Page 46 of Christmas with Her Millionaire Boss

“A couple hundred more nights like this.”

Sounded perfect. “You think Santa can fit them all in his sleigh?”

“He’ll have to make them fit, because I won’t settle for anything less. Wouldn’t want to have to give him a bad online review. You know how he is about naughty and nice and all that.”

“Sounds like someone gets silly when they’re tired,” she said, before planting a kiss on his skin. She liked silly. It was a side of him, she imagined, very few people got to see.

James rolled over and surrounded her in his embrace. They lay together like opposing spoons, with her head on his shoulder. “I’m not that tired,” he said.

A yawn belied his words.

“All right, maybe a little. That was...”

“Amazing?” The word washed warm over her, causing her already boneless body to melt a little more.

“Mmm.”

Noelle hadn’t known. Sex with Kevin had been fine—she hadn’t known anything else—but this... Her skin still hummed from being stroked. It was as if in touching her, James marked her inside and out, each caress and kiss seared into her skin like a brand.

The sensations went beyond physical though. She felt she’d woken from a long, unproductive sleep. When James sent her over the edge, he sent her to a place beyond her body. A place so high and bright, she swore she saw white. She’d wanted to float there forever.

And very nearly did.

James’s fingers were tracing patterns along her arm. In her mind, she imagined them painting lines along her skin. To match the other marks he’d made.

“How about we fly to Boston in the morning, and lock ourselves in my apartment?” he suggested. “We can stay in bed until next year.”

“We’d have to move though.” Physical separation didn’t seem possible at the moment. “Wouldn’t it be easier to stay right here?”

“Uh-uh. Boston’s better.” Sleep was turning his voice into a slur.

“Better than New York?”

“Better than anywhere. You’ll see.”

“I wouldn’t say anywhere,” she replied. “Fryberg’s pretty special too, you know.”

A soft snore stopped her from saying anything more.

So much for pillow talk. Shifting onto her elbow, Noelle used her new position to steal an uninterrupted look at the man beside her. Like she had on his first night in Fryberg, she marveled at James’s beauty. The way all his features worked together to create the perfect face. Not perfect as in perfection, but perfect as in captivating. His cheekbones. His lashes. His parted lips. Leave it to him to make snoring seem attractive.

Awake, he looked older. There was a weight of the world behind his hazel eyes. When he slept, that weight faded, and hints of the boy he must have been leaked through. She would have liked to have known James as a boy. She would have told him he wasn’t alone. She would have made him feel like he belonged, same way the Frybergs did her.

The Frybergs.

Her heart started to race. What had she done? She’d slept with another man. No, not slept with, connected with. What happened between her and James went beyond sex. Her entire love life with Kevin paled in comparison.

She felt awful just thinking the words. But they were the truth. She didn’t feel guilty for sleeping with James; if anything, she felt guilty for enjoying the experience. She wanted to curl up in his arms and when James woke up, make love with him again. For crying out loud, she couldn’t even use the word sex, because it was too inadequate a word.

“Damn you,” she whispered. Why couldn’t he remain the annoyingly dislikable boss she’d met on Wednesday morning? Why’d he have to get all romantic and vulnerable? Someone she could fall for?

If she hadn’t fallen for him already.

She sat up, causing James’s arm to slip away. He grumbled softly before rearranging himself, his head coming to rest on her hip while his arm wrapped around her thigh.

Reflexively, her fingers started combing his hair. The bump under his stitches was beginning to recede, she noticed. That was a good sign. She combed around the unruly patch where the hair and stitches met and tried to ignore the way her heart was expanding.

She was falling for him. Hard. And he was falling for her—there was no way that tonight had been one-sided. No, they might be at the very beginning, but the emotions in this bed had the potential to become something very real and special. It was the last thing she’d expected, but there it was.

The air in the room was suddenly getting close. Her lungs wouldn’t fill. She tried breathing in as hard as she could, but it was as if the air wouldn’t flow past her lips.

---