Once Upon a Stormy Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

Soft light bathed the interior, and he could make out the drone of the electrical generator hidden in the pantry, between the living room and the open-plan kitchen. A power cut, and such awful weather? He recalled the island had been under a cyclone warning earlier—had the situation deteriorated?
    Stifled swear words, in Creole—the local language—reached him. He scanned the room, to find Simmi near the small table at the side of the room that doubled as a workstation.
    She bent and retrieved the phone from the floor. Lars frowned. She wore all her clothes and appeared about to make a getaway while he slept. Except things hadn’t worked out as she’d planned.
    He clamped his jaw, and a stab of pain shot along one side of his face. What could she be up to?
    “Going somewhere?”
    She jumped, and turned toward him. Her lips parted, her eyes widening. She looked away then squared her shoulders and faced him again. “I can’t. There’s a Cyclone Warning Class 3 in force.”
    At class two, schools were dismissed. Class three, offices and businesses closed, and people were urged to stay inside during the day, a curfew set at night. She couldn’t go anywhere, but neither could anyone else on the island.
    His luck, because otherwise she would’ve run, without telling him her name. Maybe she thought he would never be able to trace her if she didn’t.
    Lars wanted to curse. Why did she wish to slink away? The way she treated their night together, she cheapened everything they’d shared, reduced it to nothing but sex.
    And that’s not what this is about ?
    Right at that instant, he wanted to be back in his home gym, in front of the punching bag, so he could alleviate some of the frustration and turmoil inside him. Without him realizing, the encounter with her had morphed onto him, grafted itself onto his heart, and made him want more than a tryst.
    He wanted Simmi, all of her, and not just right then. “Always” would be too strong a word yet, but he knew he craved more than one single night with her, more than a few stolen hours.
    But for that, she’d have to open up.
    He crossed the room and stopped beside her. The way she braced her back straight told him she stood ready to meet him thrust for thrust. Her eyes betrayed her, though. In just a few hours, he’d come to know their depths, to see what lurked inside them. Right then, he saw vulnerability in her gaze, and when she bit her lip, he knew he’d been right.
    It hurt her to leave.
    Maybe, like him, she didn’t want this night to end, didn’t want their time together to come to a close.
    He reached up and brushed a lock of hair from her forehead. “Why were you leaving?”
     
    He shouldn’t look at her so. Not with such tenderness, so much caring etched on his features. And the way he touched her… She’d melt if he touched her again.
    She couldn’t have that. None of it. Already, it killed her to walk away from him. She’d made a terrible mistake by coming here. A person could get on with life when she didn’t know what she missed. But having tasted solace in his arms, seen what her world could be like if a man cared for her, how could she go back to the empty, brittle shell of the existence she had left outside that villa?
    No man had brought her the fulfillment he’d infused into her heart, her body, and her soul in only a few hours. Her stranger. She’d torture herself for the rest of her life imagining him, where he lived, what he did, who he did it all with…
    Could he be married? Engaged? Seeing someone?
    No, he couldn’t be. She knew for certain honor burnt bright and strong inside him. He had a noble heart, not one of a cheater or someone skilled in deception.
    All the more perilous for her heart, because with him, there could’ve been…
    What ? The men she knew didn’t want her, at least, not for who she was. If he came to know her identity, what job she had, what position she held, he, too, could treat her like just another conquest.