Read A Taste of Winter: 1 (Red Masks) for Free Online

flowers. She
was so caught up the lure of the flowers Alaina didn’t hear the voices until
they were almost upon her—and her heart shuddered to a halt as she recognized
the clipped voice of the one man in all the world she prayed she would never
have to see again.
    Oh no. He was so not here, not when she had finally come up
with a project she could keep away from his obsessive and controlling eyes.
    Eyes that for some odd reason she didn’t want seeing her
makeup-free, in the worst pair of threadbare jeans she owned and a t-shirt so
washed and worn it had holes along the hem.
    Crap.
    Too slow on the uptake, Alaina couldn’t disappear into the
shadows quick enough, just managing to slam her dark glasses into place before
two men came angling down the path her way.
    She recognized the slick of dark hair and black Italian suit
from their few previous meetings. Today he’d forgone his usual tie and collar,
a pale-blue t-shirt taking their place. One that outlined his very
well-developed chest and clung to a stomach that didn’t possess a single ounce
of fat she could see. Had he been hiding that perfect body from her all these
months or had she just been too aggravated with the man to notice?
    She noticed today, a dark tingle aching between her legs,
her shoulders standing to military attention as her breasts seemed to thrust of
their own accord toward him.
    Fuck, fuck, fuck .
    Trying to keep from shrieking in frustration that her body
had seemingly careened out of her control, Alaina forced herself to remain
perfectly still as the men approached and turned her attention to the stranger.
Not that it did an ounce of good. As tall and broad as Ryan, the man had on a
pair of jeans that looked as if they’d been sewn in place. If Ryan’s hair was
an inky brown, the other man’s was black as pitch, his skin tanned from hours
in the sun, a wrinkle of laugh lines framing liquid-black eyes as he turned
toward her, his face lighting up with a sinful smile.
    For the briefest of instants Alaina imagined an entirely
different scene, one where these two gorgeous men grabbed her and pressed her
tight between them, every hard and demanding inch of them glued to every soft
and welcoming inch of her.
    The ache between her legs grew to unbearable proportions as
her fantasy took hold, keeping her waiting with breath held in anticipation as
they angled toward her. Ryan actually smiled as he motioned her forward, his
eyes missing nothing of her dreadful attire as he studied her from top to
bottom.
    “Miss Winter,” he said, reaching out to take her hand, “just
the woman we wanted to see.” To her utter shock, he didn’t shake it and let go—he
held far too long as he presented her to his companion. “Zayne, this is Alaina
Winter. Alaina, I was telling Mr. Saladar about our recent…miscommunication on
the LaRue project.”
    If eyes could promise both pleasure and pain, his did at
that moment, their usual stern expression contradicted by a flicker of heat
that took her breath away. If their normal color was smoke and ashes, today he
added fire to the mix and, despite her best effort at control, her hand
trembled as he bent close enough that she could feel his breath against her
cheek.
    “Zayne agrees with your choice of color,” Ryan continued,
shaking his head in admonition as he brought his mouth even closer to her ear.
“So while it would be well within my right to discipline you for the
transgression I will let you off the hook this time.”
    Alaina shuddered at the dangerous sparkle of his smile. Damn. The man was more attractive than she’d given him credit for and his closeness
was becoming unbearable as her body tingled and tightened in response.
    Refusing to cross her hands across her chest and give him
another clue to her emotions, Alaina stepped back and offered him one of her
best frowns. “The building will be finished by tomorrow evening. After that our
contract is ended if I recall correctly.”
    His frown put hers