“Wait,” he whispered grabbing my arm as I walked down the hallway towards the living room.

I turned, not sure what to feel, and once again tongue tied. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Christian!” Sam’s booming voice startled us both and I stepped aside so that my brother could hug his old friend. They looked like brothers who had waited a lifetime to see each other. I shifted uncomfortable beside Sam, wanting to run upstairs and hide. He looked over at me and swept his hand around my shoulder. “Christian this is Eve, my baby sister.”

“This…this is Eve?” He asked him, a look of surprise crossing his handsome features.

“Nice to meet you,” I reached my hand out to him hoping he’d follow my lead. The last thing I wanted was for my family to know my secrets.

“The pleasure is all mine,” he whispered huskily as the warmth of his hand enveloped my own. He squeezed it slightly as he stared down at me, and that sexy smirk of his outlined his full lips. I swallowed, tempted by him once again. That small touch making the butterflies in my tummy flutter and the ache in my core come to life.

“Well then, now that you’ve met, come on in.” Sam wrapped an arm around his shoulders and led him inside to meet the rest of the guests and the family. I stood there alone in the hallway, not really knowing what was going on here. How small could this world be, that the one man I never wanted to see again, was now seated on the couch with my nephew on his knee.

“Eve? Eve!” Carol called from me from the other end of the hallway.

“Wh…what?” I turned to Carol who was holding a tray of her special spiked egg nog. “Would you mind?”

I placed a smile on my face and put my best effort into passing around the tray. Small talk and laughter surrounded me as I went around the room passing around the tray. I tried to ignore it, but I could feel the heat of his eyes on my back. Turning, I bent down to give him the last glass and he smiled up at me.

“Thank you, Angel.” My eyes met his and my breath caught at the sound of his endearment for me. His dark gaze full of hunger and those feelings flooded through me once again.

I closed my eyes and turned, running into the kitchen to see what else I could help Carol with. If I kept myself busy then maybe I could avoid the man who had entered my life so abruptly, and whom I couldn’t seem to get away from.

It was wishful thinking that I could avoid him for the rest of the evening. An hour later, and I had my first heated encounter with my ruggedly handsome one-night stand.

“Eve, would you be a dear and grab the extra chair in the studio?”

“Yeah, sure.” I took any chance I could get to stay away from him. He’d tried making small talk with me, asking me how long I was staying, if I liked the snow. I didn’t have the heart to turn away from him, so I’d engaged, but what I really wanted to do was run away.

I took my time walking down the hallway toward the back of the house. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until I bumped into a very familiar broad chest.

“Whoa,” he grabbed me by the waist as I stumbled back. “Watch out now,” he mumbled as he tightened his grip on me.

Placing my hand on his chest I tried to push back, but he wrapped his other hand around my waist holding me captive against him.

“What are you doing?” I glanced around making sure no one was around.

“We need to talk,” he leaned in placing his lips against my ear. “About last night.”

I closed my eyes as I breathed in his cologne, the feel of his strong arms around me felt oddly comforting. “We have nothing to talk about.”

“No? Why’d you leave this morning?”

I squirmed in his embrace, but he simply arched a brow, watching me. “Because…because, there was no reason to stay.”

He nodded slowly, his eyes looking up as he bit down on that sexy lip of his. “See, I beg to differ. I think, you ran away from me. The question is, why?”

“I didn’t run away. We did what we did, and that was it.”

“What we did? Yes, enlighten me, what did we do?”

I swallowed hard as I looked up into those electric blue eyes of his. As he searched my face I felt suddenly exposed. As if he could read every secret I kept hidden from everyone, and I immediately avoided his eyes, looking down at his chest instead.

“I didn’t want you to leave,” he confessed, tenderly.

My eyes shot up to his and heat spread through my body. “What we did last night. I’ve never done with anyone else. It was a one-time thing. Period.”

He smirked and released me. “We’ll see.”

“Excuse me?”

He smiled at me, his hand gently cupping my cheek. “I don’t have the lying tendencies that you seem to hide behind. I liked what we did, how you moaned my name, how you came for me, how perfect your pussy felt around my dick. I have no shame in admitting that if I could, I’d take you again, right here right now. Just so I could hear my name purred out of these perfect heart shaped lips.

His thumb grazed my bottom lip as he leaned in. I curled back as his lips hovered over mine. “So, we’ll see just how long, this one-time fling, lasts.”

My mouth dropped open and he leaned in, his mouth molding to mine in a soft, heated kiss. His groan echoed through my body as his tongue found mine, delicately tracing it, stroking it with his. I gripped his arms as I let myself fall into him. My body wanting more, and my brain telling me to run. But one thing was for certain, no one took my breath away like Christian Nolan did.