Champagne Cravings Read Online Free PDF

tonight you had no intention of finishing?”
    This time his expression was one I was wholly familiar
with—an honest one. “You’ve always been capable of resisting me. But it’s a
real bitch keeping my hands off you. Especially when you’re standing
here all dolled up and breathless. Wanting me so bad, it’s written on your face
and practically radiating from every pore of your body.”
    Of course, I was completely transparent. How could I not be?
He made me hotter than the freakin’ sun.
    “I tried to blow it off,” he said. “Make light of me being
naked in your bathroom. I should have just put on my clothes and walked out the
door. But the fact is, I want you so bad, I couldn’t stop myself
from seeing how you’d respond to a kiss.”
    Um, like a Roman candle someone had just set a burning
match to?
    Admittedly, I was terrified of how strongly I’d reacted to
him—even just that first featherlike kiss. Luckily, his next words brought my
anxiety down a bit and helped me to breathe easier.
    “I can’t have you just yet, Lace,” he told me. “Not when
you’re still thinking in terms of a one-night stand. That’s not how I want this
to go between us.”
    I regretted what I had to say about that before the
sentiment was even out of my mouth. “There is no us .”
    He shifted from one booted foot to the other and said, “You
can’t act like nothing happened tonight.”
    I nodded. I had to do that very thing. For my sake and maybe
for his too. Certainly for the sake of our friendship. Though we’d pushed the
boundaries this evening, we’d dodged a bullet when he’d turned me down.
    “Just leave,” I told him, before we made the situation
worse. “Please.”
    He stared at me a moment longer and I swam in ocean-blue
eyes that would likely haunt me the rest of the evening. His jaw was set in a
hard line and I knew he wanted to tell me off for shutting down after what we’d
shared. But he knew me well enough to understand that when I reached this
point, I wouldn’t budge. I hadn’t with Chase, when he’d come crawling back to
me after his endless cheating. Nor had I changed my mind for Brandon when he’d
sworn the threesome I’d caught him starring in meant absolutely nothing to him.
    I’d made a mistake tonight with Mike, but I could rectify
it. Head it off at the pass. I knew that was the smart thing to do.
    Finally, he said, “I’ll lock up for you. And I promise not
to use your shower again—unless you’re in it with me.” Despite the tension in
the air, he winked at me.
    Then he turned and walked away, his boots making a low thump
on my hardwood floor. I was surprised I could hear the noise over the erratic
beating of my heart.
    I stared after him, until he disappeared through the door
and locked it behind him with the key I’d given him for emergencies. He’d used
it to take a shower in the very tub I soaked in. He’d used it to get inside my
well-structured life and mess it all up with his hunky body and sizzling
kisses. He’d used it to get inside my heart with his admission he didn’t want
to play me the way I’d been played in the past. But I wouldn’t let him stay
there. No matter how much he turned me on. No matter how sweet I thought it was
he hadn’t fully taken advantage of my weakness this evening.
    Not having sex with Mike tonight was for the best. Bottom
line, Bad-Boy Magnet Lacey Mansfield couldn’t survive another trip down
Heartbreak Lane.
    Not even with a man who swore he’d never hurt me. A man I
found almost completely irresistible.
    Almost…

Chapter Three
    The Supermodel Strikes Again.
     
    I had no idea how to stop what I’d put into motion with
Mike, but it was the first thing I thought of when I woke the next morning.
Having tossed and turned all night from sexual frustration and the temptation
of Mike being so close in proximity—the only thing separating us being a common
wall and my trust issues—I wasn’t exactly well-rested and perky. In fact,