Please let me rain on you!  With ANOTHER EXCERPT!

Here’s part 2 from a contemporary by Bonnie Edwards, her wonderful single author anthology Thigh High (Aphrodisia, 1 Feb 08).   And no, that’s not a typo in the title.  One of the stories in the antho is named “Thigh High.”  So there. :p

We’ll put up an excerpt from the last story in the antho tomorrow.  LOVE these story names!  They bring a smile to my face every time I read them…

Thigh High: Thigh High by Bonnie Edwards

“Oh, man, he is so buff!” Kat Hardee commented, ogling her next door neighbor. Her mail forgotten in her hand, she leaned on the mail box at the entrance to the town house complex.

“I’ll say,” Celia agreed. “But such a nerd. It’s a shame.”

Celia lived on the other side of the man in question, Taye Connors and Kat had forgotten she was standing there, too.

“I didn’t mean for you to hear that,” Kat said with a burn on her cheeks. Knowing Celia she’d twist the comment into something it wasn’t.

He climbed out of his SUV and headed to the door of his town house, briefcase in hand. He bent and picked up a package left on his front step. Wrapped in cozy brown cords, he had a great butt, even from this distance and Kat found several ways a day to see it. From her back upstairs window she’d watch him put out birdseed. Through his tiny kitchen window she’d catch glimpses of him making dinner.

“He’s not a nerd,” Kat said in his defense. “I’m willing to bet under that tweed jacket is a lot of man.”

“You think?” Celia assessed him with her man-hungry eyes.

Kat shifted. A second mistake. Taye’s physique was not up for discussion, not with Celia. She was a shark when it came to getting what she wanted. Kat’s comment had alerted her to something Kat wanted to keep to herself. For herself.

Not that she had the gumption to go after the man. Chasing a man had created havoc in her life once, she didn’t need to do it again. Especially not now! She was finally in college and finally doing something for herself.

A man in her life would only mess up everything! She wrestled the image of Taye Connors’ hot sexy body back under her libido. Way under her libido. Locked in a vault under her libido. No way would the two meet again.

“How much would you bet?” Celia’s curious dangerously calm voice broke into Kat’s wrestling match. The look Celia gave her was every bit as dangerously curious as her voice.

Dread leaked into her belly. “What do you mean?” Even she heard the fear in her voice. Celia had a way of making foolish behavior sound like fun. Lots of fun.

Celia clicked her tongue impatiently. She didn’t suffer fools gladly. “What would you bet that he’s a lot of man under his clothes?”

Everything inside her tightened: stomach, libido, vault, all waiting to see what Kat would say at the idea of getting Taye out of his tweed jacket, then his shirt, his slacks. “You know I’m broke. I can’t afford to bet.”

“Hm. Wouldn’t have to be for money.” Celia pulled mail out of her box and smiled in a way that made Kat nervous. “How’s this? You get him naked and let me know how buff he is. I’ll give you the weekend.”

“Why?”

“I’m curious. The men I usually spend time with aren’t like him. I go for bad boys. I’ve never done a man like Taye.” She arched one perfectly waxed eyebrow and waited.

“Do you want him?” Celia and Taye: a good man with a bad, bad woman. He was nice, quiet. Kind. Gentle. A woman like Celia would eat him alive.

Celia shrugged one smooth shoulder. “Might be fun, if the bod’s up to snuff. But I won’t know that unless you tell me what he looks like under his clothes.”

Kat secretly admitted to some curiosity and a dose of reluctant admiration for the woman’s want it, get it attitude, but she did not want firsthand knowledge of Celia’s lifestyle. She preferred a quieter life. She preferred to wait for a man to find her. She preferred not to think of Celia with Taye.

She wanted Taye.

If he took a walk on the wild side with Celia, Kat wouldn’t stand a chance. He’d never look her way again.

Up to now, there had been some glances. Second and third glances. A couple of those glances had stretched into looks. Long steamy looks.

“I’d do it,” Celia threatened in a sly tone, “but I’m going away for the weekend.” The lascivious expression in her eyes meant she’d found a new man. But still, she looked at Taye as if she couldn’t wait to get her mouth on him. “But there’s always next weekend.”

Celia’s nipples rose under her low cut sheer cotton blouse then Kat saw her upper thighs squeeze and release. Damn it, Celia meant business.

She could let this go. It wasn’t up to Kat to keep a nice guy out of Celia’s clutches. Especially since Taye never did anything more than chat politely at the front door.

But she couldn’t allow Celia to move in on a man Kat wanted. This was way past schoolgirl stuff. Taye’s heart might be at stake. The round robin of why she should walk away and let it happen versus the disaster of Celia messing with him bounced around in her head.

She looked up the driveway one more time. He was deadheading some petunias, bent over again, firm ass looking like a fine piece of fruit.

It wasn’t her head that made her decision. It was her heart. Followed quickly by a libido that came to life with a roar.

“All right. I’ll give it a try. But Taye going from small talk in the driveway to naked in my arms seems like a long shot.”

Celia crossed her arms under her gigantic boobs and shook her head sadly. “Who said anything about naked in your arms? I didn’t say you had to fuck him, I just said you had to see him naked. You can leave the fucking to me.”