Page 24 of Taylor

“You drive a hard bargain, but cozy clothes it is. But I’m still going to insist that you take some time in your room, so I can set up everything down here.”

“Deal,” she said, reaching up on her toes to kiss him.

He left the kitchen and sat on the couch to pull up the movie.

These couple of days were going to be much better than a trip to Disney.

11

Alice

After she got the lasagna ready, she joined Taylor on the couch to watch their third Christmas carol for the day. Although she didn’t pay too much attention, her mind was on what was going to happen later. A small part of her second-guessed herself, but she was just excited.

Going into a new year and getting her life together as a non-virgin sounded like something she was excited to do. And while this isn’t how she had ever dreamed it would go, it could’ve been a lot worse. A decent, handsome, kind guy. Yeah, a lot worse.

The only thing she was worried about was how easily her feelings spun out of control. She had to find a way to keep those locked down tight. This was just for the couple of days he was here. After this, she would go back to her townhouse in Glendale, find a real job, and maybe, for once, could live the life other people made look so easy.

She just needed to try harder.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Taylor asked from the end of the couch, and he lifted her feet and put them in his lap.

“Nothing, I’m just a little in my head.”

“How long till the food is ready?”

“The lasagna has probably another thirty minutes and then I just have to throw together a salad.”

“Why don’t you go up and relax and let me take care of everything else?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yep,” he said as he set her feet on the floor before standing. He offered her a hand, pulling her from the couch. “Go. Pamper yourself, do whatever you want to do, and I’ll come get you when it’s all ready.”

She allowed him to pull her to stand. She closed her eyes and took a moment. When she opened her eyes, he was there, looking confident and charming, and she just wanted to kiss him... So, she did. Reaching up on her toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her. His arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her in close as he opened for the kiss.

Kissing someone had never felt this easy before. No awkwardness, just contentment. But that contentment was starting to be replaced by lust.

Fuck.

She couldn’t believe she would do this.

Taylor’s hand slid down over her ass, giving it a tiny squeeze, and pulled away.

“We’ll get back to that later. Now, I have some things I’d like to take care of.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“Okay,” she said as slowly made her way to the stairs. Once she was at the first step, she turned to him.

He just smiled at her and pointed to the stairs. She shook her head and made her way up. Once at the landing, she looked down at him, and he was still smiling up at her.

“Keep going,” he said, pointing to the hallway. “I’ll come and get you when everything is ready.”

She went up to her room and shut the door. She let her back fall against the wall, and she squealed and flung herself on the bed. The idea that she was just about to have sex with an NHL player—not only that but lose her virginity to him—was not anything she saw happening. But here it was, and she was ready. Being a twenty-eight-year-old virgin did raise eyebrows in the dating world. Losing it like this was a pretty amazing way to get her new life started.

She lay there in her bed with a grin. Getting up, she went to her drawers to find some cute but also sexy pajamas, then settled on a slinky, soft purple sleep set that saidBite Meon the butt. She could do this. She would put a soft pink cardigan with it and feel sexy and comfortable with whatever was happening.

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