Finding Evan by Lisa Swallow Read Free Book Online

with each other resurface, and my stomach fills with butterflies again.

    ***

    Luckily I'm tired enough to sleep through the voices and music downstairs. An exhausting week of study and the late night combine to work better than any sedative, and I fall asleep halfway through the book I'm reading. I'm jolted awake again as the door to my room opens, light from the hallway filtering through. I glance at my clock. Two am.
    "Wrong room," I grumble, pulling the bed covers over my eyes, waiting for the unwanted visitor to apologize and leave.
    Someone closes the door and approaches the bed. Instantly, I'm on alert, and I sit bolt upright, ready to scream. I thought we'd got over Abby's stupid drunk friends s tumbling into my room at night.
    "Damn, I didn't mean to wake you." Evan perches on the edge of the bed.
    I slap him on the chest. "What the hell?"
    Catching my hand, he kisses my palm. "That wasn't quite the reaction I expected."
    "You could've been anyone! You frightened me! What are you doing here?"
    As he brushes my tangled hair from my eyes and plants a kiss between them, I calm down. "You sounded unhappy before. I felt bad. So I came back."
    My sleepy brain finally catches up. "You drove from Lancaster in the middle of the night?"
    "No, I walked."
    "Ha-ha."
    "Shift over."
    I shuffle across the bed and he lies next to me, still fully-clothed. His jacket smells of petrol fumes and him; his face is cool from the night air. He places his warm lips on mine and I eagerly return the kiss, wrap my fingers in his hair, and hold my unexpected visitor. Evan pulls away and strokes my face, and the sadness is in his eyes again.
    "Is everything okay?" I ask, brushing my lips against his stubbled chin.
    "It is now that I'm with you. I need warming up though.” Evan rubs his cold nose into my neck and I push him. He laughs, catches my arms, and wraps them around his neck.
    I'd ask him to tell me what's going on, but I’m too tired, and happy to be in Evan's embrace, rather than alone with my thoughts.
    As I consider this, Evan unbuttons my pajamas, fingers caressing my bare skin and radiating heat through me. “Also, I couldn't stop thinking about you. And our conversation."
    I don't protest as Evan pushes aside my too-cute cat-printed pajama top and moves cool hands up my side. He caresses my breast and brushes a thumb over my hardening nipple. The soft kisses he covers my face with aren’t enough and I hungrily pull his mouth to mine. His kiss changes as his tongue tangles with mine. His taste, smell, him – everything fills me with a hot rush of desire. Slipping a hand inside the waistband of my pajamas, his hand moves slowly down my leg and he rubs my thigh. His fingers tantalizingly close to where my mind is begging him to touch. The fact he came all the way back here to be with me kindles the fire inside further.
    “I thought rather than tell you what I wanted to do, I’d show you,” he says, eyes shining.
    Anticipation floods through me as Evan steps back and pulls off his jacket and T-shirt. I shiver at losing the warmth of him in the winter night, but he doesn't stay away long.
    Moving back to the bed, his heavy-lidded eyes betray his thoughts. “Naked. Please, Ness." He pushes off the unbuttoned pajama top, before running his tongue from my stomach to my breasts and settling his mouth on my hardened nipples, tongue circling. His hand sneaks under my waistband to push down my pajama pants. I wriggle away, fighting the desire to yield just yet.
    "Not without some poetry first," I tease, grabbing his hand.
    "Nope. The French was the limit of my romance for today." Evan's voice is distracted and huskier.
    "You mean apart from driving all the way back to see me?"
    He stops, looks down, and rubs the back of his hand against my cheek. "Apart from needing you tonight."
    The strength of the kiss that follows takes me by surprise, his rough passion matching the urgency of our early days, as if he wants to lose himself in us. I