Free Christmas Alpha by Carole Mortimer Page A

thing for everyone would be if I removed myself from London for a while. Let the situation with Moira calm down.”
      “And has it?” Eva chewed on her bottom lip.
      “I don’t believe so, no.” He sighed wearily. “The parcel you delivered earlier? It was sent from her.”
      “What’s in it?”  
      “Nothing I want to talk about,” he dismissed grimly. “I won’t bore you with any of the details, but suffice it to say that she used that parcel as a means of finding out where I am.”
      Eva’s eyes widened. “And did she succeed?”
      “I believe so, yes.”
      Eva could only stare at him as the nausea warred with shock inside her. Oh not towards Finn. What had been done to him, without his knowledge or consent, wasn’t his fault. He was the victim, not the perpetrator.  
      No, it was the thought of this woman, Moira, her obsession with Finn, that made Eva feel queasy. The length the other woman had been willing to go to in order to—
      Eva tensed. “The person I saw standing outside under the trees earlier, watching the house...” She turned instinctively to look at the kitchen window, noting for the first time that the blinds had been pulled down. That Finn had made a point of pulling the curtains in the sitting room when they played chess earlier. She turned sharply back to Finn. “She’s here, isn’t she?”
      “Yes.” He nodded grimly. “Yes, I believe she just might be.”  
      Oh God...  

Chapter 9

    “Finn, you’ve been outside and checked in the stables, been down to the basement too… Any whips and paddles down there, by the way?”
      “No,” he drawled ruefully.
      “Oh.”
      “There’s no need to sound so disappointed!”
      Eva wasn’t disappointed at all, she was just trying to make Finn feel less tense. “Finn, you’ve made sure the house is securely locked, the alarm is switched on, now you really have to try and get some sleep,” she advised softly as he lay on his back beneath the duvet beside her, one arm over his eyes, but obviously far from being able to sleep.
      Not that Eva felt much like sleeping herself. But probably for completely different reasons than Finn.
      Unpleasant as his revelations about his ex-girlfriend had been, it was the knowledge that this woman could be outside the house somewhere that now had the adrenaline singing through Eva’s veins.
      To a degree that all Eva’s senses were now very much alive.
      To a degree that she was super aware of Finn as he moved restlessly beside her. Of the warmth of his body just inches away from her own. Of the fact that he had removed his denims, but replaced them with a pair of black boxers that hugged his thighs—and left even less to the imagination than the hip-hugging denims had.  
      Eva had stripped down to her panties and t-shirt, for the sake of comfort, too.
      She gave up trying to sleep and rolled over onto her stomach, resting her chin on the palm of her hand as she looked up at Finn, his skin gleaming a light bronze in the firelight. “Did you love her?”
      He gave a disgusted snort but kept that arm over his eyes. “Don’t be bloody stupid, the woman is off her head!”
      “But you didn’t know that at the time.”
      “I know it now, okay?” He lowered his arm to frown at her. “I was never in love with her, but she could be fun, outrageously so, and—” he broke off, jaw tensing.
      “And she was good in bed,” Eva guessed ruefully. “But if you didn’t love her, I don’t understand what the mistress photographs are about...?”  
      “The mistress photos aren’t because I care for Moira.” He glowered moodily. “They’re for the opposite reason. A way of exorcising her. Of… Of… Oh bloody hell!” He scowled darkly.
      “They’re a way of laying her bare, literally, in the same way that she did to you,” Eva realized softly.
      “Maybe,” he muttered gruffly. “I feel… Damn it, I feel violated, Eva. Can you