Page 73 of Christmas in Coconut Creek

I furrowed my eyebrows. “Stop cleaning, I’ll take care of it later.”

“I don’t mind,” she stammered, standing and gathering the glasses. “Are you still hungry? I could make you something.”

“What’s going on with you?” I grinned. “I don’t want anything, except for you to sit back down and tell me how you got so good at cheating at board games.”

Her lips twitched into a smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“For some reason I don’t think the word ‘moulage’ is one you use too often.”

“Psh.” She snorted. “I’m just…extremely well read.”

“And versed in military jargon.”

“Exactly.” She said, still attempting to fit as many things into her hands off the table as possible.

Her avoidance was adorable. Being alone together had its insinuations. After all, we'd decided to have sex days ago and had yet to cross that threshold—but there was no expectation, like she probably thought there was. I was still reeling over the fact that she wanted me in that way in the first place.

I reached out and wrapped my forearm around her waist, pulling her directly down into my lap. Her soft gasp did all it needed to wake that lust back up again. I carefully settled everything back down in front of us.

“You’re just as stubborn and competitive as I am,” I teased.

“I’ve been competing for my family’s attention for almost two decades now, so I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”

Her words were lighthearted, but her expression didn’t match. There was so much more going on in that pretty little head than she let on.

But she was starting to let me see through the cracks, though. In the same way that I was saying things I hadn’t even said out loud to myself in years.

“Come here.” I twisted her in my lap until I was being straddled. Her hands went to my chest and those eyes lingered at my mouth before finding glossy focus. I could read her mind in that moment; we were speaking our own language. So I tucked her hair behind both ears and pulled her lips to mine.

Immediately, Ophelia’s eyes fluttered closed and her fingers swept through my hair, holding on like an anchor. She kissed megood. With a more confident determination than she ever had before. Her mouth set the pace, gliding over mine, teeth sinking into my lip every so often as our breaths mingled. She tasted like honeyed white wine andcandy. Like I’d never get her sweetness off my tongue.

My hands explored her chest, down her ribs, settling in the perfect dips at her hips, and rocked her gently. Even that slow, barely-there movement made my breath catch in my throat. The accompanying grunt got her attention.

“You didn’t kiss me the other day,” she mumbled, moving herself back and forth against me without my timid guidance. “On our date.”

I slowed her down, sliding my hands underneath her button-up pajama shirt and squeezing gently. She needed to take it easy on me. “I’m kissing you now.”

“Were you trying to be a gentleman?”

My touch traveled upward, taking an aggressive handful of her breast over her bra. I didn’t want to feel fucking lace, I wanted to feel skin, so I pulled the fabric down and pinched her tightened nipple between two fingers. “No.”

Her back arched.

“Do you not like to kiss women after you come in their mouths?”

My God.

I laughed, my head tilting to rest on the back of the couch and exposing my neck that she then leaned down and started sucking on. Everything in my body was rigid and buzzing, getting needier by the second. “Are you a little tipsy, Trouble?”

She bit my pulse and then my jaw. “Answer my question.”

“We can answer it together later.”

Her lips crashed back into mine and the thin soft cotton between her legs started rolling against me again. It felt incredible, but all I could think about was getting her naked, splayed out on my sheets for a whole night, and making her come so many times she lost count.

Grabbing her hair in a ponytail in my fist, I jerked her head back and kissed a line from her chin to her ear. “Do you want more than this?”

My grip was tight, but she nodded against it.

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