Page 4 of Awakening Anna

Chapter Two

Anna was notthe casual sex type. Heck, she'd barely had noncasual sex. Men—especially gorgeous, successful men—did not seduce your everyday, run-of-the-mill librarian.

It just did not happen.

Which meant the ridiculous notion that Max Marshall wanted to have sex with Anna was nothing more than a figment of her overactive imagination. A product of the erotic and very inappropriate dreams she’d been having about the man for several weeks now. Her brain had cast him in every fantasy she’d ever conjured up, and a few she’d never considered at all.

In every one of them, she’d been the skilled lover any man would desire.

But this wasn’t a dream, and Anna had yet to master the missionary position, let alone a reverse cowgirl—a term she only knew thanks to her younger sister.

She and Max would share a meal, enjoy a sure-to-be invigorating conversation, and then she would send him back upstairs where he belonged.

Decision made, Anna dropped her bags on the couch and strode to her bedroom, intent on changing into something more suitable. Something that would keep her breasts modestly hidden, as they should be. Rummaging in her drawer, she came across the white, lacy bra and panty set her sister had given her for her birthday.

It couldn’t hurt to wear something pretty. It wasn’t as if Max would know what she wore beneath her dress, and the feminine pieces might give her enough confidence to get through the evening without embarrassing herself.

Before she could decide whether to wear the lingerie or not, her cell phone went off in the living room. Anna nearly jumped out of her skin, and the swath of white lace went flying through the air.

The Cardi B. songlet her know the call was from her sister. The younger sibling had assigned herself the ringtone, and Anna never bothered to change it.

“Hello, Lynnlee,” she said after swiping to answer.

“Hey there, big sis, how's tricks at the library?”

“Dark at the moment,” Anna replied. “Where are you?”

“I was in class, but Professor Belding let us go when the lights went out. I thought I might stop over and help you eat whatever’s in your fridge.”

Anna debated how much to tell her sister.

I’m having dinner with my super-hot neighbor, who just happens to be six years younger than I am and somewhat famous. For a moment I was considering having mad, passionate sex with him, but I have returned to my senses.

“I have someone coming for dinner already,” she said, keeping the details vague.

Lynnlee jumped to the obvious conclusion. “That elderly woman who volunteers at the library?”

At fifty-two, Sylvia was not elderly, but to twenty-one-year-old Lynnlee, everyone over thirty-five was ancient.

“Actually, it's my neighbor.”

Silence echoed down the line for several seconds before Lynnlee said, “No. Fucking. Way.”

“Yes, way,” Anna said more sedately.

“Max Marshall, the walking sex god, is coming into your apartment to have dinner? Please tell me you’re going to jump his bones.”

Anna remembered Max’s parting smile, and her brain yelled Yes!

To her sister, she said, “Don’t be ridiculous. I would never embarrass myself like that. We’re having dinner and that’s all.”

“Anna, you can’t let this chance get away. What is he, like, twenty-five? That’s exactly what you need, a younger guy.”

“I didn’t ask his age.” Max was twenty-six, actually. Not that she’d Googled him or anything.

“I’ll never forgive you if you don’t do this,” Lynnlee said. “You’re hot. And he’s hot. Way hotter than those idiots you’ve dated before.”

“They weren’t idiots.”

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