Read Online Her Christmas Fantasy & The Winter Bride by Lynne Graham, Penny Jordan - Free Book Online

admire the view,’ Lisa told him bitterly. ‘The car’s run out of petrol.’
    â€˜The car’s run out of petrol?’
    Lisa felt herself flushing as she heard the disbelieving male scorn in his voice.
    â€˜It wasn’t my fault,’ she defended herself. ‘We were supposed to be coming north in Henry’s car, only it was involved in an accident and couldn’t be driven so we had to use mine, and Henry was so anxious to get…not to be late that he didn’t want to stop and refill the tank…’
    Lisa hated the way he was just standing silently looking at her. He was determined to make things as hard for her as he could. She could see that… He was positively enjoying making her look small…humiliating her.
    In any other circumstances but these she would have been tempted simply to turn her back on him, get back in her car and wait for the next driver to come by, but common sense warned her that she couldn’t afford to take that kind of risk.
    Her unprotected fingers had already turned white and were almost numb. She couldn’t feel her toes, and the rest of her body felt so cold that the sensation was almost a physical pain.
    Taking a deep breath and fixing her gaze on a point just beyond his left shoulder, she said shakily, ‘I’d be very grateful if you could give me a lift to the nearest garage…’
    Tensely she waited for his response, knowing that he was bound to make the most of the opportunity which she had given him to exercise his obvious dislike of her. But when it came the blow was one of such magnitude and such force that she physically winced beneath the cruelty of it, the breath escaping from her lungs in a soft, shocked gasp as he told her ruthlessly, ‘No way.’
    It must be the cold that was making her feel so dizzy and light-headed, Lisa thought despairingly—that and her panicky fear that he was going to walk away and simply leave her here to meet her fate.
    Whatever the cause, it propelled her into instinctive action, making her dart forward and catch hold of the fabric of his jacket as she told him jerkily, ‘It wasn’t my fault that your cousin sold his girlfriend’s clothes without her permission. All I did was buy them in good faith… He’s the one you should be punishing, not me. If you leave me here—’
    â€˜ Leave you here…?’
    Somehow or other he had detached her hand from his jacket and was now holding it in his own. Dizzily Lisa marvelled at how warm and comforting, how strong and safe it felt to have that large male hand enclosing hers. She could almost feel the warmth from his touch—his body—flooding up through her arm like an infusion of life-giving blood into a vein.
    â€˜Leave you here in this temperature?’ he said, adding roughly, ‘Are you crazy…?’
    She couldn’t see him properly any more, Lisa realised, and she thought it must be because the tears that had threatened her eyes had frozen in the intense cold. She had no idea that she had actually spoken her sentiments out loud until she heard him respond, ‘Tears don’t freeze; they’re saline…salty.’
    He had let go of her hand and as Lisa watched him he stripped off his jacket and then, to her shock, took hold ofher and bundled her up in it like an adult wrapping up a small child.
    â€˜I can’t walk,’ she protested, her voice muffled by the thickness of the over-large wrapping.
    â€˜You’re not going to,’ she was told peremptorily, and then, before she knew what was happening, he was picking her up and carrying her the short distance to his car, opening the passenger door and depositing her on the seat.
    The car smelled of leather and warmth and something much more intangible—something elusive and yet oddly familiar… Muzzily Lisa sniffed, trying to work out what it was and why it should inexplicably make her want to cry and