Page 38 of Hot Holiday Fling

“I wasn’t a welcome addition to their world. I am, apparently, the reason their marriage fell apart, why they fight, why my father has affairs. Children change the makeup of a relationship.”

Hunt’s hand on her hip tightened and she picked up the new tension in his long, hard body. “They told you this?”

“My mother mostly but my father didn’t disagree with her.”

“Holy shit. My mother had her issues, she was in and out of state psychiatric facilities all her life, but I never doubted her love for me.”

“My mom doesn’t love anyone but herself,” Adie told him before waving her words away, “My parents are the reason why I was an attention hound for far too many years. Any attention was good because I received none from them.”

Adie sat up and rolled away from Hunt. She sat on the edge of the bed, her back to him. “Why are we talking about this? Are you hungry? There’s still pizza in the kitchen.”

She stood up and pulled an oversized rugby shirt off the chair next to her bed. Slipping it over her head, she looked at Hunt, who was watching her through hooded eyes. He was utterly at ease in his nakedness and he had every right to be. Big arms, a ribbed stomach, strong muscled thighs and sexy, broad feet.

Maybe getting dressed wasn’t such a good idea; pizza could wait. She wanted to run her hands down those legs, tongue her way over that washboard stomach, moving downward to his most intimate area...

Hunt waited until her eyes returned to his face before smiling at her. “I like what you are thinking but after two rounds of spectacular sex, I need pizza and a glass of wine and a little time to recover.”

Adie blushed, shocked he could read her that easily. Rocking from foot to foot, she watched him roll to his feet and walk around the bed in the direction of the bathroom. But Hunt surprised her when he stopped in front of her and gently pulled her into his embrace. It felt like second nature to wrap her arms around his waist, to lay her cheek on his chest.

She felt his kiss in her hair, his broad hand raking her shirt up to rest his hand on her naked butt.

To Adie, it felt like Hunt had taken her apart sexually, exposed her and left her feeling vulnerable and off balance. But his hug put all those shattered pieces back together again. It was a physical promise of safety and acceptance.

She could’ve stood like that forever, soaking in his strength, leaning into him, feeling his tender lips in her hair, on her temple. It was, by a long way, the best hug she’d ever received and Adie wanted to stay there for the longest time...

Possibly forever.

You are doing it again, Adie, you are acting the way you used to. You are running into a deep pond instead of tiptoeing around the edge. Stop, right now!

She was not going to fall in love with him or start fantasizing about a future with him. Her stay in Manhattan was temporary. Hunt was a one-night stand and she would not let herself weave dreams around him.

She dealt only in reality these days, and all that was real was the attraction burning between them.

Hunt pulled back and Adie immediately allowed her arms to drop to her sides. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

Adie wrenched a happy smile from somewhere deep inside and tossed it his way. “Nothing at all.”

This was just sex and she wasn’t about to repeat her old cycle of “sleep with him, immediately fall in love with him, get your heart broken.”

She was older and better than that.

“So... I’m going to heat up the pizza, find some more wine.”

You have to establish boundaries so just get it done. Because you know he can’t stay the night.

Having him stay after such excellent sex, would be tempting her heart a little too much.

“And then we can say goodnight. It’s been a long day.”

Hunt frowned at her. “You’re kicking me out?”

She couldn’t wake up to his sleepy smile in the morning, didn’t want to find herself under him, with him pushing into her while she was still dreamy and half asleep. Well, she did, but it was too much too soon. She needed to rebuild her barriers.

If she didn’t put some mental and physical space between them, she might slip back into the destructive patterns of her teens and early twenties. And that was a risk she would not take.

Please don’t insist on staying. I might not be able to say no. And while I’m stronger than I used to be, I don’t want to test that strength.

Adie forced her lips into a cheeky grin. “I know you like to call the shots, Sheridan, but my bed, my rules,” she told him, turning away.

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