gently eased her back until she was lying down. Her stocking feet rubbed up and down his thigh, and he slowly pulled off her woolen socks one after the other, nibbling her ankles and massaging her arches. His hands slid up the outside of her jeans, undid the buttons and peeled them off her long legs. He stared at her until she crossed her hands in front of herself in a self-conscious display of modesty.
His eyes sought hers, but he said nothing out loud. Instead, he continued working upwards along her body, pushing up her sweater, then slipping it over her head and tossing it away. Drawing his finger down the center of her chest, he popped her bra clasp loose with one hand. The corners of his mouth lifted in a wicked grin, and his eyes darkened and danced with desire and amusement. “Best Christmas present I opened this year.”
He stood and unbuttoned his jeans, pushing them and his boxer briefs down and stepping out of them. After kissing up her legs and her body, he settled himself in the cradle of her hips and slid home. She rose up to meet him, again and again, and hooked her long legs around him to draw him close. He felt his restraint slipping away and tried to think about baseball, finals, anything to keep this from being over too soon. He regained some control, but at the same time, he could feel the tension building in her body, and he reached down between them to touch her. Her body tightened and then went slack with a moan and a sigh, and he let himself go. He couldn’t get far enough inside her, and she lifted his head from her shoulder and held his eyes with hers while he emptied into her.
He relaxed and then rolled to the side bringing her with him. Joy bubbled up from inside him, and he had the strange urge to laugh — to let a little of the unbearable happiness escape him. Her sweet voice called him out of his bliss, whispering words of love that he returned in kind before he lifted a blanket to cover them both. There they rested until complete darkness descended, their bodies intertwined in her mountain nest and warmed by the fire he built.
Chapter 9
New Year’s Eve
“When will this be ready? I’m starving.” James was cutting carrots into pieces while Laurel peeled potatoes at the counter.
“Slice them smaller, and they’ll get done faster.” She reached around him and guided his hands to make a narrower cut. He leaned down and kissed her mouth.
“Oooh, I gotta stir the beef.” She scooted over to the stove and turned the stew meat over to brown the other side.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her reach for the little radio she kept in the kitchen. “Not in the mood for Hickville easy listening, Laurel.”
“Sometimes at night, I can get radio stations from Oak Ridge and Knoxville.” She twisted the knob back and forth and fiddled with the antenna. “There we go. REM — how’s that?”
“That’ll do.” His knife hit the cutting board. “I saw them at Riverfront last year.”
“Where?”
He grinned. “Riverfront Coliseum. In Cincinnati?”
“Oh. I haven’t been there, but I’ve heard people talk about it.”
“I can’t wait to take you to concerts — you’ll love them. Last New Year’s I went with the guys to this little hole in the wall to see . . . ” he trailed off, remembering the debauchery of that New Year’s Eve. “Well, it was a really great band. What kind of music do you want to hear live?”
“Any of it — all kinds. I’ve never seen anything but the locals around here, so it’s all new to me.” Her eyes were lit with a blue fire that James interpreted as a thirst for adventure that matched his own. Suddenly though, the fire went out with an abruptness that was startling.
She picked up a bowl of potato chunks and slid them into the stew pot, guiding them with her knife. “Last year, you saw a great band, and this year you’re snowbound in a mountain cabin making your own dinner. This must be pretty boring compared to the New Year’s Eve parties you’re used to.”
He mentally kicked himself for bringing it up. It made it sound like he was hiding something, but that wasn’t why he didn’t want to tell her about it. That New Year’s happened before he spent the best summer of