Read A Thunder Canyon Christmas for Free Online Page B

doing everything she could to avoid the man and wriggle away from him. With Matt, she had absolutely no desire to escape. She wanted to stay right here forever, where she was warm and safe.
    She should be curling up behind the sofa with a blanket over her head. Even as he kissed her, she couldn’t shake her lingering embarrassment when she remembered her emotional breakdown.
    Definitely must have been the margaritas. Why else would she spill everything to Matt when she hadn’t talked to another soul about her emotional turmoil over learning of the hospital mistake? She hadn’t told her mother or Grant or even Stephanie, Grant’s wife, who along with Haley Anderson had been her closest friend when they were kids.
    Matt only had to show her a little sympathy in those brown eyes and she started blubbering all over him.
    Her stomach muscles quivered as he shifted his mouth over hers. What was the matter with her? After all theseyears of wondering what it might be like to kiss him, she finally had her chance and she was wasting the moment being embarrassed about the events leading up to this. Was she completely insane?
    She leaned into that hard, solid chest and opened her mouth for his kiss. He made a sexy little sound in his throat that rippled down her spine as if he’d run his thumb from the base of her neck to her tailbone.
    He wrapped his arms more tightly around her and slid his tongue inside her mouth and she forgot everything else but Matt.
    She slid her hands in his hair. Funny, she might have expected his thick dark hair to be short, coarse, but it felt silky and decadent against her skin.
    Time seemed to shift and slide and she had no idea how long they stayed there on his sofa, wrapped together. She only knew she didn’t want him to stop. Matt suddenly felt like the only solid, secure thing she had to hang on to since Erin Castro shook the foundations of her world.
    His hand burned through the cotton of her sweater and she ached for closer contact. As if in answer to some unspoken request, his hand slid beneath her sweater and glided to the small of her back. She shivered at the heat of him and murmured his name.
    Well, that was a mistake, she thought as he froze. Next time she would keep her lovesick murmurings to herself.
    He wrenched his mouth away and she felt even more like an idiot. His breathing was ragged and he looked like he’d just been kicked off a prize bull.
    He stared at her for a long moment, then raked a hand through his hair. He didn’t move, though, and she was still sprawled against him.
    â€œI’m sorry, Elise. That was the last thing you needed, another stupid cowboy pawing you.”
    â€œWas it?” she murmured.
    â€œYes! You’re upset and vulnerable and I completely took advantage of that.”
    â€œNo, you didn’t.” She was exhausted suddenly, her muscles loose and fluid, as if his kiss had been the only thing keeping her upright. “I’m glad you kissed me. You’re a great kisser. All the girls used to say so. I’m glad I finally had the chance to find out. You really were. Great, I mean.”
    He gave her a skeptical look but she thought she saw a hint of color over his cheekbones. She was too tired to know for sure, though. She just wanted to close her eyes and ease into sleep like she was sliding into sun-warmed water.
    â€œI never did rustle up something for you to eat.”
    She opened one eye. “I’m not hungry. Do you mind if we stay here like this for a minute?”
    He looked startled for only a moment, then shook his head. “What man with a brain in his head would mind having a chance to hold a pretty girl for a while longer?”
    She smiled, though the last remaining rational part of her brain was sending out a whole host of warning signals. Matthew Cates was exactly the sort of man who could make a woman completely lose her head.
    She was definitely going to have to take care around