Page 9 of By Candlelight

“Good night, Drew.”

My tongue stuck in my cheek, but I forced myself to answer her.

“Good night, Mia.”

“Sweet dreams.” And with that, her little body bolted upstairs, leaving me alone in the living room. I knew for sure, my dreams would not be sweet.

six

MIA

“Drew wake up!”

He bolted upright, grabbing a handgun underneath the couch. “What’s the matter?”

I screamed. “Why do you have a gun?”

“My job is security. Now what’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong.” I pointed to the big picture window, covered by sheer curtains. “It’s Christmas Eve and itsnowed!”

“Jesus.” He flopped his head on the pillow and stowed his gun back under the couch.

“I’ve just never really been around this much snow before! In Charlotte, we’re lucky if we see two inches all winter!”

“Welcome to Maine,” he drawled with his eyes closed. But then they snapped open and he was upright once more. “Wait, how much did it snow?”

I sighed dreamily and looked out the window. “A lot.”

He scrambled over, looking past me and out into the front yard.

“Shit.”

But while he was worried about the snow outside, I was worried about something else. Those gray sweatpants were barely containing his morning erection and once again I was left slack-jawed at the sight of him.

He looked over to me and noticed. Of course he noticed. I’m sure I cemented myself as the real creep now. I would forever be the perverted woman who couldn’t stop staring at his dick.

But then something wild happened. Wild, only because this kind of thing never, ever happens to me. He stepped up closer, so close his erection practically touched my stomach.

It didn’t, but I felt a phantom caress of it as he stared into my soul. And then he licked his lips. Not in a weird way. Just a quick movement of his tongue over the bottom lip, as if he were preparing to…what? Kiss me? Ravish me? This wasn’t a romance novel. We were strangers, stuck together for a short time.

But I couldn’t help the way my body reacted to him. The urge to stare. The urge to touch him. The desire for him to touch me. Where did this come from? I’d never experienced it before. And certainly not with someone I didn’t even know.

My breath hitched and he cleared his throat. His eyes never once softened. They stayed fierce and angry and dangerous, and god help me, I liked that.

He stepped back and made no attempt to hide the fact that he was adjusting himself. And yes, I kept looking. He was still hard, but it wasn’t sticking out so much anymore. A tragedy.

“Don’t you like snow?” I asked, a ridiculous way to distract from my heathen behavior.

“No. Especially not when it strands us here.”

“Strands us…wait, how much do you think there is out there?”

“Looks like at least ten inches and it’s still coming down pretty hard.”

I clamped my lips together to avoid making a bad joke, or worse, an embarrassing sound. Because eight inches and coming down hard was exactly what I wanted from him right now. Who the heck was I all of a sudden?

“I have a Jeep. It’s four-wheel drive.”

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