Read Online Cinderella Christmas by Elda Minger - Free Book Online

was.
    Though Nick had plenty of experience with the opposite sex, he was completely lost with this woman. He had no idea how to proceed.
    He glanced up as Eve walked into the room. She’d blown her hair dry and it flowed gently around her shoulders, gleaming softly. He had to force himself not to walk over to her and bury his fingers in it, bring her mouth up to his.
    How was he going to get through this weekend?
    “I think I’ll hop into the shower myself. How was the water pressure?”
    “Terrific. It’s going right in my notes.”
    He nodded and left the room, intent on reaching the privacy of his shower.
    #
    They went down to one of the five-star restaurants and had a late dinner. Maurice had been left up in the suite with a dinner of broiled steak strips and the enormous television on for company.
    “He’s come a long way in a short amount of time,” Nick remarked. “You have quite a way with him.”
    Desperate to keep the conversation off Darcy, she told Nick the truth about how she’d stolen Maurice.
    “It’s an interesting thing,” Nick remarked after taking a sip of wine. “Stealing is stealing, but in this case I think it was perfectly justified. You said he was pretty bony when you found him.”
    She nodded.
    “He might have been put down right away. When the shelters are so full, they make decisions like that. I’ve been working with a group of people to get all the shelters in the Southern California area converted to no-kill, but it’s still a ways away. You did the right thing, rescuing Maurice.”
    “Thank you.” Eve hesitated, then said, “Have you ever done something you thought was right, where you thought you knew what you were doing and yet it all went horribly wrong?”
    “All the time. It’s called being human.”
    “No, but I mean – did you ever do something that really hurt someone you cared about. Hurt them badly.”
    Something softened in his expression, she saw such kindness in his eyes that Eve thought she might just put her head down on the snowy linen and weep. How had she got herself into this mess? She was such an emotional coward.
    “What was it you did?” he said quietly. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
    “I can – really relate to Darcy because – I did something pretty similar.”
    “Really.” He took another sip of his wine. “Then ‘fess up, please, because I’m dying to know why. Maybe it will help me understand why Darcy did what she did.”
    “I was – I had some friends who told me I was letting life pass me by. I wasn’t making any effort to find a good man. They didn’t want to see me waste my life and end up all alone. So they asked me why I wasn’t out dating and I made some excuse. But when I got home I realized it was because I was in love with a man and he didn’t even know I was alive.”
    #
    Nick’s breath stilled. Eve was talking about her feelings for him. This might be as close as he ever got to having her admit what she did and why she did it.
    He had to know.
    “Did you ever tell this man the way you felt about him?”
    “I couldn’t. The relationship was too – unequal.”
    He’d said the exact same thing about office relationships. He was the boss, so by default he was in the power position.
    “To make a long story short, I went to a party and got him to kiss me and then we – then we – “
    “I get the picture, Watson. So you snuck out on this guy the same way?”
    She nodded her head.
    “Why? Was the sex lousy?”
    “No. No, it was – wonderful.”
    “Then why did you run?” Everything inside him was waiting for her answer.
    “He – he could never love me.”
    “How do you know that, Eve?”
    “Because – he’d never really seen me before that night. And I wasn’t really myself.”
    “You were bolder.”
    She nodded.
    “You took what you wanted.”
    She nodded again.
    “It probably thrilled him,” he said.
    “You think so?”
    “I know so,” he said. “I may not know much, but I know the