Read One Winter's Night for Free Online

woman hadn’t changed. That’s when he had implemented Riley’s Rule.
    Reaching out, he picked up the wool scarf Alpha had left in his truck and brought it to his nose. It smelled like her. Sweet. Womanly. Enticing...so damn enticing. And the scent reminded him of all the heated desire that had warped his senses during the time he’d been with her. It was heated desire that was still slowly driving him insane.
    He placed the scarf aside and picked up his cell phone to redial the number that had come through that morning. He felt his stomach tighten when he heard her soft voice.
    “Hello?”
    “Alpha? This is Riley. You left your scarf in my truck, and I want to get it back to you. Will you be home tomorrow?”
    There was a slight hesitation and then she said, “Yes, but you don’t have to come out of your way to return it, Riley. I have several of them.”
    “No problem. I want to make sure you get this one back. You live in the Arlington Heights area, right?”
    “Yes.”
    “I’ll be out that way tomorrow around two. Is it okay for me to drop by?”
    Another slight hesitation. “Yes, I’ll be home.”
    “Fine, I’ll see you then.”
    Riley clicked off the phone. He was doing the decent thing by returning the scarf and nothing more. The thought that he was itching to see her again had nothing to do with it.
    He brought the scarf to his nose once more. Yes, he definitely wanted to see her again.

Four
    “I should have been more forceful about him not returning that darn scarf,” Alpha muttered as she glanced at herself again in the full-length mirror in her bedroom. “I guess, considering the layers of clothes I was wearing to keep warm yesterday, he figured I must need every piece.”
    Drawing in a deep breath, she licked her lips, wondering if she should put on lipstick. If she did, he might assume she’d gotten pretty just for him. She frowned, knowing that, in essence, she had. Wednesday was the day she usually did housework and seldom put anything on other than her sweats. But not today.
    She had awakened and quickly straightened up, eaten lunch, baked her favorite cinnamon rolls, showered and dressed in a canary-yellow buttoned shirt that tied at the waist and a denim skirt that hit above the knee. A pair of striped, black-and-white ballet flats that she had purchased before leaving Daytona were on her feet.
    “I look cute, if I have to say so myself,” she said softly and then threw her head back and laughed. When was the last time she had gone to a lot of trouble to look good for a man? Why was she doing so now?
    Okay, she thought, deciding to put on lipstick after all, she would answer the first question. The last time had been for her parents’ anniversary party a year or so ago and the man had been Eddie. In all honesty, she had stopped thinking of her and Eddie as a couple long before he’d given her that ultimatum about Omega. They had begun drifting apart. Once she had gotten serious about becoming an event planner they had found excuse after excuse to not spend time together. It hadn’t bothered her, and she had a feeling it hadn’t bothered him, either. Yet neither of them had made a move to call off their wedding for those reasons.
    Her thoughts drifted back to the second half of the question she’d asked herself. Why was she going out of her way to look good for Riley? It could be that a part of her wanted to feel like a woman—a woman any man could be interested in, a woman a man could and would notice.
    He had noticed the other day, which surprised her when she’d caught him staring. She hadn’t expected him to display as strong a reaction to her as she had to him. And she was certain she hadn’t imagined it. It had been there in his eyes when she’d turned around. Although it had been quickly replaced with a guarded look, it had been there.
    “Okay, for the first time in a long time I feel like a desirable woman, and I like it,” she said, after applying her lipstick and