Baby, It's Cold Outside by Jennifer Greene, Merline Lovelace, Cindi Myers Read Free Book Online Page B

significant.
    She felt danger of an entirely new kind.
    So much for the silly blizzard. So much for the life-altering decisions facing her. So much for everything else.
    Her heart stopped, then started again, beating wildly fast, worried fast. It was the look in his eyes. The slow, steady, intense look. She could stop him; she knew it absolutely.
    But he wasn’t going to stop unless she pulled the halt card.
    A log fell in the grate, shooting stars and sparks against the screen. The constant growl of the generator echoed in the distance. Yet nothing seemed to distract her from the look in his eyes, the expression on his face.
    Moments later, her shirt seemed to have disappeared. Her pants seemed to have formed a heap under the coffee table, another magical impossibility. It was perfectly obvious to Emilie that this wasn’t really happening. In real life, she never slept around casually, never slept with strangers, couldn’t be doing it now. She barely knew this man…but she knew enough to believe there was about zero chance they’d ever meet again once the blizzard was over.
    She thought, maybe he was bored.
    She looked in those deep, intense eyes, and shivered. Nope, he wasn’t bored.
    She thought, who knew he’d even been attracted to her?
    But she looked again, at the hard-boned hunger in his expression, and swallowed. She’d known. She’d felt it. It just never occurred to her that either of them would conceivably do anything about it.
    When he finished stripping her down, he stretched next to her, balancing on an elbow, and lifted a hand to her face. A fingertip whisked a strand of hair from her forehead, then whispered across her chin. His hands were rough, yet somehow his touch and tenderness made her feel softer than satin.
    “Still afraid of the blizzard?” he asked.
    “No.”
    “Still cold?”
    Seconds before, she had been. Now, she felt as if afurnace of heat was licking up her veins, igniting crazy thoughts in her head.
    She knew what he was inviting. Didn’t care. The more she looked in those eyes, the more she felt the sneaky intoxication of temptation. Chopping thoughts kept zooming through her mind. The stupid man, alone up here in this wilderness. Wounded from the inside out. Letting one woman’s betrayal isolate him from all life’s choices.
    And he wasn’t the only stupid one.
    She’d strived to meet everyone’s expectations for as long as she could remember, always done what she had to do, let others define what was right and wrong, define who she was.
    But right now, this second, held all the promise of possibilities. This second…this could be for her. This man could be for her. This moment could be totally for her.
    And without her even knowing it, without ever saying a word aloud, a decision was suddenly made. She leaned over, closed her eyes and kissed him.
    His lips were firm, thin, yielding. She tasted recklessness, the silk of risk, and went back for more.
    He didn’t need any further invitation. His fingers sieved through her hair, anchoring her for a second kiss, a deeper, darker kiss involving tongues and teeth. She sank back. Her hands chased up his arms, careful of his shoulder, but needing to touch, to stroke, to experience the feel of him.
    He responded like lightning to dry tinder. He’d seemed so patient before, so clearly willing to let her make the decision, no push, no pressure. Now…it seemed as if hewere a powder keg of pressure, had been storing up an arsenal of emotion and need and hunger for months.
    He tugged off her long-sleeved silk tee and found her mouth again before the shirt was even over her head. Fingers fumbled at her cinnamon-colored lace bra, seeking the hooks in back…finding the hooks in front. There was a moment’s laughter…and then another chuckle, when his bare foot brushed hers and she let out a short shriek—his toes were still cold. Ice cold.
    Those cold feet of his inspired her to warm him up, the way he’d warmed her. She rubbed,