Spring River Valley: The Winter Collection (Boxed Set) by Clarice Wynter Read Free Book Online Page A

wistfully.
    The velvet couches, gauzy curtains , and huge rustic paintings made the place look like Marie Antoinette’s bedroom. Grant didn’t understand the appeal, but the expression in Harper’s eyes made him realize it wasn’t the décor that had her misty-eyed.
    “For what it’s worth, I think he’s an idiot.”
    She sniffled a little, but he bet wild horses couldn’t make her admit she’d teared up. “Thank you.” She turned around and met his gaze. Her eyes shimmered like jewels. “He came back from Tahiti yesterday. Didn’t even call me.”
    Bastard . Grant didn’t voice his opinion, but he wanted to. More than that he wanted to kiss Harper and let her know a man who walked out on the woman he was about to marry wasn’t a man at all. “I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t be. I don’t know what I would say to him that I haven’t said already. Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m okay. I think I’m better off.”
    “I know you are.” She was only inches from him, so close he could count her lashes and the few freckles on the bridge of her nose. “He’s the one who lost out.”
    It happened quickly and not entirely without conscious thought on his part. Grant went from thinking about kissing her to doing it in a split second. She melted into his arms as he pressed her back against the door frame and caressed her warm lips with his. Beneath the voluminous borrowed jumpsuit, her body was taut but curvy. Her softness hid a rigid frame that told him she wasn’t quite sure she should be letting him put his arms around her, letting him slip his tongue into her mouth. She tasted like mint and fresh air, and despite the dousing from the broken pipe, her hair smelled like roses.
    S he responded with a controlled eagerness that surprised him. She surged against him, and her hands found their way to his hair, to the back of his neck where she twirled the fine hairs at his nape, sending a shiver down his spine that resulted in an immediate reaction in his groin. He let his own hands travel down her sides to grasp her waist, to caress her ass. She moaned, and he dove deeper, wanting more. He’d been thinking about this for a week, and now his mind went blank. All he could do was whisper, “I want you,” and those three little words broke the spell of the bridal suite.
    She pulled back and slipped out of his arms, pressing the back of her hand to her lips. “Wow.”
    Grant backed up. “I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t be, I —”
    “I’m a jerk. You don’t need this right now.”
    “I probably don’t, but—maybe we, maybe I should go.”
    “I…yeah. Okay. I’ll walk you out.”
    “I’m—I never got my samples.”
    “We’ll get them now.”
    “Don’t worry about them. I need to…”
    “Sure.”
    “Call me.”
    “Okay.”
    “About the auxiliary dinner.”
    “ Right. I will.”
    She was halfway down the stairs , and Grant just stood there, staring after her, wishing he could take back the last five minutes at the same time he wished he could relive them.
    Elaine’s voice played in his head as he heard the lobby door open and close. Poor girl.
     
    * * * *
     
    “This is all your fault.” Harper put her slippered feet up on Audrey’s coffee table and glared at the marshmallows drifting lazily in her hot cocoa.
    “My fault? I didn’t tell you to strip down and kiss Grant. Though not for lacking of thinking it.” Audrey grinned over her own mug. Her glee at Harper’s description of the searing kiss she’d shared with Grant only served to make Harper feel worse about it.
    “No, you got me thinking how cute he was and put the bug in my ear that I don’t have to feel guilty about cheating on Brad.”
    “You’re not cheating on Brad. ‘Bad Brad’ left you. Don’t forget that. There is no shame in you moving on, at warp speed.”
    “Yes, there is. I mean, how will it look if I —”
    “Oh , no.” Audrey sat forward and plunked her mug on the table. “Don’t do that.”
    “Don’t do