Threads Of Desire (Creative Hearts Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

here last night, and I, uh, don’t know what I’m going to do about the Claire situation, but you don’t have to let me stay here. When I get to work, I’ll get on looking for a place right away.”
    “Don’t be an asshole,” his brother piped up, leaving no room in his voice for an argument. “I’m leaving tomorrow for at least a month—probably the whole summer. Just stay here. You can have my room until you find a place. The timing couldn’t be more perfect.”
    Nick could feel the tension coming off of Gabby’s body clear across the distance spanning between them. Her eyes came up to meet his and the look she gave him was both alarming and disarming at once—all brown-eyed softness that took him back, melting him to his core, and igniting an underlying fire that told him he’d better not get too close.
    He swallowed, clamping down and holding firm to the image of Claire sprawled on the floor intertwined with her yoga instructor. She was supposed to be just his type. Tall, blonde, model good looks, and his boss’s daughter. She was perfect, a shark just like him and his ticket to the top. Too bad her ideas about their journey there included the occasional threesome and not the twosome he’d envisioned.
    In his mind’s eye, he saw how he must have looked last night when he’d shown up a drunken mess. It was why he usually held firm to his two-drink rule. Control was his thing. It had to be. He knew the risks of getting out of control. Of letting emotions take over. His lips tightened at the thought of how much worse he must have looked this morning, ass half out and still barely standing in the bathroom with Gabby. He needed to hold onto that. Hold onto the embarrassing image of the guy who got drunk, the one who lost control, the fast talker, the womanizer. The guy who lurked just under the surface ready to come out at any time. The same one who’d met her that night in the closet and hurt her the way his father did his mother.
    Yep, he needed that reminder. Steve was right. Mom would be proud of him . Of how he’d continued to smile after she was gone. How he’d stayed true and honest and didn’t crush all he touched and turn it to dust.
    His lip curled up on one end as his stomach turned and his heart ached over the thought of his mother. He missed her so much. She’d hate knowing how he’d done Gabby. Hate it, but probably wouldn’t be surprised. She’d been hurt by his lying, cheating father so many times, and in the end, he was his father’s son. Steve was the sweet, sensitive one, like her, and Nick was the bad boy, just like everyone had always said. The one most likely to be the let down. And he was. God help him, he’d let his mother down, taking the light from her eyes when he couldn’t be there in her final moments. And he’d taken Gabby’s light and turned it into a burning flame of smoldering anger always there beneath the surface.
    He looked at Gabby now, caught the flame, and wanted to stoke it. It was the best way to make sure neither of them got burned. But she just stared him down and made him wilt and before he knew it he was apologizing. “Gabby, I am sorry for busting in on you like that this morning. If I stay, it won’t happen again. And it won’t be for long. I will get on finding a place.”
    He watched as her eyes went just a bit softer, got just that much more liquid, like warm milk chocolate. He wanted to swim in them.
    Her full lips twisted and she bit the corner of the bottom one. Nick was grateful for the sheet.
    “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it won’t. Steve has a bathroom in his room.” Her voice was just as milky as her eyes, though he caught the twinge of the hard edge she tried to put on it.
    “No, it won’t.” He let out a cough, clearing the clog that suddenly filled his throat. Nick clapped his hands together again, feeling hot and flushed and not really able to breathe all that well despite barely being dressed. What the hell did he just