Christmas Alpha Read Online Free PDF Page B

know.”
      No, Eva didn’t ‘know’. She had just assumed that everyone at least had a tree—
      “I’m ready for you now, Eva.”  
      “What...?” She had totally forgotten their reason for being here as they talked.
      Finn obviously didn’t suffer from the same distraction as he now patted the sheets invitingly.
      Eva’s gaze dropped from meeting his as she once again pulled on the neckline of her jumper. “It’s even hotter in here than in the hallway and kitchen!”  
      “I told you, I was keeping the house warm for when my model stripped off.” He grimaced. “At least take off your sweater, Eva,” he added impatiently as she continued to look uncomfortable. “I’m guessing you have a t-shirt on underneath it?”
      “Yes...” Eva eyed him warily.  
      First he invited her to take off her sweater. And then what? Would her t-shirt be next? Her denims?  
      Wasn’t that what she had agreed to do if these initial photographs turned out as Finn expected? “Do you have a name for this exhibition?”
      “I do,” Finn bit out, more than a little annoyed with himself for having just revealed so much about himself and his family, and to someone he had just met. Eva was just so...forthright, it was hard not to answer when she asked.  
      “Well?” Eva looked at him expectantly.
      He drew in a deep breath before answering. “It’s called ‘The Mistress’.”
      “‘The Mistress’?” Eva repeated doubtfully. “As in a woman that a man is involved with that isn’t his wife?”
      “Or a woman paid to be his companion, yes.”
      “ Your mistress?”
      His jaw tensed. “No.”
      “You sound angry.”
      “Do I?”
      “Oh yes.” She nodded with certainty.
      Possibly because he was! Because he had been used. By Moira and her married lover.  
      The sad part was that Finn had thought he and Moira were both just having fun. He hadn’t seen—hadn’t wanted to see—the truth of what their relationship really was. Until Moira and her married lover had forced him to see. At which point Moira had decided that it was Finn she wanted rather than her elderly lover.
      Finn had walked away. Disgusted by both Moira and the whole sick situation. Moira had had other ideas and become obsessed with him, convincing herself it was only a matter of time before Finn came back to her.
      She began to follow Finn everywhere he went after he changed the number of his cell phone and she could no longer call him day and night. She accosted him in restaurants. In shops. Anywhere he appeared in public, she would make a nuisance of herself. Finn had finally had enough after she raked her claws down his face and smashed a glass in a woman’s face in a fit of temper when she found the two of them in a restaurant having dinner together.  
      He believed the series of mistress photographs to be his way of exorcising Moira and what she had done to him.
      And along came Eva Shaw, only a decade younger than him in years, but a lifetime in experience. Those moss-green eyes glowed with the joy of life rather than Moira’s sensual avarice. The sweet curve of Eva’s cheeks, the fine line of her jaw, the warmth of her smile, all spoke of a lack of guile rather than Moira’s lust and calculation.
      Finn gave a self-disgusted shake of his head. “This isn’t going to work. It was a mistake to ever think you were capable of being what
    I want.” He turned sharply on his heel and strode out of the studio.
      Eva felt as if Finn had just physically slapped her in the face. As if he had just thrown her sexuality back at her as if she were lacking in some way.  
      Just who the hell did he think he was? Well, he was obviously
    Finn Devlin, photographer extraordinaire.
      She didn’t give a damn who he was, he didn’t get to talk to her like that, to dismiss her like that, after persuading her to pose for his damned photographs!
      Eva pulled her sweater angrily up and over her