Page 66 of Mine For The Winter

He’d been a kid when he’d walked away from her. Now he was a man. He wanted to make her tighten around him, make her groan his name. Wanted to see her skin flush and her body soften and her jaw slacken with the kind of pleasure he knew he could give her.

You’re not here for that.

He blinked the voice away. Damn it, he was. He was here for this. Whatever this was.

He’d walked away once. He wasn’t going to do it again.

Kelly rolled forward on the balls of her feet – he knew that because she’d never be tall enough to rest her face in the crook between his shoulder and neck otherwise. He felt her breath against his throat, then her lips.

He was as hard as a rock already.

“Kel…” His voice rumbled against her mouth. “Are you sure?”

She kissed him again, sucking his skin in.

“Because if you’re not, you need to step away. Or I do.”

She kissed his jaw, her tongue trailing along the shadow of his evening beard growth.

“Kel…” His voice was strangled. His restraint hanging on by a string. “Please…”

“I’m sure.”

It was like a switch being flicked. He released his hold on her hand and slid his palms down her back, cupping her behind and hitching her against him. She wrapped her thighs around his waist, her body fitting against his perfectly, and he carried her over to the bed in the corner, sitting down so she was straddling his thighs.

Brushing her hair back from her face he could feel the heat of her cheeks. Before he could ask her – again – if she was okay, she smiled and damn if it didn’t make him want her more.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Because I can read you like a book. You’re wondering if I’m still feeling sick.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Are you?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I wasn’t sick, I was just…” She kissed the corner of his lip and he grabbed her head, centering their mouths to kiss her hard.

“Just what?” he asked when he released her.

Kelly blinked as though dazed. “Just messed up thinking about you.”

“And yet here you are. Getting messed up some more.”

Her eyes crinkled. “Maybe I like getting messed up,” she said. He needed to kiss her again. This time he was soft, teasing, his tongue sliding against hers. She let out a little gasp and he pulled her down hard on his lap.

Letting her know exactly what their kissing was doing to him.

“Mess me up some more,” she whispered against his mouth.

“I intend to.”

The chemistry had always been there. They’d called it a friendship once. But now it was different. Mature. Aching. He lifted her again, put her on her back on his bed, climbed over her, and smiled because this woman was everything.

“Are you going to undress me?” she asked.

Yeah, she wasn’t sick. Not with an illness anyway. She was comfortable. Teasing. His Kelly.

No, not his. And definitely not Lyle’s. She owned herself. That’s what he’d always admired about her.

His eyes scanned her face then her body. She was wearing the same clothes she was earlier, but somehow they seemed more figure hugging. Maybe he’d been too busy looking at her face to notice before.

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