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But that kiss...You couldn’t fake that. And people didn’t kiss other people that way just to avoid embarrassing them.
Archie stood there, the faint light from the snow draping everything outside reflecting in to cast a glow around his incredible body. But his posture was what worried me. He still looked down, one hand on the back of his neck. A figure of desolation.
“Hey,” I said, regaining my courage. I took a step closer. “What is it?”
He raked me with his gaze and that low want pooled inside me again, as if it had just been waiting for reassurance that his own desire hadn’t vanished.
And then he reached for me, and I stepped back into his arms.
“You’re okay with this?” he asked in a strained voice.
“Yes.”
In the next second, my senses—my world, really—became Archie. I didn’t think I’d ever wanted anyone so much. And as I stripped my sweater over my head and pulled him toward the bed, I stopped thinking altogether.
Chapter Twelve
Another Hotel Perk
GHOST
Emily was perfect. Pretty, soft, responsive, aggressive, demanding...all at exactly the moment I needed each thing.
As we moved toward the bed, I reached down and stripped back the covers, and then pressed her backward until her knees buckled at the edge of the mattress. I lifted her, sliding her back and stretching out at her side, caging her in my arms as her dark hair spread over the pillows.
“You’re gorgeous, you know that?” I whispered, looking down at her. Part of me was detached, watching myself from above. It had been so long since I’d been with anyone, since I’d been capable of the emotional attachment necessary to even consider getting close to anyone. I felt lucky and happy, and like maybe there was a chance there were good things coming for me, despite all I’d done.
“You’re gorgeous too,” she said, a wicked smile crossing her lips, which were swollen from being kissed.
“I hope you know I didn’t plan any of this,” I told her, taking a moment to trace a finger over the curve of her shoulder, down the pale skin of her arm.
“I thought it was part of the premiere package at the Kasper Ridge Resort. The optional ‘witness a birth and stay in a cheap motel’ perk.”
I laughed, and then dropped my head down to kiss her again. Emily was beautiful and smart, and being around her made the world feel less oppressive. She made me feel okay. Good, even. Hell, she made me feel more than that.
We kissed for a while longer, and I did my best to hold back, to avoid pushing a woman I respected and admired into anything she didn’t want. But when Emily’s kisses grew more demanding, it was clear we were on the same page.
Everything in my body was coiling, tightening in response to the soft noises she made when I skimmed my hands over her breasts or teased the peaks with my thumb. When she reached for my waistband, popping the button there without lessening the fervor of the kiss, I wondered if a better man would put the brakes on. But I’d done that once already, and she’d stepped back into my arms. I decided to stop questioning it.
She was whimpering and arching into me as I lowered my mouth to take in first one nipple, then the other. And when she whispered, “Oh, god, Archie,” as if she wasn’t sure how much longer she could hang on, I let a hand drift to the waist of her jeans.
“Yes,” she moaned, her hands in my hair.
I unfastened the button, sliding the pants from her hips and following them down, sliding off her body for a moment to deposit them at the end of the bed. And then, with her dark eyeswatching me hungrily, I pushed off my shoes and my own pants as she lay there in only a pair of black underwear.
“You’re so beautiful,” I told her without planning to speak. The hotel windows faced an empty street outside, and the world was heavily blanketed in pristine white snow. Despite the darkness of the hour, the window seemed to glow and reflect moonlight in every direction, and our room was lit in the pale blue light—as was her body.
It had been years since I’d even considered taking a woman to bed. Opportunity and circumstance had conspired, and I hadn’t been in the state of mind to try to change either one.
But suddenly, this felt somehow meant to be. She’d arrived at exactly the time the pressure inside me was building to a forcing function, to something that was demanding a change, a different course. I didn’t know what any of it meant, but I knew this felt right.
“Come here,” she whispered, scooting back up the bed and lifting her hair to spread perfectly around her.
I kissed my way back up her body, beginning with one ankle and slowly planting tiny kisses all the way back to her beautiful throat. And as my mouth found hers again, I pressed one hand gently to her soft stomach, sliding it lower and lower as she arched into me.
Her hands were gripping my back, one dipping into the waist of my boxer briefs to cup my ass, which only made me think about having her hands on other parts of me. But that could wait. I wasn’t going to rush.
I dropped my touch lower, cupping her gently, enjoying the heat emanating from her as she gasped lightly into my mouth. I pressed with my palm, letting my fingers tease a bit lower, and Emily whimpered beneath me, stiffening the already almost painful erection I was trying to alleviate somewhat by pressing into her hip.
