Read Online Larissa Learns to Breathe by Ruby Laska - Free Book Online

hot, rushing waves. She didn’t feel hungover any more. She didn’t feel anything but longing. Need. Urgency.
    â€œI’m not a good person,” she whispered. But that wasn’t true, not really. Larissa tried hard. She always had. And somehow, right now, it seemed very important to tell the truth. “I’m not a good employee, anyway. I haven’t been successful at any job I’ve ever tried.”
    â€œThen I won’t hire you for anything. And I promise not to apply to be a maid, so you won’t be able to ruin my career, either.”
    â€œBut…people don’t like me.”
    â€œ I like you,” he said, and kissed her. His lips were warm and his tongue barely brushed against hers. He wound his fingers more deeply into her hair, pulling her head back so he could kiss along the tender skin underneath her chin. She moaned deep in her throat and Bluebell answered with a questioning whine. “You taste like toothpaste,” he continued. “Glad to know that if you’d been too late to save me, at least mouth-to-mouth would have been pleasant.”
    His hands found their way under the T-shirt she’d worn to bed. His rough skin, callused and scarred, worked magic along her nerve endings. She felt limp in his arms, like she might melt against him. With the last of her strength, she shoved him toward the cot, and he pulled her down into the warm sleeping bag with him, pushing the dog out of the way. Bluebell tumbled onto the stone floor with an indignant grunt, and then poked her snout against Larissa’s bare calf, as if hoping she’d be allowed to squeeze back in with the two of them.
    â€œDogs don’t like me,” Larissa sighed. And that would be a very big problem indeed, because she was pretty sure that Tommy and Bluebell weren’t the kind of team that would be easy to break up, but since she’d be drummed off the island and back into the unemployment line within hours, she might as well take advantage of the time that they had together.
    â€œYou two just don’t know each other yet,” Tommy said, sliding the soft T-shirt up her body. “Oh. Oh, sweet angel of mercy. I thought I got a good look at you yesterday but this…this…”
    He bent to kiss his way down her neck, her collarbones, murmuring his appreciation as he went. Larissa sighed and ran her fingers through his beachcomber hair.
    When Bluebell caught the scent of a seabird pecking for crumbs on the beach, she took off at a gallop, but by then, both of the humans in the little stone room were past noticing.

CHAPTER NINE
    Tommy took a seat between Chloe and Charlie Allen, the maintenance foreman. “Great dinner last night, as always,” he said, toasting Chloe with the steaming cup of coffee to which he’d just helped himself.
    â€œGlad you liked it,” Chloe said. “It’s just sandwiches tonight. I’ll have all hands on deck doing pies and stuffing today. We’ll need all the ovens for the turkeys and side dishes.”
    Thanksgiving was tomorrow. Tommy had completely forgotten, given the events of the last twenty-four hours. Maybe he shouldn’t have tried so hard to talk Larissa into coming to the staff meeting. He still thought she might be able to talk her way into a second chance, especially if she explained to Rafe what had happened.
    â€œIn front of everyone?” she’d said, shocked.
    â€œYeah, it’s the only time any of us ever get to talk to him live. I mean, you could send an email…”
    Larissa would never do that. She might be a failed MBA-turned-entrepreneur, but she wasn’t an ill-mannered one.
    â€œI’ll make sure my letter of resignation is signed by Amelia before I leave,” she’d said. “I’ll find someone to row me back, and don’t worry, I won’t fall in this time.”
    By then, the heat the two of them had generated—first in the little stone