The Best Of The Year - Medical Romance. Carol Marinelli
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out in the back of his sleigh many times in the past. Not her, but generic people. She and Robert had certainly never done anything like this. She slid her hands beneath his coat, seeking the warmth between it and his shirt and debating whether or not she dared to duck beneath a second layer until she encountered bare skin.
Jack’s fingers tightened in her hair, and he tugged her head back so their lips came apart. “What are you doing?”
Maybe he’d read her mind.
“I could ask you the same thing,” she whispered. “What are you doing?”
“Right now, I’m wondering how long this ride is.”
“At least an hour. But it can be as long as we want it to be.”
Wow, had she really just said that? Evidently, because he gave a low groan that only she could hear and plastered his lips back to hers.
This time there was no question or hesitation, just a hard demand that she was more than happy to answer. Beneath the blanket, she worked his shirt free of his slacks until she had access to that smooth, firm skin she’d been thinking about. She allowed her fingers to slide to mid-abdomen.
Did he work out with the football players he took care of? Because there was some defined musculature beneath all these clothes. The sleigh turned another corner and her hand slipped further up, running over a hard masculine nipple.
Oops. She hadn’t meant to do that, but now that she was here...
He moved from her mouth to her ear. “Don’t.”
Oh, but she already had. Her fingers circled again, testing, bumping and finally giving a little squeeze that had him hissing in a breath. “Mira.”
And, oh, if she didn’t love hearing her name muttered in that rough, sexy way.
Never had she gone out of her way to drive a man wild, but this one was different. He seemed so uptight. So...unexpected.
There was that word again.
Any other guy would have been happy to oblige by returning the favor. But not this one. He was acting like a stick of dynamite with a very short fuse.
He bit her earlobe once, twice, sending a desperate shiver over her. Deep down inside her, things were changing. Moistening. Transforming want into need at an alarming pace.
As if sensing the shift in her, he turned his body into hers, using his broad back to shield her from any prying eyes. Then one hand splayed low on her abdomen, taking her breath away as he held it there with firm pressure.
Yes. Please, Jack.
She wasn’t sure what she was asking for—it wasn’t like they could just have sex in the back of Norm’s sleigh. But she wanted something. Wanted to feel him in her hand, wanted to drive him over the edge into insanity. Even if she got nothing more out of it than that. She squeezed his nipple between her fingertips again to see if he felt the same way.
“You’re playing with fire.”
She blinked up at him. “Fire is the best known antidote to freezing temperatures, didn’t you know?”
His hand skimmed up her hip and ducked beneath the hem of her shirt. His skin wasn’t icy, like she’d expected, but yummy and warm with slight callusing on the pads of his fingers. He glanced back as if making sure their driver was still facing the front. “This is not a smart idea, you know.”
“Never said it was.” She squeezed again.
“Hell, woman.” Just like that his hand swept up her side and cupped her breast, his thumb stroking across her bra-covered nipple and sending a shot of pure pleasure straight to her center.
Okay, maybe she hadn’t been playing fair. But neither was he, sitting beside her looking good enough to eat. And she was a little hungry. She could nibble, even if she couldn’t get a full meal, right?
But the second she started to trail her fingers back down his stomach, she found her wrist gripped in a steel band. “No.”
All playfulness was gone from his voice, and when she glanced at his face his eyes were dark, intense, a muscle working in his jaw. He slid his hand free of her shirt and tugged her clothing down. Pulled her coat back into place and buttoned it.
Her breath caught. Was he angry? Maybe she had carried this game a little too far. She started to withdraw, only to have his grip tighten, and he jerked her closer. His mouth moved back to her ear. “If we ever do this—and I’m not saying we will—it’s not going to be some furtive little quickie, Mira. I want time, lots of it, and room to maneuver. Got it?”
She gulped. “Yes.”
Whether she was acknowledging what he’d said or giving him permission she had no idea. But what else could she say? He’d taken her pass and intercepted it. The next play was with him.
With one last heart-stopping nip to her earlobe, he sat back and calmly straightened the blankets, while her pulse pounded madly in her ears.
“Now,” he said as the first flakes of snow began falling again, “tell me about the local silver mines.”
* * *
Jack wasn’t sure where he’d gathered the willpower to stop her. It had been pretty obvious where she’d been headed once her hand had left his chest and traveled south. He could have let her continue...a few pumps and he’d have been done. Sated. But that’s not what he wanted. If he was going to have her, he’d told the truth. He wanted hours. And he wanted to be able to use his hands. His mouth. He wanted to see her red hair spread out on a pillow and breathe in that purely feminine scent of her body.
Yes, he’d thought of having a fast encounter with some generic woman in his hotel room. But there was nothing generic about Mira. And he wasn’t interested in a few brief seconds of pleasure.
Compared to what he really wanted from her, a hand job was like settling for a grilled cheese sandwich when what you craved was a sixteen-ounce rib eye.
She’d seemed a little glassy-eyed when he’d asked her about the mines, but he’d needed to get his own mind off of what he’d wanted to do and put it on something a little less explosive. Between that and the snow that had started to fall more freely he’d been able to cool his body down enough to keep from snatching her up and laying her down on that heated red velvet bench, driver or no driver.
By the end, she’d giggled as he’d reached into the pocket of his leather bomber and pulled out a beanie cap, pulling the black headwear down over her head to protect her from the white, powdery precipitation.
“I have my own, you know.”
He couldn’t resist a little shrug. “You look good in mine.”
Once the ride was over, Mira thanked Norm and gave him a quick hug before moving to Patsy and rubbing her thickly furred neck. “Thanks for that, you guys. It was great.”
She promised to visit the stables more often, and the man tipped his hat and gave a courtly bow before climbing back on his sleigh and heading off again with another round of jingling bells and clip-clopping of hooves.
Then Jack—still in the throes of shaky reasoning and even shakier impulse control issues—had done the unthinkable. He’d asked Mira out again. Up on the slopes this time and ending with dinner in the restaurant.
And she’d done something just as unthinkable. She’d accepted.
* * *
“You have another date with him?” Ellory took a sip from her glass of Merlot and leaned a hip against the bar.
Mira squirmed. There was no way of avoiding it this time. Number Five might have become a problem. “Yes. But it’s not like it’s a big deal or anything. And the sleigh ride kind of got snowed out.” But not before they’d done some necking in the back seat...and not before Jack had hinted he wanted to do darker things that involved