Christmas at Cade Ranch by Karen Rock

Author:Karen Rock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

“YOU DO?”

James turned and his other hand enfolded hers so that they faced one another in the soft blink of Christmas lights. The iPod shuffled to “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and she shivered. Not from the waterfall of white still flowing from the black sky outside, but from the storm within. It felt like someone released a million butterflies inside her heart.

“I do,” he rasped. His brown eyes searched hers and she swayed toward him.

He smelled of fresh mountain air, pine and streams, snow-covered valleys and blue-sky horizons. Of the infiniteness of space and possibilities existing in this rugged outback, where the biggest discovery tonight was within herself...and now this. Them. An incredible joyful sense of being, of unity, that only existed when they occupied the same space. Breathed the same air. Shared the same thoughts.

What was he thinking?

“I should go back to bed,” she whispered. Her stomach jumped when his thumbs skimmed over the sensitive flesh of her palms.

“Don’t,” he murmured, his voice tattered at the edges, the controlled, clipped tone gone. “Stay.” He released her hand and slid his fingers through her hair. “Stay with me.”

“I—I—” She struggled to regain her voice but it disintegrated, disappearing under the onslaught of sensations bombarding her. James stroked a finger down her cheek. “Yes.” She sighed, melting inside. “I’ll stay.”

He encircled her waist and her head tipped back. He brought his lips close and the warm, sweet curls of his breath brushed against her skin. “You’re beautiful.”

“No.” She pressed her eyes closed.

“Yes,” he insisted and then a strange thing happened. Instead of kissing her, he guided her down next to him on the couch. Lifting her hand, he brushed her fingertips with his lips in a delicious caress that traveled in an electric rush to her toes. Then his mouth trailed to the inside of her wrist and lingered at the vulnerable spot, making the flesh over her bones shake.

“You smell good,” he murmured against her skin.

“So do you,” she gasped.

As he kissed his way up her forearm, her breath grew labored, the air impossible for her lungs to hold, as she responded to his gentle onslaught. When his mouth stopped on her track marks, she stiffened against him, hating the reminder of who she’d once been. Not the kind of woman who should be with a man like James. An upstanding man who’d never made any real mistakes in life, not like her, not like she still could...

“These are beautiful,” he whispered against her scarred skin before kissing there. His lips paid homage to every ridge as though they were precious to him and her heart clenched along with the rest of her, in an agony of want and of wishing for what could never be.

“James,” she protested. She lifted her lids and glimpsed the top of his dark head bent over her. He rolled his eyes up without lifting his face and the disoriented heat in them made her unravel, too. This undone James was ten times harder to resist than his usual controlled self.

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