As If You Never Left Me (Crimson Romance) Read Free Page B

scheme right away, didn’t you? You thought I’d invite you back into my life — into my bed — with open arms?”
    “Well — ”
    “God, you’re arrogant.” Fury surged, burning past the arousal he’d lit in her body. Thank God. The arousal had been leading her down a far too dangerous path.
    “Or just hopeful.”
    “No, arrogant.” She pressed her lips together, hanging on to her anger like a lifeline. “I know the lady who runs the lodge up the road. I’m sure she can get you a room.”
    “If that’s what you want.”
    She bristled at his conciliatory tone. “Look, I have a teeny-tiny house. There’s no guest room, and the couch isn’t exactly huge.”
    “I don’t mind.”
    “You don’t mind now, but you’d mind in the morning when I had to pry you out of it with a crowbar.”
    He smiled. She was beginning to hate that smile. It made her warm and mushy and hot and needy all at the same time, and that was something she couldn’t afford to be.
    “You don’t want me to stay at the lodge, not if you’re thinking about prying me out of your couch.”
    She drew herself tautly upright in her chair. “It’s a very nice lodge. They give you free breakfast with the room.”
    “I’m sure it’s a wonderful lodge.”
    “Then go there.”
    “If that’s what you want me to do.” The smile hadn’t faded, and he looked almost smug. She wanted to slap him.
    Instead, she eyed him primly. “I think that would be best under the circumstances.”
    “But you’ll think about what I said?”
    “Yes, I’ll think about it.”
    He nodded, the smugness fading into something that looked disturbingly like relief. “That’s all I ask.”
    • • •
    Back at home, Joely threw her purse on the couch and sat down next to it, staring at the blank screen of her television.
    The couch was definitely short. Rey was six feet tall, the couch five-and-a-half. Still, she could picture him curled up asleep on it, his big feet wedged up against one of the arms. Maybe for a few nights, just to see if they could get reacquainted, if they were still the same people they’d been seven years ago when they’d promised to love, honor and cherish.
    Snorting at her own naïveté, she picked up the remote and turned on the TV. Of course they weren’t the same people. Rey had changed enough during their marriage to rip their relationship apart. And she’d changed, definitely. During their marriage and after it.
    But they might still be people who could get along. Maybe even people who could love each other. Certainly the sexual attraction was still there, in a big way. It had been all she could do to keep from playing footsie with him under the table, or taking off her panties and passing them to him, as she’d done a couple of times in college.
    She shook her head, disgusted at herself. Sexual attraction wasn’t enough — not even close. And it was so intense, so volatile, so consuming, that it was hard to consider anything else over the tumult it produced.
    The early news predicted snow for tomorrow. An inch in Denver, which meant the mountains would probably get more. Unless it stalled elsewhere, blew over faster, or moved in an entirely different direction. Typical Colorado weather — tumultuous and unpredictable.
    Apparently, that was also typical of her life.
    She flipped channels absently for a few minutes, then went into the bedroom to change into her pajamas. The phone on the bedside table seemed to beckon her. She looked at it, took a step toward it, then defiantly stuck her tongue out at it.
    The kitchen phone, however, wouldn’t be subdued so easily. Against her will, Joely found herself cradling the receiver against her shoulder while the other end of the line rang at the Sky Mountain Lodge.
    The lodge’s proprietor answered the phone. “Hi, Virginia,” Joely said. “This is Joely. I sent someone your way about a half hour ago and I wanted to be sure he made it.”
    “Oh, yes, the nice young man with the