Read The Mighty Quinns: Kellan for Free Online

in the low light from the hearth. This wasn’t her room at Winterhill. Or her room at her mother’s apartment on Park Avenue. She didn’t recognize anything.
    She swung her feet off the sofa and stood, fighting a wave of dizziness. Running her hands over her clothes, she remembered that she was in Kellan Quinn’s house. What time was it? How long had she slept? And where was Kellan?
    The room was chilly and she rubbed her arms, then grabbed up the quilt and wrapped it around her body. She was normally a restless sleeper, preferring to nap during the day and stay awake during the darkest hours. Rain hissed at the windows and she crossed the room to the fireplace.
    There was no more peat to feed the fire and the room would only get colder. She raked her hands through her hair again, then wandered over to the bedroom, her bare feet silent on the rough wooden floor.
    She found Kellan asleep in the bed, his form faintly visible in the dark. His long legs were twisted around the bedclothes and his arm was thrown over his head, his naked chest bare to the chilly room. Gelsey stood over him, deciding whether she ought to wake him, or just crawl into bed beside him.
    She tossed the quilt over the bed, then stretched out along the length of his body. As she slipped under the covers, he jerked, then pushed up on his elbow, squinting into the dark.
    “The fire went out,” she whispered. “It’s cold out there.”
    He cleared his throat. “I—I can fetch more peat,” he said. “And there’s a portable heater in the kitchen.”
    “This is all right,” she said. “You’re warm.” She snuggled into that warmth. He had a beautiful body, slender but muscular, perfectly masculine in every way.
    He grabbed her hand, pressing it to his heart and Gelsey felt his pulse beneath her palm, quick and sure. She held her breath, wondering what was going through his mind. “Maybe I should go find that heater,” she murmured.
    “No.” Kellan held tight to her hand. “It’s all right. You can stay.”
    She relaxed again and stretched out beside him. “I love nights like this,” Gelsey whispered, “listening to the rain and the wind outside. It makes me feel safe, all warm and cozy and out of the weather.”
    “You weren’t out of the weather last night,” he said.
    “I wasn’t out there all night,” Gelsey explained. “I walked out there after the sun came up.”
    “You were drunk at seven in the morning?”
    “Not so much drunk as just…drained. Emotionally exhausted.”
    “Would you like to tell me why?”
    Gelsey shook her head. That was the last thing she wanted to talk about. There was nothing about her past that she wanted to remember. “It’s not important.” She pushed up on an elbow and tried to make out his features in the dark. “Thank you for coming to my rescue. I don’t know if I said that before, but I do appreciate what you did.”
    “Not a problem,” Kellan said.
    She leaned closer to kiss him on the cheek, but at the last moment, he turned and her lips came down on the corner of his mouth. Gelsey froze. She’d promised herself that she wasn’t going to rush headlong into a sexual relationship again. She was going to think before she acted.
    But Kellan made the next move and she was powerless to stop. He slipped his palms around her waist and pulled her beneath him. A sigh escaped from her throat as his mouth covered hers in a long and mind-numbing kiss.
    Gelsey moaned softly as he stretched her arms out above her head. He was nearly naked and she was bundled up in a fleece sweatshirt and a pair of his cotton boxers. But she was glad for the barrier between them, at least for the moment. It was just a kiss and nothing more. Just a kiss, she reminded herself.
    “Are you sure about this?” he whispered.
    Then again, maybe it was something more. She arched against him, her movement instinctive. “I don’t know,” she said, the answer coming with a gasp.
    Her hands skimmed over his back, her