Money Shot Read Online Free

adult’s capacity for patience, reason or delayed gratification.”
    “But should we keep him locked into the child box just because he isn’t quite ready for the adult box?”
    She studied him. “You think not.”
    “I don’t think anything.” He spread his hands, at a loss to explain himself much further. “I just—for one afternoon—challenged some kids to go beyond complaining and into problem solving. They’re going to inherit a complicated world in a few years. Better for us all if they hit the ground running.”
    “So the Radical Agrarian Party was an experiment,” she said slowly. “A forum for teenagers to act and think on an adult level. A way for them to participate in the democratic process, to float their ideas about how to make our nation a better place and get actual, real-time feedback?”
    “Exactly.” He took a moment to envy the verbal dexterity that allowed her to sum up another person’s jumbled thoughts into a few perfect sentences. “All it took was a couple hours and signing my name to a few pieces of paper.”
    “Whose idea was it to put offing the governor with a flaming pitchfork into the bylaws?”
    “I believe that one was unanimous.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Guy’s kind of an ass.”
    Her lips twitched with what he suspected was the first genuine amusement she’d shown all day. “And how will the kids feel about their little experiment putting you under investigation by the Secret Service?”
    “Sobered, I hope.” He dropped his hands to his lap. “Only the young and foolish bait the government on purpose.”
    “And you?” she asked. “How do you feel about it?”
    “Being under investigation?” He met those dizzying, grief-drenched eyes. “I’m starting to see the upside.”
     
    “ARE YOU?” Goose’s stomach clenched with an uneasy mix of nerves and heat, but she sent him her standard look of speculative assessment. The one she generally followed up with regretful dismissal. “That’s . . . flattering, really, but—”
    “Why do you do that?” he asked.
    She frowned. “Do what?”
    “Flirt when you aren’t interested. Smile when nothing’s funny.” He watched her with eyes the color and texture of flint.
    “I—”
    “I’m not coming on to you, Goose.”
    She snapped her mouth shut. “Then what was all that about seeing the upside of being the target of a federal investigation?”
    “Just being honest. You’re attractive, sharp and clearly good at what you do. You’re messed up as all hell, but I seem to like that.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “You’re excused.” He leaned in, put his palms flat on the table. The crazy urge to lean in to meet him seized her, and suddenly she wanted . Wanted to touch the hard plane of that cheek, the unforgiving slice of that mouth. Wanted to put her lips on the long line of his throat and pull the scent and the vital warmth of him into her lungs. Absorb the sharp sting of his honesty and the hot slap of his interest.
    She reared back from it, from the punishing heat of her own want. Oh God. Not this. Not now.
    “The sad fact is,” Rush went on relentlessly, “I like you. You want to investigate me, fine. I’ve got nothing better to do. Lila’ll be thrilled to see me interacting with somebody my own age. Go ahead. Follow me around, ask me questions, interview my neighbors. My life’s an open book. Start reading. But don’t expect me to pretend I don’t see what you are.”
    She stared at him, the air driven from her lungs. Her blood beat madly in her temples, pooled hot and dangerous between clenched thighs. She barely recognized her own voice when she said, “And what I am?”
    His hand opened on the table between them, his fingers long and tanned. Every cell of her body yearned toward him like a flower leaned into the sun. “You’re a lot of things,” he said softly. “Complicated. Beautiful. Harsh.” He closed his fingers into a fist—a somehow regretful gesture—and