Melt by Natalie Anderson Read Free Book Online Page A

incorrigible.” And mesmerizing. She was the proverbial moth and he the incandescent flame.
    He laughed. “And I’m betting you’ve had a fling go wrong before.”
    “A holiday fling, yes.” She shrugged it off like it was nothing but was glad of the reminder—the thought of it almost doused the inferno inside her.
    “What happened?”
    “The usual.” She breezed through the basics. “I was on holiday with a bunch of people in close quarters in a foreign place. Half the people hook up. It’s all very intense and passionate and not at all real.”
    Something flickered in his eyes. “Where were you?”
    “Bali.”
    “Your first trip away?”
    “Yeah.”
    “So you had a fling. And then?”
    “And then there’s the end. The good-bye. The regrets. The what-ifs.”
    “But you know the good-bye is coming. There’s no missing something you never really had.”
    “Yeah? Definitely not something for him. But he’d said there was, so there actually was for me. So why would I knowingly go down that road again when I already know the hurt that’s at the end of it?”
    His gaze narrowed. “There shouldn’t be hurt. There should just be a, ‘Thank you for making this time so magical. Without you it wouldn’t have been nearly so amazing.’”
    “Is that how you play it?” She raised one brow. “You mean, ‘Without you I wouldn’t have had all that hot sex.’”
    “Nothing wrong with hot sex.”
    “No, but that’s never all there is. There’s always more. There are always complications.”
    “What were the complications with the Bali guy?”
    “The affair lasted the whole trip. Every minute of every day together, you know? So there were tears at the airport—both of us.” He really had cried. “He’d said more…stuff,” she fudged, not wanting to reveal what a complete idiot she’d been. But he’d told her he loved her, that he’d wanted her to go and live with him, and that had played on her weakest part. No one had ever wanted her to live with him—not without being paid to do so. Not even Grandma Bea.
    “So, he said stuff that wasn’t true?”
    She nodded but didn’t explain further.
    “He already had a girlfriend?” Hunter paused at her silence, and his brows shot up. “A wife ?”
    In some ways it would have been better if there had been another woman. Then she’d have come second to something. But no, the guy was single. “No,” Emma said quietly. “He just didn’t want to know me after the trip.”
    Hunter frowned. “You met up with him again?”
    “Yep,” she mumbled. It was the most embarrassing bit. She’d chased him, and he’d been clearly embarrassed. He hadn’t wanted to introduce her to his housemates; he was a total playboy who wasn’t up for any kind of commitment. He’d just been spouting rubbish to get his rocks off on holiday. Nothing had been so crushing. Her already tragic self-esteem had been trashed by that cutting lack of welcome and the curt good-bye.
    She’d tried to recover her poise instantly. She had some pride after all. She wasn’t about to beg the guy. And she’d gotten the hell out of there as quickly as she could.
    “Sounds to me like he wasn’t honest from the start.”
    “He wasn’t honest at any time,” she said.
    “Then he’s not worth spending another second of your life on. Forget him.” He made it sound so easy.
    “I have.” She hardly ever thought of him. But she wouldn’t forget the lesson she’d learned. It was the final nail in her trust coffin. People could never, ever be relied on. No matter what they said.
    He watched her, still frowning. “Everyone has at least one relationship go wrong. That doesn’t mean you quit for life.”
    “No, I know. I guess it depends on how horrible the relationship really was.” She knew her one holiday fling wasn’t the thing that had really put her off—it was just the last straw.
    “Or what else you’ve been through,” he added.
    She shot him a look. He was way too