Read Online Heartbreaker by Laurie Paige - Free Book Online

later, he considered taking a pill himself in order to relax and get some sleep. It had been a long time since a woman had kept him awake. His life had been too busy. Dedicated to his career, he really hadn’t thought about marriage and all that it entailed.
    And he still wasn’t considering it, he reminded himself caustically. Commitment was a big step and he’d already made one—medicine.
    Â 
    Susan woke frightened and disoriented. She stared around the dark room and wondered where she was.
    The door opened a crack.
    â€œAre you all right?” Michael asked.
    Everything came back to her. She pressed a hand to her pounding chest and sucked in deep breaths until the pain receded. “I was dreaming.”
    â€œYeah, I heard you struggling. Did a monster grab you?”
    He came into the room and flicked on the bedside lamp. She saw it was nearly two in the morning.
    Ignoring his humor, she shook her head. “It was someplace dark. I couldn’t see anything. It was like being blind. And deaf. I was waiting for my cue, butI couldn’t hear the music. I tried to move closer to the stage, to see which ballet we were doing, but it was as if I was glued to the spot. I knew it must be time for me to go on, but something held me back.”
    Closing her mouth, she cut off the flow of words before she disclosed too much—the horror of the dream, the terrible, terrible sense of loss, the desperation to take her place onstage, the need to dance until her heart stopped…
    â€œYou must have been backstage at the ballet,” he told her.
    A chord thrummed inside her. It bothered her that he understood the dream and what she’d been feeling.
    â€œTurn over,” he said in a soothing voice.
    Before she quite knew how it happened, she was on her stomach, and he was massaging her shoulders through the borrowed pajama top. When he rubbed down either side of her spine with his thumbs, she moaned in ecstasy.
    â€œI’ll give you just thirty minutes to stop that,” she said, the tense muscles relaxing all at once as she tried for a lighter note. The nightmare receded, and she felt safe once more.
    He chuckled, a rich sound that reminded her of hot-fudge sauce and other good things. The hunger roiled through her, catching her by surprise. She gasped.
    â€œDid I hurt you?” he asked, easing up on his strokes.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDo you need another pill to sleep?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” he asked.
    â€œHow do you always know when I’m…when…” She stopped the runaway words before she made a complete fool of herself and willed the need to go away.
    â€œWhen you’re vulnerable?” he asked quietly. “Because you’re a fighter, and there’s no one to fight.”
    She turned over and looked at him, and her breath caught. He wore pajama bottoms only. His chest was broad and muscular. A generous covering of black hair swirled over trim, washboard ribs and arrowed down to the waistband.
    â€œDon’t look at me like that,” he warned, a hint of laughter in the words, but danger, too.
    He was an aroused male animal. She knew she shouldn’t tempt him too far, but she ignored the warning.
    â€œMake love to me,” she whispered.
    Regret shadowed his eyes. He shook his head. “I can’t. It’s not good ethics.”
    â€œEthics be damned.” She reached for him.
    The kiss was sweet and as hot as a July fire-cracker. Somewhere in the misty delight, she wondered why she wanted this man, this way, this much. It made no sense to desire the enemy. Except he didn’t feel like an enemy.
    She ran her hands over his torso—his back, his sides, his chest, down to his abdomen where the muscles tensed like rocks under her fingers.
    He caught her hands and held them against the mattress, his weight lightly on her. Their bodies slipped down until she lay on the pillow. She could feel her heart