Snowed In Read Online Free

let me take you out for a real dinner. After we get out of this blizzard, I mean.”
    She swallowed the large chunk of sandwich that had formed a rock in her throat. “I don’t want you to feel obligated—”
    “I don’t. I…I just want to take you out.”
    The hesitancy in his voice was almost startling. Bryan didn’t hesitate. Never. The man was always so sure of himself. So certain he was right.  
    “Look, maybe we shouldn’t try to make this more than it is.” An ache settled into her chest as she spoke, but she didn’t want to go out with someone she could hardly get along with simply because they meshed well—scratch that, amazingly well—in bed.
    “I don’t know if it’s the darkness, or the sex, or the fact that we’re alone for the first time. But I’m feeling very…honest, Carrie. Like I need to get this out there.” He stepped closer and slid his hand down her upper arm until he reached her hand. He took her hand in his, holding her gently. “I think you’re a hell of a girl, even if we don’t always agree on things. You’re bullheaded and you get under my skin in a way no one ever has. But you’re also warm and laid back and fun and…maybe I could learn to be a little more fun myself.”
    The risk of embarrassing herself suddenly seemed minor compared to how scary it had to be for him to put himself out there like that. And her face burned at the compliments and his tender tone. She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips.
    The lights flickered on, bathing them and revealing them both with suddenly clarity.
    He blinked, his face as open as she’d ever seen, but his stunning blue eyes never left hers. It was the resolve there that pushed her through, cleared her hesitant feelings and worries. He was telling the truth. And if he could take that kind of a risk on her, why couldn’t she be brave enough to do the same?
    “Dinner,” she said, “would be wonderful.”

    <<< >>>

Check out Alison’s Awakening…available now!

    Chapter One

    I glared at the report, willing the numbers to change. They didn’t. It was going to be another long night. Another long month. So much for the date Marianne had set me up on. No way was I making it tonight. A quick text and I had postponed my date until some vague time in the future. It was the second time I’d cancelled on the man, which meant it was probably the last time I’d hear from him. Marianne was going to be irritated, but there wasn’t much I could do about work.
    I leaned back and stretched in the office chair. My muscles loosened, but soon clenched up at the sight of the clock hanging on the conference room wall. Dammit. Eight o’clock already.  
    “Coffee?” The tech guy, Daniel, who’d been helping me build reports for our hardass of a new boss, peeked his head in the doorway.
    “That would be wonderful, thanks.”
    Daniel gave me his signature killer grin and disappeared.
    The sigh escaped before I could stop it, and I rubbed my face in my hands. I had to quit checking out the IT guy. One of these days, he was going to notice. And then where would I be? Embarrassed as hell.
    But Daniel didn’t make it easy. Not only did he stay late and help without complaint like the great guy he was, but he was also freakishly hot. Not in the more intensely physical way that Bruce, my new boss, was. But still, he was very nice to look at in a hot geek kind of a way. Not too muscly, but nor was he thin. And something about his glasses and quick mind did it for me. Maybe it was the way he seemed to examine me through them. Like he could see through me, to my hidden fantasies.
    God, my mind was making things up about my coworkers now. I so needed to get out on a date.  
    At least he gave me safer fodder for daydreams than my boss did. I could admit it to myself—I had a crush. A major crush on a man who barely knew I existed as a human person rather than a machine who compiled reports for him. I’d heard around the office grapevine