Winning the Right Brother(53)

Suddenly he threw the covers off and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He needed to get out of this damn house. Take a walk or something. He threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and went into the hallway, noticing that there was a strip of light under Holly’s door, which didn’t help his peace of mind. He averted his eyes as he went downstairs, where he pulled on a pair of boots and his black leather jacket.

The air outside was cool, and a few thin clouds raced each other across the moon. Alex thrust his hands into his pockets and trudged off on the walk that was somehow going to restore his sanity.

Fat chance.



Holly thought she heard a door slam. She blinked at the book she was holding in her hands, realizing that she’d been staring at the same page for twenty minutes.

Oh, what was the use? She threw the book down on the bed beside her and stared up at the ceiling.

Maybe Gina was right. Did it make sense to burn for someone like this and not have him? Right now it didn’t seem to make any sense at all. She was one breath away from getting out of bed and going across the hall to Alex’s room.

In fact, she was one breath past it. Holly sat up in sudden determination. She was wearing reasonably nice pajamas, plain and tailored but made of silk, with a camisole top.

Trying very hard not to think too much, or to do anything that would lessen the chances that she would be kissing Alex within the next two minutes, Holly slipped out of bed and tiptoed across the room, hesitating just a moment before opening her door. A moment after that she was standing in his doorway.

He wasn’t there.

She remembered the slamming door she’d heard and sighed in frustration. He’d gone for a walk. To cool down, probably. He’d been just as hot as she was, and he’d gotten out of the house so he wouldn’t act on it. Great. He was doing exactly what she’d asked him to. Wonderful.

Kicking herself for having waited this long, Holly went back to her room, crawled into bed and turned out the light. It was for the best, she told herself grimly as moonlight glimmered through the black-lace branches of the tree outside her window. She’d been saved from making a very stupid decision. Tomorrow she and Alex would talk, and decide to do the sensible thing, and in the afternoon Will would be back and everything would return to normal.

It was just too bad for her if normal didn’t seem appealing anymore.

She must have fallen asleep eventually, or at least dozed off, because when she opened her eyes and saw Alex standing at her bedside, dappled in shadows and moonlight, she thought at first she was dreaming. He was dressed for the outdoors in his boots and leather jacket, and he smelled like cold night air and autumn leaves.

“Alex?” she said, blinking up at him.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I thought you might still be awake. I thought—” Suddenly he stopped talking and dropped to his knees beside her. “I’m sorry I came in here. But I can’t… Knowing you’re so close and that I can’t have you… I don’t think I can do this, Holly. I don’t know what to do. Help me out here. Tell me something to make this stop. Tell me you hate me. Tell me to go.”

Holly was on her side, facing him. She reached out a hand and stroked the hair off his face. His eyes, which had closed, opened wide at her touch. “I can’t,” she whispered. “I don’t know what I want, either, but I don’t want you to go. Why is it so much easier to tell the truth at night?”

Alex captured the hand that was stroking his hair, placing a butterfly kiss on her palm. It made her shiver. “I don’t know,” he said, looking at her. “But I wish the sun would never come up again.”

For a moment they stayed like that, and the silence was so deep and rich that Holly could hear both of them breathing, and the whisper of the leaves outside her window. And then Alex’s hands were on her bare arms, his palms ghosting over her skin, raising goose bumps everywhere he touched.

Holly felt suddenly shy and scooted away, at least as far as the headboard. Alex only smiled, grasping her wrists and pinning them against her pillow as he climbed on top of her, his knees on either side of her hips. He still had his boots and his jacket on, and fully dressed like this he was somehow so masculine, so possessive, that all she could do was wait, heart pounding, for what he would do next.

The covers were down by her hips, and Holly watched as Alex’s eyes roved lazily over her flat stomach. She was shiveringly aware that her camisole had ridden up above her belly button. Her muscles tightened, as if she’d stepped into icy water.

Then his gaze moved up to her breasts, and Holly felt her body responding as if his look were a touch. A shudder passed through her and her nipples hardened, and she could only watch him watching it happen, and see the smile that crossed his face.