A Madaris Bride for Christmas. Brenda Jackson

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      Chapter 2

      She had kissed a stranger.

      The intensity of that bizarre action weighed heavily on Carly’s mind the next day as she folded laundry. She could claim the “birthday silliness” defense all she wanted, but the bottom line was that it was so unlike her that the excuse didn’t pass muster. And then there was the undeniable fact she couldn’t let go of.

      She had enjoyed it.

      Carly would even admit that she had enjoyed it so much she hadn’t thought of anything else since. Even when she’d gone back to her hotel room and dressed for bed, a part of her had wondered what would have happened had she left one of her shoes behind. Would he have tried to find her?

      She frowned at her thoughts. She wasn’t Cinderella and he wasn’t a prince...although he had certainly been dashing. However, she didn’t deal with fairy tales. This was the real world, and in the real world men like Lee whatever-his-last-name-was probably preyed on women nutty enough to act silly on their birthdays. There was no doubt in her mind that had she invited him up to her room he would have accepted the invitation. After they parted ways, he’d probably wandered around the hotel looking for another woman to pick up. With his looks, there was no doubt he would have been successful.

      So why couldn’t she put the kiss behind her?

      She knew the answer. The reason she couldn’t forget it was because it had been just that—unforgettable. Never had she been kissed that way, so intensely, so thoroughly. French-kissing a woman undoubtedly came naturally to Lee; he obviously had a lot of experience.

      Last night that expert kiss had invaded her sleep. She had dreamed they hadn’t stopped with the kiss, that he had followed her back to her hotel room, that he had undressed her, undressed himself and then pulled her down on the bed. She had awakened more than once from her own loud moans as she’d envisioned him taking her nipples into his mouth and sucking hard on them, envisioned his hand slipping between her legs.

      Then, when he had replaced his hand with his mouth, detonating an explosion of passion through her, she had screamed out in her sleep.

      Her dream had gone way too far. Really? An orgasm? She could only imagine what the people in the hotel room next to her thought.

      She’d heard of women’s dreams feeling so real they climaxed, but she’d never experienced such a thing for herself. Heck, nothing of that magnitude had even happened to her in real life, definitely not with Nathaniel.

      Even with all of her dreams, she had quickly dressed and packed after waking up. Since her hotel bill had been prepaid, she’d skipped the checkout desk and gone straight to the parking garage, where she got into her car and drove off.

      Carly was glad that she didn’t have to go back to work until tomorrow night. And since she worked in the restaurant’s kitchen and was never seen by patrons, she didn’t have to worry about her path crossing with Lee’s. In fact, she was confident she would never see him again. She fought off the disappointment of that thought, knowing it was for the best. The man tempted her to do things she wouldn’t ordinarily do. That was the last thing she needed.

      She wanted to concentrate on her new job and be the best pastry chef she could be. There were a lot of opportunities at the Grand MD and she figured hard work would bring her closer to her dream of one day owning her own café. Ever since she’d moved to town, she’d been eyeing a piece of land within fifteen minutes of where she lived, not far from the mall. She could definitely see a restaurant with her name on it sitting right on that spot. The price was more than she could afford with all the student loans she was still paying back. But within a year she would have saved enough for a down payment, and she was hoping the property would still be available.

      Leaving the laundry room, she planned out the few chores she needed to finish before she went shopping. Her aunt and Heather had sent her gift cards with instructions to buy something nice for herself. She smiled at their thoughtfulness and brushed aside the hurt that her mother hadn’t bothered to call. She never did.

      Carly had long ago accepted the fact that Gail Briggs Thrasher believed Carly to be a mistake she’d made at sixteen that she wanted to forget. With Aunt Ruthie’s help, Carly’s mother had not only finished high school but had gone off to college as well. Only thing was, Gail eventually decided she didn’t want to be a mother to her illegitimate child. Knowing she was never wanted had bothered Carly while growing up, but she had stopped letting it be the downer it once was.

      Her aunt Ruthie was a very religious woman and she believed that one day Carly would get all the happiness that had ever been missing from her life. A part of Carly hoped her aunt was right.

      A few hours later, Carly sat down to the computer at her desk and pulled up the online copy of the Miami Herald. She’d promised СКАЧАТЬ