More Than Friends Read Online Free PDF Page A

to calm down I encouraged
you to stay until you sobered up.”
    “Oh, great!
Couldn’t you tell her you hadn’t seen me?”
    “And add liar
to my list of faults? Besides, she was ready to phone the police and report you
missing. You haven’t answered your phone and according to her, she called you a
thousand times already.”
    Lily glanced
around, trying to remember where she’d left her bag. Hopefully not in the cab. She
pushed her hair from her face. She could only imagine how horrendous she must
look with tangled hair and smudged makeup.  “Did I have my bag when I arrived?
I remember getting my purse out of it to pay the cabbie but, did I bring it in with
me?”
    Justin
grasped her hands in his, stopping her panic-stricken quilt knotting. “Hey?
Don’t look so anxious.” He tipped his head toward the side of the bed next to
her. “You had it with you and I brought it in from the sitting room. It’s on
the floor beside you.” His steady gaze penetrated her unease and hauled to mind
every caress and touch from the night before. “Stay. After you let Mel know
you’re okay, I’d really like you to spend the day with me.”
    Lily glanced
down to where Justin had placed her blush-coloured tote within easy reach. It
would be so simple to comply with his suggestion. So simple... if things were
different. Although she wanted to, she couldn’t regret their lovemaking and a
part of her desperately wanted to stay. Nevertheless, she did recognize last
night for the error it was. To agree to spend any longer with Justin would only
compound her disloyalty.
    She withdrew
her hands from his. “I really need to leave.” Why did it hurt so much to say
those words? And more so when she saw his look of disappointment. She glanced
toward the half open bedroom door. “Do you mind... while I... um.” She gestured
to her crumpled clothes on the chair where he must’ve lay them.
    He nodded,
rose to his feet. “Don’t forget to drink your coffee.” He left the room,
closing the door with a firm click behind him. Lily got the feeling he barely
refrained from slamming it. She didn’t blame him; she wanted to slam a few
things herself.
    Dressed and
ready to leave, but not ready to face Justin again, Lily took a deep breath and
ventured out of Justin’s masculine bedroom. Her heels sank into thick carpet as
she edged toward the exit. Hopefully, he would make this easy and stay out of
sight until she left.
    “I never took
you for the sneaking out type, Elizabeth.”
    Lily spun
around, nearly losing her footing, to find Justin leaning against the doorway
of a room down the hall. He wore a white Oxford shirt, half-buttoned, the
sleeves rolled up to reveal toned and tanned forearms folded across his chest.
His hair laid in furrows where he’d clearly ran his hands through it a number
of times, and the gold framed glasses bridging his nose made him appear far
more serious than she ever imagined he could look.
    The use of
her given name took her back to childhood. She was only ever Elizabeth when she
was in trouble, and, from the annoyed expression on Justin’s handsome face, she
could pretty much discern that she was in big trouble now.
    “What...” he
continued, sauntering toward her. “No kiss goodbye? Not even a ‘thanks for last
night, see you around’? You were just going to sneak off and pretend we hadn’t
shared the most incredible night together?”
    Her heartbeat
escalated. Not because she found Justin a threat but because each step he took
that brought him closer to her, filled her with excitement. A longing for that
kiss he mentioned had Lily holding her breath in anticipation.
    He paused
inches from her. “If I didn’t know better...” He circled her to stop right in
the path of her exit. “I’d think you regretted what happened between us.”
    Up close, he
was even more brooding and so darn sexy. “Part of me does.”
    “I asked you
if you were sure and you said yes.”
    “That was
last night when it