Read Online Total Package by Cait London - Free Book Online Page B

the tape.
    Sidney could have grabbed his head and pulled it close to her breasts—
    Danya nodded and measured her waist, then her hips. He tucked the tape measure away and then fitted his hands around her waist, easing them up and under the loose shirt she wore. “Don’t worry, Sidney,” he whispered softly. “This will all work out.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “You’re nervous of me.”
    She’d been through battlefields, avalanches, volcanoes, floods, earthquakes. She’d slept beside men in the African bush and on ship decks. “Hey, I work with men all the time—”
    “But this is different, isn’t it?”
    But this is different, echoed in Sidney’s mind as she tried to sleep later. Very different.
     

    She was killing him, inch by inch, Danya decided early the next morning.
    Restless and tossing on her sleeping bag, Sidney had talked in her sleep. Ben’s name was noted frequently again. Danya intended to replace that name with his.
    Sidney lay like a child, curled beneath the light sheet, her feet exposed. She had absolutely no idea of how attractive she was, how feminine.
    How much of a curse she was to a man who had decided to take his time, building a solid relationship with her.
    Danya answered the light rap on the door and with a sweep of his hand, invited Alexi into the cabin. “You brought them?”
    Alexi took the small box from his shirt pocket and handed it to Danya, who indicated Sidney, sleeping on the floor. “I’m just fixing breakfast. Have some coffee?”
    Alexi nodded and watched Sidney stir restlessly. He studied Danya in the way of one brother preparing to test another. “My wife says that if Sid needs a place to stay, she’s welcome at our house.”
    “No.” Danya cracked eggs into a bowl and added milk. Hewhisked the mixture briskly before pouring it into a skillet sizzling with butter.
    “Then Aunt Mary Jo and Uncle Fadey have plenty of room, even with our father staying there—”
    “No.” Danya eyed Alexi. “No, and double no.”
    “Oh. But look, she is sleeping on the floor. The least you could have done would have been to give her your bed.”
    “No.”
    Sidney yawned and turned to look at the men. “‘Morning. Hi, Alexi.”
    She stood and stretched and started touching her toes. Her boxer shorts and Danya’s overlarge T-shirt did little to hide her curves as she walked to the bathroom.
    Alexi looked at Danya who was tracing the sway of her hips, his throat drying and every molecule in his body taut and aching.
    “Your eggs are burning.”
    “Uh-huh. It is a nice day.”
    “It’s snowing outside.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “So she’s the one, huh?”
    This time, Danya turned to his brother. “She’s driving me nuts. Not a clue.”
    Alexi started to chuckle and Danya scowled at him. Sidney chose that moment to walk out of the bathroom. She walked to the table, sat, placed her feet on the opposite chair and picked up a piece of toast, munching on it. “What’s so funny?”
    Danya carried the rest of the breakfast to the table and picked up her feet, placing them over his thigh as he sat. He held her ankles by gently resting his hand over them. When she tried to remove them, he shook his head. “The floor is cold in the morning. You aren’t wearing socks…. And my brother has a strange sense of humor. He’s just leaving.”
    Sidney dug into her eggs and toast, ran the back of her handacross her lips and sipped her coffee before speaking. “This is great.”
    When Alexi had gone, Sidney wiggled her toes against Danya’s belly, just to see if whatever had passed between them last night was still simmering.
    “Stop that,” he ordered and lifted a piece of bacon to her lips. Sidney took a bite and decided to exchange the favor. She lifted another piece to his lips and wondered what he would do if she moved onto his lap…if she leaned against him as she had last night.
    Danya’s eyes darkened. “I don’t know that I would like what you’re