Cinderella's Christmas Affair by Katherine Garbera Page B

those things.”
    She pivoted and walked out of the bedroom into the connecting bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

    CJ stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. She scarcely recognized the naked person reflected there. It had been a long time since she had love bites on her neck and beard burn on her breasts.
    Her thighs were pleasantly sore and her center was still a little dewy from her latest orgasm with Tad. He was a generous and skillful lover.
    She’d known that if she slept with Tad everything would change between them. She’d been prepared to let him see a part of herself she normally hid from the world. What she hadn’t been prepared for though was realizing that she’d shared her body with a man that didn’t even realize she hid anything.
    She fingered the mark on the bottom of her neck, remembering how he’d suckled her there before he climaxed that first time. What was she going to do? If they were having an affair it wouldn’t matter. But he wanted marriage—to make his ailing mother happy.
    She raked her hands through her hair. What was she going to do? Bracing her hands on the counter she leaned in close to the mirror. But no answers came to her. Frustrated by her thoughts, she stepped into the shower.
    She let the hot water steam the room before she opened the glass door and got inside. The water washed over her, sluicing away the doubts and the fears racing around in her mind.
    One fact kept resurfacing, Tad was the kind of man she’d been secretly searching for. Which made him doubly dangerous to her. She liked that he worked hard to make his life a success. She liked that he was community focused. She liked that family was important to him. The only missing ingredient was that Tad saw her as the kind of woman she could never be.
    That he thought she was open and fun-loving made her wonder if she really gave off that impression. Didn’t he realize she’d never let anyone see the real her? That her work persona was one huge superficial layer that she used to make everyone believe she belonged there. In the office she was successful and energetic because that’s what she needed to be to achieve her career goals. It was a role she played, an outer shell to protect the woman she was inside.
    They’d had deeply soul-satisfying sex, she thought. She’d realized last night when she’d held him under her that there was more to Tad than any other man she’d taken to her bed. More than Marcus who’d taught her what pleasure could really be. She’d seen the man Tad really was and recognized layers still existed between them.
    Frustrated with the world in general she wanted to scream but didn’t. She took her loofah and angrily soaped it up. Scrubbing Tad from her body with rough strokes of the sponge. Except that even after she’d cleaned her entire body, she could still smell him on her. The shower door opened and a blast of cool air entered the stall with her.
    Tad stood there naked and unsure. The way he watched her told her that he knew something was wrong between them. Understood that she wanted something more from him—but had no idea what it was.
    She didn’t know if she could do this. Maybe there was a reason why secret crushes usually weren’t realized. Perhaps some people weren’t meant to be more than a far-off fantasy. Her heart ached a little at the thought that this was probably the end for them.
    “Ah, baby. Don’t look at me like that,” he said. He rubbed his hand on his chest through the patch of hair there. He smelled of sandalwood and sex. Primal instincts urged her to say to hell with forming a relationship, just grab him and make love to him again.
    But her heart was weary. “Like what?”
    Tilting his head to the side, he watched her carefully for a moment then said, “Like I’ve disappointed you.”
    She crossed her arms over her chest to protect herself. “Well you have.”
    “How?”
    She’d forgotten how hard it was to talk to men. “If I have to tell