Prima Donna by Laura Drewry Read Free Book Online Page B

with her.
    His fingers scraped the paint as he curled his hands into tight fists against the wall, but still he didn’t touch her. He skimmed his teeth against her bottom lip, nipping it gently and tugging it between his own for one last lingering moment before he eased back, leaving her dazed, her pulse hammering through her veins and her breath coming in short, fast gasps.
    So many thoughts raced through her brain it was impossible to focus on just one. If that’s how he kissed…no! But she deserved a distraction, that’s what Maya said. He’s Jayne’s cousin. No, he’s Jayne’s cousin-in-law, that’s different. Sort of.
    As fast as the rational side of her brain rattled off its list, the oft-ignored girlie side clamored for attention. Why shouldn’t she do this? She’d just closed her business, she had no job prospects, no impending thumbs-up from the bank, and talking to her mother only reinforced what Rational Regan already knew: loving someone was no guarantee they would ever love you back.
    Regan didn’t need anyone to love her, she just needed a little pick-me-up, a little
distraction
, and if anyone deserved that, Girlie Regan argued, it was her. And if that distraction happened to present itself at her front door in a leather jacket, looking and smelling better than any man had a right to, who was she to argue?
    Had a guy ever whispered her name against her neck like that, so soft, so deep, so…oh, screw it. What’s the worst that could happen? With her fingers still hooked around the leather strip, Regan swallowed hard.
    “Close the door before we scare Mrs. McLaren across the hall.”
    A slow smile spread over Carter’s face as he reached his foot back and kicked the door shut.
    She inhaled slowly and forced herself to stop staring at his mouth. “I have one rule.”
    “Only one?” He pinched open her hair clip, tossed it over his shoulder, and filled both hands with her hair as he leaned in to kiss her again.
    Damn, he was making it
really
hard for Rational Regan to think straight. Another smile, another kiss, this one against her jaw as he chuckled low in his throat.
    “What’s your rule?”
    “I…uh…oh…”
    He pressed a soft kiss just below her ear, then moved lower to where her neck curved into her shoulder, pulling another full-body shudder out of her.
    “Damn, you smell good.” His low, ragged breath had Regan moving, tripping, bumping into furniture and walls as she dragged him backward through the apartment, one hand fisted around his shirt, the other fumbling to shove his jacket over his shoulders and down his arms.
    As they crashed against the bedroom door, Regan’s sensible side tried desperately to run blocker, but her girlie side, finally set free, wasn’t about to give up an inch of ground. Not now when Carter had her pulled her up tight against his chest, and definitely not when he looked down at her with those oh-so-dark eyes and that sexy little half grin that promised this would be a New Year’s to remember.
    Girlie Regan looked up from where it had Rational Regan pinned in a half nelson and cheered, but not before Rational Regan choked out her final breath.
    “You can’t sleep over.”
    Carter’s slow, rumbling chuckle was muffled slightly as she jerked his shirt up over his head. “I don’t know what you think is gonna happen here, sweetheart, but you can bet your ass sleep’s not going to be part of it.”
    Free from his shirt, he reached for her, paused, and frowned. “What
the hell
are you wearing?”
    “It’s my nightshirt,” she laughed, looking down at her calf-length red flannel nightshirt. “Why? What’s wrong with it?”
    “Nothing,” he snorted. “If you were an eighty-year-old man. It’s gotta go, Red.”
    And just like that, he whipped the shirt up over her head, leaving her standing in nothing but her underwear. Regan knew she was no supermodel, but the way he stared at her, his dark eyes widening, his mouth tipped up in the barest of