Moonlight Over Manhattan(93)

She felt the sudden acceleration of his heart under her hand, felt the hard muscle of his abs tighten as she moved lower and took him into the heat of her mouth. She heard his breathing grow heavy and felt a whole new powerful feeling that came from knowing what she was doing was driving him wild. He fought for breath, moaned her name and she gave and gave until his hands hauled her upward and she finally moved over him, straddling him.

In the firelight she could see the bunched muscle of his shoulders and the glitter of his eyes as he focused on her face. She knew she was flushed. She knew her hair was tangled from his hands. It didn’t matter to her. It certainly didn’t seem to matter to him.

Murmuring that she was beautiful, incredible, driving him crazy, he gripped her hips and entered her with a slow upward thrust that filled her completely. The sheer intensity of it stole her breath. She felt her body yield to the demands of his and the thrill of the masculine invasion made her heart race and her tummy tighten. All she was aware of was him, and the hot aching need that spread through her body.

She closed her eyes.

Sex with Ethan was an intimacy she’d never known before.

And then he started to move. He moved with a slow, relentless rhythm that sent pleasure coursing through her. With each stroke he went a little higher, a little harder, urging her close and closer to the edge until there was nothing in her mind except this. She didn’t care about the past. She didn’t care about the future. There was only now. And he made the most of now, driving into her until her body was screaming for more, until sensation after sensation crashed down on her and the contractions of her body rippled along his shaft, taking him with her.

Somehow, much later, they made it up to the shelf and lay together looking at the snowy forest, luminous in the moonlight.

She felt dazed. Drugged. And happier than she could ever remember feeling.

Ethan stroked her arm. “I was afraid you were going to find this evening daunting. I was worried that by putting you in a room with a large number of strangers, I wasn’t being fair on you.”

“It was great. And I’m glad I stammered. Falling and discovering that you can get back up is good for confidence. Right now I feel as if I can do anything.”

He pulled her closer. “And now you’ve discovered you can do anything, what’s next for Challenge Harriet?”

“No idea. But I’m tired of not doing things because I’m afraid of screwing them up. I really wanted to meet your friends. Your godmother. And I loved them. I love the O’Neils.” She snuggled closer. “I can see why you come back here whenever you can.”

“It’s a great place. At one point I even considered getting a job here.”

“In the hospital where Sean works?” She tried to imagine Ethan away from the frenetic pace of New York City. “Why didn’t you?”

“I enjoy where I work. The ER in a place like this would be different.”

“You mean like skiing accidents and injury by moose encounter.”

“That kind of thing.”

“I can’t believe the whole family run this business together. It’s wonderful.”

“It’s not as picture-perfect as you might think. Jackson gave up his job to take over the place and save it from crumbling into the dirt. He could see what needed to be done to make the place a viable business in a busy market, but his grandparents didn’t want change. Jackson and Walter—they locked horns a million times when he was trying to upgrade this place. In the end he brought in Kayla. She worked for a company in Manhattan. He decided an outsider who could view the whole thing without considering the emotional elements might be the answer to the problem.”

“So she stayed and never left.”

Ethan grinned. “It wasn’t quite as smooth as that. From what Tyler told me, Kayla was a city girl and arrived in her elegant coat and heels. Took a while for her to warm up to the place. Literally.”

“But she did. And she fell in love with Jackson.” It sounded perfect to her. “How did Tyler meet Brenna?”

“They virtually grew up together. Brenna lived in the village.”

“And they run the ski side of things?”

“Yes. They all pulled together to make this place what it is now. For a while it didn’t look as if it would happen.”

“But they got there in the end. They found a way.” And that was how it should be, Harriet thought. She wasn’t stupid. She didn’t expect picture perfect. She never had. What she’d always dreamed about was a family who stuck together and supported one another through thick and thin, as the O’Neils had. Anyone could be there for the good bits. That was the easy part. The part that mattered, the part that really tested love, was to be there for the bad. “Do they mind that their mother is marrying again?”

“They want her to be happy. It helps that they like Tom. And he fits in well. This place has been home to him forever.”

“Did you bring Alison here?” She told herself that she wasn’t jealous. She was interested, that was all. She wanted to know him better and somewhere deep inside her she knew the key to understanding him was to understand what had gone wrong with his marriage.

“Once. It was too quiet for her. Not enough going on. She’s a city girl. And she had no interest in skiing, so that didn’t help.”