Read Online Winter Kisses by A.C. Arthur - Free Book Online Page A

tweaked each nipple, watching as her eyes darkened and her mouth opened wider to suck in more air. Inside she was so wet, so inviting that Alex almost lost his control. Every muscle in her body tightened as she moaned with her release. Alex thrust harder, searching for his own pleasure but didn’t reach it until she yelled once more.
    â€œAlex!”
    His name was like a litany or a permission slip for him to let go finally. With a tensing of his spine, he groaned as it seemed everything he had inside was transferred to her. In a shameful display, he lay on top of her, breathing heavily and trying to find the ground on which he’d once stood, before he’d seen her in the kitchen, before he’d climbed into this bed with her, before she’d turned and wrapped her arms around him.
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    Monica was awake.
    As much as she’d like to pretend otherwise, there was no denying it. She was coherent and Alex Bennett, with his gloriously naked body, was lying on top of her—a certain part of him still comingling with a certain part of her.
    She wanted to scream with embarrassment. The woman who’d declared she would not have sex with a man she hardly knew.
    Then she wanted to sigh with contentment. The woman who hadn’t had sex in so long she feared she’d forgotten how.
    In the end she simply cleared her throat, then said, “I need to get up.”
    â€œOh. Yeah. Sorry,” he said as if each separate word were new to his vocabulary, and moved off her.
    The chill air settled over her body and she shivered as she stood from the bed. Her nightgown fell to its original length, covering her naked lower half as she headed for the door.
    In the bathroom she looked at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes still a little dazed with a mixture of sleep and satiation. She’d had sex with Alex Bennett. She covered her face with both hands, allowed herself a moment of bashing before taking a deep breath.
    â€œOkay. What’s done is done. Get it together and move on,” she told herself then grabbed a washcloth and switched on the water.
    By the time she left the bathroom she was still giving herself directions for how to behave when she entered the bedroom again, what to say and what not to say to Alex. He would be gloating and probably tossing her words of not sleeping with him right back in her face. It would be humiliating, but it was her own fault. She didn’t know what she was doing, didn’t know they werereally doing it. It was a dream or at least that’s how it had started for her. A private dream about getting closer to him. She didn’t really want to get close to him. Or have sex with him, for that matter.
    She stopped at the bedroom door and sighed.
    She did want to have sex with him. She did want to get close to him. And it was fantastic. That was the biggest problem of them all.
    â€œCongratulations,” she said as she entered the bedroom.
    Alex was sitting on the side of the bed, his boxers on but his chest still bare. He turned to face her. “What?”
    â€œCongratulations, you proved me wrong,” she said while heading for the side of the bed where she’d been sleeping before. “I think I’ll be able to sleep just fine now. You can go back into the living room.”
    She’d climbed into bed and was pulling the sheets up over her when Alex stood. He’d lit a candle while she was in the bathroom so she could see his dark eyes growing even darker as he stared at her. She wanted to reach over to the nightstand and blow out the candle, but refrained. Her cool composure was only seconds away from faltering.
    â€œExcuse me?”
    Monica released a deep breath and looked down at the covers she was smoothing unnecessarily. “Thanks for your help, but I think I’ll be okay getting to sleep now.”
    â€œThanks for my help,” he said with an angry edge to his tone. “I can go back into the