Harlequin Romance March 2021 Box Set Cara Colter (the mitten read aloud TXT) 📖

Their gazes caught and held in a moment that, for Callie at least, was pure exhilaration. She found herself falling into the warm smoky depths of Owen’s eyes.

Very slowly those delectable smiling lips of his sobered at whatever he saw reflected in her face. His gaze lowered to her lips and a tic started up inside her when the smoke darkened to midnight and she recognised his raw hunger.

He wanted her! Owen wanted her every bit as much as she wanted him.

The knowledge lifted her up as if on the crest of a wave—and exhilaration, delight, and the most delicious anticipation thrilled through her, because she knew he was about to kiss her. And she had every intention of meeting that kiss with an enthusiasm that left him in no doubt as to how much she wanted him.

She swayed towards him as his head lowered towards hers. One of her hands landed on his shoulder, the other rested against his chest. His body was absurdly firm, and so throbbing with life that her fingers automatically curled and then flattened in an effort to feel more of him.

And then his lips were on hers and their warmth took her off guard—warmth as in heat, but warmth as in feeling too. He kissed her as if he couldn’t think of anything else he’d rather be doing, and she couldn’t resist the allure of being so wholly and wholeheartedly relished.

She kissed him back with the same undiluted appreciation and a groan rasped from the back of his throat. That was the moment she lost all sense of herself. Her hands tunnelled through his hair to pull him closer and his hands went around her back, one coming up to cradle her head and hold her still so he could kiss her with a sweeping thoroughness that left her lost to everything except the moment and the rightness of being with him.

She had no idea how long they kissed, but they eventually broke apart to drag air into sawing lungs.

She hung there, suspended between heartbeats…

A shrill and sudden noise intruded on the spring quiet, making her start and Owen freeze. It took her a moment to realise it was her phone, and by the time she’d grabbed it from her handbag Owen had marched across to the pond, his back ramrod-straight.

She stood and pressed the phone to her ear. ‘Hello?’

She listened as the voice of the man at the other end explained who he was. She made all the appropriate responses, hoping she didn’t sound as shell-shocked and topsy-turvy as she felt, an ocean of need still stampeding through her.

Owen turned to her when she rang off. She didn’t know what to make of that kiss, or Owen’s reaction now. Was he regretting the interruption? Or was he grateful for it? If it was the latter, she didn’t want to be anywhere near him. Not until she had her game face well and truly back into place.

‘Callie, that kiss…’

He bent at the waist and braced his hands against his knees. Her heart plummeted, but she refused to let her chin drop.

‘Was amazing,’ she finished for him.

His gaze speared back to hers and she recognised the wariness in his eyes…and the regret. Acid coated her tongue. But a moment later she shook herself. Of course he regretted it. She regretted it too. What on earth had she been thinking? She hadn’t been thinking!

She swallowed and forced herself to continue. ‘But I’m not in the market for anything like that at the moment. I don’t want a short-term fling, and anything long-term is just—’ she dragged a hand through her hair ‘—unthinkable. I—’

He straightened. ‘You don’t need to explain, Callie.’

She didn’t?

‘I feel the same. Fiona and I broke up eight months ago, but it still feels too soon to start something new.’

Her heart gave a strange little twist. ‘That makes perfect sense. You were going to marry her. That takes some…’ Gah, why hadn’t she simply stopped at That makes perfect sense? ‘Some time to readjust,’ she finished lamely.

He stared at her. ‘So…we’re good?’

‘Absolutely.’ She waved at the bench. ‘That was just a blip. One of those “less said, soonest mended” things.’

‘Agreed.’ His relief was palpable. ‘Then we’ll just consider it forgotten.’

She had a feeling it wasn’t going to be that easy. At least not for her.

Pushing the thought aside, she held up her phone. ‘That was Mr Singh. A gentleman who claims he’s Barney’s owner.’

‘Barney’s owner?’

‘He’s in hospital. I said we’d go and visit him.’

He blinked.

‘I mean,’ she amended hastily, ‘I’ll go and visit him, you don’t have to come.’

‘Of course I’m coming. I’ve been sharing custody, remember?’

‘We should really drop by the apartment to make sure Barney’s okay. Maybe take him out for a bit.’

They’d left him in Owen’s apartment.

‘You walked him this morning. He’ll be fine for another couple of hours.’

‘Do you think we could smuggle him into the hospital with us? I bet Mr Singh would love to see him and—’

‘No.’

But his lips twitched as he said it, and things started to feel more comfortable between them again. Her pulse was slowly returning to normal.

She told him the name of the hospital and he gestured towards the path they should take.

CHAPTER SEVEN

CALLIE WORE THE softest woollen sweater in butter-yellow and a striped scarf in mint-green and orange. She looked like a summer day in spring, but the moment she slid into the car beside Owen he knew something was wrong.

Yeah, idiot, you kissed her!

It was five days since their afternoon tea and their walk in the park. And that kiss. Of course she was going to be stand-offish. She’d made it clear she didn’t want a repeat performance.

He gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. What on earth had possessed him to kiss her? He’d asked himself that same question over and over, but still couldn’t come up with a satisfactory answer. Nor could he dredge up a satisfactory amount of regret. The kiss itself had