The Bite Before Christmas (6 page)

Teddy stared at the closed bathroom door and downed the rest of his whiskey. He usually enjoyed Elvi's gift, but tonight it tasted like ash in his mouth and he hadn't a clue why. Except that, for some reason, he felt incredibly guilty, as if his feelings for Elvi, feelings he'd had since he was a callow youth, were somehow betraying this new and very tentative friendship with Katricia . . . which was just stupid. He'd only met her today. And aside from her first flirting, there had been nothing untoward since, not even a hint of flirting from her—or him, for that matter. Instead, they'd seemed to bond, friendship growing between them as they'd played, talked, and worked together as a team.

It was something Teddy had never really experienced before. Oh, he'd had many female friends over the years and had worked toward a common goal with just as many. He'd worked with Mabel to try to find Elvi a mate, had planned and arranged local fairs with Elvi. But he'd never experienced the same level of ease and rightness with either of them as he had with Katricia. They'd seemed to communicate at times without needing to speak, and their working together in the kitchen had been almost like a dance. He felt closer to her after one day than he'd felt with women he'd been lovers with for months. Which was just strange, he decided and shook his head before turning to put the cap back on his whiskey and return it to the gift bag.

The bathroom door opened and Teddy watched silently as Katricia reappeared and grabbed one of the two sleeping bags he'd set on the chair beside the couch earlier. She then moved to the couch, unrolled and laid out the sleeping bag, unzipped it, and crawled inside. She didn't bother to zip it back up, he noted as he took the candle that he'd set on the kitchen counter earlier and headed for the bathroom himself.

The room was damned cold compared to the main room, and Teddy was quick about his ablutions. Within ten minutes he was back, blowing out candles and unrolling his sleeping bag in front of the fireplace. His gaze slid reluctantly to Katricia then, as he wondered if he should have offered her the spot in front of the fire. The couch would be more comfortable, but the floor in front of the fire would be warmer.

Finding her eyes closed, Teddy decided she would probably be warm enough in the sleeping bag and quickly unzipped his and started to get into it. Then, recalling he still wore his flannels under his clothes, and deciding he'd be more comfortable out of his jeans, he quickly shed them and his sweater, folded them neatly, set them aside, then got into his sleeping bag and quickly zipped it closed again. Within moments, his eyes were drifting shut.

Teddy wasn't sure how long he'd been sleeping when a whisper of sound brought his drowsy eyes open again to find Katricia kneeling beside him.

“What's wrong?” he murmured sleepily, trying to wake up fully.

“I'm cold,” Katricia whispered. Before he quite knew what was happening, she'd opened the zipper to his sleeping bag and climbed in to join him, adding, “Share your body heat.”

“You— I— We— This isn't—” he stammered, but his protests grew weaker with each attempt as her body slid against his inside the sleeping bag.

“I'm old enough to do what I wish. You're an adult, too. We want each other and this
definitely
is a good idea,” she breathed, her body wrapping around his.

Teddy just gaped at her for a moment, stunned that she'd responded correctly to each of his aborted protests as if he'd spoken them aloud rather than stammered helplessly like a schoolboy. By the time he regathered his wits, she was wrapped around him like a warm, tight sleeping bag, her body pressing against his in several key places.

“You read my mind,” he muttered, trying by sheer force of will to keep from reacting to her nearness. It seemed his will was weak. He was definitely reacting. Little Teddy had been up and down all day, but was fully up now.

Much to his surprise, Katricia chuckled at his accusation. He didn't understand, and it was hard to care much about what had amused her with her hands sliding around his back and her breasts and groin nestling up against him. She smelled so damned good, Teddy thought and then heard her say, “I can't read you, Teddy.”

Despite his growing distraction, Teddy frowned. “What was that?”

“I said I can't read you,” Katricia murmured, pressing a kiss to the bottom of his chin and then licking his throat before letting her lips drift to his cheek and then his ear.

“You can't read me?” Teddy muttered, his brain telling him this was important while the rest of his body was assuring him it really, really wasn't. Damn, she was squeezing his behind as if checking melons for firmness. Fortunately, he walked a lot on the job, making his rounds of the downtown businesses, and he knew he had a firm behind.

“No. I can't,” she murmured, nibbling at his ear.

Teddy remained still for a minute. His brain was trying to decipher what that meant while the rest of his body was humming and thoroughly distracted with what she was doing. After a minute, he brought an end to her nibbles and squeezes by rolling her on her back inside the bag. He then rose up slightly to peer down at her face in the firelight. “You can't read me?”

Katricia blinked up at him in surprise in the firelight, and then realization crossed her face. It was followed by wariness and her mouth snapping closed.

“Am I your life mate?” he asked grimly.

Katricia bit her lip and glanced away, then sighed and shook her head and peered back at him. “I think so, yes.”

The words took his breath away and Teddy simply gaped at her for a minute, but then asked slowly, “You think so? Or you know so?”

Katricia eyed Teddy for a moment. Marguerite's warning to go slowly was ringing in her head, but she just couldn't. She didn't even want to, and while she'd managed to behave all day, now that he was lying on top of her, his body feeling warm and solid despite it being a dream, and his erection nestled against her groin . . . Well, she just couldn't behave anymore. Spreading her legs so that he sank between them, his erection pressing more firmly where she wanted, Katricia let her hands slide over his back and down to his behind again to urge him more fully against her, and said, “I can't read you, haven't been interested in food for centuries before today, or sex for that matter. But I am now . . . and we're having a shared dream. Yes, you're my life mate.”

Teddy stared at her for a moment, desire battling with a frown on his face, and then he asked, “This is a dream?”

That question really wasn't the reaction she'd expected. She hadn't really been sure what to expect, protestations maybe, the cut-and-run scenario Marguerite had got her worrying about. But this question left her unsure how he was reacting to the news. Biting her lip, Katricia nodded, and then gasped when he suddenly flung aside the top of the unzipped sleeping bag. Katricia's arms instinctively tightened around him to keep him from leaping up or rolling off of her.

But he didn't do either. Instead, Teddy bent his head and rubbed her nose with his, murmuring, “If it's a dream we don't have to worry about getting cold.”

“No,” she agreed in a whisper, her hold on him easing as he brushed his lips over hers. Katricia was almost sorry she'd loosened her hold when he suddenly shifted off of her, but he was only moving to lie next to her on the sleeping bag, and he continued to kiss her, just toying with her lips, brushing and then nipping at them. Teasing her, she decided and was about to open her mouth and deepen the kiss herself when he suddenly raised his head to peer down her body.

Teddy's eyes widened as he took in the over-large T-shirt that was her only covering, and he plucked at it lightly, one eyebrow rising. “Where did your clothes go?”

“This is what I normally sleep in,” she whispered as his hand slid down her side to the outside of her upper thigh where the T-shirt ended.

“I like it,” he announced. “Simple and sexy.”

Her eyes widened and she bit her lip as his hand slid under the hem to ride up her outer leg to her hip. He watched his hand and wrist disappear under the cloth, and then shifted his gaze to her face and asked, “If this is a dream, why aren't I young and handsome for you?”

“You are young and handsome to me,” she said huskily, and reached up to slip one hand around his neck. “I like you just the way you are. I find you sexy just as you are. I want you just as you are.”

Teddy's eyes narrowed on hers, searching for the truth in her words and Katricia stared back. He was her life mate, the most beautiful man in the world to her. She didn't have to lie about that and met his gaze, unflinching, until his head lowered and his mouth covered hers. His hand continued upward then, skimming along the side of her waist and then gliding smoothly up to cover one breast under her T-shirt as his tongue thrust into her opening mouth.

Katricia moaned, her body arching as the double assault stirred hot desire to life in her. It raced through her like a forest fire, stronger than anything she'd ever experienced before, and she kissed him back with the desperation suddenly claiming her, her arms slipping around his shoulders and pulling him to half-cover her. She ran her hands over the flannel covering his back, wishing it wasn't there, and suddenly it wasn't, and she was caressing his warm skin, her fingers gliding over shifting muscle.

When Teddy suddenly broke their kiss and removed his hand to pull away, Katricia's heart actually stopped beating briefly and she blurted, “Please don't run.”

Teddy had been ducking his head, but paused and raised it to peer at her with surprise. “Run?”

Katricia nodded. “Marguerite warned me that I should let you get to know me better before I told you we were life mates. She said you might be overwhelmed if you knew too soon and might run. I—” She paused when he suddenly pressed a finger to her mouth to silence her.

“Tricia,” he said solemnly. “I'm not running. I've seen what life mates can have. I've seen how good it can be between them, and never dreamed I'd be lucky enough to enjoy that. I have no intention of running.”

“Oh.” She peered at him uncertainly. “When you stopped kissing me, I thought . . .”

“You thought wrong,” Teddy assured her firmly and then smiled and said, “I stopped kissing you to do this.” He then ducked his head again, but this time managed to finish what he'd apparently intended when he'd broken their kiss. His clothes weren't the only thing now gone, her T-shirt was, too, leaving nothing to prevent his mouth closing over the nipple of the breast he'd been fondling.

“Oh,” Katricia breathed as he sucked the nipple between his lips. She slid her fingers into his hair and arched into the caress.

He wasn't running. They would be life mates, she thought dazedly, legs shifting restlessly as he drew on her nipple. Christ, she didn't remember anything feeling this good when she'd still enjoyed sex. But then if it had, she probably wouldn't have tired of it, Katricia acknowledged, curling her fingers in his hair as he suckled her. When he let her nipple slip from his mouth and blew on the now-damp bud, she moaned and shifted beneath him, her back arching to invite him back. But instead of reclaiming it with his mouth, he covered it with his hand and kneaded gently as he raised his mouth to claim her lips instead.

Katricia opened to him at once, welcoming his tongue when it slid inside. Her hands then began moving over him, traveling his chest and exploring the wide, hard width. He might be older, but Teddy kept himself in good shape, and she squeezed the muscles of his chest, and then pinched at his nipples even as he pinched and tweaked hers. They both groaned in response and then Teddy released her breast and moved his hand to her hip to urge her on her side to face him fully before his fingers slid around to find and squeeze one butt cheek. Kneading and massaging the firm flesh, he urged her tighter against him and she felt his hardness against her thigh and then he suddenly released her behind and slipped his hand around between their bodies.

Katricia gave up on his chest and clutched at his shoulders with a gasp as his hand dipped between her legs. Just his one kiss and his brief caress had her so damp his fingers slid silkily against her hot, wet flesh. Katricia sucked on the tongue thrusting into her mouth and raised her leg to wrap it around his hip as she ground herself into his touch. Teddy took advantage of the room she gave him to maneuver and slid a finger inside her even as he continued to caress her with his thumb and Katricia broke their kiss on a cry, her body arching and straining upward. The action even shifted her several inches upward on the sleeping bag, but Teddy's hand simply followed and he lowered his mouth to her breast, laving the small globe, before sucking almost all of it into his mouth.

“Teddy,” Katricia moaned. Need was a living thing inside her as she rode his hand, but she wanted his mouth on hers and him inside her, and . . . She wanted everything with a need that was almost frightening, and her voice was almost a growl as she pleaded, “Teddy, please. I need you inside me.”

He immediately let her breast slip from his lips and shifted up to claim her mouth again, silencing her, but merely continuing to caress her. Moaning, Katricia immediately slid her hand down between them to find the hardness growing between them. But the moment she clasped him in hand, Teddy broke their kiss and stopped caressing her to catch her hand.

“Tricia, you really don't want to do that,” he muttered, trying to force her hand away.

“Yes, I do,” she assured him, tightening her hold and watching with fascination as his expression tightened along with it.

Groaning, Teddy shook his head and leaned his forehead on hers, muttering, “Sweetheart, I've been half-erect all damned day watching you run around in those damned tights of yours. It wouldn't take much to bring this to a premature end.”

“Yoga pants,” Katricia murmured, easing her grip a little.