Christmas Alpha Read Free Page B

assistant Bridget while the other man was in New York for two days.  
      To make matters worse, Bridget had also made note of a telephone call she had received several hours later, from a woman who had claimed she worked for the photography company who had sent the parcel, and needed Mr. Devlin’s address to send on a missed item, which Bridget had innocently given her.  
      Jack was currently threatening to sack Bridget for her incompetence. Finn couldn’t see the point; the damage was done now. No point in making the situation worse. Besides, he liked Bridget.
      And if Moira was this determined to find him, then she would have done it with or without Bridget’s help.  
      God knows what was in the parcel.
      Finn didn’t want to know what was in there...
      “I assumed, with my name on the parcel, that you already knew who I was,” he answered abruptly.
      “It never even occurred to me that you were the Finn Devlin,” Eva dismissed, still feeling foolish. “There are probably several million Finn Devlins in the world,” she added defensively.
      “Oh at least that in Ireland alone,” he confirmed lightly. “But I doubt too many of them would have told you to come in and take your clothes off the moment they met you!”
      “Is your next exhibition going to be nudes?” Eva tried to salvage at least some control over this conversation.  
      His jaw tightened. “One nude.”
      “One nude?”
      “Interested, after all?” He quirked one dark, mocking brow.
      “Not in the least!” Her cheeks blazed with hot color.
      “Pity.” That blue gaze moved over her with slow deliberation.
      “I believe it’s time I was going.” Eva pulled her hat back on over her hair, wrapped her scarf about her neck and headed for the door. “Have a good day, Mr. Devlin,” she called out as she went. “A Happy Christmas. A Prosperous New Year—”
      “Er—Eva—”  
      “—And a successful life—”  
      “Eva!”
      “Yes?” She was frowning as she turned.
      Finn Devlin sighed. “Eva, the reason my original model isn’t going to arrive today isn’t because she heard about the whips and paddles in the basement—”
      “I had no idea who you were when I made that comment!” She was starting to feel uncomfortably hot again. Or just mortified at how ridiculous she must have seemed earlier!
      “Eva, the snowstorm has turned into a blizzard.” He grimaced. “All motorists are being advised to seek shelter and remain there until the worst of it’s over.”  
      “That doesn’t apply to the Dailey Courier Service.” No, no, no , this could not be happening to her! “‘We come to you, we get through’,” she repeated desperately as she threw open the front door and was almost knocked off her feet by the force of the howling wind and snow. The white delivery van, just feet away, was barely visible, indistinguishable from the heavy snowflakes being tossed and thrown about in the wind. “It will have blown itself out in a little while,” she began to babble, “and then I can—”
      “It’s forecasted to be like this for at least another twelve hours or so, and even then it’s still going to be snowing.” Finn pulled her effortlessly back inside the house before once again closing the door on the storm raging outside. “Apparently it’s a blizzard that’s blown in from the Arctic and caught everyone by surprise.”  
      Surprise? That had to be an understatement!
      Admittedly, when Eva had gone outside for the parcel the wind had seemed a lot stronger than when she’d arrived. But she had been so irritated by then, just wanting to get this delivery over and done with, and then be on her way, that she hadn’t really paid much attention to it.
      The wind was now howling like a banshee, and even that brief glimpse outside had shown her that the snow was drifting against her van as well as the sides of the house. If it carried on like this for several