Free Back for You by Anara Bella Page A

go and joined her.
    He collapsed against her as they both struggled to catch their breath.
    If she’d thought she was worn out before, she was completely wrung out now.
    Cain pulled out the pillow still wedged beneath her and dropped down
beside her, pulling her into his arms. She rested her head against his broad
chest while he held her close to his side.
    She was so relaxed, she couldn’t have moved if her life had depended on
it. Jumping out of bed and heading for home was the last thing she wanted to do
right then, but she knew she should. No, she knew she had to do it. It
was the smart thing to do.
    And it was exactly what she would do. Just as soon as she gathered
the strength she needed to move.
    She just needed to rest her eyes for one teensy weensy second. That’s
all. Just. One. Second.

Chapter Ten
    Thea’s eyes flew open.
    The first thing she focused on was the lace doily gracing the bedside
table beside her head.
    That told her she wasn’t in her own bed.
    The second thing her eyes lit upon was the time.
    Shit.
    It was morning. Why the hell was she still in Cain’s bed? She’d intended
to go home last night but clearly nothing had gone according to her plan. If it
had, she’d have woken up in her own bed, not all cozy and relationship-like
here in Cain’s.
    She froze, not wanting to wake Cain. And then she realized it was awfully
quiet in the room. With careful movements, she turned onto her back and felt
around beside her but the bed was empty. After making visual confirmation that
she was indeed alone in bed, she heaved a sigh of relief, quickly followed by a
rising sense of ire.
    Cain was gone ? Where the hell was he? And how dare he up and leave
without a word?
    She threw off the covers and sat on the edge of the bed while a plethora
of conflicting emotions played a full on tug-of-war inside her. It didn’t take
long to realize anger was the clear winner.
    Anger because she hadn’t left last night, anger because Cain had manipulated
her into staying the night, anger because Cain wasn’t there, anger because
Cain’s return to town had churned up all these feelings she didn’t want to feel
and didn’t know what to do with.
    She took several deep breaths to calm herself. And then realized
something important—his not being here was a good thing. After all,
waking up alone was the next best thing to being in her own bed. Almost as good
as if she’d gone home last night like she’d intended.
    Immediately, her mood improved and she smiled. Her plans weren’t a
failure after all. Despite the way Cain had maneuvered things by wearing her
out with an exhausting onslaught of sex, sex, and more sex, she could salvage
the situation.
    The good news was all she had to do was get dressed and bolt for home before
Cain came back from wherever he’d gone. A very good plan. The bad news was she
had no idea how long he’d been gone already. He could come back at any moment
so she’d better get her butt in gear and get moving.
    Putting thought into action, she spied her underwear across the room and
charged over to put them on, all the while congratulating herself for getting
up earlier than she normally did.
    She bent over to pick up her white panties, and froze. The door opened.
    Why, oh why, did nothing ever seem to go her way when it came to Cain?
More to the point, why hadn’t she woken up ten minutes earlier?
    She straightened at the same time as she heard a familiar low, sexy growl
coming from the doorway. An instant later warm, strong male hands grasped her
hips and pulled her back into a hard, hot body.
    “Looks like I got back just in time, darlin’.”
    Damn it. His timing was impeccable, as always. For him at least.
For her it totally sucked. So much for a clean escape.
    She squirmed in an effort to extricate herself from his arms but he held
her tight until she gave up and relaxed into him. “I have to get back to the
bar.”
    “You’ve got time yet.” He palmed her breasts, and nibbled