The Best Of The Year - Modern Romance 2016. Кейт Хьюит

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ minutes during which she heard the whoosh of water and the sounds of him getting ready she tried to get her racing heartbeat under control, and she was burrowed down under the duvet by the time the bathroom door was flung open.

      She sneaked a glance and heaved a sigh of relief that he was still in his boxers.

      ‘Well, well, well...’ Theo strolled into the room and registered that she was in the bed but that there was no pile of linen on the floor, waiting to be turned into a sleeping area. Instead she had banked some cushions down the middle of the mattress in a neat dividing line.

      Alexa flipped over and feigned a yawn of exhaustion. ‘It’s silly for either of us to sleep on the floor. The bed is huge and there’s no reason why we can’t share it like two adults.’

      ‘I like your definition of sharing like two adults...’ He nodded at the military march of cushions along the middle of the bed.

      Reluctantly she grinned. ‘I thought it might be a good idea to have separated sides.’

      ‘Of course.’

      Theo was amused at just how innocent that gesture was. He climbed into bed, his antennae noting the way she shifted ever so slightly away from him. She was clearly awake, but she wasn’t reading her book and she certainly wasn’t about to engage in conversation. He reached for his laptop, propped it on his lap and casually asked if it would bother her if he worked for a couple of hours. He was even more amused when she didn’t answer.

      Bother her? It bothered her that he was even breathing next to her, far less working.

      Her body was rigid. She would never manage to get a wink of sleep. She knew that. Nor would she be able to toss and turn. If she tossed and turned he would guess that she was awake, plus she would keep him up, and then they’d both be awake...in a bed...just the two of them...

      Sleep overcame her. It had been a long and tiring day and her exhausted body at last won the battle over her hyperactive mind.

      She dreamt that she was skimming over the clouds, looking down. And then, as she looked behind her, over her shoulder, Theo was advancing, getting closer and closer. Part of her wanted desperately to run away, but another, stronger part was holding her fast and liked the fact that she couldn’t move, that he would get closer and closer, and their bodies would fuse... She would be able to skim her hands over his broad chest and feel the rough surface of muscle and tendon...

      The dream was so real that she could almost feel his hands on her, brushing against her thigh and then curving between her legs. She moaned softly.

      Her eyes fluttered open and...she wasn’t dreaming.

      For a few seconds Alexa was completely disorientated. The strategically positioned cushions had hit the floor at some point during the night, and not only had she rolled towards Theo but right now the palm of her hand was flat against his hard chest and he was as awake as she was.

      And holding her against him as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

      Her limbs felt heavy and lazy and, just like in her dream, whilst a part of her desperately knew that she should pull away, another part of her felt heavy and warm and lazy, utterly incapable of doing anything but revelling in the feel of his equally warm body.

      ‘Shh...’ Theo murmured, as if she had spoken.

      After lying in complete silence while he had tried to focus on work Alexa had eventually fallen asleep. He had known by the change in the rhythm of her breathing and, oddly enough, having her asleep next to him had made him a little jumpy.

      He had managed to subdue his disobedient libido when it had reared its head and he had done that by rationalising it out of existence. He was in an unnatural and forced situation—heading down the aisle and not by choice. He was with a woman whose emotionalism was not the kind of thing he sought or appreciated in any woman—certainly not in a woman to whom he was to be married. And, physically, since when had he ever gone for small, curvy girls? That had always been his brother’s domain.

      But just knowing that she was next to him in the bed had kept him awake. At one point he had seriously considered slipping out of bed and heading for a cold shower—especially when those cushions had been kicked away and, like a little mouse gravitating towards the source of warmth, she had wriggled closer and closer until she had been touching him.

      ‘You were moaning,’ he whispered. ‘Having a bad dream? Or a really good one?’

      Alexa squeezed her eyes shut and remembered exactly how erotic that dream of hers had been. Heat was still making her want to snap her legs together.

      ‘I’m sorry if I woke you,’ she whispered back. ‘The cushions...’

      ‘Turns out that soft furnishings don’t make very successful fortifications...’ He sifted his fingers through her hair. His body was raging, his libido in full surge—a primitive response over which he had no control.

      Right now, right here, Theo wanted her in a way he had never wanted any woman in his life before. This wife-to-be he had never asked for and from whom he knew he should keep a safe distance. Because if he slept with her...slept with someone who was looking for a guy who was most certainly not him...that single act of passion would make the next year even more impossibly awkward than it was already showing signs of being.

      And yet...

      ‘Why did you feel the need to stick a row of cushions between us?’

      His hand dipped to the curve of her waist. She wasn’t pulling back with a screech of maidenly outrage and more than anything else that was a massive turn-on—because it was proof that despite all her protests she wanted him. She didn’t want to want him...just as he didn’t want to want her...but their bodies were not on the same page as their intellects.

      In a life that was formidably controlled this lack of self-control felt good...satisfying...addictive.

      How the hell was he going to endure twelve months of wanting her and banking down his desire?

      They were both adults, he reasoned. They fancied one another, and he knew from experience that it was a very short journey between fancying a woman and boredom setting in. He had no doubt that if she fancied him it was something she was fighting to ignore, which meant that the same would apply to her. If they slept together they would rid themselves of an inconvenient lust—a bit like taking the right medicine to kill a fever.

      ‘Did you think...?’

      His voice was low and soft, and Alexa knew that it was no shock that she was finding it impossible to pull away from him when he was hypnotising her with his deep, dark, sexy drawl.

      ‘Did you think that if it weren’t for some scatter cushions you might have found yourself wanting to touch me?’

      ‘No!’

      ‘Liar.’ He laughed softly under his breath. ‘I’ve felt the way your body tenses up every time I’ve touched you and seen the way you slide hot little glances over at me when you don’t think I’m watching you... Except I’ve been watching you a hell of a lot more than you probably thought. In fact a lot more than I ever anticipated...because I’m feeling what you’re feeling...’

      ‘I never said...’ Her voice was so feeble and unconvincing that she wasn’t СКАЧАТЬ