Page 89 of A Spell for Midwinter's Heart
“Not yet,” she murmured. Unclasping his belt, she pulled off his pants to run her fingers along his ready hips and toyed with the edge of his boxer briefs before dragging them off too and then taking him in hand. She fished the condom from their pile of clothing and slid it down his ready shaft, taking the excuse to toy her fingers over his velvety ridges and bulging veins.
“Careful,” he said, low. Tremors of pleasure passed through his body, and he removed her hand, taking her by the hips and pulling her in close so that they were belly to belly.
Staring into his wanting gaze, Rowan said, “What doyouwant?”
He reached up and pulled her hair off her shoulders so that it fell over his face in a curtain that shut out the rest of the world. His hands grazed her sides before resting on her hips, squeezing. “This. Just you, all to myself.”
With a quick shift of his pelvis, he plunged inside her, and Rowan buckled as she sank all the way to his base. Slick. Ready. Hands gripping the back of the sleigh, her hips fell into sync with his; he bucked, she ground, and the world went hazy at the edges. With every thrust, the sleigh shifted underneath them, scraping back and forth across the concrete of the floor.
This. This. This.Was all she could think. He was an answer to an unasked question. Nothing she’d have let herself hope for, but exactly what she’d craved.
With every arc of the back and tilt of the pelvis, energy pulsed through her, and she couldn’t help but remember the night of their reunion. The first time the magic had forced its way past her defenses, she’d been with him, and then it happened again and again as tightly knotted parts of her came loose in his presence. He unwound her in a way no one else had been able, or even tried, to do.
She buried her face in his neck, huffing his sweet earthy aroma, mouth filled with the brine of his sweat as she tongued and bit. The noise that came out of his mouth at that moment was primal, and then he was lifting them both, so that she came to stand with one leg propped up high on the back of the sleigh as he held her hips fast from behind and drove himself in deeper.
The second her body clamped around him to send her climbing toward climax again, he sensed it and quickened, his thrusts growing hurried.
As they both drew close to the edge, she reached inside to the place where their vital lines had coiled and squeezed—hard—sending a gush of his energy throughout her body and doing the same to him. The results were explosive, and they cried out at the same moment, flushed and writhing and letting everything go.
The power they’d raised released with them, traveling out as a wind that shook loose branches and kicked up whorls of snow from the earth. Every light in the festival grounds brightened in a flash, and the Yule Goat erupted into flames, even though the ritual torches had yet to touch it.
Lights blazed. Bonfire burned. And somewhere in the distance, an old man leaned against a staff wrapped in holly and chuckled. “Nearly time, then.”
His smile melted away, knowing that what must come next was necessary, but pitying the lovers all the same.
33
It was difficult not to fall asleep in the pleasurable haze that followed, but though the sleigh had offered many delightful positions for what theyhadbeen doing, it was not suitable for even the most love-drunk sleep. Gavin was dozing, stretched out across the back seat, arms holding Rowan to his chest.
She’d let him get a little sleep in, simply enjoying the feeling of a bare chest beneath her cheek and the smell of sweat and old velvet. But the more the heat of lovemaking retreated, the colder it grew, and if they both fell asleep, they risked not waking up until someone arrived to put the sleighs to their intended use.
“Gavin,” she whispered, shaking him awake. “Gavin, we can’t sleep here.”
He let out a grumble without opening his eyes, pulling her closer and burrowing down. “Says who.”
She laughed and swatted him. “Says me.”
He sighed, opening his eyes. “Oh…you.”
“Just me.”
“Nojustabout it,” he chided. His hand tangled in the cloud of her hair. “God, you’re beautiful.”
It was a struggle to accept the compliment, to see herself as he saw her, but she pushed back against the instinct to dismiss it with snark.
“Those things you said earlier,” she said. “Did you actually think about me that way back then?”
He studied her. “You really didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“I was head over heels for you.”
Her heartbeat was all the way in her ears. “Really?”
“Yes. Which is why when you appeared in the chaos at the airport the other night, looking like you’d stepped off the pages of a storybook, it was like…” He smiled. “Holiday magic.”
Magic.
