Waking Up to You Overexposed - By Leslie Kelly Page 0,98
club and devoured her with his eyes at night while physically spurning her, she felt ready to howl in fury.
Showing up here by day—the handsome guy next door who wanted to lick the cream out of her cannoli—and her having to refuse him? It was pure hell.
She wanted Nick the bodyguard at night. Not Nick the sexy guy up the block by day.
She wanted sex. Not romance.
Wanted temporary. Not ever after.
Wanted to do him. Not date him.
It was simply a matter of wills to determine which of them got what they wanted first. God, she hoped it was her.
“Izzie?”
Startled, Izzie yelped and spun toward the front of the shop, seeing a customer at the counter. So much for thinking she’d hear the bell—she’d been deafened by her own thoughts.
Recognizing the woman, a weary smile curled her lips. Lilith was a regular, who could supposedly read the future. A bit out there, but a good customer, and a nice one. “I’m sorry.” She wiped her hands on her apron. “My head was in the clouds.”
“If the clouds all smell like this bakery, that’s not a bad place to be.”
Maybe for the customers. But after practically living in this place for two months, Izzie was over the nauseatingly sweet smells that invaded her nostrils from morning till night. “Believe me, it’s not so great going home from work with hair scented like anisette and clothes that reek of ginger.”
“On the positive side, they say the scent of licorice is great for dieters because it controls your appetite.”
Didn’t seem to her that the sexy, short-haired brunette had anything to worry about in that regard. Frankly, neither did Izzie. She’d long since lost her taste for sweets...no more cookie-induced panty girdles for her. “Twizzlers can keep it. I try to ignore the smells unless someone burns something.”
“Oh, come on, no one at Natale’s ever burns anything.”
Quickly washing her hands, Izzie had barely dried them before Lilith pointed with impatience at the lone cannoli remaining in the front display case.
When Lilith told her she’d be eating in, rather than taking the cannoli to go, Izzie asked, “Got a reading?”
While she didn’t entirely believe in that stuff, Izzie knew a lot of regulars swore by Lilith’s spiritual readings. Though she’d never considered it before, Izzie half wondered if the other woman could help her figure out the quagmire that was her life. Especially the Nick part of that quagmire.
“Nah, I’m taking a break from the medium world right now.”
“Just my luck. For the first time in my life I think I’d actually pay to have someone tell me who the heck I’m going to be next week.”
Izzie the baker? Izzie the stripper? Izzie the New Yorker? Izzie the Chicagoan? Izzie the horny?
That was the one she really wanted an answer to. Was she ever going to get laid again, and oh, please, please, please, would it actually be Nick Santori who did the laying?
She didn’t ask Lilith any of those things, though the medium promised she’d try to help her as soon as she was “back in business”—whatever that meant. But that might be too late. She might already have done something stupid—like having sex with Nick the bouncer as the Crimson Rose. Which would be fabulous but would make him hate her if he found out the truth.
Or something more stupid, like going out on a date with Nick, the guy up the block, which would have her parents planning their wedding. Then she’d hate herself.
Ordering a cappuccino to go with her treat, the mysterious brunette made herself at home at a front table, firing up a laptop. After making the frothy cappuccino, Izzie carried it over. “Doing some surfing?”
“I’m going to try. The most I’ve ever used the web for is updating my website and answering email.”
“Don’t forget shopping. Or maybe you’re going to start haunting chat rooms?”
“No, I’m doing research.”
Leaving the woman to it, Izzie went back to work. Concentrating on cleaning out the display cabinet, she was surprised to hear the bell jangle as another late-day customer came in. This one she didn’t recognize—and she definitely would have, if she’d seen her before. The leggy brunette was dressed entirely in sleek, black leather and she looked like a predatory cat. The sexy little motorcycle parked outside the door suggested the woman was a risk taker and a rule breaker.
Izzie liked her on sight.
“Hey, Izzie,” Lilith called, “what do you know about computers?”
Offering the new customer a quick smile, she answered, “Well, I