Kiss Me Crazy by Ednah Walters, E. B. Walters Page A

straightened, picked up his laptop in its case, and walked around the counter. “I’l just make damn sure I don’t give you a reason to kick me out of our bed.” Our bed? Panic set in at his assured tone. “I can’t.” He reached out to push a lock of hair behind her ear. His hand lingered on the sensitive skin. “Don’t make up your mind yet.
    Think about it.”
    Kara opened her mouth to tel him there was nothing to think about and stopped when he closed the gap between their lips and pressed a soft kiss on her mouth.

    “I want you, Kara, and you want me. We’re both consenting adults. In a month’s time, you’l be gone. Is it asking too much to make the remaining weeks memorable?” His hand fel away. “We’l leave on Wednesday. Don’t give me your answer until we’re in Idaho.”
    “Why?”
    “So you know that working on the VanderMarck colection has nothing to do with my proposition. I’l let myself out.
    Goodnight.”
    She watched him walk away then flopped on the nearest chair. For the past five years, she’d wanted this man with every cel in her body, and now he was offering himself to her, no strings attached. And she was hesitating? Of course she must hesitate, reject his proposal. No one roomed with a timber wolf and came out unscathed. She couldn’t do it. Come Wednesday, her answer would stil be the same, a big fat no.

CHAPTER 6
    Decisions, decisions, Kara chanted to herself as she tossed and turned, eyes closed tight as though to force sleep through sheer wil. It didn’t work. She threw the floral comforter aside and swung her feet off the bed. Tessie, curled up at the foot of her bed lifted her head, meowed, and sunk back into la-la land.
    Lucky girl, Kara thought with envy.
    Her toes sunk into the thick carpet as she reached for her terry robe on the bedpost. The single night light in the halway filtered into her room and helped her eyes adjust to the dimness.
    Two days and she stil couldn’t make up her mind about Baron.
    How crazy was that? Kara shrugged on the robe, padded into the kitchen to get water.
    Why can’t I live dangerously for once like a normal, healthy woman? Renee did. Chloe used to. My baby sister was the queen bee of perilous living before her marriage. Why am I always so uptight about sex?
    Kara retrieved bottled water from the fridge, twisted off the cap and took a long sip. When the two guys she dated in colege ditched her for Briana, she’d blamed her sister. Briana was gorgeous, outgoing, and had no problem going the whole nine yards after a few weeks of dating. Kara, on the other hand, tended to drag her feet for months, fretting about where the relationship was headed before committing to intimacy. Could that be the reason the men dumped her? Was she short-changing herself by being too cautious?
     
    Sighing, Kara pushed the fridge door shut, and once again, enveloped herself in darkness. She finished the water, placed the empty bottle on the counter, and shuffled back to her bedroom.
    Tessie whined again when Kara crawled back in bed and her foot came close to where the tabby slept. She ignored the cat and harangued the ceiling.
    I can’t do this. Baron might be food for fantasy and sex with him was sure to be a mind-blowing experience, but was she so desperate to have him on any terms? What if she wanted more?
    What if she lost her heart?
    What makes you think you haven’t already? No, she wasn’t in love with Baron. He had haunted her dreams for years and her lustful feelings toward him made it almost impossible to be happy with another man, but that was it. In the last five years, she’d dated good men with likeable qualities, financial stability, and some, not al of the men, had bods any woman would die to sink their teeth in. Yet after a few weeks, just before things went beyond kissing, she’d find faults with them and cal it quits. The two she thought had potential turned out to be too possessive. Crazy about her, she could handle, jealousy was