Christmas In Silver Bell Falls by Samantha Chase Page B

there was her writing and her deadline that needed to be dealt with, but it wasn’t as if she and Josiah would be spending every waking moment together.  She really did enjoy his company and other than his seemingly ridiculous love of living in this tiny Christmas-themed town, she also really liked him.
    He was sexy and attractive and Melanie knew—she just knew—she would never regret the time she spent with him.
    In and out of bed.
    Whoa…getting a little ahead of yourself, aren’t you?   “Actually, I don’t think I am,” she corrected herself.  It had been ages since she’d been out on a date and even longer since she’d been in a relationship.  And if she were being completely honest, she’d never felt as comfortable with any of her former boyfriends as she did after knowing Josiah just one day.
    How bizarre was that?
    Once all of the food was put away, Melanie walked into the guest bedroom, which she decided to use as her office and forced herself to sit down at the student desk in there with her laptop.  It was time to push thoughts of Josiah aside for a little while and focus on trying to get some work done on her book.
    Within minutes, her fingers began to fly.  It was the first time in months that she felt her creativity coming back to her.  In her mind, her characters were starting to take form.  Her editor continually begged her to put her thoughts and plots and plans down on paper, but Melanie didn’t work that way.  She was more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants kind of girl—or a pantser.  It worked for her. 
    When she finally stopped, she stretched and looked down at the corner of the computer screen and saw that almost two hours had gone by!  And what was even better, she had almost five-thousand words done.  Not a bad day’s work!  Taking a few minutes, she read over what she had written and couldn’t suppress a smile—her hero bore a strong resemblance to her sexy next door neighbor.   She wondered what he’d think of that.
    With a chuckle, she stood and walked out to the kitchen to get herself something to drink.  Thinking about the story she was creating, she knew it was too soon for her hero and heroine to kiss, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want them to. 
    And what was worse, she found she wanted to know what her very own hero, Josiah, kissed like.
    It was almost five in the afternoon.  She wasn’t the least bit hungry but decided she was going to invite him over for dinner.  Maybe she’d be hungry later.  With a renewed sense of purpose, Melanie went into the bathroom to freshen up and then walked out to the living room and grabbed her jacket.  With a steadying breath, she opened the door and walked out toward Josiah’s house.
    Feeling a little self-conscious, she tentatively knocked on the door.  Was she being too obvious?  Should she be playing a little hard to get?  As soon as Josiah opened the door she had her answer.
    No.
    She didn’t want to play hard to get.
    She didn’t want to play at all.
    Well…sort of.  A small smile tugged at her lips.  “Hey,” she said, her breath visible in the cold air.
    “Hey.  Come on in.”  Josiah stepped aside and once she was in, he closed the door.  “So…what’s up?”
    Where did she even begin?  Part of her simply wanted to pounce on him—to kiss him and be kissed by him—but she had a little more couth than that.  “Um…I wanted to see if maybe you were free for dinner.”
    He smiled and Melanie felt her knees go weak.  “Dinner, huh?”
    She nodded.
    “You didn’t mention anything about it while we were grocery shopping.”
    Okay, so he wasn’t going to make this easy for her.  Fine.  Two could play at this game.  Stepping in close to him—very close—she met his gaze.  “It wasn’t on my mind then,” she said, her voice low and just a little sultry.  “After our little talk earlier, I decided that…dinner…might not be a bad idea.”
    She watched his expression turn