Page 12 of Holding Out For A Holiday Hero

In a flash, Jake shot to his feet. He’d ditched his belt and shoes after shedding his shirt, but he still had on his jeans. He didn’t let go of her wrist. Instead, Jake hauled her closer. “Let’s settle this mystery,” he said against her mouth.

Then he kissed her.

And lost his mind.

Chapter Three

“Who needs mistletoe? I’m kissing her. Right here. Right now.” – Jake Hale

* * *

Jake was kissing her. She was kissing him. And it was the most incredible kiss of her life. Off the charts hot. Body scorching. Lust ignited within True. He’d freed her wrist, and both of her hands flew up to tightly grab his powerful shoulders as she tried to pull him closer to her.

A kiss wasn’t supposed to feel like this, was it? Because if it was…oh, if it was, then she’d been doing it all wrong for years. Because a kiss had never, ever been this explosive. This body-melting. This—this panty-wetting.

She was turned on. Hot and wet for him.

From a kiss.

True jerked her head back. She stared at his shadowy form in shock even as her panting breaths filled the air.

“Was it good for you, too?” he growled.

“That was the best kiss of my life,” she told him honestly, breathless. “Can we do it again?”

He growled once more. Or cursed. Maybe both? Then his mouth was taking hers again with a feverish intensity. As if he wanted to gobble her right up. He stroked and teased with his tongue, and she moaned helplessly even as her body rubbed eagerly against his.

His hands curled around her waist. He lifted her up—like she weighed nothing and that was even hotter because he was so strong—and she gasped against his mouth. He stole her breath. Gave her his.

So sexy.

“Wrap your legs around my waist,” he ordered.

Oh, yes, sure. She could do that. She did do that. And then he started carrying her back through the condo. Back toward—the bedroom? Yes, they were heading toward the bedroom. Things had accelerated from zero to explosion super, super fast. This was way beyond the norm for her.

Was it the norm for him? Was this like a typical Friday night? You kiss a woman, and she goes crazy for you?

Uncertainty blossomed in her even as he lowered her onto the bed. A king-size bed that did, indeed, have black sheets. She’d left the bedside lamp glowing when she finally got the nerve to exit the room and tiptoe into the den for her big confession. Now, she could see Jake and seeing him was…

He looks like a predator. Like he really does want to eat me alive.

He stood beside the bed. His hands were at his sides. His eyes on her. Or, rather, on her legs. The oversized t-shirt she’d taken from his drawer had risen up, and it skimmed the tops of her thighs. His focus was one hundred percent clear.

Did we just go from a kiss to sex? “We haven’t even gone out on a date,” she blurted.

His gaze rose to her face. Lust burned in his stare. “You want me to date you?”

That was the normal order of things, wasn’t it? At least in her world. Her world of limited experience. Was this the part where she should confess to having limited partners? As in, two total? One in college, and then after—the guy she’d gone on to foolishly marry?

“Date you before I fuck you?” A harsh growl from Jake.

She jerked upright into a sitting position and immediately yanked the hem of the shirt down. “It was a kiss!”

He watched her with those blazing, dark eyes of his.

“I don’t…even if it was the best kiss ever, I’m not ready for—” True stopped. She tried to regain control of herself and the situation. “I don’t know what’s happening.”

“I didn’t bring you in here to fuck you.”

---