Method Acting: An opposites attract, found family romance (Center Stage Book 2) Adele Buck (e novels to read .TXT) 📖

down his back to cup his ass, fingers and palm stroking over the solid muscles as they worked. It was what Alicia had wanted—the complete loss of control, the heat and crush and sensation of bodies coming together without thought or reason. But his earlier tenderness and consideration still flavored this moment, making it the culmination of the act, not the act itself.

Alicia felt tears prickling in her eyes, even as her arousal spiraled higher until it broke apart again and she shuddered and groaned, holding him tightly as he shouted hoarsely and pressed himself deep inside her, straining to get ever closer.

Colin drew a deep breath, shuddering aftershocks still running through his body. Opening his eyes, he looked down at Alicia, who seemed to be regarding him with some wariness again, her eyes bright.

Is she about to cry? Colin blinked and the unusual brightness was gone, making him wonder if he had imagined it. He was suddenly aware of her hand, cupping one of his ass cheeks, the warmth a contrast to the cool air-conditioned room. I could stay this way all night. But that would…not work. Grimacing, he anchored the condom with one hand as he drew out of her, her legs which had been wrapped around him sliding away and releasing him.

“One moment,” he said, rising and moving to the bathroom to dispose of the condom and wash his hands. When he opened the bathroom door again, Alicia was lifting her gown off the chair, seemingly getting ready to put it back on.

Preparing to leave.

She looked at him, apparently startled, her fingers clutching the dress to her chest.

“You don’t have to go,” he said softly. “In fact, I would vastly prefer if you didn’t.”

“Are you going to try to stop me?” Her chin lifted, her fringe falling across her eyes.

“No.”

“Why not?”

The question surprised him. “Because you’re neither a child nor an imbecile. I would prefer you stay. If you don’t want to, I will call you a cab and ask that you text me when you get home to make sure you’re safe.”

“Why do you want me to stay?”

He blinked, stumped for a moment for an answer that was too obvious to verbalize. “I enjoy your company…in and out of bed. I would like to spend time with you tomorrow if you would like that. I would also like to make love to you in the morning, incidentally. But if you would prefer not, that can be arranged as well.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re awfully accommodating.”

“I’m an accommodating kind of bloke.” Walking toward her, he watched for a negative reaction, a further tension that would tell him to stop. When she simply looked at him without any outward response, he took the dress gently from her unresisting hands and laid it back on the chair, threading his fingers in hers and gently tugging her towards the bed.

“Come back to bed. Sleep with me. Wake up with me. Anything and everything else can be negotiated tomorrow.”

“I don’t have a toothbrush.”

“I have an extra. Still in its wrapper.”

Her eyes narrowed again. “Anyone ever tell you you’re too good to be true?”

“Wake up with me tomorrow and tell me if you still feel that way.”

Chapter 10

Light and an unfamiliar pressure around Alicia’s waist woke her in a rush. Her eyes flew open, and she glanced around, tense and breathless.

Ah.

She forced herself to relax, to inhale, to exhale. The heavily muscled arm that pinned her to the equally hard chest behind her wasn’t strange.

Or it wasn’t too strange.

Moving cautiously, she lifted her head, inching away from Colin. He slept like he was in a coma, his arm a slack weight as she raised herself on one elbow to look around his bedroom.

She was always fascinated by the choices people made about the spaces they inhabited. Her eyes scanned the room. White walls reached up to the slanting ceiling, where a skylight provided much of the illumination. A big, roughly-executed landscape painting with a stormy sky took up a large part of the tall wall opposite the bed, a smaller one that looked like it was by the same artist hung to the side of the door leading to the hall. Over the bedside table on her side of the bed hung a smaller, more traditional painting of what looked like an English garden. It looked out of place compared to the other art, and she wondered if it was a family heirloom or gift. It had to mean something to him for him to place it in his bedroom, she was sure. The sheets that softly draped around her body were also white, the duvet tan. The dark, coffee-colored headboard flanked on either side by two windows rose almost to the corner of where the sloping ceiling met the wall. Alicia wondered if he had had it made to order, it fit the space so well.

The overall impression was one of casual wealth, of solidity and security she had never known.

Rolling over to face Colin, Alicia bunched the pillow under her cheek and took a long look at him. Asleep, his features came together to form a compelling picture. A high forehead, that black hair, thick eyebrows, dark lashes resting on his cheeks, the sensuous mouth, and a stipple of stubble tempting her to run her fingers across it.

Why not? Lifting her hand, she cupped the angle of his jaw, stroking her thumb across the rough texture of his beard. Inhaling sharply, his eyes flew open, finding hers with alarming quickness.

Startled, she pulled her hand away, only to have him wrap his fingers around hers, pulling her palm to his mouth. The combination of soft lips and rasping scruff sent a bolt of lust through her, and she shivered as his teeth gently nipped the inside of her wrist.

I would have missed this if I had run out last night.

She had succumbed to instinct—no, to habit—last night when she had scurried to dress and leave.

It would have been safer,