One Snowy Night (Heartbreaker Bay #2.5)(20)

Carl promptly rolled onto his back on the bed, taking up nearly the entire thing and showing off all his bits as he did.

“Well, you did say down,” Rory pointed out. “He listens. He laid down. What a good boy,” she said to his dog. “Are you a good boy, Carl?”

Carl’s tail thumped the bed staccato style.

Max pointed to the floor.

Carl hefted out a sigh and slunk off the mattress. Slowly. One long leg at a time, with a look back at Max as each limb hit the floor like he was hoping he’d change his mind.

Max didn’t. Instead, he tucked Rory beneath him, entwined his fingers in hers, and slowly slid their hands over her head as he lowered his.

“So,” he said. “Where were we?”





Chapter Nine


RORY STARED UP at Max, mesmerized by the warm look in his eyes. “I think you were about to rock my world,” she whispered.

He smiled. “Was I?”

Her heart sped up. God, he had a gorgeous smile. “I hope so,” she said fervently.

He pulled her sweater slowly over her head. It fell to the floor and she heard him suck in a breath, which was reassuring in a sexy, “ohmigod this is happening” way because it meant she did it for him every bit as much as he did it for her.

Pressing herself up against the long, leanly muscled body she’d been dreaming about for ages, she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face into his throat. He smelled amazing and, needing to know if he tasted amazing as well, she took a little nibble.

He growled low in his throat at that and tipped her chin up. “Tell me you’re in this, Rory.”

If she was any more in, she’d be drowning. “I’m in this.”

He stared into her eyes for a beat as if searching for the truth in that statement, but she’d never been so honest with anyone in her life. “I want you, Max. I always have.”

That had a fierce light blazing from his intense eyes and then he claimed her mouth. She loved that he wasn’t gentle with her. She didn’t need or want that, and she moaned when he kissed her hard and hot and hungry all at once. And then he was busy divesting her of the rest of her clothing until she was bared to him. With a shaky breath he took her in, and when that made her shift uncomfortably, he caught her hands and bent to press his mouth to the throbbing pulse at the base of her neck, slowly working his way south.

“Soft,” he murmured. “So soft. Sweet too.”

She managed a laugh.

He lifted his head, eyes crinkled in amusement. “What?”

“No one’s ever called me sweet before.”

“Well, you do hide it well,” he said demurely, making her snort. He flicked a tongue across her nipple and then sucked it into his mouth, leaving her a trembling wreck. He moved south then, taking his sweet--ass time too, nipping her just beneath her belly button, her hip. “You’ll stop me if there’s anything you don’t like,” he said.

“At the moment, I’m more likely to beg you to keep going.”

He smiled. “Like the sound of that too.” His big hands urged her legs to part, and he lowered his head and rubbed his stubbly jaw against her inner thigh while she squirmed and wriggled.

He simply tightened his grip on her, holding her still while he turned his head and worked her other inner thigh, and then finally, finally he found a new target, the perfect spot, her holy grail spot . . . without so much as a road map or directions.

Before she could marvel over this, she was gone. Lost in wave after wave of sensation that robbed her of her senses while she burst apart at the seams.

When she surfaced back to reality, he’d located a condom from she had no idea where, but she was grateful. “Yes,” she said. “Please, yes.”

His gaze riveted on hers, his mouth curved as he kissed her. “Love the ‘please,’ ” he murmured, voice sexy, low and rough. “Feel free to give me more of that.”

She was laughing as he slid home but the laughter backed up in her throat, turning into a moan. Helplessly she arched into him, filled to bursting as he claimed her mouth again.

And then he began to move and claimed her body as well, taking her to a place she’d never been before. When they both fell apart, shuddering in each other’s arms, Rory couldn’t catch her breath, couldn’t get it together.

She didn’t have to. He held her for a long time after, rolling onto his back, taking her with him so that she was plastered all over him, a tangle of limbs. His arms remained tight around her, one hand gliding slowly up and down her back, occasionally stopping to squeeze her ass.

It made her smile and her heart sigh. She fell asleep like that, more content then she could ever remember feeling, thinking if only Christmas could end right here, it’d be perfect.

RORY OPENED HER eyes to find Max standing over her with a steaming cup in his hand and a sexy, knowing smile on his face.

He’d spent the past few hours rocking her world and he damn well knew it. It’d been . . . amazing, but now she was short of sleep and felt like roadkill. Probably looked like it too.

But not Max. Nope, he had the nerve to look reenergized and perfect.

With a groan, Rory rolled over and planted her face in the pillow.

“Mmm,” he murmured huskily in her ear, clearly taking her new position as an invitation. “Later, if you’re really, really good.” And then he lightly smacked her ass. “Rise and shine, princess.”