Read Online Undeniable Demands by Andrea Laurence - Free Book Online Page A

seduced you with words to get what they wanted, then they walked away, uncaring of the shambles they left behind.
    Unfortunately, Wade was one of those men, and despite her better judgment, she could feel the attraction building inside her. She wanted him, even as she plotted and planned to make him suffer for the way he’d treated her. She simply couldn’t get her brain and her body on the same page. Would having dinner with his family at Christmas make the situation better or worse?
    She supposed that all depended on how he reacted to her being there. Perhaps the best way to make him suffer would be to have a good time tonight. Not let him get to her, by rousing either her anger or her desire for him. Having an excellent meal with the enemy was far better than a subpar meal feeling virtuous and lonely.
    “I will have a good time,” she said out loud, her breath creating a soft cloud of fog in the cold.
    “Of course you will. But if you keep standing out here, you’re going to get frostbite.”
    Tori whipped her head around and saw a man standing in the snow a few feet away from her with an armful of firewood. He looked as if he was in his late twenties, tall and strongly built, with short, light brown hair and a wide disarming smile. Her heart was still racing with surprise when she shook her head and laughed. “You scared the daylights out of me.”
    “Sorry,” he said, although his mischievous expression did not lead her to believe it. “You must be Miss Sullivan.”
    “Tori, yes,” she said, shifting the plant in her arms so she could reach out to shake his hand. “Which one are you?”
    “Heath. I’m the baby, if that helps.”
    The tall muscular man in front of her hardly qualified as a baby. He held the heavy logs in one arm to shake her hand as though they were made of Styrofoam.
    Then a thought struck her. Heath knew who she was and was expecting her. Did Wade know she was coming? “Did your mother tell you I was coming to dinner?”
    “She told me when I was peeling potatoes on KP.”
    “Does Wade know?”
    “Nope,” Heath said with a wicked gleam of pleasure in his eyes. “What’s the fun in that?”
    Tori’s lips twisted in concern. She wanted to see the expression of surprise and irritation on Wade’s face when she walked in, unannounced, to his family Christmas party. Apparently so did Heath. But it still felt like a bit of a trap. “Am I walking into the lion’s den here?”
    Heath shrugged. “Eh, they’re fun lions. They’ll play with you before they eat you. Come on, let’s go in. I’m freezing out here, and the sooner we get in there, the sooner I get pie.”
    There was no avoiding it now, despite Heath’s assurance that she would be eaten. Hopefully she could get some of this famous pie first. Tori let the youngest Eden boy usher her up the stairs, and he held the door open.
    “Look what I found outside!” he announced.
    Tori had barely recovered from the sudden rush of warmth and light when she was struck with five sets of eyes. She clutched the plant tightly in her hands and tried to gather some holiday cheer in her expression. It probably ended up coming out a little pained.
    Molly and a younger woman who looked very much like her looked up from their napkin folding at the large dining room table. Standing in the living room talking were Ken and another of the boys. This one looked vaguely familiar and a bit like Heath, actually. Another, younger man watched her from his crouch in front of the fireplace. Their expressions varied. Curiosity, cheer, surprise and even a touch of anxiety from the one tending to the fire.
    But Wade was nowhere in sight.
    “Oh, Tori, you came,” Molly said, rounding the dining room table to greet her.
    “She was just standing in the snow. What did you tell her about us, Ma?” Heath broke away from Tori’s side to carry the wood over to the brother by the fireplace.
    “You hush,” Molly chided and accepted the poinsettia Tori offered.