A Blazing Little Christmas

by Jacquie D’Alessandro

  “I don’t think—”

  She turned sharply in his arms, the movement applying exquisite—excruciating—pressure between his legs.

  “Then maybe you need to stop thinking so damn much,” she chided him in a wispy voice that sounded as strangled with want as he felt inside. “There is such a thing as overthinking, Murphy, and the reason we got along so famously five years ago is that neither of us worked so hard at it that we got confused. Some things you need to just let happen.”

  His brain told him she was dead wrong. He’d seen the effects of let it happen mentality play out when his brother had gone into the service a year before him, leaving behind a new bride he didn’t know was pregnant. Jessie had missed the birth of his son and alienated his wife because he’d married a woman he didn’t know very well without taking the time to build a relationship first.

  But Jared stopped listening to his brain when Heather brushed her lips across his, her body splayed against him with total abandon. She was every bit as wild and willing as he remembered, and he was as captivated as ever by that.

  Heat blasted through him as her hips settled against his, her hands fumbling with the zipper on his jacket before she eased it down a few inches, just enough to expose his chest. A growling sigh wrenched up his throat at the feel of her fingers spread across his shirt.

  He unbuttoned her coat, his leather gloves sliding on the fabric as he opened it wider. Just for a minute, he told himself. The lights shut off on the run behind him, signaling the close of the chutes and deepening the privacy of their corner of the frozen lake.

  He cupped a breast in one palm, hating the barriers between them even after he slipped beneath her sweater. Still, her muffled moan into his mouth told him she found the caress of leather pleasurable so he kept the glove in place, fondling the tight peak of her breast.

  “Take me,” she mumbled against his mouth, her hips twitching with new urgency between his legs.

  * * *

  “Here?” He blinked through the fog of lust to gauge their position and saw her white teeth flash a smile.

  “No. Take me home and then take me. Or take me anywhere. Just—” She nipped his lower lip with a damp bite. “Please let’s go somewhere.”

  “Amen.” He gave her nipple one last soft pinch before extracting his hand from her sweater. “I’ve got to turn in the toboggan, but if you wait for me here, the lodge is fairly close on the other side of the lake.”

  “Hurry.” She eased off of him and peered around the ice before pointing to a nearby warming shed. “I’ll wait over there.”

  He was already on his feet, cursing the raging erection that kept him from sprinting back to the sled rental place.

  “I’ll be back in five minutes, no more.”

  “Make it four and we can relive our last outdoor make-out session on the way home.” Her hand drifted down his thigh and squeezed.

  Memories of their walk through the Savannah marshes steamrolled him, flooding his head with images of Heather sinking to her knees…

  “Four,” he promised, heart sledgehammering his chest because he was an idiot to have thought this weekend could have led anywhere else but to bed.

  His feet were moving fast in spite of the heavy desire flooding his veins because he was a man on a mission now. Heather might think they were just reliving the past this weekend, but he knew the outcome was going to be different from anything she expected.

  Chapter 4

  Heather was practically crawling out of her skin and they hadn’t even reached the halfway point on their trek to her cabin.

  Jared had been insistent about no quickies in the woods even though she’d made a couple of attempts to convince him otherwise.

  “Talk about role reversal,” he muttered under his breath as he tugged her up the next hill in the snow.

  “What?” Her brain was so passion-fogged it only seemed to click along at half speed.

  She’d forgotten how he could make parts of her ache with a fierceness close to pain.

  “I remember a time when it was me trying to sweet-talk you into a close encounter in the woods.”

  Trudging through a drift behind him, she had to smile at the memory….

  * * *

  “No one can see you except for me.” Jared’s words wound persuasively around her in the moonlight.

  They’d walked so far away from the outdoor bar that the band’s holiday riffs faded into a dull rumble. The breeze blew in off the marsh, enveloping them in the scents of briny water and mud. She had her back to the marsh, her spine pinned to a wooden railing that ran the length of the boardwalk snaking through the wetlands.

  “You think knowing that I only have an audience of one is going to make me strip naked for you here? Now?” Her heart had developed an all-new rhythm around him, sort of a cardiac hyperspeed. In fact, all of her senses felt elevated to a higher pitch with him nearby.

  “I thought we weren’t going to play games with each other.” His hands curved around her waist, his fingers on one hand brushing under her tank top while his fingers on the other dipped into the waist of her denim miniskirt.

  She didn’t know which felt better, but she knew she wanted more time to figure it out.

  “I’m not playing games.” Her fingers tunneled under the sleeves of his black T-shirt, savoring the rock-hard muscle of him.

  She had to remember to write Uncle Sam a letter to thank him for the superb conditioning that resulted in such a magnificent male specimen.

  “Then why can’t you admit you want to get naked with me as much as I want to start peeling your clothes off?” His penetrating stare made his words a challenge.

  Coming from any other guy, she could have balked at the level of he-man arrogance in that statement. But with Jared, that would have amounted to more game-playing and they’d said they weren’t going that route tonight. Jared traced the hem of her panties around the curve of her hip and her knees buckled.

  “I can admit it, but there’s nothing wrong with me saying I’m not taking off my clothes in a Georgia swamp after midnight with a perfect stranger.” A woman had her standards after all. “Maybe we could see each other tomorrow.”

  She could get naked with him then, after she’d had time to think rationally when she wasn’t under the influence of hormones and peppermint schnapps.

  “We could do that.” His other hand splayed across her spine, covering an incredible amount of terrain. “Although I ship out of Savannah in—” he checked his watch “—twenty-nine hours. And technically it is tomorrow.”

  Her heart stuttered in her chest.

  “That’s not some kind of line, is it?” She hadn’t grown up in a city home to both an Army and an air force base without hearing about that kind of ploy before. His hands stilled on her body.

  “No games. I had a drink with a friend tonight because I’m Afghanistan-bound first thing Sunday morning. I’m looking at a yearlong stint.”

  The news sucked for him more than her, and after only knowing him for all of an hour, it damn well sucked in her book. But then, his intensity, his refusal to play games, his ability to lay all his cards on the table for her tonight made perfect sense. She’d found out earlier that he was a helicopter pilot—a dangerous job in a war zone. No doubt he was living for the moment tonight.

  The silence stretched as she thought about that. About him and the reality of what he’d signed on for.

  And in the space of another heartbeat, she made up her mind. She was already so hot for this man she was about to catch fire. Besides, didn’t she consider herself a patriot?

  Well, cue the “Star Spangled Banner,” because Jared Tyler Murphy was one American soldier who would head off to his overseas assignment with all the fireworks he could handle.

  “Then it looks like you’re coming home with me, Army-man.”

  * * *

  When they reached her cabin, Heather handed Jared the key card, her nerves too jangled to use it. She felt as though she’d rece
ived a shot of that peppermint schnapps from all those years ago, her whole body humming with energy and pulsating sensations. She stepped back and bumped into a reindeer made of willow branches with a wreath around its neck.

  Jared unlocked the door and pulled her inside before sliding the bolt. The sound of the security lock shooting into place had a finality that sent a shiver up her spine while she bent to plug in the lights on a tabletop tree decorated with red bows.

  He turned to look at her, their eyes connecting for an instant before he pulled her into his arms and started pulling off her clothes. Her hat. Mittens. Coat.

  “You’re back.” She smiled to see the laser intensity of his eyes, the heat steaming off of him as he watched her.

  “What?” He didn’t break his stripping stride as he turned his attention to his own clothes. Jacket. Shirt. T-shirt.

  Clearly getting out of the Army hadn’t affected his dedication to his workout routine. Her mouth watered at the sight of sculpted abs and sinewy arms.

  “The look in your eyes that I remembered from five years ago. I wondered earlier where it went, but it seems to have returned.”

  With a vengeance.

  The phrase popped into her head unbidden and she remembered her own plans for a taste of revenge. Right now all she cared about was having a taste of him.

  “I wanted to move slower this weekend.” He unbuttoned her blouse while he looked in her eyes, demonstrating extraordinary deftness with women’s clothes. “I tried.”

  “I would have had to hurt you if you tried any harder.” Her threat didn’t carry much weight considering she melted in his arms.

  “God, I missed you.” He growled the admission into her neck as he lowered his mouth to kiss her there.

  His lips covered a pulse point under her chin and he paused there, circling the throbbing vein with his tongue. She shivered at the heat of it, the tenderness of his words echoing in her ears.

  I missed you. She’d have to be made of stone for those words not to affect her. Wrenching herself away from the kiss, she placed her hands on his chest to hold him back, her pink polished fingernails appearing seriously outmatched by the strength of his pecs. She studied him in the dim light from two miniature lamps on either side of the fireplace. And damn it, she’d bet anything that he wasn’t lying. He had missed her. Thought about her. Felt something for her.

  And didn’t that just shift her whole perspective?

  “Kiss me.” She heard herself say what she’d been thinking, the veil between actions and feelings stripped away along with the blouse he shoved off her shoulders. “Take me.”

  * * *

  Jared knew a green light when he saw it and nothing would be stopping him now.

  His lips found hers. Tasted. Savored and devoured by turns. Her tongue stroked his, her whole body pressed into him. Slipping a hand under her hair, he stroked her nape.

  She made a sighing sound at the back of her throat, her fingers working the

  clasp of his belt. Restless. Hungry.

  “Bed.” He walked her backward toward the hall leading to the bedroom.

  “No. Here.” She tugged the belt free of the loops and started to work on his fly. “We’ve walked far enough tonight, haven’t we?”

  Her scent filled his nostrils, that floral blend from the silky scarf that had carried him through so many hellish nights stationed in a war zone.

  “The lady calls the shots.” He unfastened the pink satin bra she wore while she unzipped his pants.

  “Mmm.” She shoved aside his boxers and wrapped her hand around him. Her cool skin felt so damn good on his hot flesh.

  He cupped her breasts in his hands, her pale skin tinged pink as he bent to lick a path down the valley between them. Her breath caught in her throat and her hand tightened around him.

  The heat scorching through him spiked a few more degrees. He could run for miles without getting winded, but one touch from this woman had his lungs heaving as though he’d been doing sprints for an hour.

  He backed her into the couch, only two steps away so that he honored her preference not to go anywhere. When her calves bumped into the sofa, he tipped her until she fell into the cushions.

  Easing her hand out of his pants, he undressed her as fast as possible. And damn but he hoped he’d have more chances to enjoy the view. Now, he could only follow the dictates of his body that demanded Heather all around him as soon as possible.

  When she was naked, he shoved off his pants, his eyes never leaving her. Her pupils dilated, and a soft moan escaped her lips.

  “For me?” She ran her finger up the vein at the center of his shaft while he looked for a condom in his pants pocket.

  A damn impossible task when his eyes were crossed. Thankfully he could find the thing based on feel. He came up with the packet and slapped it on the sofa beside her.

  But first, he needed one quick taste…

  “Oh!” She cried out when his tongue touched the slick heat of her sex.

  Her fingers threaded through his hair, her whole body arching up off the couch in immediate response. He stroked her with slow swipes of his tongue, listening to the way her breathing shifted into high gear. She covered her mouth with one hand, muffling the soft whimpers of pleasure that hummed from her throat.

  “Please.” She panted as if to catch her breath. “I’m going to lose it in another minute and I want you deep inside me when I do.”

  He stretched over her, retrieving the condom. Heather kissed his neck, his cheek, his shoulder, anywhere she could reach while he opened the packet. She helped him roll it on, her knuckles brushing his abs. His muscles twitched in response.

  He planted one leg between hers, parting her thighs. She whispered his name in a feverish little chant, urging him on when he was already half out of his mind for her.

  He entered her in one deep thrust, and he watched as her eyes lost focus and her head tipped back in total abandon. Giving herself to him completely.

  Her legs wound around him, her heels clamped on the backs of his thighs. She curved her hips into his, meeting his thrusts, her fingers clutching his shoulders.

  His world narrowed until it was filled only with her. Her wants, her sighs, her body clenching his tight. He wrapped her in his arms, wanting her closer, wanting to feel every inch of her pressed into him.

  Her spine arched with his touch and he cradled her thigh with his other hand, holding her steady against the heat, the force that pounded through him.

  And then her whole body stilled. A high note vibrated in her throat, growing louder until an all-out scream wrenched free. She convulsed with her release, her muscles contracting so tight around him he thought he’d pass out from the pleasure.

  Instead he followed her into mind-blowing bliss.

  Chapter 5

  “Tomorrow would have been my wedding day.”

  Jared blinked.

  They’d made love a second time and Heather had given him the best sex of his life so he’d been feeling no pain afterward. Maybe he’d fallen asleep and just dreamed the strange words he’d thought he heard her say.

  “Jared?” she called to him, finally propping herself up on one elbow beside him in bed. They’d made it to the bedroom the second time, but they’d only gotten as far as an overstuffed chair. Afterward, they’d fallen into the bed, exhausted.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you even mildly curious about my wedding date that wasn’t, or should I consider this weekend more of the strictly carnal variety?”

  Crap. She must have been talking about her own wedding during the phone call to her sister—half sister—the day before.

  “No.” He sat up beside her, his head totally clear and ready to hear what she had to say. “I didn’t plan on today unfolding like this. I had every intention of sleeping at my place and—”

  “That’s okay.” Her hair was tousled and sexy as hell. There had to be five shades of brown in there depending on what kind of light she was in. “I wouldn’t
have wanted you to sleep anywhere but right here.”

  The sheet gaped away from her breasts and he knew one little tug of the cotton flannel would expose her completely. But damn it, that was not the direction he wanted his thoughts to take. And hell, had she meant it about a wedding date?

  “You—were getting married?” The news blindsided him even after he’d given it time to sink in.

  “Yes.” She drew her knees up to her chest under the covers.

  He’d started a fire almost an hour ago and the scent of hickory smoke wafted through the cabin along with the fragrance of fresh-cut pine from the garland draped over the wood mantel. The night had been just about perfect until she’d chosen to cut him off at the knees with that news. News which, apparently, he’d have to drag out of her now.

  “When I wrote to you, I asked if you were still unattached.” He planned to handle this one like a homemade explosive device.

  That is to say, he wasn’t touching it until he’d tiptoed around it first.

  “And I wouldn’t have come here if I’d been involved with anyone. Even if you had planned to sleep in your own bed.”

  She shot him a smile and he relaxed. Marginally.

  “So what happened? Did you break things off?” He couldn’t imagine anyone walking away from her—that is, unless the military had tapped him to serve overseas for twelve months at the minimum.

  “I realized I didn’t love him. At least, not the way I was supposed to.”

  Listening to her talk about some other guy didn’t exactly fulfill Jared’s agenda of making this a Christmas to remember. He’d invited her up here to revisit one of the best memories of his life and take away the emptiness of the Christmases ever since they’d met. But color him a sucker for punishment because he had to know more.

  “So who is this guy? Someone you work with?”

  She shook her head. “I met him at a charity golf tournament. He’s a professional golfer. Sort of laid-back.”

  “Sounds too tame for you.” Although, if Jared were honest about it, that’s exactly the type of guy he pictured her taking up with after he left Savannah. Some rich Southern boy who would inherit an old mansion like the one she’d grown up in. Jared had seen her mother’s place on their ride back to Heather’s apartment that night after they’d left the bar.