Page 57 of Mistletoe Face Off

“Didn't his friend marry Keira Knightley in the movie, making his love for her unrequited?”

“Totally beside the point.”

“You'd like someone to do the cue card thing for you, wouldn't you?”

“I think anyone would. Don't you?”

“I prefer using actual words,” I reply as I turn her in a spin, pulling her against me before I turn her once more. She lets out a giggle.

By now the Pointer Sisters are about to tell me to jump for their love, and I take a few steps back from Holly and pull out the moves I’ve been practicing in private, ready for this very moment. I start with a sway of my hips, just the way Hugh Grant does, before I leap into a sideways shimmy, moving across the stage.

By now, Holly is clapping along to the song, laughing as she watches, and I dance over toward her, channeling my inner dancing British Prime Minister—only I don't get interrupted by a member of staff, like in the movie. Instead, my endpoint is Holly, who I sweep up into my arms, and she lets out another girly giggle that tickles my belly.

“You are wasted as a hockey player, Harrison Clarke,” she tells me.

“Dancing is just one of my many talents.”

“Oh, really? What are your other talents?” she asks, her eyes sparkling, her soft lips lifted in a soft smile.

The best way to answer that question is without any words at all.

This is it. This is the moment.

With her body pressed close to mine, I slip my fingers around the back of her neck and tangle them up in her hair. My heart is banging with the intensity of my attraction for this woman in my arms, and all that she is growing to mean to me.

But I tell myself to take this slow. There’s no need to rush this. I want our first kiss to be magic.

She lets out a soft sound that tells me she wants this as much as I do.

I toy with her hair, enjoying the way it makes her eyelids half close over, relishing the fact I’m the one who gets to make her feel this way.

When she opens her eyes they’re filled with fire, and the parting of her lips is all the invitation I need to claim her mouth with mine.

Softly.

Purposefully.

Finally.

The merest of brush of my lips against hers scorches, and there’s nothing but her and me, locked in this moment, the moment I’ve been waiting for since I lay me eyes on her at the Community Center that time—and from way back in our past, in high school, this girl I never dreamed could be mine.

My head is saying,this is what it’s like to finally kiss Holly Coleman, while my heart is telling me,she’s the one.

Fighting the powerful urge to deepen our kiss, I pull back from her, searching her eyes to know whether she wants more.

I needn’t have questioned it because the next thing I know she’s sliding her hands up my neck and pulling my head back down, her lips pressed against mine once more, only with more urgency. More want.

I have all the answer I need, and oh, how I need this woman.

Our kiss is everything I had hoped it would be. Her scent, her touch, her taste, hereverythingcalls out to me, making both my heart and my body sing. Her soft lips, the way her fingers toy with the skin of my neck, sending electricity coursing through my veins, it’s all totally incredible, and I want more and more from her, to claim her as mine, and mine alone.

I have kissed other women in my life, I have wanted them before, but that's nothing in comparison with the searing heat Ifeel for this woman in my arms, this woman who has captivated me. We connect as though we were made for one another, and it's nothing short of absolute perfection.

Once we’ve kissed enough to make ourselves breathless, I press my forehead against hers.

“You know, I’ve done a lot in my life, but I’ve never been in love,” I say softly.

“You haven’t?” she asks, her voice breathy and light.

---