From This Moment On by Bella Andre Read Free Book Online Page A

so many people surrounding her all the time asking her questions, coming at her with contracts and offers, she had to work double time to remain fully present and lucid. Which was why she rarely drank anything at all. Only with Kenny had she made that mistake. And how she’d paid for it .
    “Are you in the wine business ?"
    He nodded, then said, “You don’t live here, either, do you?”
    She hadn’t missed the fact that while he’d answered her question, he’d quickly changed the subject afterward .
    It was a reminder that this was just small talk between two strangers who were never going to see each other again. She shouldn’t be upset that he didn’t want to tell her where he worked. He was probably afraid she’d hunt him down and become a big nuisance. No doubt plenty of girls had tried to latch onto him over the years .
    Besides, she wasn’t exactly gung-ho about sharing a bunch of details about her life with him, was she?
    Nearly as vague as he’d been, she said, “I’m from a teeny, tiny little town in upstate New York, but I’ve always loved the west coast.”
    There. That was perfectly impersonal. They were both behaving like two rational adults who had almost made the mistake of having a one-night stand, but had somehow slipped out of the night unscathed.
    She should be happy.
    But she wasn’t.
    Because for a few wonderful minutes the previous night, she’d reveled in irrational, unfettered desire and anticipation.
    Rational sucked by comparison .
    She swiveled on her stool to face him more directly. “I’m still really embarrassed about calling your mother like that.”
    The last thing she expected was for his laughter to rumble through the room .
    It was such a beautiful sound—rich and deep, if a bit rusty—that she had a sudden vision of capturing it like the sea witch had Ariel’s voice in the Little Mermaid movie, in a little locket she could wear around her neck and take out to replay whenever she needed a pick-me-up.
    “Trust me,” he told her, “I’m sure she enjoyed talking with you. A great deal.”
    “What are you going to tell her?” She quickly clarified, “About me, I mean, and the question I asked her about you.”
    “If you were safe with me ?"
    Her breath left her in a whoosh and it was all she could do just to nod as the sensual tension between them jumped up a notch.
    But instead of dropping it, she said, “I was safe with you,” barely above a whisper. Almost before she realized it, she was reaching out to touch his hand, only inches away .
    She wished she’d been awake for long enough to really appreciate his holding her hand. Instead, she’d slept through some of the most wonderful moments of her life—Marcus’s hands holding hers, his warmth cradling her.
    Now, as the sunlight streamed in through the large kitchen windows of his brother’s house, she pulled her hand back barely an inch before she would have made contact.
    “What do you want me to tell her?”
    She lifted her eyes from his large hands, hands she still couldn’t stop wishing were holding her, caressing her, and despite the warm sun coming in, a shiver went through her as she looked up at him .
    “Maybe,” she said slowly, “you could tell her you made a new friend last night.”
    “A new friend.”
    As her words came back at her in his deliciously low voice, she thought, I wish it were actually true. I wish we actually were friends. And more. So much more.
    She licked her lips and his eyes followed the path of her tongue. When his gaze met hers again, the heat from the night before was back in spades.
    She knew he had to see it in her gaze, too. A part of her thought she should try to hide it, but nothing had changed between last night and this morning. She was still senselessly attracted to him .
    On the verge of saying something else to try and break the sensual tension between them, she suddenly wondered why she was so intent on pushing him away. Marcus was gorgeous, the