Cinderella's Christmas Affair by Katherine Garbera Read Free Book Online Page A

warning wasn’t enough to sway him from wanting CJ. She turned away from him and he had the first doubts that his plan for a simple marriage of convenience might not work.
    “Come to dinner with me tonight and I’ll prove that I’m the only man you want.”
    “I don’t think so,” she said, gathering the tray with emptied coffee cups and leftover cookies. She couldn’t focus on Tad and his insane desire to have her as his wife. It didn’t matter that she was tempted, hell more than tempted to be Mrs. Tad Randolph. All that mattered was that she’d found a way of living that worked for her and she wasn’t willing to rock the boat for some buff blond guy.
    “I’ll help with that.” Tad stood to take the tray from her but she turned away.
    She didn’t want to make this decision with her hormones and just those few minutes in his arms earlier told her that saying no to Tad was the only sane option. She’d learned at Marcus’ hands that she was a slave to her body and heart. And she wasn’t going to live through that again.
    “No, thanks.”
    He blocked her path to the kitchen. Determination written in every line of his body. Dammit, she wished he were still the ninety-pound weakling he’d been when they were twelve. Then she’d have brushed right past him and outrun him. But now, he looked like he could take on Mt. Everest blindfolded and she felt like she’d be doing good to get through a thirty-minute yoga class.
    “I’m not leaving until you agree to have dinner with me,” he said, drawing one finger down the side of her face. He toyed with a tendril of hair at the back of her neck. Her hands trembled.
    “Why’d you dye your hair?” he asked, leaning forward around the tray. He brushed his nose against her head and breathed deeply. “You smell good.”
    She was shaking now, the coffee cups clattering on their saucers. Tad took the tray from her and put it on the coffee table. “Answer me.”
    “What?” she asked, totally rattled. All she wanted was to grab his hand and take him down the rather short hallway to her bedroom. She wanted to push him back on the bed and have her way with him.
    “Your new hair color, why?”
    How could she explain to this very attractive man that being an average mousy-brown-haired woman wasn’t what she wanted the world to see of her? He wouldn’t be able to understand that physical image was the easiest thing to change and still the most important to her. It was one more facade between her and the rest of the world.
    She shrugged, trying for nonchalance, which she was far from feeling. “I needed to make a clean break with the past.”
    “Was it really that bad?” he asked.
    He was too close. She could smell the sweat that had dried on his body. She wanted to do what he’d done, lean in and breathe in his essence but she couldn’t. One lungful of his scent wouldn’t be enough.
    She wanted to indulge all her senses with him. To forget all this talk and communicate in the most essential way men and women could. Except she knew such communication was the most dangerous of all. “No. It didn’t fit with the new me.”
    “I like the new you,” he said, brushing his lips against hers. “But, then, I liked the old you too.”
    It wasn’t enough. That brief brush of lips. She stood on her toes and kissed him. She closed her eyes, held his head in her hands and tasted him. She thrust her tongue past the barrier of his lips and teeth. The flavor of coffee and cookies deluged her taste buds.
    She tilted her head to the side, pulling back then returning again to his mouth. He kept his hands at his sides letting her control the embrace. Seeming to know that she needed a chance to be in charge. Or maybe he knew this was the key to her weakness. She backed away abruptly. When was she going to learn?
    He licked his lips, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes watched her and she didn’t know what to do next. This situation was not her comfort zone. She wanted him