Page 36 of Holly Jolly Heresy
Tomorrow they’d go back to Aster Bay, back to the reality where she couldn’t touch him or kiss him, where she’d have to pretend she didn’t know the heat of his hands on her skin or the weight of him on her tongue. Tomorrow she’d begin the long, painful process of excising him from her heart. But tonight she could lie in his arms and pretend there was a world in which she wouldn’t have to give him up.
He studied her face, and she got the sensation he was seeing every part of her, every forbidden thought and hopeless desire. A grim look of determination settled over his features as he unbuttoned his shirt and stepped out of his pants, leaving him in only his black jersey boxer briefs. He really was far too handsome to be a priest. The muscles of his back and arms rippled as he set his clothes beside her own on the dresser, his glasses neatly on top, and joined her in the bed.
Wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her back against his front, he settled his lips against the crown of her head. But she wanted to see him, to be closer. She turned in his arms until they were chest to chest, pulling him close and tangling their legs together beneath the cool sheets. His breath was warm on her face, his forehead pressed to hers.
“Do we really have to go back?” she groaned.
“Gavin and the guys might send out a search party if we don’t.”
She sighed. “Why are our friends so meddlesome?”
“Because they care.” He kissed her forehead, feather light. The tenderness of the gesture twisted her heart in her chest. “Because they don’t understand why we might wish we could stay.”
She tilted her face up to meet his eyes. “Do you? Wish we could stay?”
He smoothed his hand over the back of her head, fingers trailing through her hair like water. “I would stay here forever with you.”
It was too much, too heavy, the weight of all the things she needed to say, all the things she wanted and could never have. And when he looked at her like that, like he saw galaxies in her eyes, like he would lasso the moon if she just asked him to—she needed to change the subject or she’d spend their last night together sobbing.
“Even with nothing but frozen pizza and bacon to eat?” she asked.
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Even then.”
“Even with just a scraggly Christmas tree and no presents on Christmas morning?”
He pressed his lips against the shell of her ear, his tongue flicking against the lobe. Heat gathered between her thighs. “You are present enough.”
“Yeah?” She shifted closer and he slid his hand over her hip, fingers brushing against the curve of her ass.
“Yeah. Especially in this dress.”
A breathy laugh bubbled past her lips. “Caleb West, do you have a thing for Santa?”
“I have a thing for you.”
His lips were soft and slow as they moved against hers, as though they could do this for the rest of their lives. As though every second that passed wasn’t a second closer to the end. He licked into her mouth, gentle and searching, stealing her breath until she was drunk on him.
“What do you want for Christmas, angel?” he whispered into the darkness of the room, lips moving against her throat.
She exhaled a humorless laugh. “More of this. More time.”
He slid down her body, lips grazing her collar bone, the tops of her breasts. “We have time,” he assured her as he moved lower. His mouth was hot against the velvet covering her belly, the fabric bunching around her hips. “We have so much time.”
They both knew it was a lie, but the lie was so sweet and his mouth moving in its slow trek across her body was so distracting...
He nipped at the sensitive skin on the inside of her thigh. “Relax, angel. Let me take care of you.”
Time liquefied around her, becoming something soft and slippery. Changeable. Slow. The moon reflected off the snow outside and cast the room in a bluish ethereal glow through the window, like they were under water, floating beneath the waves, suspended weightless where nothing could reach them. Nothing but his clever fingers, the glide of his tongue, the rasp of his stubble between her legs, and then that wave crashed over her, stealing her breath and flooding her senses as she dug her hand into his hair and held his mouth against her.
She lay limp and panting on the sheets as he crawled back up her body, a smug, satisfied sort of quirk to his lips glistening in the moonlight. Nestling her head beneath his chin, he gathered her into his arms and fitted her against him like she had always belonged there. “Caleb?” she murmured, sleep already pulling her under.
“Yeah, Molly?” His voice was hoarse, strained.
She yawned and snuggled closer, her lips brushing against his chest as she spoke, hardly getting the words out before she succumbed to sleep. “I'd stay here forever with you too.”
Chapter fourteen
December 24th
