Read Online While She Was Sleeping... by Isabel Sharpe - Free Book Online

something she’d never done in her life, not even in high school when hormones andinexperience could easily cause that conflict to tip the wrong way.
    Not Alana. She’d said no with ruthless sincerity to junior-year boyfriend Jake and senior-year boyfriend Ted no matter how crazily her lust was acting up. In college she’d said yes, but only to Alan, and only after an appropriate amount of dating time. After college, she and Sam had proceeded with degrees of intimacy appropriate to their deepening relationship.
    Yesterday morning? With that man who lied and teased and came on to her completely inappropriately? She’d acted like a seventeen-year-old virgin, still into movie-star fantasies of men, who is faced with her first real one. Attracted, repelled, wanting, knowing she couldn’t have. Or shouldn’t. On edge like she’d never been before, excited, shooting sparks, so out of her mind that she fell, splat, victim to his magnetism and hadn’t cared. Had. Not. Cared! Since when had she not cared about moral issues? Since never. Since she had a mother who didn’t. And now a sister who didn’t. Someone in their little family had to, and that had always been Alana.
    At least she’d stopped at kissing Sawyer, though my God, the man could redefine kissing.
    Alana chose a new spot on the sink, ignoring the light sweat spreading on her body that didn’t have enough to do with the exertion of cleaning and too much to do with the heated memories.
    Were he and Melanie an item or not? Not that it mattered. Alana was staying away from Sawyer no matter what. Or at least she was going to make sure she tried a hell of a lot harder than she had yesterday. No means no means no! She’d practice if she had to.
    But if they weren’t dating, then Melanie lied saying they were a couple, which would hurt. She and Alana saw eye to eye on very little, but Alana had always trusted her to be honest. For so many years, they had only each other.
    Alana would have to ask. Melanie hadn’t come home after work yesterday, which she often didn’t, and Alana was in bed by the time she made it back, so Alana hadn’t been able to—or been willing to, given that the day had been confusing, to say the least—confront her sister. The second Melanie came downstairs this morning, assuming Sawyer wasn’t around, Alana was going to pounce and not let go until she got the truth from somebody around here.
    She went to work on the metal drain stopper, determined to make it sparkle again. Today she’d try to sort this all out so she could make definite plans to move on. She should make sure to call Gran and Grandad later to check on Gran and keep them up-to-date.
    “G’morning.” Melanie bounced in, wide-spaced hazel eyes bleary with sleep, her blond hair a ratty mess around her head, wearing only a wrinkled pink Bratz T-shirt that barely covered the necessities. She looked absolutely adorable.
    “Morning, Mel. Sleep well?”
    “Mmm.” Melanie started a huge yawn, then bit it off. “God, Alana, what are you doing?”
    “There was all this…stuff staining the sink, and I thought I’d help…”
    Melanie rolled her eyes and pulled open the refrigerator, which could use a scrub, too, now that Alana looked. Something purple had dripped down the front, and there were dried bits of green—lettuce?—on the bottom that could use wiping.
    Uh-oh. She was really upset. But as long as she didn’t start wanting to wash windows, she was sane. If the glass cleaner came out, it was time to call in professional help.
    “You ever stop to think that all your efforts here might seem like a criticism of the way I live?”
    Temper flared. Alana lobbed the scouring pad into the sink. “You’re welcome.”
    Melanie got out the plastic jug of orange juice and let it thud unnecessarily hard on the counter where they ate.
    Alana took a deep breath. This was not how she wanted their sisterly interaction to start this morning. Or any morning. They couldn’t seem to