Christmas at Holiday House - RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,85
a great kid. His enthusiasm for life is contagious.”
“It’s hard to have a bad day when he is always reminding me of how beautiful and exciting life can be.”
“He’s right,” Ethan said gruffly. “It can be.”
The silence stretched between them, suddenly crackling with awareness.
He wanted to kiss her again. She didn’t know how she knew—it was something in the slant of his mouth, the heat in his eyes. She caught her breath. She should walk away right now, just whisper a quick good-night and slip back to her bedroom where she was safe.
“Abby. You should probably go to bed.” His voice was a rasp that seemed to shiver down her spine.
“I know,” she whispered, though she couldn’t seem to make herself move, her heart pounding again and everything inside her waiting for the delicious magic of his kiss.
At last, at long last, he released a breath that sounded like a sigh and pulled her into his arms.
* * *
He shouldn’t be doing this.
Ethan knew the moment his mouth touched Abby’s again that he was making a mistake.
Every time he kissed her, he only ended up wanting more.
She was so soft and sweet and she made tiny, sexy little sounds when he kissed her, which he found intoxicating.
He wanted more than kisses. That was the problem. He wanted to find an empty room in the house, and spend the night discovering new and creative ways to elicit more of those sexy sounds.
She fascinated him on so many levels. She was kind, compassionate. A caring woman with a huge heart, as he saw in the way she interacted with her son and the patience she used with Winnie. She could also be brave, facing with courage and strength the kind of pain that would have destroyed a weaker person.
He admired and liked her more than any woman he had met in a long time. That didn’t mean he wanted anything more than kisses with her.
Abby deserved a man who was free to give her all the love and affection she could ever want, someone with the same capacity for love that she had.
That man wasn’t Ethan. Hadn’t he already demonstrated that clearly? He never let his heart get involved. That’s what the woman he had once intended to marry had told him, anyway. A year away from Brooke had certainly proven her right. He hadn’t loved her. He was probably incapable of love. That part of him may have been damaged irreparably by his parents and their endlessly bad romances.
He didn’t want to hurt Abby. She had suffered enough. But, oh, it was hard to do the right thing.
For a little bit longer, he allowed himself to savor her mouth, the softness of her arms around him, the curves of her body against him. He dreaded the moment he would have to stop.
He finally knew he couldn’t put it off any longer. He slid his mouth away from hers and dropped his arms to the side.
When he spoke, he used a deliberately casual tone.
“Sorry. Looks like we got a little carried away again.”
She blinked for a moment, looking dazed and aroused. “I...guess we did. We seem to do that when we’re alone together.”
“Maybe we should be more careful not to find ourselves alone together.”
He saw heat flicker in her eyes for only a moment before she blinked it away. “Good idea. Fortunately I won’t be here much longer. We only have to make it through Christmas and we should both be home free. Good night, Ethan. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go find a toy grader.”
As he walked out into the cold December night, Ethan knew he had handled that poorly.
He should have been honest with her, but how did a guy tell a woman that he suspected something inside him might be broken?
By the way. I know we’re only kissing here, but in case you wanted something more, don’t look for it here.
It sounded ridiculous, even to him.
So now what? He couldn’t avoid her. She would be staying with his grandmother until after Christmas. He was supposed to take her and her son skiing in a few days.
No matter. He would simply be as polite to her as he was to Mariah Raymond, Emily Tsu and all the other Silver Belles.
No matter how difficult.
Fourteen
This was certainly awkward.
For the past half hour, Lucy had been doing her best to interpret a small billing dispute between the front-desk staff and a guest from Japan who spoke and understood English but preferred