Page 28 of Must Love Mistletoe

His eyes flashed fire in the light of the rising moon as she arched against him, and he never broke rhythm or even a sweat as passion rose swiftly. Eyes to the sky and her feet off the ground, nothing but Cal to ground her and call her home.

“Are you getting a clearer idea of what I want from you yet?” he asked.

“Getting there.”Very, very quickly!

“Good. Take what you want,” he rumbled. “Go.”

And she flew.

*

Returning to earthtook longer than the journey into the heavens, but inevitably Beth had to come down. Reality crept in with every gasping breath of icy winter air, even if another slow, searching kiss slowed her descent.

Kissing was good. Kissing meant she didn’t have to talk or try to explain her abandoned reaction to what had been barely more than a kiss.

What would she be like if she ever got him naked?

“Gotcha,” he murmured, and he didn’t sound smug, exactly, although he had every right to be. He did, however, sound deeply, unrepentantly satisfied.

She could quite happily spend a lifetime trying to spot the difference. “You dark horse.”

“Mostly, I get likened to an ox.”

“Their loss,” she told him airily. “You’re the best kept secret in the valley. In the county. Possibly the entire Northwest.”

“You just want me to do that again.”

He wasn’t wrong. “You’re also very bright,” she said as he began to laugh, a deliciously low rumble that warmed the night.

“I want to surprise you. Court you,” he murmured. “Do whatever it takes to make you bloom and grow. And I want to go slow, and savor every step of the way, because that’s how I roll. Are you in or out?”

“In. Definitely in.”

He lifted her off the railing and she twined around him like a limpet as he carried her back to his deck chair and settled into it, deftly rearranging her with her back to his chest and her legsrested on top of his as he stretched out with his boots atop the big round table.

She fussed with her arms and his, doing her own bit of rearranging, and then they were settled and she heaved a satisfied sigh beneath this starry, starry night. “Can I court you, too?”

“Will there be paint-and-sip nights involved? Because that’d require extreme sacrifice on my part. I like home-baked surprises, though.”

“What about skinny dipping in the secret hot springs?”

“There are no secret skinny dipping hot springs in this valley. I would know.”

“What if I said I knew a place in Paradise Valley, on private land, and I know the owner?”

He reached for a strand of her fine, straight hair. “I’m willing to be led. On occasion. If the time is right and the reward plentiful.”

She closed her eyes and let the steady rise and fall of his chest relax her. “Do you think it might be wise to lay off the kissing and cuddling in public until I get my, ah, enthusiasm for it under control?” Even slightly under control would be a stretch but she was sure that with time and familiarity it could be done.

“I won’t keep my interest in you secret now that I’ve declared it. That’s not my way.”

She threaded her fingers through his. Everything about him was big including his hands, and the stretch for her fingers was substantial. “That’s not what I’m asking. You’re physically—”

“Overwhelming?”

“I was going to say irresistible.” She turned in his arms to better see him, but she could only see the harsh planes of the side of his face. “Do you really see yourself as an overwhelming ox?” Because if he did… “You really need to work on your self-image.”

He smiled and stared at the stars. “Dark horse, you said. A stallion. Obviously.”

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