Read The Write Bear (Highland Brothers 1) for Free Online Page B

breath caught in his throat.
    Her blond tendrils drifted around her face. Her cheeks were flush from the fire. A copy of Pride and Prejudice dangled from her hand. His heart sped, the pumping motion almost deafening in his ears.
    “She stayed,” he whispered.

8
    Riley
    R iley’s eyes opened . Hudson was standing over her, adjusting the blanket to her shoulders.
    “You came back?” She rubbed her eyes.
    “And you stayed.” He moved toward the fireplace, stoking the dusty coals. The logs she had stacked inside were charred and had started to smoke. “I thought I told you to leave.”
    “I couldn’t leave like that,” she said gently.
    She watched as his heavy hands tossed a new set of logs into the belly of the fire as if they were twigs.
    “I don’t want you here anymore.” His palms clutched at the mantle, his head dropping between his shoulders.
    His muscles flexed in hard lines beneath the T-shirt.
    “I know what’s going on with you. The book. Me. I know your secret.” She pushed herself from the couch, taking small steps toward him.
    “And what is that?” he spoke into the fire.
    “You are scared,” she said it triumphantly as is she had solved a great mystery.
    “Scared?” he chuckled, his shoulders jostling from the deep barreling sound. He turned toward her. “You know nothing about being scared.”
    “That’s not fair. You don’t know what I’ve been through.” He wasn’t going to get off that easy.
    His head tilted slightly. “You’re right. I don’t. But I know we had an agreement. If we couldn’t work together, you had to leave. I can’t work with you. Don’t try to solve this.” His words were calm and paced.
    “You don’t want to face your writing.” She was inches from him. “You don’t want to face me.”
    He closed his eyes. “Riley, you need to get out of here. I don’t want to ask you again. Don’t do this. Just go like you should have done yesterday. I’ll finish the book. I’ll tell them you helped. Just go.”
    “At least tell me why,” she pleaded. “I’m here. Can’t you tell me? Tell me before I get on a plane and we never see each other again.”
    She wanted to reach out and touch him. Rub her hands along his sculpted arms and memorize every part of his chest. She wanted to pull him to her breast and comfort him. She wanted to kiss him with fever and fury. She wanted anything except to leave. She could accept the silence and the moodiness. She couldn’t accept his rejection of her. There was too much between them to ignore.
    His eyes lifted to hers. “Because I want you,” he whispered.
    Her heart stopped. The hair on the back of her neck stood still. “You want me?” She felt the warmth spreading through her like the flame of a candle. Steady and warm.
    He nodded slowly, shadows filling his eyes with hunger and lust.
    “What if I want you too?” she urged.
    “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tried to turn from her, but her hand landed on the solid mass that was his bicep.
    “I do.” She needed to taste his kiss on her lips again. “I want it as much as you do.”
    “No you don’t. I want you in a way that I can’t explain to you. I want to take you and make you my own.” His face pained with anguish. “You need to go, before I can’t stop it from happening.”
    She could think of far worse things than this god of a man wanting her in his bed. It had been so long since a man had touched her. She felt the aching between her legs, the hunger in her core for him to touch her. The dance they had been stepping was about to spin out of control. She could feel it.
    “I want it to happen.” She gazed at him.
    He shook his head. “No, you don’t know what you’re saying.”
    She wanted to turn the look of pain on his face to one of pleasure and satisfaction. She took a step past him, leaving him next to the fireplace.
    The hallway was long. She steadied her breath as each step led her closer to Hudson’s bed. She had