Free Rekindling Christmas by Yvette Hines Page A

couldn’t trust herself around him.
    What were you thinking? She asked herself repeatedly as she
decided it was best to take the fire exit stairs up to her floor instead of
risking Carson following her up in the elevator. Or worse, run into Phillip and
have to explain where Carson was.
    Shaking her head, she took the steps
two at a time. This was not her. That had not been Ryanne McCall in that pool
with him. She was not a spontaneous person. Not when it came to sex. Trips and
vacations, yes, because she loved to travel and get away. But sexually, she
thought everything out. Planned it all out.
    Even losing her virginity in her
sophomore year, she’d orchestrated that event too. She’d dated a guy for most
of the year, and a month before the spring semester ended she had set a date to
lose her virginity.
    The guy was nice, sweet, and
thoughtful. He ended up being their graduating class’s valedictorian. She
stayed away from jocks and frat boys, keeping to intellectuals. She and Jim
didn’t make it beyond the fall of their junior year, but had remained friends.
    Now this. Since she ran into Carson that morning, she hadn’t been the same. She didn’t recognize herself. She needed to
think about this.
    Yes, she may have come to the
singles getaway thinking she might connect with a guy, possibly someone she
would feel comfortable with after a week to sleep with, even if it wasn’t going
to go any further. But she never expected to run into someone she knew. Someone
she liked. Someone she had deep feelings for. Carson was a factor she hadn’t
prepared for.
    He had come here with Phillip to the
singles holiday getaway to find multiple women and get laid. Hell, Phillip was getting laid, all over the damn place. Maybe even Carson was doing the same, just being
more discreet.
    He told you he didn’t have sex with
Lanie.
    That’s just one woman. She argued back and forth with
herself. Ryanne entered her room and bolted the top latch behind her.
    If she let things go further with
him, she would become too involved, possibly end up hurt and have to look over
her shoulder wherever she went in the city she loved. She had to consider this
situation fully.

Chapter
Seven
    Ryanne heard the banging late on her
door. It sounded as if a pack of zebras were kicking it. Turning her head, she
stared at the door, considering whether or not to answer it. Maybe it was just
a rowdy group of drunken guests terrorizing anyone they could.
    “Rye!” The banging continued.
    She could have sworn she heard
someone call her name. That didn’t make sense; there were only two people here
who knew her, and a handful of ladies she’d met the night before. She couldn’t
see them coming for her at this hour.
    After she’d washed, dried, and spent
more than thirty minutes flat-ironing her hair, she’d sent a message to the
desk clerk asking her to notify Carson that she was not coming down for dinner.
She’d lied and said she was unwell. She knew she was avoiding him, but she needed
the distance to put things back into perspective. Carson had always been her
friend throughout her childhood. Nothing more.
    Before she left for college, she
knew she’d developed very deep feelings for him, but they’d never been remotely
reciprocated by him, except when they’d said good-bye and she’d almost kissed
him. However, her mother had saved her from that mistake. Now, there was no one
to save her from this folly but herself. The best way she’d decided to do that
was by keeping a reasonable distance away from Carson and only seeing him
within a group.
    Her door rattled again. Shaking her
head, she realized whoever was on the other side was not going away. Tossing
her blanket off her legs, laying her book down on the cushion, she then set her
glass of wine, from the bottle she had ordered with her room service meal, on
the table and padded toward the door.
    Looking through the peephole she saw
that it was not a group of drunken revelers but one reveler: