She leaned in and put her mouth gently on the base of his throat. Then she slid her lips up the side of his neck, where she paused to bite his earlobe. He shivered.
“You’re killing me, Red,” he said.
She laughed. It felt wonderfully empowering to make this man respond to her touch. That was as far as she got before he tugged off her tank top, leaving her in nothing but her bra and pants. He whistled low when he took in the sight of her and Savy had to force herself to keep her hands to her sides and not cover up. He hadn’t and she wouldn’t, either.
His calloused hands ran up her sides, pausing to cup her breasts. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”
Savy smiled. She knew exactly what she looked like and beautiful was not it. It wasn’t that she thought she was hideous. Quite the contrary. She knew she was striking with her height and hair, but her features were plain and her overabundance of freckles kept her from ever being what anyone would consider beautiful. Except this guy, apparently.
His fingers traced patterns with her freckles along her arms and across her chest. “I feel as if you are this gorgeous woman that someone has dipped in cinnamon sugar just for me.” He kissed her shoulder. “You’re definitely as spicy as cinnamon and as sweet as sugar.”
Savy snorted. “I am not sweet.”
He raised his eyebrows as if he heard a challenge. “I’ll bet you are.”
Then he gave her a wicked look and lowered his mouth to hers, kissed her deeply, before moving his lips to her jaw and along her throat. He nuzzled the curve between her shoulder and her neck and then he slowly kissed his way down her body until he sank to his knees in front of her. His mouth moved across her belly, pausing at the place her pants began. Before Savy could register his movements, he had her shoes off and her pants followed, leaving her in just her underwear.
Praise all the gods in the heavens, she had chosen to wear a cute little matching set of pale purple underwear. Not that it mattered because she felt his hands slide up her back and he had her bra unclasped in a matter of seconds. One finger hooked into her bottoms and he pulled them down with a gentle tug. Savy was naked. It was thrilling and terrifying and she braced herself with her hands on his shoulders as he freed her feet. Then he sat back on his heels and took her in.
A slow smile curved his lips and he said, “Definitely the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Then he pressed his mouth right above the vee between her legs and Savy felt as if she’d been waiting her entire life to feel the white-hot surge of desire that flooded her. When he lifted one leg and put it over his shoulder, she had nothing to grasp and feared she’d fall. She threaded her fingers through his hair and held on. When he kissed her low and deep, she was certain she could hear color and see sound, so deliciously talented was the man kneeling before her.
He was insistent and his mouth and tongue were relentless as he drove her deeper and deeper into a state of bliss that made her insides spasm with an early warning sign of what was to come. Her head fell back. She was close. So close.
He moved his mouth to her hip and then up her side. Savy wanted to protest but she knew exactly what he was doing. He was going to draw this out until they were both at the point of desperation so that when they did finally reach release it was going to be excruciatingly exquisite. Fine. Two could play that game.
When he would have pulled her in for round two, she stepped away. She slid backward up onto her bed and crooked her finger at him, signaling for him to join her. He rose to standing. He reached for her but she slipped out of reach.
“Lose the clothes first,” she said.
The look he gave her smoldered, but he did as he was told. He sat on the edge of the bed and ditched his shoes. He was just unfastening his jeans when she pressed against him from behind and he hissed at the contact. Savy whispered in his ear, “It’s my turn.”
She felt great satisfaction when she saw the hair on his arms rise. She pushed him to standing and then she stood behind him and reached around to unfasten his pants and push them and his boxers down his muscle-hardened thighs. Have mercy. He stepped out of the puddle of clothes and turned to face her. Well, hello.
Savy took in the sight of his cock, which like the rest of him was large and hard. She reached out a hand to touch him but he caught her fingers in his and pushed her back on the bed instead.
“Not sure I’m going to have much staying power if we start with a handshake,” he said. “I’ve wanted you for too long.”
Well, if that didn’t go to a girl’s head, Savy didn’t know what would. The idea that this dark-haired, dark-eyed god of a man had wanted her for months made her tremble. She reclined on the bed and opened her arms. Quino slid in beside her so that they were facing each other.
“I want you, too,” she said. Maybe his honesty was contagious but she felt as if she owed him the truth. “I have for quite a while now. Make love to me, Quino.”
It was like she’d flipped a switch. An intense look passed over his face and he began to kiss and caress every part of her. It was exactly as he’d described before. He was attempting to taste every inch of her. It was wild and erotic and when his mouth moved from her ankle, up her leg, planting a soft kiss behind her knee, before moving along her inner thigh, Savy thought she might actually combust from the heat throbbing inside of her.
She tried to touch him, but he stayed just out of reach. She tried to kiss him but his mouth was too busy making a mockery of any sanity she had once possessed. She was utterly at his mercy, and when she started to feel as if she might actually die if he didn’t join her, she wrenched herself out from under him and reached for the drawer of her nightstand, grabbing a condom out of it and flipping back around to find him watching her with one eyebrow raised.
“What if I wasn’t done there?” he asked.
“You’re done,” she said. She tore the foil with her teeth and spat the piece across the bed. He looked duly impressed. She ripped open the packaging and in one deft motion slid the condom onto him, marveling at the heat and strength beneath her fingers.
“Red, I don’t think—” he began but she interrupted.
“By all that’s holy, do not think right now,” she said.
Then she clambered up onto her knees and gave him a hearty shove, sending him sprawling. Before he could redirect her, she was straddling him. He opened his mouth but she put her lips over his, stopping whatever he was about to say, and she slid onto him in one clenching tight thrust that felt like the greatest thing Savy had ever felt in her life. She pushed off his chest and arched her back, trying to pull him in as deeply as she could.
She didn’t move. She just let him fill her and stretch her and make the desperate aching go away. It didn’t, but having him inside of her helped. When she lifted her head and looked at him, he was staring at her as if she had just fulfilled every sexual fantasy he had ever had in his life. And then while his gaze held hers captive, he bucked underneath her, pushing himself up deeper inside of her, and Savannah lost it completely. One thrust and she came apart around him, clenching him so tight as she spasmed that she was afraid she’d hurt him.
Lost in throes of bliss, she couldn’t do a thing about it, except say his name over and over, “Quino, Quino, oh, my God, Quino.”
When the orgasm finally stopped and she could draw in a breath, she blinked her eyes open and found him staring at her in complete wonder. Then he rolled and she was under him. He thrust once, twice, three times and then clutched her close as he found his own release, with a deep grunt of satisfaction, within her. She felt his orgasm and it sent aftershocks of her own pleasure ricocheting within her.
When the sweet storm passed, Quino rolled to his side, pulling her with him, and they stayed that way, joined, while their heartbeats slowed and their skin cooled. Savy knew it was ridiculous but a part of her wished she could stay joined to him in this after
glow forever. It was the first time she could ever remember not feeling lonely and it was lovely.
* * *
* * *
QUINO felt her soft red curls under his chin. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to tell her that he loved her. That she was it for him and there would never be another like her. He did none of those things. Instead, he held her close and savored the feeling of being with her, of having her in his arms at last.
Making love to Savannah had been more life-altering than he had imagined and he had imagined it pretty much daily from the first time he’d laid eyes upon her. She was a goddess. She was his soul mate. He knew it. He just didn’t know how to get her to believe it.
He ran his fingers up and down the curve of her back. He had tonight. He wouldn’t fret about tomorrow. When he’d spied her across the park earlier, he’d been fighting off the blues. As he watched her, he’d sensed Savy was suffering the same sort of loneliness he was. She’d had the slumped shoulders and shuffling walk of a person who wondered if they even mattered, and he’d felt a connection so deep in his soul, that he’d rented the skates and hoped for the best. He’d never expected it to turn out like this. He had no idea what tomorrow would bring, so he decided to turn it over to the universe. If Red was meant to be his, he’d let the powers that be handle the long game while he enjoyed every single second of right now.
“Come on,” he said. He shifted her off him and pulled her up into a sitting position. She blinked at him as if she’d been ready for a postcoital doze.
“What?” she asked. She looked confused and little taken aback. “Are you leaving?”
“Hell no,” he said. “But you’ve only given me one night. So we have a lot of ground to cover, Red.”
“Ground to cover?” She watched him as he carefully disengaged the condom and tied it off, tossing it into the wastebasket by the bed.
“I have at least one hundred fantasies in which you are the feature, and I’m willing to narrow it down to my top five, but we’ve got to get cracking. Morning will be here soon and I am not missing a second of my night with you.”
She laughed and it sounded like music. “You’re crazy.”
“I prefer determined,” he said. “Come on, it’s shower time.”
“Shower?” Judging by the size of her eyes, she was awake now.
Quino took her hand and led her toward the bathroom, pausing to kiss her once in the bedroom, once in the main room, and one more time in the bathroom. He cranked on the shower and when the temperature was right, he said, “Oh, what I am going to do to you.”
Her pale-green eyes dilated and a pink flush filled her cheeks, and she sighed, “I can’t wait.”
Chapter Eleven
QUINO spent the day in the stables. He was exhausted in the best possible way and his mind was so full of Red, he was pretty much useless for anything other than assisting his team. A million times he wanted to text her or call her, but he didn’t.
Quino had spent the early-morning hours watching Savy sleep. She slept on her stomach, her fiery hair in a tousled curtain around her, with one hand flung out and resting on his chest, reassuring herself that he was still there. At least, he liked to think that’s what she was doing. It could be she was trying to push him off the bed, but her hand was resting gently like a caress so he chose to believe the former.
Last night had been the most singular experience of his sexual life. Savy was sweet and sassy. She’d let him lather her from head to toe and then make love to her up against the tile of the shower. The sight of the water running down her skin would be forever seared into his brain. He felt himself stiffen and was shocked that his cock could even get hard given that he’d made love to her two more times after the shower.
Once in the kitchen while their ice cream melted because her wet hair had smelled so good fresh from the shower and the other had been an accident. They’d been lying on the couch watching a movie, nonholiday, with her on top of him, and the next thing he knew his boxers had been down around his ankles and she’d awakened the dragon with her lips and tongue. For as long as he lived he’d never forget the sight of her sliding her beautiful mouth along the length of him.
When she stirred, he’d found himself hoping she’d fall back to sleep. He just wanted to have a few more minutes to watch her, to pretend she was his. She’d settled back down and he felt his heart rate slow. Time. He just needed a little more time. She’d given him this one amazing night but it wasn’t enough; it was never going to be enough. He just didn’t know how to get her to see that. But he had to try because the one thing he knew for sure was he was madly in love with this girl and letting her go was going to crush him.
Savy had been very clear that one night meant one night, and that morning when she’d woken up, she had all but shoved him out of her apartment, terrified that someone would find him and figure out what had happened between them. Not that she cared what anyone thought, she assured him, she just didn’t want to hear their opinions. He understood that.
He’d had to play it at optimum cool to get her to still agree to meet him for coffee for their brainstorming session that night. When it looked like she’d balk, he’d used the old I understand you might have gotten attached after last night nonsense just so her pride would force her to show up to prove she wasn’t emotionally invested. He of course pretended that the downshift to friends was perfectly fine with him. He had no idea how he was going to keep it up.
Thankfully, Saturday was the busiest day of the week at Shadow Pine, and he took two trail rides up into the hills with Luke, arriving back in time to assist Lanie with the autistic kids in her equine therapy group. Today’s group had five children in it. Using hippotherapy, Lanie helped them to develop their motor skills, as well as make emotional connections to the horses while learning how to ride and groom them.
It was Quino’s task to be an extra pair of hands and eyes in case any of the children got into trouble. He’d been working with Lanie and her kids for years and he always came out of the class with a renewed sense of purpose. The memory of the day that Sammy Jenkins hugged his horse, the first being he’d ever hugged in all of his eight years, still made Quino’s throat get tight. Sam’s mother had broken down and sobbed when she saw him, and she doubled down when young Sam then turned to hug her.
They were just finishing the class and releasing the kids to their parents, when Quino felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He snatched it out and checked the display. He was hoping it was Savannah but it wasn’t. It was Desi! Relief hit him hard in the chest.
“Desi, how are you? Where are you? Are you all right?”
“I’m in Kenya!” Desi cried. She sounded giddy. “You should see it here. It’s beautiful. Well, I think it’s beautiful. It’s very late at night but still so lovely. I’m in my own room and everyone is so nice.”
“And you have your bags, and your wallet, what about your passport? Do you still have all of your belongings?”
“Yes, I kept track of everything,” she said. “And I have a locker in my room, so I can put it all away until I return. I’ve even made a friend.”
“Really? What’s her name?”
“His name is Erick Mwangi,” she said. “He met me and the other interns in London and flew to Kenya with us. I thought I would sleep on the plane but I had so many questions and Erick answered them all. He was very patient.”
“Is he there now?”
“No, he is getting dinner for all of us. It’s very late, but we’re all hungry.”
“Do you have a roommate?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “But don’t worry. There’s a girl from Australia here named Poppy and she’s right next door. Honestly, bro, I’m twenty-five. I think I can handle having my own room.”
“Clearly, since you managed to get a grant to go there by yourself,” he said. “Remind me again, how did you say you got th
at grant?”
“I didn’t,” she said. “But I simply—Oh, Poppy just knocked and said the food is ready. I have to go. I’m starving. Listen, check my Instagram. I’m going to be posting every second of my adventure and you’ll see how great it is. I want you to be proud of me, Quino.”
“I am—” he began, but she interrupted.
“Love you. Bye,” she said, and then added, “Don’t worry!”
The call ended and Quino swore a blue streak. “Don’t worry? Don’t worry?! Is she freaking kidding me?”
“You all right, boss?” Luke approached the corral from the stables.
“No.” Quino hadn’t told anyone about Desi’s departure, because he supposed he felt that if he said it out loud then it was real and he didn’t want it to be real. He hated that she wasn’t here. She was supposed to be here with him on Christmas. Tomorrow was the night they decorated their tree during their annual viewing of It’s a Wonderful Life. Who was going to verbally abuse Mr. Potter when he came on the screen with him if not Desi?
“Care to elaborate?” Luke asked.
“Desi’s gone,” he said.
Luke raised one eyebrow. “When you say ‘gone,’ you mean what exactly?”
“She took off for an internship in Africa.”
“No way,” Luke said.
“No way what?” Lanie asked. She joined them by the railing, waving to the last of her kids as the final minivan pulled out of the drive.
“Desi is in Africa,” Luke said.
“What are you talking about?” She looked at Quino. “What is he talking about?”
“It’s true. Desi is off rescuing baby elephants in Kenya,” he said. “She told me to check her social media pages tomorrow because she plans to put up pictures of everything.”
“Wait, how did she get to Africa without you knowing?” Lanie asked.
“Apparently she applied for a grant and managed to get all of her paperwork in order on her own—shots, visa, passport, plane tickets, all of it,” he said. “And she said she didn’t tell me because she knew I would say no.”
The Christmas Keeper Page 13