Read Online Body Heat (Vintage Category Romance) by Maddie James - Free Book Online Page A

second, Darian had tightened the embrace, and pulled Blaire even closer into his warm, flannel-covered chest. He leaned in, at first brushing over her lips as if testing the waters; then the pressure increased, and Blaire felt herself wanting to open herself to him and let him in. In more ways than one.
    The cold at her back was gone, replaced by warmth radiating from her lips to her fluttering heart, to her jittering abdomen—and lower. Burning. His tongue lightly raked across her lips, he nibbled with fire, and then he began to withdraw.
    Panic thrust through her. Not here. Not this man. No.
    Blaire pushed the palms of her hands up between them and pushed at this chest. Darian stepped back.
    “ This time it was you, not me,” Blaire huffed out, trying to catch her breath.
    Darian stood before her, his hands at his sides, looking at the floor between them. When his gaze rose up to meet hers, Blaire was nearly knocked back on her heels, for Darian MacGlenary possessed the most sexy, come-hither smile Blaire believed she’d ever seen. Then he spoke in the huskiest voice she thought she’d ever heard. “Yes. This time it was me.”
    Then he turned and walked away.
    Blaire stepped forward. “But you said this morning—”
    Stopping mid-stride, Darian turned back. “What I said this morning doesn’t apply anymore.”
    “ Why?”
    “ Because now it’s different.” He turned and walked back to the table and sat down, reopening his spiral notebook.
    “ What? Why?” Blaire traced his steps and stood next to the table. “Why is it different?”
    Darian caught her gaze. “It just is. And if you were honest with yourself, you’d agree.”
    Blaire felt like she was caught in a puzzle she didn ’t know how to get out of.

 
     
    Chap ter Five
     
     
    “ If you have some extra blankets or a sleeping bag or something, I’ll just make a little spot for myself on the floor. I’ll be just fine.”
    Darian glared at her. “No need for that. We’re adults. We can share the same bed. We’ve done it the last two nights anyway.”
    Blaire shook her head. “No, over there by the fireplace will be fine. You take the bed. You’ve probably not had a good night’s sleep in two nights. You deserve the bed. Really, I want to sleep here on the floor.” Blaire stepped in front of the fireplace and surveyed the area. “Just point me to the blankets.”
    Darian lifted the lid on a primitive trunk at the bed’s footboard and pulled out several old blankets and quilts. “I’ll take the floor, you take the bed.”
    Blaire took the blankets out of his hand. “No. I want to.”
    “ You’ll take the bed.”
    “ I’ll take the floor.”
    “ The bed,” he repeated.
    “ The floor,” she responded again.
    “ Bed.”
    “ Floor.”
    “ Bed.”
    “ Floor.”
    “ Floor.”
    “ Bed.” Damnation!
    “ There. That settles it. You take the bed.” Darian glared at her through narrowed eyes. “And that’s the end of it.” He jerked the blankets out of Blaire’s grasp, stalked over to the fireplace and began layering blankets in front of it.
    Blaire stood behind him, hands on hips. “You cheated.”
    He shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”
    “ Yes, you did.”
    “ Nope. All’s fair in love and war, they say.”
    “ Love and war,” Blaire muttered.
    “ Yeah.” Darian turned to face her. “I just can’t get it straight in my head which one this is.”
    Blaire ’s eyes widened. What! What in the hell is he talking about? Love and war? “Go to—”
    “ Hell?”
    “ No, Mr. Finish-My-Sentences. I was about to say go to bed. So there.”
    Blaire turned and stepped behind the quilt hanging on the other side of the bed—the one he’d hung earlier to give her privacy when dressing—and stripped off the sweater and blue-jeans and donned the T-shirt he’d loaned her for sleeping. Flinging the quilt aside, not looking at all in Darian’s direction, she threw back the covers on the bed and slid between them; after