Summer of Love - Carly Phillips Page 0,28

do for you, Mr. Baldwin?” Elena asked.

He cleared his throat. “First, please call me Ryan. And second, I was wondering if I could steal Sam for an hour.”

Sam stiffened her shoulders. “Why? I didn’t do anything wrong. The pig’s allowed to stay. Zoe said so.” She uttered Zoe’s name with reverence and awe. The big sister Sam probably had never thought she’d have.

Meanwhile, she stared at him as if he were the pond scum who wanted to steal everything she held dear. Which, he thought, wasn’t far from the truth.

He drew a deep breath. “The pig’s fine. I just thought that we could go for ice cream and I could ask you some questions.” Deceit wasn’t a comfortable fit for him, and he tried to keep his answers as honest as possible.

Elena nodded. “That’s a wonderful idea.”

Sam merely glared. “No matter what you say to me, I still want to be adopted and live here forever.”

A slicing pain ripped through his gut. “I understand what you want, Sam. I just want to get to know you better. That’s all.”

“Can I get a sundae?” she asked.

“If I say yes, will you come with me?”

Sam walked over to the phone, picked up the receiver and handed it to him. “After you ask Zoe for a date tonight.”

Ryan shook his head and laughed because if he hadn’t known that they needed him to get Zoe to her party, he’d think the kid and Elena were actually matchmaking.

Chapter Five

After spending a few hours in a shopping mall with a fourteen-year-old, Ryan had been spent. First, he’d taken Sam for ice cream as promised, where she’d ducked behind him every time she’d seen a boy she knew from school. Then he’d had what he thought was a brainstorm and he’d asked her to help him shop for a birthday gift for Zoe.

Sam had dragged him into an all-natural beauty store that smelled ultrafeminine and too seductive for his peace of mind. Clenching his mouth shut tight, he’d stood back as Sam had chosen Zoe’s favorite scents in body scrub, body wash, body splash and he was sure there were more items he couldn’t remember. He couldn’t very well tell the kid that they were in way too intimate territory when she was so pleased with her selections, so he’d gone ahead and purchased her choices.

The store clerk had insisted on wrapping them in a gift basket with some courtesy products, including a loofah sponge he couldn’t stop envisioning running over every part of Zoe’s body, inch by tantalizing inch. His desire for her grew each time he saw her. His need to taste her again, to possess her body and learn her secrets, was with him day and night.

Now hours later, he was driving Zoe to a surprise destination for their date. His nerves were on edge as he waited for the phone call redirecting them to her aunt’s diner. Each time he inhaled, he took in her fresh-like-summer scent, forcing him to shake his head in an attempt to stop thinking about Zoe and sex. Sleeping with her would compromise his emotions, he knew, and in turn, he’d jeopardize his goal to take Sam to Boston with him.

Instead, he focused on the trip he’d made after taking Sam back to Elena’s. He’d gone back to the mall to purchase another, more practical gift for Zoe. One that had a purpose, but wasn’t in the least bit romantic. Though he knew he’d have to give both wrapped packages in order to protect Sam’s feelings, he hoped the more simple one would take away from the innuendo implied by the bath and body basket—even if his skin were tingling as if she’d used that loofah sponge on him, then followed it up with her hands, and then those luscious lips he’d tasted the other day.

Zoe placed a hand on his shoulder, her soft touch doing nothing to help him repress his desire to sleep with her as soon as possible.

“It was so nice of you to ask me out for my birthday, even if I’m certain Sam put you up to it,” she said, laughing.

He grinned. “The kid has a way about her, that’s for sure. It’s true she might have told me it was your birthday, but I would have asked you out, anyway.”

“Really?”

“Eventually,” he admitted. “When these things between us got more settled.” When there was no agenda between them.

Which might be never, he thought to himself.

She raised an eyebrow, her understanding as strong