She gave him a look.
“I swear I would have if you’d asked me to.”
“But I didn’t.”
“No. You didn’t.” He curved his arm around her waist, placed his hand on the small of her back, and drew her against him until his cock was nestled in the vee between her thighs. They kissed. Sexily. Her mouth was hot and eager, wet and receptive. Just thinking about the possibilities it afforded made his blood flow like lava.
Laughing softly, he broke the kiss. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m burning up.”
She smiled. “So am I.”
They took off their clothes.
Lilly naked. Jesus.
He finally got to see her, and he couldn’t look enough. She was beautiful. Her breasts lay soft against her chest. Firelight waltzed across her skin, forming erotic tongues of shadow that seemed to lick at her nipples.
“Last summer, whenever you got wet—”
“I know what you’re going to say,” she interrupted. “I was embarrassed.”
“I knew you were. So I tried to be a gentleman and keep my eyes above your neck. It wasn’t easy.” He strummed the center of her chest with the backs of his fingers.
“You touched me today,” she said in a voice that was low and husky. “While I was asleep.”
His gaze flickered up to hers, then away. “Not much. A little.”
“I thought I was dreaming.”
“I thought I was too.” Then he looked into her face again. “If I’m dreaming now, don’t wake me up.”
“I won’t.”
Her nipple hardened at his touch. His thumb made several passes across it, then he gently pressed it between his fingers.
Her reaction was to gasp his name. Then she said, “Put your mouth on me.”
He lowered his head and rubbed his lips across her nipple. “You’ve been cheating.”
“How?”
“Window peeping on my fantasies.”
An involuntary groan issued from Tierney’s chest now as he relived taking her nipple into his mouth. His tongue well remembered the texture of it, the taste. He opened his eyes, smiling when he realized that his recollection had evolved into a dream when he lapsed back into sleep.
But he was fully awake now. All of him. He had a painful erection.
“Why should that be the only part of me not aching?” he muttered. Grimacing from various aches, he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Lilly?”
He threw back the blankets and stood up. Or tried. He was on his feet, but his body was bent at a right angle. From there, he eased himself to his full height, every bone, joint, and muscle protesting. His skin broke out in gooseflesh. He shivered against the cold. Grabbing the top blanket, he wrapped it around himself.
“Lilly?” When she didn’t answer, he headed into the bedroom.
• • •
Lilly paused on the edge of the forest to enjoy the breathtaking scene. It looked like a three-dimensional Christmas card. The boughs of the evergreens were heavily laden with snow. The naked branches of the hardwoods looked nearly black in contrast to the white backdrop. The dawn shone only on the very top branches of the trees, which swayed in the erratic wind currents. But on the floor of the forest it was dark and still.
It was a natural cathedral, a place of worship. She wished she could linger and enjoy the hushed serenity. But it didn’t take long for her toes to become numb inside her boots, reminding her that, as pretty as it was, this was still the wilderness, deadly if one didn’t take precautions.