After the Christmas Party Read Online Free PDF Page A

remember.
    A morning that would leave them both exhausted and smiling.
    But that wasn’t her. She was a woman who disliked Christmas, disliked men, was terrible at sex, and although she’d come to Pensacola to forget her past, she could only handle confronting one hang-up at a time. She seriously had her work cut out for her even with that.
    “What is it that you don’t do?” Riley prompted when she failed to elaborate.
    Everything . She sighed, took a deep breath and went for broke.
    “Wake up in bed with a man and not remember how I got here and what we did while here.” She grimaced. She sounded horrible. Waking up next to him was horrible. He probably thought she was horrible—in bed and out of it. “I don’t do that. Ever.”
    “I just told you, we didn’t do anything, not really. We ended up here because I drove you home from the Christmas party and you invited me in. And, although there’s another bedroom, there is no bed.”
    Which meant he must have at least considered sleeping elsewhere.
    “I wasn’t doing the floor,” he said matter-of-factly, “and I’m too tall to comfortably sleep on your girly sofa.”
    She did have a girly sofa. A plush Victorian piecethat she loved because it had been the first piece of furniture she’d ever bought for herself, but it really wasn’t that comfy. Not that comfort mattered so much, because she never had company or spent much time there.
    Trying to recall the previous night’s events, she closed her eyes, thought back. The Christmas party. She’d danced with Riley, sung one silly reindeer song with him, celebrated that he’d won one of the door prizes when random names had been drawn from a stocking, then they’d left. He’d driven her home. They’d walked into her house and then he’d kissed her. No mistletoe required. Just a simple good-night kiss that had somehow morphed into something more, something hotter, something that hadn’t been simple at all.
    Wow, if his kiss had been that amazing she might have really woken up with a smile had they had sex. Then again, had they had sex he’d know how lame her lovemaking actually was.
    Her panties weren’t the only thing she was wearing.
    She reached up, touched the door prize he’d won and given to her. “You won this.”
    He shrugged, causing the covers to slip a little lower at his waist. “I gave it to you.”
    He’d taken the pearl necklace out of the velvet box and fastened it around her neck. There had been something mesmerizing about him putting the necklace on her. Something erotic and gentle and totally captivating.
    Kind of like his abs.
    No wonder she’d asked him to stay. He’d been the perfect date.
    Only they hadn’t been on a date.
    “You can have it back if you want it,” she offered, in case he regretted having given her the piece. Maybe he’dexpected bodily payment for the beads. Ha, had they been out of a gumball machine he might have gotten his money’s worth, but that’s about it if Chase’s claims about her skills could be believed.
    Riley’s brows formed a V. “Why would I want them back? Don’t you like the necklace?”
    “It’s lovely.”
    “Not nearly as lovely as you are.”
    He was smooth with the lines. Too smooth perhaps. She swallowed.
    “You told me I was beautiful last night.”
    Actually, he’d repeated the compliment several times.
    “You were.” His eyes bored into hers. She didn’t have to be looking directly at him to feel his stare. He stirred beneath the covers, but he didn’t reach for her. Somehow she knew he wanted to.
    “You are,” he continued. “Very beautiful.”
    Last night, in her haze, he’d made her feel beautiful. Like the most beautiful woman in the world. This morning she felt like a woman who’d gone to bed without washing her face or brushing her teeth. She was rank and knew it.
    “Why would you say that?”
    “Because it’s true.”
    The sincerity in his voice told her that he was either the world’s greatest liar