Page 34 of Snow Kisses

She wasn’t prepared for the sensations it caused. She drew in a sharp breath and bit her lip to keep from crying out.

Cade lifted his dark head and looked at her, holding her eyes while his hand pressed softly against her. His thumb moved onto the taut peak and teased it. His heart slammed wildly against her with the action, and she could see the desire that was smoldering in his eyes.

“Four years,” he said in a hunted tone. “And I haven’t forgotten a second of it. I remember the way you looked, the way you cried out when I touched you like this.”

“Do you think I don’t remember, too?” she asked under her breath. “I lived on it for years, Cade—” Her voice broke, her mouth trembled as she looked up at him.

“So did I,” he breathed out shakily. He bent again and let his mouth brush warmly against her parted lips. “You were so young. You still are. Years too young, and a world away from me. Abby, are you wearing anything under this?”

She wished she were more sophisticated. She blushed, feeling her body stiffen as he slid his hand under the hem of the shirt and up to find the answer himself. He caught his breath when he touched her, really touched her, and felt the helpless response of her soft, bare flesh.

Her own hands reached up to stroke the tangled mat of hair on his chest. “I used to dream about touching you like this,” she confessed, watching him. “Feeling you…”

“Oh, God!” he ground out, trembling. His free hand cupped her head and held it still while his mouth devoured hers in the static stillness of the room. She felt his other hand moving over her bareness in a long, aching caress that made her arch up and moan with exquisite pleasure.

She protested once, gently, drawing away to breathe.

“Come back here,” he murmured, “I’m not through.”

“I have to breathe,” she whispered as he turned her mouth back to his.

“Breathe me,” he murmured against her soft, eager mouth. His hands smoothed over her back, pushing up the shirt as they swept with warm abrasiveness across her soft skin.

“You told me once that you’d never let another man touch you this way. Did you mean it?” he asked roughly.

“I meant it,” she whispered, her voice trembling. Her fingers were clinging at the nape of his neck, her body arching to give him freer access to it. “I’ve never, ever wanted a man…after you.”

Breathing like a distance runner, he lifted his head and looked down at her where the shirt was pulled up. His eyes darkened with a hunger she could actually see. Against her pale golden flesh, his hands were as dark as leather.

“You can’t imagine how it feels,” she breathed, her eyes loving him.

“Being touched?” he asked, lifting his eyes to watch her rapt face.

She shook her head slowly. “Being with you…likethis. Oh, Cade, I’d be embarrassed with my own sister, but I love it when you look at me…this way.”

His breathing, already ragged, seemed to freeze inside him. His thumbs edged up, dragging softly against the rigid peaks, and she moaned sharply, looking straight into his eyes.

All at once he removed his hands and sat up, his big body shuddering with the force of his heartbeat, his eyes reckless and faintly dangerous.

“That’s enough,” he said roughly.

But it wasn’t for Abby, and without even thinking, she followed him, kneeling just in front of him. She placed her trembling hands on his shoulders and swayed close, brushing her body softly, slowly against his hair-roughened chest, watching her own paleness disappearing into the curling hair with awe.

“Abby,” he whispered shakily. His hands moved to her bare back and brought her slowly against him, prolonging the contact, easing her closer with a rhythm that made her tremble all the way to her toes.

His hands caught her hips and ground them against his, and she cried out as she felt the force of his hunger. Trembling, her arms locked around his neck as they fell sideways on the bed. He was beside her, then they shifted, and she felt his full weight evenly distributed along the length of her aching body. She could feel the abrasiveness of his wiry hair against her bareness where they touched, the scent of the liniment becoming as potent as perfume as they kissed wildly, and she wondered at the depth of her own love for him.

Feeling unusually reckless, she began to move. Her hands slid down his back to the base of his spine, and the mouth crushing hers groaned harshly. Against her body, he was warm and hard and she could feel every steely muscle in him. Even all those years ago, it had never been like this between them. The feel of him drowned her in sensation, in need and half-awakened hunger. She wanted to be closer than this, she wanted all the fabric out of the way, she wanted his eyes and his hands to touch her. She shifted restlessly, hungry as she never had been in her life, needing him…!

She touched him with hands that trembled, delighting in the feel of his smooth back muscles. Her fingers moved around to caress the thick mat of hair over his chest, and hesitantly, softly, traced the arrow of hair that ran below his belt. I love you, she thought silently. I love you….

Cade’s big body contracted as if he’d been shot, and all at once he seemed to come to his senses. He muttered a harsh curse and jerked himself away from Abby, rolling over to lie on his back. His body shuddered with frustrated need; his eyes closed, his jaw tautened. His breath came wildly. Watching him, she felt guilty that she’d let it go so far, because they’d both known all the time that Cade wasn’t going over his own limits. Only she’d forgotten, and he hadn’t.

Fumbling, she pulled down her shirt with shaking hands and sat up. She took a deep breath and threw her legs over the side of the bed. “Excuse me,” she said in a barely audible voice, “I didn’t know where the limits were.”

“Well, you found out, didn’t you?” he shot at her.

She got off the bed and glanced toward him. He was pale, and his face was drawn as he sat up and reached for his shirt.

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