that way.” She gestured, chopping her hand lightly on the tabletop to emphasize. “Beginning, middle, end. You can’t skip parts. No matter how tempting.”
    “It is tempting. And yes, I can. No rules, just . . . living.”
    Her direct gaze met his. “Where did you get such a no-holds-barred attitude, anyway? Did you just get paroled?” She touched his arm and nearly incited a riot in his nerve endings. “Tell me the truth. I’ll know it if you’re fibbing.”
    Shane laughed. She was perceptive. Not that he’d ever been in prison, but Gabby had clearly spied the darker side of him. He didn’t doubt she’d guess if he tried to put one over on her.
    Oddly enough, though, he didn’t want to try. He didn’t even want to employ a few “fixing” skills, the way he’d done to snag their not nearly private enough corner booth at the brewpub.
    “I grew up in foster care. I learned early to live day to day—to take things as they come.” Effortlessly, he signaled for another round of drinks. Even if he wasn’t planning to down more porter, it was only right to pay for the use of the booth. “Some families were good. Some were bad. Some were indifferent.” Shane squinted momentarily, remembering those days. Then he shrugged. “When I wasn’t in trouble, I was invisible.”
    “So you stayed in trouble a lot.”
    He grinned as their new drinks arrived. “How’d you guess?”
    “You look the part. Despite your boyish demeanor, that is. You look . . . like trouble.” Gabby picked up a bottle of porter, put a bottle in his hand, then toasted him. “To bad behavior.”
    “Bad behavior?” Warily, Shane drank. “You don’t mean that.”
    “I never say anything I don’t mean.”
    He liked that. It also scared the hell out of him. The last thing he needed was a woman who saw through his infamous charisma, sussed out his disreputable past . . . and wanted to be with him anyway. It was fortunate this was a onetime thing.
    “We have that in common,” Shane told her truthfully.
    “I wouldn’t still be here if we didn’t.” Looking sparkly-eyed and pretty, Gabby nodded at his bottle. “You’re not drinking?”
    “Not anymore.” Suddenly, more than anything, he wanted to remember tonight. He inhaled deeply, catching a whiff of those spicy scents that clung to her. He felt . . . moved by her nearness, brightened by her smile and her smarts and her straightforward way of putting things. “I want to remember you.”
    “Aw.” Grinning, she downed some porter. “Cheesy, much?”
    “Obviously, you’ve never met a man who took you seriously. Otherwise, you’d be used to hearing things like that.”
    With her bottle partway to her lips, Gabby paused. She eyed him through exotic dark eyes. “Yeah. I scare most men.”
    “That’s on them. At least they know where they stand with you. If they can’t handle that”—Shane spread his arms, feeling more in sync with her all the time—“screw ’em.”
    “That’s what I say!” Shaking her head at him, Gabby gave