Falling for Alexander (Corkscrew Bay #2) by Claire Robyns Read Free Book Online

angled as he leant in slightly, their lips inches from smacking.
    She blinked, her throat dry, her gaze level with that firm, wide mouth. His scent, that blend of tamed nature and wild man, filtered through her irritation. Would he taste as good as he smelled? Her pulse fluttered at the thought.
    She stepped back to shrug out of his grasp. He came with, pressing her up against the promenade railing. No, not pressing. There was a decent foot between them, and yet it felt as if she were squashed up to the wall of his chest. She couldn’t think. Could barely breathe. Resistance was a hard, hard battle she didn’t have the strength to fight.
    Alexander Gerardo was bad news, but right now, in this very moment where the air was thick and heavy and her heart pounded erratically, he was her bad news. She wanted that kiss. She wanted his touch with a feverish need. She didn’t care about right and wrong. About the lies and consequences.
    She was even beyond caring if his grey eyes were laughing at her from behind those shades.
    But she didn’t think they were. His fingers curled over her shoulders, tight with the same tension pulling at his jaw. His breathing not quite regular. She recognised the signs. He was fighting his own battle and, dear God, she didn’t want him to win it.
    Lose with me.
    Sink to the bottom.
    She reached out, putting a hand to his chest. A ribbed wall of granite and hot beneath her palm. An ache of longing pulsed low in her abdomen.
    “ Alex?” She hadn’t descended into total crazy. Her hand on his chest could be begging, or pushing. His choice. His will.
    He lowered his head, the closeness another wave crashing over her, melting the marrow from her bones.
    Her lips parted on a sigh, her eyes closing beneath the sudden heaviness of her lids.
    “Given how light you’re travelling…” His roughened jaw scraped tender, his breath warm against her cheek as he spoke. “I assume you didn’t pack a gift for your aunt.”
    What?
    Her eyes snapped open. Her body was still tingling, aching, wanting. Her lips trembling for that kiss.
    His grip on her shoulders tightened fractionally, then released as his arms dropped to his sides. He stepped back, shoving a hand through his hair and holding it there.
    And just like that, the big fat lie was between them again. The marrow whooshed straight back into her bones. The hand on his chest push ed. Hard. He didn’t resist, moving another step back.
    “ It would be rude to arrive empty-handed,” he pointed out.
    “ Um, yeah, well… ” Kate swallowed past the lump of dismay clogging her throat. Damn those sunglasses. Had he not felt any of that? Had he been playing her?
    “ This trip came at me out of the blue,” she said. So had that ridiculous rush of desire. The plunge off the cliff. She’d jumped willingly, apparently without even the suggestion of a nudge.
    “ Which is why I thought this might be of interest to you,” he said, moving his gaze from her to the shop fronts behind.
    She followed the line of his sight. Crickets . The battered metal sign hung above the shop’s doorway. Woven baskets either side the doorway overflowed with the type of junk people loved to buy but never used.
    “ How sweet of you.” She twisted some version of a smile from her lips. “You think of everything, don’t you?”
    “ I do try,” he said, holding out his arm. “Shall we?”
    Ignoring the offer, she strode around him to swat a path through the tunne l of wind chimes at the shop’s entrance. The musical cacophony followed her as she stumbled out the other side. The cramped interior was a disarray of display units, tables piled with trinkets and yet more woven baskets taking up most of the floor space, some partially tipped, all overflowing.
    Another ripple of tinkling chimes from behind pushed Kate forward. A pair of teenage girls fussed around a table of stuffed lizards in the corner. She gave the lizards some serious consideration.
    A woman with cropped