A California Christmas (Silver Springs #7) - Brenda Novak Page 0,77

pulled a bait and switch on me.”

A spark of hope did battle with the negative emotions that seemed determined to strangle him. “A bait and switch?”

“He painted it as one thing but showed up with other ideas.”

She sounded so annoyed that Dallas suddenly felt better, good enough to joke it off. “At least you got a free meal.”

“No, I insisted on paying my half and left right after we ate, even though he was intent on getting me to go to the movies with him.”

“You didn’t want to go?”

“No. I didn’t want to be with him—I wanted to be with you.”

He let his eyes slide down, taking in her long eyelashes, the lips he’d kissed, the breasts he’d touched. “So is this a date?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I just hope it ends with you inside me.”

“How about if we start that way?” He jerked his head toward his vehicle. “Let’s go.”

18

They didn’t speak as Dallas started the van and drove them out of town. The radio was playing, but Emery could still hear her heart pounding in her ears. Her mouth watered in anticipation of once again tasting him, and she looked forward to running her nose over his smooth, warm skin and smelling that unique and wonderful scent she associated with him.

As soon as he found a private spot in a grove of trees, he pulled off the highway, out of sight, and parked. He left the music playing as they got in back, where there was a bed, and yanked anxiously at each other’s clothes, trying to get them off as fast as possible.

It didn’t take long, but when Emery felt Dallas’s bare chest come against hers, she couldn’t wait for him to get even closer.

They were kissing so deeply they were breathless within minutes. “Nobody kisses as good as you do,” she told him when he pulled away to run his mouth down her neck. She didn’t say so, but nobody felt as good as he did, either. Her hands moved along the muscles that rippled across his back as he lifted her and twisted so that she was beneath him.

“Keep talking like that and this won’t last long.” He was joking, but the ragged edge to his voice lent truth to those words, and she found his level of arousal as intoxicating as everything else about him. How was it that while her life was in the midst of a complete meltdown, she was having the best sex she’d ever experienced?

“I’m just glad you decided to come home for Christmas,” she whispered as she outlined his ear with her tongue.

“So am I,” he told her gruffly, eagerly, and brought her knees up as he pushed inside her.

* * *

When it was over, Dallas dropped onto the mattress beside Emery. The way they’d made love was far more intense than it had been before, but Emery didn’t care to examine the reason.

“That was amazing,” he said.

She had to agree. For whatever reason, they were perfect sex partners. She’d never felt such raw desire for anyone else and was a little rattled by it. What was happening to her? She seemed to be a completely different person than she’d been before—a far more reckless and passionate person—and that frightened her. Where would it all end? And would she be able to get back to the woman she’d been before?

“Sorry. I would’ve waited until after I’d shown you the lights,” he said as he nipped at her shoulder. “But I kept thinking of the silkiness of your hair and the softness of your skin and the fullness of your breasts. And then you showed up looking like a wet dream in that dress, and said what you said, and I lost all control,” he added with a laugh.

She pressed her lips to his neck, still luxuriating in how much he appealed to every one of her senses. “It’s not too late to drive around and enjoy all the holiday cheer, is it?”

“Absolutely not. Maybe we can get some ice cream while we’re out, too.”

She ran her fingers down his arm, struck by the sheer masculine beauty of it. “Sugar Mama is closed.”

“Another ice cream store has opened up not far from the main part of town. It doesn’t offer fresh-baked cookies or ice cream sandwiches—it’s more of an old-time parlor with giant creations doused in caramel and chocolate sauce—but I’m definitely in the mood for something indulgent, aren’t you?”

“We’ve been pretty indulgent already,” she said. “But I could