Read Secret Seduction for Free Online Page B

the cold gray light of morning. Not that she hadn’t enjoyed herself. They’d spent hours exploring each other’s bodies, giving and receiving pleasure after pleasure.
    Her cheeks warmed just thinking about it.
    It had been great actually. Maybe even the best sex she’d ever had. And he’d stirred something deep inside her. Something she couldn’t identify because it wasn’t like anything she’d ever felt before.
    That was most unnerving of all.
    Please let me get out of here without him waking up, she pleaded to the heavens. Dropping to the floor, she raised the bed skirt and searched underneath.
    No bra.
    It was probably in the bed with him.
    She did find her panties on the floor and wriggled into them as quietly as she could. A quick trip to the other side of the room retrieved her high heels. She wondered how she had come to be the kind of woman who picked up men in bars for one-night stands. Wondered how she was supposed to handle this casual new way of being. She didn’t know if it was freedom or rock bottom.
    Forget the bra. Get out of here. And go jiggling out of the hotel, dressed in last night’s now very rumpled dress? It would be a true walk of shame.
    Embarrassing as that might be, she simply had to get away from the smell of their lovemaking and that weird sensation knotting her stomach.
    She plunked down in the chair parked at the desk long enough to slip on her stilettos. Bra be damned, she was almost out of here. Once her shoes were on, she stood up, only to be confronted by the sight of the gorgeous Viking sitting up in bed stark naked.
    His hair was sexily tousled and his eyes were half-closed, but he was awake and eyeing her as if she was his favorite dish of ice cream. She could almost feel his gaze reach across the room and stroke her.
    Gulp.
    “Running out on me?”
    Inwardly she groaned and dipped her head, unable to look at him. She reached for her purse that had somehow ended up slung across the back of the desk chair. “Hmm, no, not at all,” she lied. “I’ve got a really busy day planned.”
    A grin curled the corner of his mouth upward. “Uh-huh, sure you do.”
    “I do. I have to get the oil changed in my car, swing by the ATM and take some movies back to Blockbuster.” That was the truth.
    “Yeah, your day sounds jam-packed.”
    “It is.” She could hear the defensiveness in her own voice. “Well, see ya.” She headed for the door.
    “Wait.”
    She stifled a sigh and turned around. “Yes?”
    “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
    “Huh?”
    He held up her bra, the thin strap of black material dangling from the tip of his big finger.
    Vanessa went for it.
    He pulled his hand back, holding the bra out of her reach.
    She lunged and lost her balance on the stilettos and ended up tumbling headlong onto the bed.
    Vanessa glanced up.
    Tanner was looking down.
    What she saw in his eyes stunned her. It was a mixture of longing, regret and sadness so deep she could feel it straight to her soul.
    But in an instant, the look disappeared, replaced by stark sexual hunger and she almost believed she’d imagined it.
    Almost.
    The physician part of her brain told her that this man had been using her to salve some secret pain of his own, just as she’d been using him to forget about Carlo Vega. No need reading something more into this than there was.
    But the urge to grab him and go at it again was so overwhelming she knew she had to get out of here. Stat.
    Anxious to escape, Vanessa scrambled to her feet. But she wasn’t quick enough.
    Tanner reached out a hand, encircling her wrist with his strong fingers. “I’d like to see you again.”
    She shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s impossible.”
    “Impossible?” His touch burned her skin, sent heat flaring up her arm.
    Vanessa sucked in her breath. She might be a lot of things but she was no coward. She’d been cornered. She’d tell him the truth.
    “Look, Tanner…” she began and tried to tug away from him, but he