to. Knowing how effortlessly Teddy could transform such imperfection, he’d claimed the tree. While he was trying to secure the five-foot shrub to the top of the Mustang, it had started to rain, a cold drizzle that gradually soaked through his shirt and jeans.
The slight discomfort would be worth seeing Teddy’s face light up with joy when she saw her surprise. Her very own Christmas tree, to decorate as she pleased, and to share with him. This year, she wouldn’t be alone on Christmas morning. This year, he’d give her every reason to celebrate.
He had nothing to wrap and put beneath the tree for her. The thought had crossed his mind on the drive back to her place, but he’d decided that he wanted to give Teddy something more personal than a tangible gift, something precious and priceless, something all the money in the world couldn’t buy. Something she was in dire need of, even if she didn’t realize it yet.
His love.
Yeah, he loved her. The emotion had snuck up on him when he’d least expected it, stealing into his heart and making him realize he needed this feisty, stubborn, too-independent woman in his life. He wanted a wife to come home to at night and share his life with, and he wanted children to bring love and laughter to a home that hadn’t experienced much merriment since his parents had died. He imagined all those things, and more…and in every mental picture that projected in his mind, Teddy played a central part in his future.
His feelings for her were crazy, nothing he’d ever prepared himself for, yet there was no denying what he felt for her exceeded anything he’d ever experienced. And despite their different backgrounds and her parents’ uncertainties about him, the only person’s opinion that mattered to him was Teddy’s.
He knew that needing someone didn’t come easily to Teddy, but he harbored enough confidence to believe her feelings for him were just as strong as his were for her, which, at the very least, gave them a solid foundation to build on. He’d seen the emotion in her eyes when he’d made love to her last night, the uninhibited way she’d responded to him told a tale of its own. But he’d also sensed her uncertainty after that first joining, felt the barest hint of reservation. And he wasn’t going to give her time to come up with any regrets.
Luckily for him, she was easily distracted. He’d kept her mouth and hands and mind as busy as his own. He’d fanned the flames of desire all over again, taking her in possessive, erotic ways that had at first shocked Teddy, then incited her to new, feverish heights. They’d made good use of the box of condoms he’d brought, and in the dark hours of the night he hoped he’d managed to strip away a few layers of that frustrating reserve.
She let out a soft, slumberous sigh and shifted on the mattress, stretching out more fully on her belly and sprawling those gorgeous legs of hers across most of the bed. He couldn’t help but grin. If he’d still been lying beside her, she would have kicked him right off the edge. The woman was a bed-hog.
The covers wrapped loosely around her slender hips and tangled around her shapely legs, leaving the smooth slope of her back bare to his gaze, and hinting at the soft, warm nakedness beneath the sheet. Her arms were folded around a pillow, her face buried in the softness, and the slight curve to her body afforded him a glimpse of one full, pale breast.
Not so surprisingly, sexual heat surged through his body, settling into an insistent throb in his groin. Amazingly, he grew full and heavy beneath his cold, wet briefs and the denim molding to his hips and thighs. Welcoming the rush of warmth and anticipating the greater heat of Teddy’s body, he stripped his damp T-shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor. He toed off his shoes, tugged off his soaked socks, and struggled to push the wet denim over his hips and down his legs. Completely naked, and fully aroused, he slipped beneath the covers and moved toward Teddy.
The moment his chilled flesh touched hers she gasped and came awake, her head lifting from the pillow. She looked disoriented, her tousled hair falling over her face, her eyes hazy. Before she could turn around or scramble away, he aligned his body over hers from behind, pressed her back down on the mattress, and pulled the blankets up around them.
“Austin?” she said, her voice husky and a little bewildered.
He dragged his open mouth along her jaw, nuzzled the warm, fragrant hollow of neck, tasting her skin with his lips and the touch of his tongue. “’Morning,” he murmured, his rumbly voice low and intimate in the shadowed gray before dawn. The soft, rhythmic pitter-patter of rain against the window added to the lazy, sensual morning.
She released a drowsy, complacent “Mmm” as he caressed along the indentation of her waist with his hands, then shivered when he slipped his palms along her ribs and finally tucked his chilled hands between her breasts and the mattress to warm them.
She sucked in a swift breath as her nipples beaded against his icy palms. “You’re freezing,” she complained as another shudder ran though her, though she made no move to push him off her.
Nudging her thighs apart, he settled between that warm, welcoming harbor. “I won’t be for long,” he whispered, gently rubbing his stubbled cheek along her smooth shoulder. His damp hair brushed her skin, and he felt her shiver again.
“And you’re wet,” she said, her voice filled with confusion.
“I think that’s my line.” He rolled his hips forward, gliding his hot, male flesh along her slick, feminine cleft, proving his point.
She laughed huskily, and wriggled her bottom beneath him, impatiently seeking the deeper contact he planned to give her in his own sweet time. She drew a deep breath, and released it slowly. “You smell like rain, and pine.”
“Imagine that.” Smiling at the puzzled note to her voice, he eased a hand away from her breast, slid his flattened palm down her belly, and threaded his way through silky, damp curls to a greater fire, a more desperate need. Sultry desire drenched his fingertips the moment he touched her.
She whimpered beneath him, and he groaned, the heaviness and hunger inside him intensifying. “Ah, you feel so damn good, Teddy,” he breathed. Sinking deeper into her lush heat, he plied that tiny nub of flesh, giving her nothing but pleasure. Her breathing quickened, and he had the fleeting thought that he might be crushing her with his weight. “Am I too heavy for you?” he murmured against her ear.
“Nnnnooo,” she moaned, her legs parting wider for his touch, while her fingers gripped the pillow. She turned her head to glance back at him, but got caught up in the tremors shimmering through her body. He watched her eyes roll back in ecstasy, her lips part, and a long, keening cry rip from her throat as she gave herself over to the erotic sensations.
Satisfaction swelled in his chest, and he continued to stroke her, slowly, exquisitely, reverently, until the last bit of rapture ebbed-reveling in the fact that this time, she didn’t even try to temper the emotional climax.
Her unconditional response turned him on, humbled him, even. Wanting to give the same in return, he dragged his palms from beneath her, found her hands, and laced their fingers together at the side of her head. “Lift your hips for me, Teddy,” he rasped near her ear, desperate to be inside her.
She accommodated his request without hesitation, and he slid into her with a sleek, heavy glide, surrounding her with flesh that was no longer chilled, but now burned with the wild need to possess her in the most elemental way possible.
Mutual groans coalesced, and his hips began pumping harder, faster. Her fingers tightened around his, and she whispered his name, over and over, a sweet, drugging litany that dragged him deeper into the flames.
The sensations crashing over him stole his breath. The powerful emotions he felt for this woman touched his heart, overwhelming him, sending him careening straight over the edge of control. Burying deep, he arched against her and rode with the most excruciating pleasure he’d ever known.
11
SIGHING CONTENTEDLY, Teddy draped her leg over Austin’s and rested her head in the crook of his shoulder, unable to think of a nicer way to wake up in the morning-making love to an exceptionally sexual, virile man who was as generous with her pleasure as he was greedy about taking his own satisfaction. The delicious, satiated glow spreading through her was something she could get used to.
Sex had never been a necessity for her, certainly not something she’d given much importance to in her pursuit to establish her career, but she quickly realized it was a matter of making love to the right man. She couldn’t get enough of Austin, the excitement of his kisses, the thrill of his touch, and even the sexy way he looked at her that
