Read Online Merry and Bright by Jill Shalvis - Free Book Online Page A

Jacob.”
    “Let me in.”
    Just his voice made her quiver. What was wrong with her?
    “Stress,” he said through the wood when she inadvertently spoke out loud. “That’s what’s wrong. I have the cure for that, by the way.”
    Oh, God. “Stressed is desserts spelled backward.” She could use a dessert right about now....
    Then he did something to really turn her on. He lifted a bag of chocolate cookies to the peephole. “Cookies that you don’t have to make. And unlike someone I know, I didn’t eat them all. Open up, Maggie.”
    With a sigh, she grabbed a throw blanket from her couch and threw it around her. “I’m in my pj’s.”
    “I won’t look.”
    A reluctant smile tugged at her mouth, and she pulled open the door. He was wearing clean clothes: a pair of dark Levi’s, a dark polo shirt, and a dark smile to match, which had her pulse leaping to attention.
    Bad pulse. “I don’t need you to stay—”
    “I know.” He pushed past her and tossed a duffel bag down to her couch. “But I am.”
    He smelled good. Dammit, why did he always have to smell good?
    She put her hands on her hips. “Jacob—”
    Turning back to her, he gripped her waist, pulled her up against him and kissed her until she didn’t know her name. Disarmed, she stared up at him when he pulled back. “What does that have to do with anything?”
    “It has to do with the fact that I wouldn’t leave you alone tonight even if I didn’t want to do that all the damn time.” He shoved his fingers through his hair and turned in a slow circle, coming back to face her, his eyes dark and full of things that took her breath. “Look, you were there for me once. Let me be here for you now. Don’t ask me to leave you alone tonight.”
    She thought about how she’d felt earlier standing between him and Scott, how really, there hadn’t been any choice to make at all. And how that scared her because she no longer understood herself or what she wanted. “We’re not having sex.”
    “Let me guess. Because you have your showerhead.”
    She’d known that would come back and bite her on the ass.
    “Don’t worry, I understand. I doubt any guy could compete with a showerhead. How about a blanket? Can I ask for a blanket?”
    She pulled one out from the small chest she used as an ottoman, then watched him kick off his shoes and lie down on her couch. He was of course too long for it, with his calves and feet sticking off the end, but he merely tossed the blanket over himself and closed his eyes. “Could you get the light?”
    She just stared at him. “You missed your flight for me. Why did you miss your flight for me?”
    “I realize you’ve been using a showerhead as a boyfriend, so you might have forgotten how the friend part works. Friends stick by each other when they’re in trouble.”
    “We’re friends?”
    “Well we’re not sleeping together.”
    He said this a little irritably, which made her want to smile. “I’m not in trouble, Jacob.”
    “I think you’re mistaken. Go to sleep, Maggie. I’m exhausted, far too exhausted to argue with you. Maybe even too exhausted to have all that sex you don’t want to have.”
    She turned off the light. “Is there anything else you need?”
    “Probably you should be more specific.”
    There in the dark, she both rolled her eyes and felt... hungry. “Good night.”
    “Night.”
    She went to bed, and fell sleep while trying to remember why they weren’t having sex. Just a one-time thing, she reminded herself . . . and woke up in the middle of the night dying of thirst. Or at least that was the excuse she gave herself for wanting to steal a peek at the gorgeous man sleeping over. She tiptoed into the living room and found him sprawled on her couch, both legs hanging off, one arm dangling down, face relaxed, chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm.
    He wasn’t a snorer. Good to know. God, she really wished she’d asked for a two -time thing instead of a one-time thing. If he