Snowbound by Kristianna Sawyer Read Free Book Online Page B

lose
consciousness, but she did grey out for a few seconds.
    When alertness returned, he was laying her on
a bed, in a room she hadn’t seen before. The woozy feeling made it
hard to concentrate, but she assumed it was his room. Beth wanted
to ask him why he’d brought her here if he had no plans to continue
what they’d started in the kitchen, but she couldn’t focus on
calling forth the words.
    He leaned over her, his face encompassing her
entire world for the moment. “You need to rest now, honey. It can’t
be blood loss makin’ you so loopy, so I’d guess shock and perhaps
the demands on your body.” He shook his head, looking disgusted.
“Only a fool would have done what I did to you, with you hurt and
all.”
    Beth’s hand trembled as she put it on his
shoulder, brushing her fingertips against the long hairs clinging
to his neck. “I wanted you to. Want you still.”
    He seemed regretful as he stood up. “You get
some rest now, Beth, and come to your senses.”
    She wanted to argue, to protest that her
injury and the subsequent reaction hadn’t been what prompted her to
so boldly state her desire. Her brain was too muddled to form
coherent words, and she surrendered to the urge to sleep with a
small sigh, knowing nothing was resolved.

    Reed waited until she was breathing deeply
and checked her pulse, which was normal, before leaving his room.
Only as he backed out of it, closing the door, did he realize he’d
instinctively brought her down the hallway to his personal space.
It wouldn’t have taken more than another minute to put her in the
guestroom, but he’d followed his gut.
    She sure had looked good lying on his bed,
those pale blonde tresses a beautiful contrast to the serviceable
navy bedding set. He cursed aloud as he moved from the door, hating
what he’d let happen in the kitchen.
    No, that wasn’t true. He’d enjoyed it right
up to the point he’d discovered she was a virgin, though anger had
fueled his original response. He’d reacted blindly, hating that the
spoiled rich girl thought he was just another thing she could
acquire, that her wants were so important that everyone should fall
in line. His pulse had still been racing from the shock of seeing
her with that maul, followed by her injury, and it had all
overwhelmed his common sense.
    He’d touched her when he knew better, and the
rest of his intentions had gone up in smoke. Anger and desire still
thrummed through him, making his heart beat loudly in his ears and
his dick hard to the point of pain. Another few minutes of touching
her hot pussy, and he’d have come in his pants just thinking about
being inside her.
    “Fuckin’ virgin,” he said aloud, disgruntled.
The fifteen years separating them had been bad enough, not to
mention their life experiences and backgrounds. But taking her
innocence wasn’t something he could do. Might as well tattoo “dirty
old bastard” on his forehead and get it over with if he did. He’d
see the phantom words every time he looked at himself in the
mirror, with or without the ink.
    “Damn girl.” Reed adjusted the snug fit of
his pants, cursing her for making him want things he knew he
couldn’t have. For making him want her, the type of woman who
should never appeal to a man who’d been on the receiving end of
hauteur and disdain from her kind most of his life, ‘til he came to
Alaska. Here, folks didn’t much care where you came from, or what
haunted you, long as you kept to yourself. He’d just have to make
sure he kept to himself and stayed away from her.
    As he redressed in his coat to return to the
woodshed, he shot a dour glare at the gray sky. “And don’t even
think about snowin’ again, you sumbitch.”

Chapter Five
    Beth wasn’t sure how long she’d slept, but
she woke feeling both better and worse. Her head was clearer, and
that awful shaky, dizzy feeling had passed. On the other hand, her
chest ached where the ax had split her skin, and she rubbed around
the spot,