Heat of the Night by Sylvia Day Read Free Book Online Page A

another person. A shudder of longing wracked the length of his frame. Then her voice grew more agitated and he frowned.
    "I understand you haven't seen him in years. As if I could forget that… No, that wasn't a dig… Jesus, it's the goddamned truth… he hasn't sent me a dime of support for you! I'm not making it up…
Get over it
? He's skiing and I'm broke, and
I'm
supposed to get over it? Justin?
Justin
? Honey…?" She sighed heavily and slammed the phone back into its cradle. "Shit!"
    Connor watched as she ran both of her hands through her riotous curls. Then he noted that her shoulders were shaking with silent sobs. Suddenly, the need to fuck and forget became something else entirely. The need to share misery, to sympathize.
    "Hey," he rumbled softly, relating to the frustration and grief he heard in her curse.
    She screeched and leaped at least a foot or more into the air.
    "Fuckin' A!" she yelled, turning to glare at him with a hand pressed over her heart. Tears hung on thick black lashes and stained her pale cheeks. "You scared me to death!"
    "I'm sorry."
    Her gaze dropped to his hips and the boner that tented his towel, parting the two halves to reveal his thigh all the way to his waist. "Oh my god."
    His lust, her pain, and the Nightmares of just moments ago made false charm impossible. "You have the loveliest ass I've ever seen," he explained.
    "I have a lovely…?" She blinked but didn't look away. "You're walking around the house half-naked with a hard-on and all you can say is 'you have a lovely ass?'"
    "I can be fully naked, if you prefer."
    "Oh, hell no." Her arms crossed over her chest, which only served to
accentuate her braless breasts. Desire, building for weeks, flared across his skin and left a light mist of sweat behind. "The house doesn't come with those kind of benefits."
    "I don't care what the house comes with," he said honestly. She was soft, warm, emotional woman. That's what he needed. "I want to know what
you
come with. A soft touch? Something rougher? Do you like to be loved fast and hard? Or long and slow? What makes you hoarse, sweetheart?"
    "Jesus! Don't beat around the bush or anything."
    Connor watched her pupils dilate, an unconscious invitation. He stepped closer. Carefully. No quick movements, because he could tell she was in the grip of the fight-or-flight response and he didn't want her to run. Doubted he could let her run.
    "I've no patience for lies at the moment," he murmured. "I want you. A night with you would be heaven after what I've gone through recently. I don't like it here. I'm homesick and just plain sick."
    "S-sorry—" Stacey swallowed hard, her eyes big in her piquant face, her tongue darting out to wet cherry red lips. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I can't tonight. I have a headache."
    He stepped closer.
    She backed up and bumped into a barstool. Her chest lifted and fell rapidly, as did his. Her nostrils flared, sensing danger. Inside him, coiled tightly, was the need to snatch her close. To convince her to stay and say yes. To prevent her from denying that she was his, which some primitive voice inside him was whispering she was.
Mine
, it insisted.
She's mine
.
    Something inside
her
understood.
    "We're both having a crappy day," he managed, his voice raspier than he would have liked. "Why should we have a crappy night, too?"
    "Sex won't fix my problem."
    As she wrapped her hands around the edge of the wooden stool seat, her chin lifted. The pose thrust her breasts forward wantonly, defiantly, stirring the need he felt into raging hunger. A rough growl filled the space between them and she gasped softly. Her nipples beaded up tight, pushing against the loose cotton ribbing of her tank top.
    Connor's cock swelled further, a response he was unable to hide as scantily dressed as he was. He wanted her.
Now
. Wanted to forget that he wasn't at home, that he might never go home. Wanted to forget that he'd been lied to and deceived. Wanted to wrap himself around a warm,