Second Chances: Love Nibbles Read Online Free PDF Page B

to relax and be a modern woman, have her fling with no regrets afterward.
    “Hey!” Ryan’s voice behind her made her jump. He came over and slid his hands around her waist, pulling her against him and forcing her to abandon scrubbing the kitchen counter. The heat of his naked torso toasted her body.
    “Why’d you get dressed? I like you better naked,” he murmured.
    Camilla tried to loosen up, but neither her muscles nor her mind would unwind.
    “What’s the matter?” His breath stirred the hair at her temple and he kissed the side of her head. “Don’t start second guessing, okay? You liked it, right?”
    She nodded. “Yes. The sex was good. I’m just... It’s just me. I’m working through some things.”
    “Mm. So you want me to get dressed and get out of here?”
    “No!” Camilla turned in his arms to face him. “No. Don’t go. Not yet.”
    He pulled her lips between his and let them go softly, then rested his forehead against hers. “I’ll help you unpack like I promised. Keep you company for a while.”
    “That’d be nice.” She was embarrassed by how grateful she was that he wasn’t leaving her alone in this strange place. As much as she’d been eager to escape her old home and start fresh someplace new, she was homesick now—for the outdated wallpaper in her bedroom, for the toilet with the sluggish flush, for the stained on the living room carpet where a guest had spilled wine. She didn’t want to be here by herself tonight in this foreign apartment.
    “What do you want unpacked first?” Ryan asked as he filled a glass with water from the tap. “Bathroom stuff is pretty useful and you need your kitchen things right away, too.”
    She gazed around at the stacks of boxes. “I’ve brought way too much with me. I can see that. You probably have people all the time who think they can move everything from a house into an apartment.”
    “It’s hard to give up your past. I told you how I hung onto my ex-girlfriend’s stuff. Getting rid of it meant I’d finally let her go. Hard to take the next step and make that change.”
    He leaned against the counter, sipping water. Camilla had a hard time focusing on his face when she wanted to examine his body and the cock that had filled her so satisfyingly, still good-sized even flaccid.
    “What’s most important to you? We’ll start there,” he said.
    “My books,” she replied without hesitation. “I didn’t put any of them in storage. I couldn’t stand to, but I only have one small bookcase.”
    “Come on.” He took her hand and led her to the living room. He picked up his underwear from the floor and put them on, dark gray briefs that hugged his form and made him look, if possible, even hotter. “You had us put the bookcase in your bedroom.”
    “For my favorites. I want them close by if I decide to re-read one at night. The rest I guess I’ll have to put in storage.”
    Ryan opened one of the cardboard boxes piled on the floor and pulled out a slim volume of sonnets. He flipped it open and read the inscription inside. Sam had given it to her on some anniversary or birthday, she couldn’t remember which.
    “Is this a favorite?” Ryan waved the book in his hand.
    “No. Not really.”
    He set it down and looked around at all the cartons labeled “books”.
    “Lady, you have a helluva lot of books.”
    She laughed. “I know.”
    He pointed at the open space between two small windows. “I could build you shelves on that wall, work the windows into it, maybe with a planter under each one. It could be the showpiece of the room with some interesting lighting.”
    His offer was too generous and the sort of thing she wanted to avoid. It would be too easy to take him up on his offer and become dependent on Ryan for help fixing things around the apartment, or for sex and companionship. This was supposed to be her time for discovering who she was all by herself.
    “You know what? Let’s skip the unpacking,” she said. “I don’t