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“There was always something between us, Linds. We both knew that.”
He unhooked her bra with one hand and pulled the fabric from her torso. Tossed it on the floor and then leaned down to kiss one nipple. He’d barely had time last night to taste them. They were pinkish red and hardened under his lips. He skimmed his hands over her ribs and down to her narrow waist.
Carter spanned it with both of his hands, pulling her from the wall and more firmly toward him. Then he turned so he could lean against the wall. Her hands roamed up and down, bringing every nerve in his body to red alert.
He wanted her now.
But he was trying to...
Why? Why was he taking this slow when he knew that Lindsey was a sixty-miles-per-hour girl? She liked the exhilaration of speeding through life. But he wanted it to take longer. Needed to tease it out for his as much as her pleasure.
This morning had showed him just how fragile his hold on her was, and he knew that every time he took her in his arms it might be his last.
He lifted his head from her tempting body and looked up at her. Her eyes were half-closed and her skin had a pretty rose-colored blush to it. She was lightly skimming her hands over his skin as she chewed her lower lip.
A moment later she pushed her hands into the waistband of his pants and shoved them toward his feet. He stepped out of them. Then she pushed his boxer briefs down, as well. Standing naked in her hallway, Carter realized he was where he wanted to be. She took his erection in her hand and stroked him up and down while he frantically shoved her clothes out of the way. Then, groaning low in his throat, he lifted her into his arms and turned so that her back was braced against the wall as he thrust into her.
He pushed himself all the way inside her and then rested his head on her shoulder. He took several deep breaths, but her fingers moving up and down his spine and then lower to cup his buttocks urged him on.
“Take me,” she said, whispering the words directly into his ear.
He was already there, moving his hips as she lifted her legs and wrapped them around him, forcing him farther inside her. She tipped her head back, her silky blond hair sliding over his shoulders as he plunged in and out of her.
His world narrowed to just her, and he couldn’t think beyond the urge to go deeper, to take her so completely that there wouldn’t be a Lindsey and Carter when he stopped, but just one being.
He felt his orgasm at the base of his spine and cursed as he tried to slow it or stop it. But it was too late. He was too close to the edge, and she dug her heels into his thighs, arching up against him as he came inside her. Realizing she wasn’t there yet, he reached between their bodies, finding her clit and stroking it while he kept moving in and out of her body.
She felt so good. He felt her tighten around him, and she called his name as she came. He sank to the cold, tiled floor, cradling her in his arms as they fought to catch their breaths. He rubbed his hands up and down her back, and she scooted closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder as his blood pounded in his ears.
“Wow,” she said.
Wow. Was that good? He had a feeling as quick as he was, he might not have given his best showing, but he was tired and he’d had that feeling all day that he might never have all he wanted from her.
“That good?” he asked gruffly.
“Yeah. I had no idea... My sexual experience isn’t as diverse as yours. I mean, mission-style, lights off is my usual thing.” He would’ve laughed if he’d thought that was what she wanted from him. “We’ve had the lights on every time.”
“Yes we have. You make me feel so comfortable in my skin,” she murmured. “Other guys seemed to just...”
Jealousy shot through him. The last thing he wanted to talk about were other guys she’d been with. But he was glad she felt comfortable around him. “I’m glad I didn’t disappoint you.”
“Me, too. So what now? I invited you back here so I wouldn’t have to feel awkward and wonder if I should leave, but to be honest, I still feel weird.”
He shook his head. Lindsey was never going to react the way he thought she would. She surprised him yet again, but really that was proving to just be her way. “I’ll take that hot drink you offered, and then we can figure out what to do—or I can leave.” Turning toward her, he slowly searched her face. “What do you want?”
She hesitated, and at that moment he knew she was going to send him on his way. Disappointment churned inside him, but he kept his game face on. “Okay. Let me clean up and then I’ll head out.”
Lindsey stood. She smelled of sex and regret, he thought. But then she offered him her hand. “Silly boy. I’m not done with you yet.”
He took her hand and got to his feet, making sure his body brushed against hers. Felt her shiver, saw her lick her lips. God, was he really willing to be her boy toy? Because that was how this felt.
“A hot bath would be perfect after all that playing, but my tub is smallish. What do you say to sharing a shower?”
“I say hells to the yeah.”
“Good. That’s one of the things I meant to put on my resolutions list from last night,” she said.
“I actually have it right here,” he told her, bending to pick up his pants and pull out the card he’d shoved in there before he’d left his hotel room.
She reached out to take it from him. “I have a lot of blanks.”
“So do I,” he admitted ruefully. But in his mind he’d already started filling them in.
“Shower first, and then we can fill them in together and order pizza because I’m hungry. Then you can head home. Is that okay?” she asked after a moment.
He nodded. “It’s your show, lady.”
“It is?” She blew out a breath, biting down on her lush lower lip. “It’s not easy to believe that. I’m totally winging it here.”
“So am I. This is different for me, too.”
She took his resolution card from him and glanced down at it, wrinkling her brow as she read the few words he’d jotted down.
Crap. He wasn’t good with words or spelling. He had dyslexia, which was something he didn’t share with the world. And something he certainly hoped she hadn’t picked up on. He’d brought her list because he wanted to know what she expected from her year.
He should have left his at home.
But there was no point in worrying about that now. He scooped her up in his arms. Taking the stairs two at a time, he paused on the landing. “Which way?”
“Second door on the right,” she said. Nodding, he carried her into her room. This space seemed more like Lindsey—there was a bright floral-patterned comforter and a large stack of pillows at the head of the bed. The walls had been painted a pale blue color that reminded him of the reflection of the snow and sky first thing in the morning. He saw her medals hanging on the wall under a photo of her with the president.
Carter set her on her feet, and she put the cards on her dark-finished, solid-oak dresser as she led the way to her bathroom. She bent to get some towels from the cabinet, and he realized that there was something about Lindsey that would always leave him wanting more. That being here with her now wasn’t doing anything but making him crave her more intensely.
He wondered if he’d ever get his fill of her, but then she turned, held her hand out to him, and he stopped thinking and questioning. At least for now, he was exactly where he needed to be.
8 (#u15241939-5112-5a8a-81d2-1759ffb894ea)
IT’S A BAD IDEA. She knew she had to say it as soon as they were done eating the pizza they’d ordered. They weren’t going to be a couple or start dating. She was a mess and he had to know it.
But she liked him. He was fun and he made her feel as though she was a fun person, too. Except that she was also acutely aware that she wasn’t really the woman she acted like around him.
She’d had more sex in the past twenty-four hours than she’d had in the previous ten years; which was both great and confusing. She couldn’t keep the compartments she needed Carter to stay in straight in her mind.
“Stay or hit?” he asked.
They were playing poker...well, blackjack or twenty-one, at her kitchen table. She wore her flannel pajamas and Carter had on just his boxer briefs. It felt intimate and cozy and would be if she’d just let it be. But she couldn’t.
She glanced at her cards, trying to recall the rule that Carter had shared with her for taking cards. She had an eight and a three. She needed twenty-one and had eleven. Seemed pretty safe for a hit.
“Hit.”
He turned a card up in front of her. Ace.
“Damn.”
He laughed. “I’m guessing you want to stay?”
She shook her head. Had she given the game away? She hated to lose, so she needed to pay better attention, but the truth was Carter was a distraction with his naked chest and tattoos sitting across from her. The light from the kitchen shone down on him, his face hidden by the shadows cast on him.
“No,” she said. No guts, no glory had always been her motto. “Hit.”
He gave her another card. It was a seven. A nice, safe little seven card that kept her from going over twenty-one.
“Stay.”
“Think you can beat me?”
He had a face card showing, so chances were he might have a twenty but... What? She’d just said no guts... “You bet I do.”
He took a card and got another face card.
“Ooh, that’s twenty. Did you bust?” she asked.
He flipped up his card to reveal a two. “Why, yes, I did, gorgeous. That means you win.”
“That’s right, I win,” she said, smiling. This was good. Competing against Carter reminded her of all the things that were usually between them.
“Now you have to tell me the one habit you are hoping to break this year,” she said. They’d been playing loser-tells-all for their resolutions.
“Fair enough, but I’m going to ask you about sexual positions. Sure you don’t want to know about them?”
“I don’t have to win a game to get you to tell me about them,” she said. “Now, what habit is it that you want to quit?”
He scratched his chin. “I think I’d like to quit... Wait—does it have to be a vice?”
“Not at all. You get to choose.”
“Well, then, I will quit answering these questions,” he said insolently.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s already your habit. And we both agreed to the terms. You have to answer.” He leaned back in the chair so his expression was visible now. She looked over at him, trying to figure out what was going on behind his handsome face. He was too sexy for his own good. It would have been better if he’d been average looking with that personality of his. He was used to charming anyone—man or woman—into doing whatever he wanted. She was determined to be different.
Hell, that had been her attitude from the beginning. Had she been attracted to him all this time?
“Well, if you must know...” he said. “I’m going to give up pulling all-nighters. I think I’m past the point where I can keep drifting through life.”
She almost laughed, but she knew he was being sincere. He was one of the top athletes in winter sports and he thought he was drifting through life. She kind of got it because that was how she felt now that skiing had been taken from her.
“So what does a serious Carter Shaw look like?” she asked.
“Ah, that, gorgeous, is a second question, and I’m afraid you’ve only earned one,” he said with that half grin of his that she found way too irresistible. “Besides, that’s not on the resolutions list. I might answer it if you win again.”
“So deal,” she said. Now that she was getting the hang of the game and she’d won, she was ready to keep winning. It was a sort of safe way for her to find out more about Carter. Learn all the intimate details about him while keeping her own secrets safe.
“Don’t forget there is a little thing called beginners luck,” he warned as he dealt her two cards.
“I’ve never relied on luck. Just skill and grit. Something that I guess a drifter like you wouldn’t understand.”
“Touché.”
Her cards weren’t so good this time. A five and a nine. Fourteen. It almost felt as if she should stay, but she wanted to win again.
Carter had a three showing.
“Hit me.”
He flipped a card up in front of her. A three. Not what she’d been hoping for, but she smiled as if it was the only thing standing between her and twenty-one and gestured that she’d stay.
“That good, eh?”
She shrugged. “Like I said...no luck needed here.”
It was funny, but she’d forgotten how often she’d had to use her press face with people in the real world to mask what she was really feeling. And now she was doing it playing cards. She’d never tell him, but Carter was giving her back little pieces of herself she hadn’t even realized she’d lost when she’d stopped skiing.
Things such as bluffing, which didn’t seem to have much in common with her skiing life but actually did.
He took a card and got a nine. “I’ll stay. What have you got, gorgeous?”
She flipped up her cards. “Seventeen.”
“Aw, that might be enough to beat me if I didn’t have...”
He flipped his card over. An eight.
An eight!
“Looks like I win.”
“Looks like you do,” she agreed. “What are you going to ask me?”
He leaned forward, that blue-gray gaze of his intense—so intense she couldn’t look away—as he took her hand in his. “Will you give me a shot, or is this just a one-night stand?”
* * *
HE HADN’T MEANT to ask her that, but now that he had, he knew that was exactly the only thing he wanted an answer for. Today had been one of the best of his life. But there was a part of him that realized she had pegged him into the casual category and he knew he wanted more.
He had to know what he was up against. Just like each time he stood at the lip of the half-pipe and took a breath before taking his run. Each half-pipe was different. Each run unique. And he prepared for the different mountains and the different events as if he’d never taken a run at it before.
Lindsey was like an unfamiliar run. This was his first time with a woman who mattered. She mattered. The words echoed around in his brain as he sat at the table trying to be cool. Or as cool as a guy could be wearing just his underwear while playing cards.
