Free Snowbound Seduction by Melissa Schroeder

didn’t like to linger. Right at this minute, though, Trevor couldn’t think of anywhere else he would want to be. He knew part of it was because he was in love with her.
    For a long heartbeat he couldn’t think. He was in love with her? He had just told himself that he wasn’t, but unlike when he had thought about it before, it felt right this time. But it was too fast to be jumping to that conclusion. Trevor waited for panic to set in his chest, but nothing happened.
    “What’s the matter?” Lainey asked, her voice sleepy.
    “Nothing.”
    She grunted and he chuckled.
    “That is not a sound I would expect to hear coming out of you. Go to sleep, Lainey. There’s nothing wrong.”
    He kissed the top of her head, then started to stroke her back. Within a few minutes her breathing was even and her body relaxed. Trev lay awake thinking how he was going to deal with being in love with one of his partners. There was one thing he knew for sure—he would not allow her to put him back in the friend/colleague category again.
    With that resolution fresh in his mind, he drifted off to sleep, assured it would all work out.

Chapter Eight
    Elaine’s foot connected with a hard object. There was something heavy draped over her, and she couldn’t seem to make it move. She frowned and opened her eyes and found herself staring at a very sexy male.
    Trev.
    Memories of the night before came flashing back to her as she tried to blink away the image. The kiss…making love in her bed then in his. God, she had never had a night like the one he had given her.
    Sex had always been something she could do without. Men rarely thought of her as hot and sexy, and so when she did end up in bed with them, it never really worked out. She’d been bored. With Trev it had been so much different. He was the type of man she would never have thought she’d be able to have. Lord knew he wasn’t the kind of guy who would stick around, but what man was? In her experience, the only man who had stuck it out with her was Mick.
    She would have to be the one to say no more, because she would be mortified if he thought she wanted more than this. She would never be able to deal with it. Staring up at the ceiling, she tried her best to come up with some way to say it was over, that this was all it could be.
    Elaine needed some time, some space, so she slipped out of bed as quietly as she could, and headed to the bathroom. She grabbed one of his shirts along the way, pulling it over her head before she turned on the lights.
    For long minutes she stood staring at herself. She was wearing a man’s T-shirt, her hair was a mess, and she had whisker burn on her jaw. This wasn’t her. Carrying on with men like this, sleeping with them—that was something she tried not to do. Staying over added intimacy she never felt ready for. Last night, though, she had, and worse, it had felt right. She wasn’t a woman who loved easily.
    Loved .
    Dammit, she’d fallen in love with the idiot. Every little fight had been foreplay, and now she had to live with the consequences. Being the one who fell in love would not do. She had to get out of there.
    Her worry was quickly growing into panic. It clawed at her throat and she had to swallow several times to keep from losing it.
    She quietly slipped out of the bathroom, then out of the bedroom and down the hall. It was the coward’s way. Later she could do it. She could control her feelings if she had some space and time before she had to see him again. If she had to encounter him now, she might just beg, and that she couldn’t deal with. So, doing something she would have chastised anyone else for, she hurriedly packed her things and called for a car to take her to the airport.
    And maybe someday she would stop hating that she didn’t have the nerve to face him.
    …
    Trevor woke the next morning, his body ready to take on the day. He hadn’t been this relaxed in months, and he knew the reason for it. He reached for Lainey, but