Read Online Coming Undone by Susan Andersen - Free Book Online Page A

It didn’t matter, though. He might be unaware of her satisfaction, but she still hugged the coup of reserving the last room at the inn to her breast. According to the desk clerk, the beautiful old wood-and-fieldstone lodge was booked months in advance. P.J. had only scored a room herself due to fortunate timing and a last-minute cancellation.
    She strode across the bar and pushed out the door, shrugging into a sweater as she crossed the lot to her truck. She’d finally learned to come prepared for the Pacific Northwest’s cool-to-downright-chilly evening temperatures. Picking up her pace, she hit the remote entry button on her keychain and heard the soft thunk of locks disengaging.
    “The world as we know it came to a screeching halt tonight,” Jared said from behind her. “You didn’t have me tossed out of the tavern. I hardly knew how to act when I didn’t have to cool my jets in the parking lot for two or three hours.”
    It said something about their week-long battle of one-upmanship that she wasn’t even startled to hear his voice come out of the dark. Feeling exultant to have come out on top tonight—other times having gone back and forth between them pretty equally—she bestowed her most beatific smile on him.
    “Considering you’ll be spending the rest of the night shivering in your car, I figured I should probably let you gather all the comfort you could from the bar.”
    “At the very least.” He gazed down at her. “Pretty damn pleased with yourself, aren’t you?”
    “I am.” She executed a little victory dance as she pulled the door open, then climbed up into the cab of the truck. Slamming the door shut, she turned on the ignition and punched the window button. When the glass had glided down she reached out to chuck him gently under his chin. Stubble pricked her fingertip and she snatched back her hand. Cleared her throat.
    Then gave him a cocky smile. “See ya around, sucker.”
    Since she planned to go straight to bed for what remained of the night and there was no point in sneaking out of the lodge in the morning when Jared knew exactly where she was headed, she meant she’d see him tomorrow.
    But she hadn’t eaten in hours and when hunger sent her out to raid the vending machine in the ice room shortly after settling into her room, it never occurred to her to look down when she opened the door. The next thing she knew, her shin smacked up against a hard barrier and she heard a grunt as her forward momentum sent her lurching over the object blocking her door. Sprawling onto her hands and one knee on the carpeted corridor, she cranked her head around to see what had happened.
    Her bare feet were hooked over Jared’s midsection. Pulling them free, she swiveled on her knees to face him, pushed back to sit on her heels and gave him a straight-armed shot to the shoulder. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? I could have broken my neck.”
    Rubbing at the spot she’d just smacked, he fixed sleepy eyes on her and yawned. “Well, I was sleeping before you tried to break my ribs.” His cheek resting on the arm curled above his head, he reached out his free hand to cup her bare thigh just above her kneecap.
    “In the hallway, like a bum in a doorway.” She jerked her leg from his light grasp. “What are you, nuts?”
    “Quite possibly. But if you read the sign driving up the road, you know the elevation here is seventy-one hundred feet. Only someone completely nuts would sleep outside where it’s fortysomething freaking degrees when there’s a nice warm hallway right here. Not to mention room to stretch out.” Pushing up on his forearm, his heavy-lidded gaze tracked a path from her legs to her faded red boxers to her tank top to her scrubbed face, making her aware of how awful she must look. “And who’s going to see me at two-thirty in the morning?” he asked without heat. “I set my watch to be out of here before most people stir.”
    “Most people. But it’d only take