Christmas Eve (10 page)

* * * * *

Nick wondered if he’d died and gone to heaven. Swamped by heat and erotic sensations so intense he could barely breathe, he could not remember ever having such incredible sex.

He lay still, his eyes closed, each hand filled with a soft breast, his thumbs the only part of his body able to move. Back and forth, back and forth, he stroked Eve's swollen nipples while her interior muscles worked some sort of clandestine magic on him.

Just when he feared he might explode and spoil the moment, Eve began to ride him. Up. Down. Up.

And down. She came with a surprised intake of breath, drenching him with moist heat so incredibly exciting he drove into her hot center again and again, aimed straight for her heart. A moment later, his staccato shout of release helped muffle Eve's mewling cry.

For the longest time he just lay there, his eyes open wide but unseeing, Eve's head nestled against his chest. His fingers were still tangled in her hair as he listened to her quick breaths. Felt each breast against his chest. Savored the closeness of the moment.

Wanted it never to end
.

Such thoughts scared the Hell out of him.

Chapter Eleven

After lunch, Eve said, "About my car..."

Nick closed his book and looked up. "That's right. I promised I'd help you uncover it."

A delighted smile lit Eve's face. "You will?"

"Sure. In a little while."

Her smile faded.

"If you don't mind waiting a little longer, I have something else in mind for us to do first."

Eve looked appalled. "So soon?"

Nick chuckled. "If you insist. Actually I had a less strenuous activity in mind. Ever been tobogganing?"

Eve frowned. "Sure..."

"Good, you can teach me." He stood, grabbed Eve's hand and helped her out of the deep leather chair she'd curled up in after lunch.

She came to her feet so near him, it seemed natural to pull her into a close embrace.

"Nick," she said, leaning back and looking him in the eye. "I can't go out in the snow like this."

"Oh. I forgot." He grinned suggestively.

He couldn't possibly forget Eve was wearing nothing but his robe. No way. Except for the shoulder seams, the soft terry fabric clung to her curves like his Ferrari hugged a mountain road. The wide shoulders had an enchanting tendency to slide down her arms. To reveal a tempting glimpse of her rounded breasts and to remind him how perfectly their softness filled his palms.

If he was lucky, the next time she wore it, she would cross her long legs again, the lower part of her robe would separate, and his imagination would more fully come into play.

Of course, he
could
simply undress her. After all, she was
his
.

But the anticipation, the hope of her robe sliding off one shoulder as she dealt him a hand of cards or pressed a puzzle piece in place was something he hadn't bargained for, something he had never dreamed might tease him this way.

Was it wise to pay this much attention to a woman who, in a few days, would walk out of his life as easily as she had walked in?

He didn't know the answer to that question. He only knew he had an undeniable urge to play in the snow. With Eve.

Play? When had he ever played? After his mother went out shopping on Christmas Eve and never returned, his free time had evaporated like steam on a dry day. His father had seen to that.

Demanded he come straight home from school.

Forced him to stay away from the neighbors.

Made his life a living Hell. When the beatings started, Nick had left home, too. It was not until years later that he'd learned his father's beatings of his mother were the reason she had abandoned him.

He hadn't been close to anyone else until he and Gary met, and that closeness caused by a war. It helped that Gary made friends as easily as soft butter spread.

Stop right there. Thinking about Gary makes you sad
.

He ended the embrace and grabbed Eve's hand. "Come on. Let's see if we can find some warm clothes for you to wear."

Nick stopped at the six-drawer chest beside his closet and pulled one open. "Somewhere in here there's thermal underwear."

He shoved that drawer in, yanked open another. "Ah-ha," he said, shoving two folded garments at Eve. "Here you go. Put these on while I find you some jeans."

"Yours?" She eyed the cozy knits with a dubious look, then turned that same look on him as her gaze traveled his full height.

"Yes, mine." His grin wide, he took a second to look Eve over as well, then turned his attention to the drawer again. "I'll find something better than a piece of rope you can use for a belt. Wear your turtleneck under this warmer sweater of mine."

He pulled out a soft, wooly knit that had shrunk considerably—or was it that he had filled out? For whatever reason, he had hung on to the sweater because one year Gary surprised him with it for his birthday. Nick had never received many gifts and that sweater meant a lot.

"How about you?" Eve asked, bringing him back to the present. "What are you going to put on?"

"More thermals. And a pair of ski pants."

"You? Ski?" She looked him over again, this time with renewed interest.

Okay. So he wasn't the world's greatest athlete. Still, she didn't have to act so surprised.

"No, I don't ski." He sounded perturbed, deservedly so. "I don't have time. I need warm clothes when I chop wood."

Her eyes widened. "Why not buy your firewood already cut?"

"And miss the fun? It's great exercise." Although his words might sound foolish, it was satisfying to split logs. Watch the woodpile grow. Feel tired muscles ache from hard work.

When she didn't laugh at his unexpected confession, he kissed the tip of her finely-sculpted nose.

* * * * *

A sudden need for privacy had come over Eve the minute Nick thrust his thermal underwear out to her. She left him undressing and went into the bathroom to don his long johns.

Nick kept her nude.
Wanted
her naked, and she had obliged. So why this unexpected urge to change behind a closed door? More of her prudish upbringing?

When she came out, he looked approvingly at her. Why?

She glanced down at her clothes. Beneath his thermal shirt her rigid nipples seemed to be saying, "Hey, Nick. We're over here, look at us."

Eve blushed.

Nick chuckled and his look became more heated. She shook her head at him. "Uh-uh. You promised me a romp in the snow."

"You read my mind." His suggestive grin made her heart leap.

"I think I'm in trouble," she said, keeping the bed between them and Nick at bay.

He laughed. "Definitely, but I'm willing to wait. Besides, the more layers you have on now, the more fun I'll have later taking off each one." He tossed a bundle of faded denim her way. "Here. Try these jeans. And how's this for a belt?"

"A new silk tie?"

"A loud print tie. A poorly conceived gift from an employee. It's my guess he was hoping to see me looking like an ass so he could laugh behind my back."

Eve smiled, trying to picture Nick in the tie. In
any
tie. She had less trouble picturing him tromping through the forest, a hunting rifle at his side.

What gave me that impression
?

She eased a leg into the jeans.

Nick was certainly not your average guy.

Self-made might be a more appropriate label. Nothing about him fitted the typical male.

Maybe non-conformist would be a more apt description.

She hopped on one foot while she threaded her bare toes through the other pant leg.

As if he'd removed his suave sophistication along with the short robe he'd had on when they met, today Nick seemed like a different man. One she couldn't quite peg.

Last night when he opened the door, he had given her a shrewdly-calculating perusal. In that instant, she knew how Little Red Riding must have felt.

When his steady lupine gaze had heated, she'd wondered if it wouldn't be wise of her to run. Not so much in fear for her safety as in fear of losing her heart.

Then earlier today, the aching loneliness visible in his beautiful eyes made her long to cuddle him in her arms.

Never before had a man in her presence elicited such a fierce response. But then, she'd never known a man as intimately as she was coming to know Nick.

She buttoned the jeans and shrugged into her turtleneck, then eased her long hair out. It cascaded down her back. She caught Nick watching her, the heat of desire once again flaring in his eyes.

She grinned impudently. "You promised."

Nick's casual shrug implied,
Your loss
.

Her heart tripped. Amused by the whooshy sound Nick's ski pants made each time he moved, she picked up the second sweater and pulled it on.

"Want some socks?"

"Sure."

She pulled on his tube socks, which went up to her knees. All she had to do now was yank on her boots and roll up the too-long jeans. She completed those tasks and stood.

The borrowed sweater ended well below her hips. Two rubber bands from Nick's dresser worked well to shorten the sleeves. She could barely move in his down jacket. Its sleeves also were too long.

The sheepskin jacket Nick donned added to his rugged, manly appeal, but when he pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket, hand knit in a snowflake-design and the victim of hard use, Eve was too amused to hide her smile.

Another casual shrug. "My secretary. Again. Figured I might as well wear them out."

Those gloves meant a lot to Nick. Something else to ponder. Right now, he was motioning her toward the hall.

"Ready?" he asked.

"I will be in a minute. I need to get my gloves and sunglasses. Want me to bring yours?"

"Sure. They're by the front door, too. And if you want a hat, there's a red knit cap hanging on the rack by the door."

Swaying from side to side because of all the extra clothes, Nick strode down the hall at his usual pace. Eve caught up with him in the kitchen as he removed a key from a peg and turned to her to explain, "The toboggan belongs to the guy next door."

She nodded, pleased to learn the two men were on good terms. The one time she had met the owner, when Bob Owens came to her office to list his mountain retreat, he seemed like a nice guy. As Nick's closest neighbor, it didn't surprise her the two of them were friends.

"Let's go out the back," Nick suggested. "There aren't as many steps."

Eve followed him through a screened porch and while he held the door open, she stepped out into the frigid air. Except for the top step, concrete and bare, thanks to the overhanging roof, snow covered everything in sight. She couldn't begin to tell how many more steps there were, or the depth of the snow, so she moved with caution.

Nick went first, feeling his way, then turned back to help her down. "Here. Give me your hand."

She put her gloved hand in his, her sudden awareness of his strength weakening her knees. She slipped on a patch of ice and skidded into Nick, bowling him over. He landed flat on his back, Eve draped across his chest.

He sat up laughing, one ear encrusted with snow.

"I couldn't have done that any better if I'd tried. I'm sorry," she said between giggles, not sounding the least bit contrite. She rocked back on her knees in the snow and brushed icy crystals from Nick's coat.

"Your time's coming. Just wait." He came to his feet in a rush of falling snow that pelted down on her. Then, he bent down and drew Eve to her feet. "Think you can keep those legs of yours under you long enough to walk next door?"

"I'll try," she said between giggles.

He stomped across the yard, packing the snow down as he moved. She followed, taking two steps to his one. When she was lucky she stepped into the hole left by Nick's long, wide boot. Most of the time she sank almost to her knees in the powdery stuff.

* * * * *

Nick reached the shed at the back of his neighbor's property and turned to watch Eve take a dainty step with her right foot. Her lower leg disappeared in the snow. She lifted her left foot, tried to shake the packed stuff from her boot, and looked about for a likely spot to put that foot down. She found one and, to his great amusement, fell flat on her face.

In three long strides he was at her side. Chuckling, he scooped the laughing bundle up in his arms, then retraced his steps before again standing her on her feet.

Eve muttered some unintelligible remark. A veil of snow hid her eyes from view until she shook her head, sending snow flying.

"Whoa. There's enough snow here without you spreading more around." Then he noticed the wicked gleam in her eyes. He took a step back and rammed his gloved hand in a pocket. "Now to find the right key..."

The frozen lock clicked open on the second try. "Bob said he kept the toboggan right here in the front." Nick reached inside the dark shed and felt around. "Ah-ha. This feels like it."

He backed out the door, dragging the toboggan into the light.

* * * * *

Eve moved back to examine the green-and-red trimmed apparatus more closely. The flat, shiny-metal bottom was a good four feet long before it curved up at the front where he supposed you put your feet. "This looks new."

"You're right, it is. First time it's snowed since Bob bought this for his son." Nick carefully lowered the toboggan onto the snow, his eager anticipation impossible to hide. "What do we do now?"

"Find a hill." Eve grinned.

"We're
on
a hill," he retorted. He preferred to be boss and was not used to relinquishing control. In he part of Texas where we lived only got a dusting of snow.

He was a fast learner, especially with a teacher as pretty as Eve. What the Hell. He'd be back in control in no time and no longer need Eve to tell him what to do.

"Preferably a hill without trees."

"We're on a mountain. Not sure that's possible." He hadn't meant to sound so terse.

"Then let's try the street."

"Good enough. Sit on this contraption and I'll give you a ride." He glanced down, seeking her approval. "Okay?"