An Affair To Remember: A Ludlow Hall Christmas by CC MacKenzie Read Free Book Online

eyes were a little clearer, too.
    "Fine. Thank you for looking after me," she said, and her chin wobbled. When her bottom lip trembled, he felt like crying himself. "I'm sorry you don't want to fuck me."
    Ooooookay.
    So the After Shocks had still not quite worn off.
    He placed her cell on the bedside table.
    "If you feel unwell, give me a call. My number's at the top of the list, on speed dial. I'm just up the path. Don't hesitate to call me."
    He really should stay the night, but there was no way in hell he could be under the same roof and not take her. If Elena was throwing up then he'd definitely stay, but her eyes looked clearer and she didn't look grey and pasty. If anything she looked amazing, all rosy and glowing.
    She sniffed pathetically as she settled into her pillows, tugged the comforter right up to her chin.
    Lord, she was so beautiful, even if she did look pitiful.
    It shouldn't have made his throat ache.
    It shouldn't have made his eyes sting.
    His balls were actually throbbing in time to the hectic beat of his heart.
    And right there Marc made a firm pledge to the universe, to karma, to any deity or divine being who might be listening that Elena Kennedy was going to live to regret putting him through hell this night.
     
     
     
     

Chapter Seven
    Elena awoke precisely ten hours after the moment she'd shut her eyes.
    Her curtains were closed, but light bathed her big bed from her en-suite bathroom.
    Her throat was a little dry and she had a strange taste in her mouth, but her head was clear. Rolling onto her back, Elena stared at the ceiling and tried to remember the events of the night before.
    As if she was watching a movie, various scenes flickered through her mind. She dimly recalled some sort of kerfuffle with poor David. Then she remembered the buzzing in her ears and the hectic beat of her heart she'd had during the experience with David and the fact that her boyfriend Tom had dumped her. Now that Tom was no longer part of her life, Elena reckoned she should at least have felt little pang of... something. But she didn't, except that she wished she'd dumped Tom first. A natural reaction, she told herself. Then she remembered a Viking god, Odin. Oh yeah, a lovely drop-dead-gorgeous tall, dark and handsome guy. She wondered what had happened to him? Then her brow wrinkled when she remembered Scott telling not to drink something, what was it again? Oh yeah, After Shock.
    Elena tended to stick to a single glass of white wine or a lite beer or soft drinks when she partied. A particularly bad experience at Uni had put her off hard liquor, she didn't have the head for it.
    As she wrinkled her brow, she remembered tossing back the shot, the burn in her throat, scorching a path down her digestive tract to pool in her belly, to spread through her system. The potent liquor had brought a tear to her eye. However, it was the 'after' affect that really stood out. She'd felt absolutely wonderful. Up for anything. Ready to take on the world and everyone in it. Especially sex!
    However, other memories, unrelenting, now fast forwarded her memory.
    Marc Atelier taking charge of poor David at the table in the restaurant, while a beyond stupid Tom simply sat and watched the action with his mouth hanging open. Then later, much later, Marc putting his arm around her, putting on her coat, winding his scarf around her neck. The freezing cold as they'd walked home, together. Marc opening her door. Marc in her sitting room, making her sweet tea. The sort of tea her daddy made her when she'd been little and was sick. And Marc ensuring she drank the tea.
    Then Elena shot up in bed, her skin suddenly clammy, as her eyes went wide with something like utter horror as she remembered quite distinctly that she'd asked Marc to... to... fuck her?
    All she could hear was the sound of her heart thundering in her ears.
    The room spun.
    And she'd touched him down... there!
    He'd been so hard, so big, so terribly aroused.
    Now she remembered how