Unmasked (Revealed #1) Read Free Page A

like I did with the children in my class when I expected them to consider their wording, ‘… please ,’ he added wearily, and I nearly smiled at this small concession. Watching him as he watched me, I briefly thought that perhaps he looked familiar, but couldn’t place where I would know him from. Shrugging it off, I decided it was probably just his good looks that were continuing to confuse me, because even if he was a moody bastard there was no denying that he was definitely a very attractive moody bastard.
    With his minimal clothing there was no disguising the raw appeal of his well-muscled body either – the light covering of hair on his chest looked soft, filling me with an urge to touch it, and the angles of his stubble-covered chin were appealing and something I always found particularly sexy. All in all, it was a rather nice view. Apart from the frown, of course, but realising what a mess I already was it was probably safest that I didn’t see him smile. It would no doubt be devastatingly good.
    In the space of two minutes in this man’s company I felt like I was well on my way to losing my mind, so drawing in a shaky breath I tried to clear my head before looking back at him. To my annoyance I found him watching my appraisal of his body with apparent amusement. It wasn’t exactly a smile, but he had a smug quirk to his lips that made me realise with horror that my staring – and no doubt goofy expression – must have made it pretty obvious what I was thinking.
    Damn my traitorous body, damn this bloody job, and damn this man.
    Annoyed at my own lack of control I refused to show him that I was bothered by his presence, even though I clearly was, so I turned in the direction of the kitchen without so much as a backward glance at him. ‘Fine, I’ll make you some food and leave,’ I muttered.
    As I strode back to the kitchen I realised that I had unconsciously crossed my arms over my chest – clearly as well as being horny I was also a little bit defensive from my run-in with the nameless, and shirtless, handsome stranger.

TWO
    Allie
    As soon as my feet hit the tiled kitchen floor I became a human tornado, speeding through my jobs with focus and barely even pausing to draw breath. My haste was partly fuelled by the angry, lusty feeling that he had sparked in me, and partly because I was keen to escape before it started to rain. Or as I had predicted earlier – snow. Whatever it was I was running from, man or weather, I wanted to get the heck away from this house as quickly as possible.
    Unfortunately, I had been so distracted by thoughts of the handsome bastard that I’d left the pasta for so long that it was less ‘al dente’ and more ‘a sticky mess at the bottom of the pan’ and I had to start all over again.
    When the food was finally complete I pushed my hair from my face and looked up to see thick, fluffy flakes beginning to fall outside the window. Snow? Damn it, I hated when I proved myself right. Cursing under my breath, I angrily shoved lids on the Tupperware containers and slid them into the fridge, grabbed my bag, and started to shrug my jacket on as I dashed through the house for my car. If I was lucky, I could escape the twisty country lanes and get to the main roads before the snow got too bad.
    There was no sign of Mr Misery Guts as I made it to the front door, which was mostly a relief, but did also trigger a brief flicker of disappointment that I wouldn’t get a last look at his godliness. I was definitely going to ask Sarah about him, though. I couldn’t believe she hadn’t mentioned what a hottie he was, and knowing Sarah’s love of a fine male specimen there is no way he could have escaped her notice.
    However, thoughts of sinfully sexy pyjama bottoms were abruptly pushed from my mind when I yanked the front door open and to my dismay found a flurry of white snow falling all around me. Shit! The flakes were already falling far more quickly than I had imagined, and judging by