Keep It Together by Lissa Matthews Read Free Book Online

made-to-kiss-her-and-only-her kind of fit. This was the perfect one, the right one…
    Colt.
    Chrissie slid her tongue against his, and the two dueled for the upper hand. Colt won; she was glad to give in. He lingered over her lips for a moment longer and she clung hard, unwilling to let him go a second before she had to. She didn’t know when her arms had wrapped around his neck or when his thigh had parted her legs but she was okay with both. She leaned against him and welcomed that too because she wouldn’t have been able to stand on her own, given how weak in the knees she suddenly was.
    They stared at one another for several seconds when he lifted his head, then slowly parted. He held up the glasses, and his eyes weren’t quite back to a normal friendly gaze. She liked that.
    “I’ll get that ice now.” He sounded as though he’d swallowed a handful of her gravel drive.
    “Y-yes,” she said as she backed up. She didn’t sound much better. “You do that. I’ll just be over here holding up the counter.”
    “It affected you. I like that,” he commented with a glance over his shoulder while reaching into the freezer for ice. It was piled in a Tupperware bowl, and by the time they were done with tea, she’d have to empty her ice trays again. Oh yes, she was affected. It was wanton the way she’d thrown herself against his body. She wouldn’t apologize for it though. She wanted him. She might shouldn’t oughta, as some of her backwoods relatives would say, but she did.
    “You know, they make refrigerators with ice in the door.”
    “Yes, I do know, but I rather like my ancient fridge.” Colt handed the glasses over to her, and she was proud that her hands didn’t shake when she reached for them. She poured tea from the jar and offered it up to him.
    “Thank you, baby.”
    The small word slid over her like the sweet syrup she used in the tea, and she tried not to moan at the effect the endearment had on her. “Why did you kiss me?”
    “Why did you kiss me back?”
    His grin was powerful, and it was like a big fat thump to her solar plexus. “I wanted to.”
    “Sounds like a good answer to me. I think I’ll use it too.”
    Chrissie laughed and nervously ran her fingers around the rim of her glass. “Why?” She hadn’t meant to fling the word at him so eagerly but hadn’t been able to stop herself. “Why did you want to?” she asked a little more calmly, with a little less enthusiasm.
    His deep blue eyes never strayed from hers. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do since the first night we met. I can’t explain it really.”
    “The first night we met? But that was…?” Her forehead scrunched low over her brows as she pondered his words. “The engagement party for Russ and me?” She couldn’t keep the shocked confusion out of her voice. He shrugged and only looked uncomfortable for a moment before he was all put together and confident again.
    “There you go. You know my secret now. I’m a good man, but I wanted to kiss the ever-lovin’ hell out of my brother’s fiancée. Out of you. I didn’t. I didn’t let on to anyone, especially you and Russ, how you were everything I’d been waiting for to walk into my life.”
    Processing this information would take a little while. Shock was at the top of the list. Did he believe in love at first sight? That’s what he was describing, wasn’t it?
    He completely overwhelmed her. The words he spoke, him being in her house, fitting in and out of place at the same time. He was big and expensive and citified in her simple country setting. Yet he made himself at home as she’d said he should. “And when you came by the day after the wedding that never took place? Did you want to kiss me then too?”
    “I wanted to hold you and let you cry. I was very sorry he left you like that. It was cruel and heartless. Kissing you that day wouldn’t have been right. I didn’t want to put you in that kind of position. You deserved better, and you needed