Read Online Love Me by Cheryl Holt - Free Book Online

wretched that she might have just had a root canal.
    He studied her, assessing her aloof beauty, her quiet misery.  Though she was rich and smart and educated, with a fortune that could provide any sort of life that might make her happy, she was so isolated and forlorn.
    He’d told her that he couldn’t bear seeing a damsel in distress, that he might become her knight in shining armor, and he hadn’t been joking.  She seemed so in need of friendship and affection, and he was eager to jump in with both feet, to give her what she required. 
    When he was with her, his masculine tendencies started firing on all cylinders.  He wanted to seduce her, to have wild sex with her, to wake up next to her the morning after.  Yet he craved more than that.  He was desperate to care for her, to protect her, and if he wasn’t cautious, he’d get himself in much deeper than he’d planned.
    If he reached out to her and she latched on, it wouldn’t be easy to pull away when he was finished with her.  He didn’t bond or form attachments, and he was always surprised that he’d maintained a connection with Ken—though he credited Ken with the relationship.  Ken had refused to leave Matt alone, and he was more like a bad habit that Matt couldn’t break. 
    But with other people, it didn’t take sessions on a therapist’s couch to recognize his personal shortcomings and how they’d developed. 
    As a boy, he’d suffered too much loss, and it had warped him, had left him wary.  He didn’t believe he was able to bond with a woman.  It wasn’t in his nature.
    “Don’t make me go to the reception,” Brittney glumly said.
    She looked so sad that his heart actually flip-flopped in his chest.  He went over and clasped hold of her hand. 
    “What are you so afraid of?” he asked.
    “I’m not afraid.  I’m just…just…”  She halted, pondering, then she grumbled, “Okay, maybe I am afraid.”
    “Of your brothers?”
    “You don’t understand what it was like for us.”
    “Tell me.  I’m a good listener.”
    “I hardly know them.  We were never together as kids.  My mother enrolled us in boarding schools at the first opportunity.  Sometimes, years would pass where I wouldn’t talk to them, and when I did…”
    Her voice trailed off again, her embarrassment acute. 
    Ken had already told him this story.  As a cop who was constantly broke, Ken had moonlighted as a security guard.  He’d often worked for her father, David Merriweather, when David deigned to grace Denver with his exalted presence.
    Their main business offices were downtown in the city center, and Brittney’s parents would stop in to host conferences or throw fancy parties at their mansion.
    Ken had seen and heard plenty.
    “Didn’t Dustin send you an invitation?” he inquired.
    “Yes, but I don’t think he really wants me there.”
    “That’s what has you worried?”  He laughed.  “I don’t know a lot about weddings, but I’m pretty sure the bride and groom don’t send an invitation unless they’re hoping the person will attend.”
    “But I’ve never met his bride.  Or Lucas’s either.  I was in Europe when he got married.  I was trapped in a blizzard and couldn’t fly out.  After I returned, I never bothered to visit them.”
    “Isn’t it time you did?”
    “How do I just show up?  How do I just walk in like it’s no big deal?”
    “Honey, you brazen it out.  You’re the Merriweather princess.  Start acting like it.”
    “I’ve deliberately avoided their wives.  There’s been so much terrible gossip about them, and they’ll realize that’s why I’ve stayed away.  They must hate me.”
    Ah, the real crux of the problem.
    “Who said bad things about them?  Your mother?”
    “Yes.”
    “She’s an idiot.  Why would you take her word for it?”
    She chuckled, but miserably.  “You make everything sound so easy.”
    “That’s because it is easy.  You’ll see.  And I’ll be there, guarding your