Page 119 of Christmas in Coconut Creek

“What do you mean?” Mateo followed her tail. “We’re just getting started.”

“Youare just getting started.” She turned and tapped his nose. “Enjoy your night with your friends, and remember being hungover is absolutely no fun when you have to drive the next day so tread carefully.”

I tried to stand from the sofa and strong, possessive hands threaded together over my middle and tugged me back down.

“I don’t remember agreeing to this,” Frankie objected. His lips grazed the shell of my ear and a whole string of explicit words and images shuffled through my mind.

“You’ll survive,” I assured him, doing everything in my power to inch off his lap, when all I wanted to do was stay glued to it.

I meandered into the kitchen, clearing empty beers and dented metal caps off the island, sweeping a dust of chip crumbs into the pull-out disposal, then turning to help Nat load the dishwasher with oily plates from the pizza. Nat was right—the men deserved at least a little bit of time to themselves after a few years apart.

It was a great idea actually, forcing Frankie and I to separate after several days being attached at the…well, being attached in several places. We needed to get used to sleeping alone again, to not having a person to share body heat, or waking up in the middle of the night with wandering touches.Ineeded that, because I was having an admittedly hard time coming to terms with giving all those aspects of this arrangement up in three days.

Cold sheets? Faulty staffroom Keurig coffee instead of that beautiful hot cup sitting on the bedside table for me when I woke up? God, it was horrible, and the bandage had to be ripped off.

“Stop cleaning my kitchen. You know I hate it.” Frankie pulled a pint glass out of my hand and placed it back down, then caged me into the counter. “Can we talk about this?”

His doe-brown eyes and pouty lip nearly had me, but the more plausible, sensible side of my brain knew that letting him have his way would only prolong the inevitable and that wasn’t good for either of us. I ducked my head and escaped underneath his outstretched arm, backing out of the kitchen and toward the front of the house.

“See you guys tomorrow!” I shouted to the Swans. It was returned with a grumble of goodbyes I couldn’t decipher as one or the other.

“Ophelia,” Frankie complained, following me. He reached out and tugged the back of my shirt, keeping me from walking away. My back met a hard chest and then the wall as I was spun into the shade of the foyer away from everyone’s eyes but his. “I don’t want you to leave.”

The light from the moon shone through the windows and illuminated half of his face, inches from mine. “I’ll see you in twelve hours.”

“Too many.” He shook his head.

“You’re ridiculous.” My palm connected with his chest and was met with solid resistance.

“Do I have to get on my knees? Is that what’ll do it for you?”

“I do love you on your knees,” I placated him, running my fingers from his chest to his jaw, entwining them into his hair. “But no.”

“If I don’t get to fuck you tonight, I’ll lose my mind.”

“You won’t, I promise.”

“I’ve been thinking about it all damn day, O. Please, baby, put me out of my misery.”

His begging was playful, but the words hit in a way that was anything but. “Stop it.”

Our breathing mingled, the sweet bitterness of his beer dancing across my senses. My tongue ached to slip out and taste it. We were basically there—my top lip feathered across his, our noses brushed. A familiar heat stirred to life between my legs and as if he could sense it, Frankie flattened me to the wall with his entire body, his thigh slipping into the gap I’d left in mine.

“Don’t do this,” I murmured lazily. All the while my grip in his hair tightened and a slow circle of my hips began on its own accord.

“Do what?” I heard his smile.

“Try to get me all riled up when youknowI’m leaving.”

Our mouths swept against one another again, this time slower, leaving the sensitive flesh tingling for more. Frankie’s hand came down on the bone of my hip, riding it like a wave, guiding me back and forth more intentionally against him.

“You’re doing everything all on your own, Trouble.”

I opened my mouth to challenge him as plush lips sank down and claimed mine, rendering me speechless in one searing, hungry kiss that felt like a day's worth of contention let out like a pinhole in a balloon.

My eyelids drooped closed for a moment, but then snapped open resiliently. I wasn’t so easy to persuade, no matter how gorgeous and doting the man doing the persuasion was. But, fuck, I sucked at this. One off-guard moment nearly had me skipping down the hallway to his bed.

I put all my strength into my closed fists and pushed him away, catching Frankie in an instance of weakness himself. He reared back, surprise coloring his face as I weaseled my way to the open front door before he could gain his bearings and find a way to pull me right back in.

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