Read Online Frosted by Katy Regnery - Free Book Online

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    “You’re a few years off,” she volleyed back, delighted by his compliment.
    “Damn fine looking woman, Grace.”
    “Why, thank you, Tray.”
    “Damn fine kisser, too.”
    “And here I thought I could use a little more practice.”
    His breath caught again in that way she was coming to like so much. It made her feel powerful and sexy, and while Grace wasn’t a stranger to power, sexy was a whole new world.
    “I don’t know if my heart can take it,” he said softly, staring back at her.
    He might have meant the words as a joke, but his tone was unexpectedly poignant and made her pause, because it was a good point. She’d only known Tray for a handful of hours, but she could tell that he wasn’t someone she was going to be able to quickly forget once she was home again. She imagined herself at a hospital benefit, unconsciously scanning the crowd for his face…walking down Fifth Avenue on her way to church and feeling the phantom caress of his warm hands on her cheeks…trying unsuccessfully to fall asleep, night after night, as the memory of his lips claiming hers kept her awake until dawn.
    As she resumed her lonely life, she’d know that there was a man living and breathing on the earth who’d made her feel more electric in a few hours than her husband had made her feel in thirty some-odd years. How long would it take to let go of him? Would she ever really let go or would he be this unshakable fantasy for the rest of her life?
    “What are you thinking?” he asked.
    She darted a glance at the fire, where the pot of water hissed and boiled, and finally said something sensible: “That it’s time for tea.”
    ***
    As they sipped their tea in companionable silence, Grace wondered if Tray was having any of the same thoughts she was.
    Granted, they’d only just met one another, but Grace had been alive for almost six decades and she knew that the chemistry she had with him wasn’t commonplace. It was…extraordinary.
    “So,” she said. “You’re dating someone? Here at the resort?”
    He swung his other leg up on the couch, sinking down a little so that her feet were nestled under his shoulder.
    It was late-afternoon and in the past hour or so, it had started darkening outside. When Tray had opened the door of the warming hut, the snow had been piled almost a full foot against the door. She wondered if they were going to have to stay the night and quickly realized that the one and only desperate hope of her heart was that they’d be forced to spend the night. She wanted as much time as possible with Tray and she knew that once they returned to the resort, they’d be a guest and an employee again, expected to go their separate ways.
    “Sort of,” he hedged.
    “Who is she?” asked Grace, holding her still warm mug between her hands.
    “Why do you want to know this?”
    She shrugged because she didn’t have a good answer. Because we’re lying on a couch together in the middle of nowhere. Because I like you. Because you like me. Because maybe it’ll be easier for me to walk away tomorrow if I think you’ve got someone else already in your life.
    “Yeah,” he said. “Sometimes I go out with Bonnie. She works in the gift shop.”
    “Ah,” murmured Grace, wondering if she was the forty-ish woman she’d spied in the sundry shop this morning. “Is it serious?”
    “If it was serious,” he said, “I wouldn’t have kissed you.”
    She looked down quickly, bringing her mug to her lips so he wouldn’t see how much she liked this answer.
    “How about you?”
    “I’m supposed to have dinner tonight with Stewart Whitman,” she offered.
    “Another Silver Winger?”
    “Mm-hm.”
    “Rich?”
    “Very.”
    “Handsome?”
    “Quite.”
    He mumbled it like a curse word. “ Quite .”
    “I know him from home.”
    “Which is where?”
    “Manhattan.”
    “Of course it is.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “That we couldn’t possibly be more different,” he said, leaning forward to