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“What happened to my spoiler alert?” He nudged her nose with his, trying to reel his baser instincts back. They were not having sex.

Her tongue swept across his lower lip. “I figured you knew what happened.”

He swallowed, slanting his mouth so he could have one final taste, one final stroke of his tongue through her sweet depths. “I know what will happen if we carry on doing this.” He eased his mouth away from hers and dipped his head to find her eyes. “It’s not a good idea, Anna.”

“You want to stop?”

“No.” He hissed as she leant forward again. “But you know we should,” he muttered, every part of his body aching to give her what her eyes told him she wanted. What he fucking needed. “You have to give guys like me a wide berth,” he reminded her.

“I know.” Her teeth nibbled at his lower lip and he couldn’t help himself, he punched his hips up.

When his aching erection met her core, they moaned in chorus.

“You need to stop,” he rasped. “Because I don’t know if I can.”

He almost wept when she did, and he wasn’t sure whether it was because she’d put a halt on what would have been a calamitous mistake, or because she’d stopped what would have been the best sex of his life.

He pressed his forehead to hers, their breaths mingling, hot and heavy. “The film’s finished,” he said eventually. She shifted off him and he immediately wanted her back. “Do you want to watch something else?”

Her face looked forlorn, about as happy as he was to have something that promised so much dangled in front of him, then taken away. “Do you think we can cuddle and not, you know . . .”

“Kiss each other senseless?” She smiled sadly. He leant back against the sofa with a thud, eyes going up to the ceiling where he spotted the mistletoe. “We can try again, after I’ve taken a walk outside. And after I’ve disposed of that in the nearest bin.”

December 19th

The moment she saw Luke sitting down at the kitchen table the following morning, Anna knew that for once, they were going to talk. Maybe not just about the epic kiss it had taken a herculean effort on her part to stop, but also about how they’d found themselves still snuggled together on the sofa as the pale rays of the morning sun had crept through the window.

“Morning. Again.”

He looked up from his phone and gave her a small smile, his eyes sweeping up and down her pj’s before ending on her mouth. She watched as he gave a hard swallow and looked away. “We need to talk.”

He’d obviously had a shower and, from the look of his haggard face, not gone back to sleep. Maybe his mind had played their kiss over and over again, like hers had. “I thought you were an ostrich.”

“It’s my preferred state, yeah.” His eyes met hers. “But I’ve not been in this situation before.”

“Sorry?”

“I like a woman, she likes me, we have sex. A few days/weeks down the line, we part ways and I never see her again. She’s not sorry, I’m not sorry. We both got out of it what we wanted.”

That sounded empty, soulless. “But this is different?”

“You know it is.” He exhaled a heavy breath, fingers going to briefly pinch the bridge of his nose before he held one hand out in a fist, releasing his thumb. “Number one, you’re Colin’s sister. I cannot, will not, do anything to hurt you.” He let out his index finger. “Two, I want you in my life in the future. I cannot, will not, do anything that might prevent that happening.” A third finger. “Three, you wear your heart on your sleeve, you’re warm hearted, kind. All the things I’m not. Far from being peas in a pod, we’re a pea and a . . . a mountain. So nothing would ever come of this.” A fourth finger. “Four, you’ve been hurt before by men who didn’t talk to you. I will do the same if you’re not careful. You need a man who will open up, be as brave and honest about his feelings as you are.” His final pinkie finger. “Five, sex complicates things, it muddles the mind, makes us feel things more keenly. Believe things that aren’t there. We have a few days left together in this bubble of shared grief before we get back to our own lives. Neither of us needs our emotions tangled even further than they already are.”

In her heart, in her mind, she knew he was right. But her body wanted more of what she’d experienced last night. More touching, more kissing. “So where does that leave us?” She twisted her hands. “Because I don’t think I can do platonic, not with you, not while we’re living under the same roof. Can you?”

He barked out a laugh. “On current evidence, no.”

“Okay, so we don’t have sex. But for the next few days while we finish the advent, maybe we can just . . . let whatever else happens, happen.”

His eyes pierced hers, a look so intense she felt goosebumps race across her skin. “You’re okay with that? You won’t . . .” He trailed off, rubbed his hand across the back of his neck.

“I won’t fall in love with you?” It was a possibility, but she wasn’t going to let him think she was that stupid. “You think you’re that irresistible, huh?”

“God no, that’s not. . . .” He heaved out a sigh and bent forward, covering his face with his hands. When he finally lifted his eyes to hers, his expression looked so wretched her heart tugged. “I’m trying to do the right thing by you here. I can’t bear the thought of hurting you like those other bastards did.” His eyes held hers. “You’re too important to me.”

Her heart floundered and the possibility of falling for him came another step closer. “You won’t,” she told him softly.

“How can you be so sure?”