Page 29 of Merry Little Midlife Matchmaker

My cheeks flamed as I lifted my hips as far as they’d go, the evergreen tree brushing against my ass. “Sorry,” I rasped as I stared at her ear.

“It’s not… I’m…” She stopped talking and ceased that incessant wiggling.

I cleared my throat. “I’m, um. Yeah. Sorry.” I forced myself to look at her face.

She blinked at me once. Twice. Three times. Those soft lips parted on an inhale, and she dipped her chin. “It happens,” she said, but her voice trembled the tiniest bit.

I huffed a laugh. “Twenty-five years ago, maybe.”

“Right,” came her whisper.

We lay like that without moving for a few long moments. She didn’t move toward me—but she didn’t tell me to get off. Her eyes were wide and dark, and I lost myself in them. After a second, I lowered my hips back down and was rewarded with the feel of her trembling breath skating across my cheek.

She made the smallest movement with her hips. It was barely a twitch, could hardly qualify as a movement at all, but it sent fire racing up my spine as if she’d reached between us and grabbed my cock with her dainty, red-painted fingers.

I pressed myself into her and reveled in her trembling gasp. Her hips made another twitch, this one longer, slower. She rubbed herself against me, slowly, almost tentatively, and all I could do was respond in kind. We moved in millimeters. We breathed in silent exhalations. The heat of her blazed against me through our clothing, and all I wanted to know was how it would feel to plunge myself inside her.

Unable to resist, I ground myself against her fully. Her thighs pressed against the outside of my hips, pinning me there, and it was nearly enough to send me over the edge. I wanted her so much my vision was fuzzy around the edges. I didn’t care aboutthe tree, or the decorations, or the fact that we were on my living room floor.

If she gave me the slightest sign, I’d have her naked and spread beneath me in an instant.

“Lizzie…” I grated—then froze when I heard a car engine outside.

Lizzie jerked under me, inhaled sharply, then shoved at my shoulders to get me off. The tree went tumbling beside us as I rolled off her, and she shimmied her way across the floor so she could stand, her chest heaving with every breath, her eyes wide as she met my gaze.

Then the front door opened, and Mikey called out, “Da-ad! I’m home!”

THIRTEEN

LIZZIE

Ten seconds ago,there’d been a boner pressed up against my crotch. Ten seconds ago, I’d been imagining how good it would feel to have said boner all up inside me. My mind had conjured up all the images I’d told myself were a bad idea, the ones that had made me shiver with pleasure with my hand between my thighs.

Now there was an eleven-year-old kid stomping his way into the living room, sheer joy painted on his features, and I was trying to come to grips with whatever the hell was going on in my body.

I knew I was attracted to Sean; after all, I had a pulse.

But I hadn’t known thatSeanwas attracted tome.

I took a deep, gasping breath and painted a smile on my face. My mother poked her head into the living room, saw me, and smiled. “Oh! You’re here.”

“We just got back.” I gestured to the tree and avoided looking at the man currently ruffling his son’s hair. “Sean picked a tree.”

Simple, obvious sentences were good when most of my body was busy frantically trying to slow down my pulse.

“How wonderful,” Mom said. “Why is it on the ground?”

I cleared my throat and dragged my gaze to the tree, then to Sean. He reached down, picked it up, and straightened it as much as he could, but the whole trunk listed dangerously to the side.

“I’ll hold it,” I told him. “You do the tree stand.”

There was a tiny twitch of his eyebrow, but Sean nodded and got on his knees. I glanced down at him and away.

“It’samazing,” Mikey exclaimed, fingers stroking the evergreen needles with awed reverence. He looked at me with wide eyes. “Can Zach and Hazel help us decorate it?”

“They’re in the car,” my mother explained. “We stopped by here on the way to your place.”

I nodded, then dragged my gaze down to Sean. Sprawled on the floor at my feet, he looked completely unruffled. No hint of blush on his cheeks. No pulse thudding in his neck. He shrugged at me and said, “Sounds fun to me.”

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