Sleigh Bells Ring by RaeAnne Thayne

Author:RaeAnne Thayne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2021-08-20T03:07:11+00:00

15

ANNIE COULDN’T QUITE believe this was happening.

What a surreal evening it had been. She never would have expected Tate to offer his company while she sewed. Nor would she have expected to have enjoyed having him in her apartment so much, chatting with him about everything under the sun while the storm raged outside.

Now, here she was in his arms, his mouth firm on hers and every part of her aching for him.

Was this really happening or was it some exhaustion-fueled dream?

Annie wasn’t quite sure. It seemed too unbelievable. Tate Sheridan, the man she had woven all those ridiculous dreams about when she was an impressionable girl, was actually kissing her.

This was too vivid, too intoxicating, to be a dream. She could feel the heat of him, could smell that delicious masculine, slightly exotic scent of sandalwood and sage, could taste his mouth, warm, delicious with a hint of berries and mint.

She shouldn’t be doing this, for a hundred different reasons—chief among them was the overwhelming certainty that she would end up with her heart shredded like old rags when he and his family sold the Angel’s View and he returned to his life as a high-powered bazillionaire.

What did she have to offer a man like him?

She was an ordinary woman who loved her family and whose superpower was making other people comfortable. She wasn’t some glamorous, beautiful heiress who could offer him fascinating conversation and valuable connections.

She knew all that. Still she kissed him. How could she resist, when he kissed her like she was something dear and precious to him?

She might have stayed there all night if the sound of a small whimper didn’t intrude into the delicious haze surrounding them. A whimper that was coming from the twins’ bedroom.

Reality crashed in.

She was standing in her living room, kissing Tate Sheridan. What in the name of Kris Kringle was she thinking?

She wasn’t thinking at all, she realized. She had thrown all warning to the wind and had acted purely on visceral need, driven by silly daydreams about this man that she should have left behind in childhood.

The time for that was past. She had to focus on the twins right now. When she heard the whimper again, she managed to untangle her mouth from his and take a slight step back, her breath coming fast and shallowly.

“I... That sounds like Alice. She must be having a bad dream. I need to...” She gestured weakly toward the twins’ door.

“Right.”

Tate ran a hand through his hair, a stunned look on his face.

Annie rushed into the bedroom, where she found Alice making those tiny mewling sounds in her sleep.

Her niece moved her head restlessly on the pillow. “Mommy. Don’t go, Mommy. Please don’t go. I’m sorry. I’ll be good, I promise.”

Annie’s heart shattered all over again. The poor thing. Most of the time, the twins seemed to be coping as well as could be expected to losing their mother.

Every once in a while, their raw grief seemed to creep out of the depths of their subconscious.

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