“Soon,” he promised as his mouth traveled down her neck while his fingers slid in and out of her slowly. “Let me enjoy you for a moment.”
He shifted and slid her panties down her legs, then knelt above her as his eyes ran over her entire body.
Since she was enjoying the view of him, she didn’t mind.
He had glorious muscles all over thanks to all the hours of manual labor on the ranch. She wanted to take her time and explore each and every one, but she could feel herself building and knew that if he touched her again, she’d explode.
Then his mouth covered her between her legs, and she screamed as her entire world exploded with her release.
When he returned to cover her, her hands gripped his hips as he slowly trailed his mouth over her neck.
“Nick, don’t make me beg,” she said, and when she heard his chuckle, she dug her nails into his hips. Then, in one quick move, he slid into her, and she knew there wouldn’t be any going back to how things were before.
Their friendship was officially over and the fear of losing it along with him weighed heavily on her as their bodies cooled later.
“I’d better get back home. Oliver probably needs out,” she said, feeling a pain in her chest.
Nick shifted until he was looking down at her. “Nothing has changed,” he said, before kissing her. “I still want you.”
She nodded, holding back the tears. “Yes.” She tried to smile and was thankful it was too dark for him to see her face clearly.
He seemed to understand her need to retreat and rolled from her. By the time she sat up, he was there with a T-shirt for her to slip on.
“Here, you can wear this. Our clothes are still downstairs,” he said with a smile.
“Thanks.” She pulled on his shirt and was surrounded by his sexy scent. She instantly wanted to keep wearing it when she left.
She followed him downstairs and slipped on her jeans and boots while he pulled on his own jeans and the shirt that he’d tossed off.
She tucked her shirt under her arm along with her bra and socks.
When she turned, Nick was watching her. Then he moved over and kissed her.
“I’ll be over at your place in the morning,” he said softly against her lips.
She wanted to argue. To tell him he didn’t have to bother. That she could take care of the place by herself. But the truth was, she wanted to see him again.
“Okay. Thanks for dinner,” she said as he walked her to the front door. “Wow, it’s really coming down now,” she said after they opened the door. “I thought we were going to have at least a week without snow.”
“Yeah, we’re supposed to have about a week of this stuff.” He stopped her from walking to her truck by pulling her close again. “What are you doing for Christmas? I mean, with your folks gone and all.”
“I’m not sure. My stepbrother and his family spend Christmas in Hawaii.” She shrugged. “I know my folks are going to be in Paris and plan on celebrating with a trip to the Eiffel Tower. I was thinking about going over to Liz’s place and spending it with her and her family.” She frowned. “What are you doing now that…” She felt her heart sink.
“I’m not sure.”
“We could… spend it together?”
He smiled. “I don’t want to ruin your plans with Liz.”
“I haven’t officially made any,” she admitted.
He sighed and then pulled her close and kissed her until she melted against him. “Kara, go home,” he said against her neck before he pulled away.
On very unstable legs, she walked through the snow to her truck, drove home, and then let herself into the house, where Oliver was waiting at the back door to be let out.
She was too wired to go to bed and decided to make banana nut bread for breakfast instead. Halfway through preparations, however, the energy she’d had melted and instead of baking the bread that night, she put the mix into the fridge for the morning.
She headed into her room, showered, and pulled on the warmest pajamas she had before crawling into bed.