Make Me Over_ Getting Real - Leslie Kelly [11]
It took him a second, but he got it. He couldn’t help laughing. The fondness in her smile as she laughed along told him a lot about how she felt toward her family.
“You miss them.”
She nodded. “But it won’t be for long. I plan on skedaddlin’ outta here tomorrow. Next day at the latest.”
He stiffened suddenly, as the word no flashed through his brain. “You can’t. The show…”
“Girls start gettin’ kicked off tomorrow. I aim to be the first.”
He couldn’t explain the dismay that swept through him at her words. He’d only known her a short time, but he’d already realized something very important. Tori could be the one. She could be exactly the woman Burt Mueller—and he, Drew Bennett—had been looking for.
She was lovely and sweet. Funny and quick-witted. Her lack of education didn’t diminish one bit from what he sensed was real intelligence behind her pretty blue eyes. And her spirit and tenacity hinted she would give herself wholeheartedly to something once she’d set her mind to do it.
Why she’d set her mind to leaving, he had no idea. But one thing was sure. He’d do anything to get her to stay.
T ORI’D BEEN JABBERIN’ ON about her life and her family and drivin’ for over an hour, and she still couldn’t focus on much besides the mouth of the man she was talkin’ to.
She wanted to kiss Drew Bennett. To kiss him and kiss him and never stop. Well, maybe stop a little, so she could look up at him and see him starin’ at her in the hungry way he had right at first. She’d been ogled by men from time to time. But that didn’t feel nothin’ like the warm, tingly way this handsome man had made her feel.
Not only handsome, he was also nice and smart and he smelled like somethin’ salty and fresh. Like the ocean. He had the cutest little dent in his cheek when he laughed, and he listened real good, like he was interested in every word she had to say. And through it all, his dark eyes didn’t hide what he was really thinkin’.
The same thing she was…about gettin’ a whole lot closer.
He wanted her, too. Wanted her bad. There was only one reason he hadn’t tried kissin’ her yet and it had nothin’ to do with her.
It was the show. This stupid reality show. There didn’t seem to be no doubt he was here as some kind of teacher and that’d made him get all teacherly.
Shew-ee, if she’d ever had a English teacher who looked like this one, she mighta stuck it out for the rest of high school, insteada droppin’ out when the readin’ got too tough in junior year.
“You know,” he said, after they’d been sittin’ there in the near dark, jawin’ for almost an hour, “I’m afraid you didn’t get a chance to do much reading.”
She shrugged. “Slow’s I read, I’d probably still be on the second page, anyway.”
He tilted his head and gave her one of the funny, intense-looking stares that made her go all a-quivery down in her belly. Like he wanted to crawl right inside her mind and settle down for a spell, gettin’ to know all her secrets.
Well, she didn’t want nobody inside her mind. But this here was one man she could honestly say she wouldn’t mind havin’ inside her body.
“Do you have trouble reading, Tori?”
“What?” she mumbled, havin’ a hard time keeping up with the words when her mind was filled with all kinds of wicked pictures. Drew’s mouth on hers. His hands windin’ in her hair. His chest…Lord almighty, that body. Strippin’ every piece of clothing off, down to his Skivvies.
“Wait,” she said, snapping upright. “Are you the underwear man?”
His jaw about hit his chest it dropped so hard. Tori scrunched her eyes shut in embarrassment. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that. I mean, Sukie, one of the girls, she said a steamin’ hunka man came in here earlier and got a pair of drawers thrown at him.”
The man turned red. Blushed like a bride on her weddin’ day. The sight made