He was about to pull her onto his lap when she moved back, breaking the kiss and pressing her lips together. He studied her, wondering what he’d done wrong—if he’d moved too quickly or if she’d suddenly thought about Jackass.
She glanced out the window. “There’ll be six inches by morning,” she said absently.
He started to laugh. “I’m hoping it won’t take quite that long.”
She stared at him, her cheeks going scarlet as she realized what she’d said. “Oh, God.” She pushed herself off the sofa and walked out of the room, holding her hands to her face.
Noel sighed and put down his drink, following her into the hall. She’d opened the front door, and he stepped outside with her, shivering as the icy air sliced through his shirt. The snow was falling thickly, and the loch was silent, the wildlife buried deep in the woods—Nessie probably hiding deep under the water.
Holly’s face was still red with embarrassment. “Don’t say anything.”
He just chuckled, sliding his hands into his pockets and trying not to shiver.
“Did you bring her here?” Holly asked, still watching the snow.
“Nessie?”
She rolled her eyes. “No. Ella. Did she come here?”
He studied her profile, her neat nose and full, sensual lips, her beautiful, angelic golden curls. “No.”
She nodded. “Noel…”
“Look,” he said. “I’m sorry I kissed you in there. I got caught up in the moment. It was Colin Firth, after all.”
She laughed, folding her arms and scuffing her toe at the snow on the ground.
“I didn’t mean to,” he said honestly. “That’s not why I invited you here, I swear. It’s just…it’s been a magical couple of days, and I’ve really enjoyed your company. But I didn’t mean to take advantage of you.”
She gave him an exasperated look. “Stop being so bloody gentlemanly. You weren’t taking advantage of me. I wanted you to kiss me.”
He raised his eyebrows, genuinely surprised. “You did?”
She lowered her eyes again. “Noel, I didn’t come here for this, either. I’m very aware that this is your private grieving time, and I didn’t want to intrude on it. I know you miss your wife, and I wouldn’t do anything in the world to make you feel guilty for betraying her or her memory.”
Taking a deep breath, she raised her gaze to his. “But…I just wanted to say…I’m here.” She stared at his mouth as she continued huskily, “We’re two grown adults, and it’s Christmas Day, and we’re both single. If you want to…you know…I…” Her gaze came back to his. “I’d like to.”
Their eyes met, locked. There was a moment of silence, the world around them so quiet he could hear the rustle of the snowflakes as they landed on the bushes and the grass.
And then he took her in his arms.
She slid hers around him, raising her lips to his, and he kissed her firmly, passionately, trying to tell her with his body that he wanted her as much as she wanted him. His mouth slanted across hers, and he cupped her head so he could kiss her deeply, plunging his tongue into her warm mouth and shivering as she moaned and pressed herself against him.
He lifted his head and stroked his thumbs across her cheeks, looking into her eyes. “I’m just crazy about you,” he said, hoping she could read in his gaze it was true.
She bit her lip. “I haven’t given you a Christmas present yet, have I?”
He studied her thoughtfully. “No.”
“Or a birthday present.”
His lips started to curve. “True.”
A mischievous light lit her eyes. “You remember those Christmas stockings I told you about?”
“Yes…”
“Well, I’m wearing them.”
His eyebrows rose. “Oh?”
She looked embarrassed. “Not because I was expecting anything to happen. I…I thought it was a shame that nobody would get to see them, so I thought, screw it, I’ll wear them for me.”
“That sounds reasonable,” he said, heart thumping.
Taking his hand, she drew him into the house, closing the door behind them. She rested her hands on her thighs and inched her dress up her legs.
He looked down, expecting her to stop as the hem of the dress reached the top of her stockings. To his surprise, however, she grasped the bottom, and in one smooth movement, lifted it up over her head and dropped it to the ground.
…
Holly watched as Noel’s eyes nearly fell out of his head. She could have been wearing worse underwear, she thought. The white lacy bra and knickers went nicely with the white garter belt clipped to a pair of sheer ivory stockings. The band at the top of the stockings was decorated with tiny holly leaves and red berries.
“Merry Christmas,” she said.
He just stared.
“And happy birthday,” she added, shivering and thinking, Oh my God, I’ve done the wrong thing. He thinks I’m a slut, and he’s going to march me back inside and tell me to pack my bags.
He didn’t, though. He ran his gaze all the way down her and then slowly back up. By the time his eyes met hers, he was smiling. Possibly even smirking. “Are you freezing, or are you just pleased to see me?”
She looked down at her breasts and back up at him, exasperated. “Can we continue this conversation in front of the fire?”
He laughed and put his arms around her, picking her up, and she sighed in relief and wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked through the house into the living room. “I’d take you upstairs, but it’ll be warmer here, in front of the fire.”
“Take me anywhere you want,” she said, breathless. “I don’t care.”
“I meant…oh, never mind.” He closed the living room door behind him. The fire leapt merrily in the grate, and the room glowed with cozy warmth. He carried her over to the sofa, lowered himself carefully onto the middle cushion, and then turned and lay back with her on top of him.
Holly stretched out along him, enjoying the feel of his firm body beneath hers, his hands on her skin. He slid his hand into her hair and pulled her head down so he could kiss her, and her blood fired with desire at the heat of his mouth.
He moved both hands to her shoulders and stroked down her back, and she sighed as he brought them back up to cup her breasts, his palms warm through the lace. “Oh,” she said softly as he brushed her nipples, and he murmured his approval, sliding one hand around to the center of her back to press the clasp of her bra. It came undone in his hand.
He pushed her up so she was sitting astride him and drew the garment down and tossed it on the floor. She smiled, a little shy under his admiring gaze, sighing as he cupped her breasts again. He squeezed her nipples gently, and she moaned and arched her back, filling his hands with her breasts.
That was pretty much the end of any rational thought in either of their heads.
Noel kissed her, the full heat of his desire evident in the way he plunged his tongue into her mouth and held her tightly to him so that she was very aware of the extent of his arousal. He pressed his erection into the soft, swollen part of her, and Holly gasped, pushing her hips down, giving erotic sighs as he covered a nipple with his mouth and teased it with his tongue.
Suddenly he turned her onto her back and pushed himself up, kneeling beside the sofa. She watched, heart pounding, as he carefully unclipped her stockings and peeled them down her legs, unfastened her garter belt, and threw all of it on the rapidly growing pile of discarded clothes. Finally, he eased her lacy knickers down her thighs and calves, and then she was naked beneath him, her pale skin golden in the light of the fire.
He undid the buttons of his shirt and let that slip to the ground too before leaning over her. “God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered, his gaze caressing her face and body.
“So are you.” It was true—his body was muscular and toned, and she ran her fingers up his arms and down his chest in delight, threading her fingers through the scatter of dark hair on his chest, tracing his nipples ligh
tly. “You don’t look like a science teacher.”
He chuckled and kissed her again, then trailed his mouth down her body, planting kisses along her neck, tasting her pulse points, licking and sucking as he went until her breathing grew fast and uneven and the room spun. He reached her stomach and pressed his lips beneath her navel. She closed her eyes as he gently pushed her legs apart and continued exploring her with his mouth.
“Oh, Merry Christmas,” she murmured in a kind of delirium, and he gave a short laugh before sliding his tongue into her.
Holly lay in a state of blissful ecstasy as he aroused her slowly, the fire warming her outside as his tongue sent her internal thermometer soaring. Her long, heartfelt sighs turned gradually into moans as heat built inside her, and when she came, she clenched her fingers in his hair and cried out as the climax swept over her, wave after wave of glorious pleasure.
Afterward, she lay in a daze as he kissed his way up her body, taking time to touch his lips and tongue to her wrists and the insides of her elbows, to suck her fingers and kiss her palms, until even before his lips found hers, she could feel herself growing interested again.
“Wow,” she said as he wrapped her in his arms and nuzzled her ear. “It’s an absolute crime that womankind has been denied that for three years.”
He laughed and kissed her, and then, before she could protest, he lifted her up and sat on the sofa, pulling her astride him again. Somewhere along the way—presumably while she’d been lying there in a sexual haze—he’d divested himself of his trousers, and his eager erection pressed against her warm, wet folds as he kissed her again.
Suddenly, however, he pulled back and looked at her with something like alarm.
She raised her head, worried he’d decided he couldn’t go ahead out of respect for his dead wife or something. Please don’t let it be that. “What?”
“Shit. Sorry, Holly, I didn’t think. I don’t have any protection.”
“Ah.” She studied him, knowing she should be upset, but unable to feel anything but a glow at the knowledge he hadn’t planned this, hadn’t come here intending to seduce her. Everything had happened naturally, organically, and it felt right.
“Do you?” he asked hopefully.
She shook her head, adding, “I had no idea I was going to be this lucky.” He gave a short laugh, but she could see his brain working furiously. “You want me to walk to Fort Augustus? I’m happy to.”
His eyes were bright with amusement. “Hopefully that won’t be necessary.” He lifted her and moved her next to him. “Give me a minute.”
He disappeared out the door and she heard him run up the stairs, taking two at a time. She brought up her knees and hugged them, still trembling at the intensity of her orgasm, crossing her fingers as she willed there to be a pack of condoms somewhere in the bathroom.
Within twenty seconds, he reappeared, holding up a line of foil packets triumphantly. “Ta-da!”
“Thank the gods!”
“Thank Paul,” he said fervently. “Remind me to replace them before we leave.” He tossed the packets onto the table and pulled her to her feet. Lifting her, he wrapped her legs around him before sinking back onto the sofa with her astride him again. “Now, where were we?”
…
Noel was in seventh heaven. Or maybe even eighth or ninth. How many heavens were there? Whatever the number, he was definitely somewhere near the top. Holly kissed him and filled his senses with her fragrance and taste. She smelled of roses and mince pies, and she tasted of chocolate and sweet white wine. Her skin was like satin beneath his fingertips, and her breasts were full and heavy in his hands. Her nipples had softened during his dash to find condoms, so he rolled them between his forefingers and thumbs, enjoying the way she moaned against his mouth as the velvet peaks tightened to firm buds in his hands.
He played with her until her breathing grew irregular and her soft sighs filled the room, and then they made each other laugh by reaching for the foil packets at the same time. He tore one off and extracted the condom, holding his breath as she took it from him and gave him a knowing wink. She rolled it onto him slowly, making him groan, his hands curling into fists as he struggled to control the desire threading through him, strong and neat as the whisky he’d been drinking.
Eventually, she lifted herself up and he felt the tip of his erection press into her. He caught his breath as she lowered herself, and very slowly, he slid into her welcoming body.
His head fell back on the sofa, and he breathed out in a controlled exhalation. He’d forgotten the intensity of this feeling—this wonderful sensation of oneness, of being inside a woman, feeling her close around him, warm and wet and magnificent.
“Noel?” She kissed his eyelids, his cheekbones, his lips. “Are you okay?”
He waited for a sweep of guilt, a twang of remorse that Ella was fading from his mind, but he couldn’t dredge up anything except pleasure and joy at the fact the woman he was loving at that moment was so real in his arms. “I’m sublime,” he said, opening his eyes and staring up at her. She looked wanton and alluring, all ruffled hair and swollen lips, her eyes half-lidded with passion. “God, Holly, you’re so beautiful.”
She smiled and bent her head to let her lips hover over his as, slowly and gently, she rolled her hips to let him slide out, then back in again. “Oh, that feels fantastic,” she sighed.
“Oh, yeah.” He ran his hands over her, enjoying the dampness of her skin in the heat of the room, the softness of her heavenly feminine form.
She continued to move on top of him, tipping back her head and arching her spine, then bending forward to kiss him as she welcomed him deeper and deeper inside her. He began to lose himself in her, all thoughts and emotions melting together as his body took over and desire rose in a great wave to sweep over him. There was no past, no future, nobody else in that room except him and Holly, and he felt a deep, dark craving rise within him for this kind, passionate, sexy woman.
Her breathing quickened and she was moving more purposefully, but it wasn’t hard or fast enough, so he held her tightly by the hips and moved forward onto his knees on the rug in front of the fire, making her gasp. He lowered her onto her back, groaning as she tightened her legs around him. He pushed himself up almost to a kneeling position, leaning over her and sighing as she stretched out beneath him, arms over her head, reveling in the heat of the fire on her skin.
He withdrew, then pushed forward, deep inside her, and she moaned, arching against him and welcoming him in. He thrust more urgently, lifting her hips with one hand to angle himself so he was arousing her as he moved, watching her and enjoying her sighs of pleasure as he thrust hard.
He felt her orgasm begin from miles away, listening to her breathing change, seeing her cheeks flush, feeling her start to grow tighter around him. “Yes, Holly, come for me,” he urged, and she gasped, climaxing hard and fast, squealing with the intensity of it. He glowed inside at the thought that he was the cause of her pleasure.
And then he felt the heat rush over him, and he shuddered and came inside her, groaning as she raked her nails down his back and pushing up hard to encourage him to thrust deeper. His orgasm seemed to go on forever, and by the end, he was sweating and exhausted, shaking, and wrung out.
He rested his forehead on her shoulder as his breathing slowed. He felt her kiss his ear, and her hands stroked his back gently.
When he finally lifted his head, it was to see her green eyes shining with affection, her lips curving as she ran her hand through his hair. “Happy birthday,” she said and giggled.
“Merry Christmas,” he said, and they both started laughing.
She kissed his nose. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He kissed her lips. “You’re amazing.”
She chuckled. “You’re not so bad yourself. You did damn fine considering you haven’t had any for three years. I was half expecting you to only last thirty seconds.”
“It wasn’t easy. I deserve a medal.” He groaned
as she laughed again, and he withdrew from her as gently as he could, rolling over onto his back. He disposed of the condom, then pulled her to him, and she curled up, her head on his shoulder.
“Thank you,” he murmured, feeling the heat of the fire wash over him, sated and content.
“You are very, very welcome.” Her fingers played with the hairs on his chest. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure, sweetheart.” She raised herself up on an elbow and looked down at him. He reached up a hand and brushed a lock of hair from her forehead, returning her hesitant smile. “What?” he asked, sensing that she wanted to ask him something.
“Do you...do you feel okay? I mean, you don’t regret what we just did?”
He laughed. “That would be a resounding no.”
“I’m serious, Noel. Because of Ella, I mean. I know you’ve waited, and I don’t want you to—”
He kissed her to stop her talking. Then he kissed her again, slower, more thoroughly, because it was nice.
“Mm,” she said, pressing her lips together.
“Does that answer your question?”
“Kinda.” She wrinkled her nose at him.
“What’s the time?”
She checked her watch. “Nearly midnight.”
He smiled. “It’s nearly your birthday then.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” She studied him thoughtfully. “Have you got me a present?”
In reply, he ran his fingers lightly down her back and raised an eyebrow.
“Already?” she said, pretending to be shocked.
“Well, come on, it’s been three years. I’m going to make the most of you while I’ve got you.” He held her tightly and tipped her onto her back, making her squeal. “Unless you’d rather watch another movie instead?”
“Oh, no,” she said, threading her fingers through his hair. “I know what I want for my birthday.”
“It won’t be a surprise. You’ve already opened it.”
“You could tie a bow around it for me.”
“Only if you promise to undo it with your teeth.”
Holly’s First Noel Page 6