Page 442 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Are you happy right now?” she asked.
“Yes.” I moved closer to her. “Are you?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
Her knees touched mine under the water. The temperature felt like it shot up ten degrees as I moved in even closer, and she let her legs open for me to fit between them.
“Chadwick,” she breathed, “I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
“Then ask me to stop.”
Her eyes flicked back and forth between mine, but her lips didn’t move, so I moved closer still until there was hardly any water between us. I reached a hand up, cupped her cheek, and drew her to me. Tinsely closed her eyes the way she did when she was enjoying something and let me kiss her.
She tasted like wine. Her lips were soft and wet, and the tip of her nose was cold as it grazed my cheek. I was surprised when she draped her arms over my shoulders and sank her fingers into my hair at the nape of my neck. Her touch was infectious and intoxicating, and I wrapped my arms around her, pulled her from her seat, and held her against me as the water bubbled around us.
The kiss deepened. Her tongue pressed between my lips. She explored me with curiosity I didn’t expect, and when I ran a hand down her back, ran my fingers over the dimples I’d coveted fifteen minutes earlier, and went lower still, she didn’t stop me. I squeezed her ass. She smiled against my lips.
I let my fingers linger under her ass, grazing her inner thigh right where her underwear rested. Gently, tentatively, I nudged it aside.
Her tongue plunged more desperately into my mouth, and she clung to me more fiercely.
I swept two fingers over her pussy. Tinsely let out a soft sigh and her fingers knotted in my hair. Picking up on all her cues, including how hard her nipples had become in her bra against my chest, I eased a finger inside her.
She gasped and her eyes fluttered open. “Wait.”
I froze.
“We shouldn’t do this.” All at once she pulled away and left me aching for her. “I’m sorry, Chadwick. I… I think I’m going to turn in for the night. You’re my boss,” she added, but it sounded like she was talking to herself more than she was talking to me. She nodded firmly and said it again. “You’re my boss.”
CHAPTER 15
TINSELY
I woke to the heavy silence of a snowy morning. At first, I didn’t know where I was as I rolled around in soft flannel sheets under a fluffy white duvet. I opened my eyes and tried to peer around the room, but it was still terribly dark and quiet. I wondered if it was still the middle of the night, so I blinked around in search of an alarm clock. There wasn’t one, and I fumbled around in the dark for my phone on the nightstand.
The screen nearly blinded me. I winced, panicked to turn the screen brightness down, and realized it was almost nine thirty in the morning.
I rubbed at my eyes.
Nine thirty? I never slept in that late.
In fact, I had a track record of never being able to sleep far past six o’clock, even on weekends. I didn’t really mind. That still, peaceful, solitary time in the mornings before the rest of New York was truly awake had always felt precious and underrated to me. Perhaps the scare of the car crash and my spiked adrenaline had made me more exhausted than I realized.
I rolled onto my back and brought my phone with me as I contemplated the events of last night. I attempted to use my phone as a distraction from my own thoughts, but I caught a whiff of chlorine on my skin and was brought right back to that moment in the hot tub when Chadwick pulled me into his lap and kissed me.
It wasn’t just a little flirty kiss. Oh no. It had been the sort of kiss a girl writes in her diary about. The sort of kiss she never forgets and compares to all other kisses that come after it. It was a lip-tingling, heart-racing, blood-rushing kiss, and I’d gotten so carried away by the taste of him and the way he handled me that I’d let things get a little too far.
He touched me.
I bit down on my bottom lip as I remembered his fingers teasing me. The same breathless feeling I’d had last night came back to me and I squirmed in the bed, trying to banish my arousal.
Nothing worked.
Well, nothing worked until I remembered it was Tuesday, and I was supposed to be at work half an hour ago.
“Oh crap,” I hissed, throwing the blankets off and grumbling at the cool air in the guest room. I searched blindly for the light switch, which I found near the door only after I bashed my shin on the bed frame. Whimpering and rubbing at my shin, I hurried to change back into what I’d worn last night. Then I half-heartedly made the bed and called Aleena to tell her I was on my way.
She answered on the third ring. “Morning,” she said in a cheerfully sing-song voice. In the background, Justin Bieber sang a Christmas tune. I heard paper rustling. “What are you up to this morning? Can you believe this storm?”
