Elkin Brothers Christmas The Complete Series - Leslie North Page 0,76

in the world.

“It was a little before my parents were killed in a car accident.”

Anna took his hand and squeezed. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured. She turned her head and kissed his cheek.

Out of the corner of his eye, Gabe caught his grandmother watching.

“You’re good for him,” she told Anna. “Much more demonstrative than some of the others.” She cleared her throat, letting out a little laugh. “Not that everyone needs to be demonstrative every minute, but...it’s lovely to see.”

Pride and guilt rushed through him, but he pushed them down in favor of pulling Anna close. “You’re right,” he said, smiling at his grandmother. “She is good for me.”

“But how?” Jonas chimed in. “How did you learn to be good for our high-powered businessman of a brother? Does your family move in the same circles?”

Anna tensed in his arms. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that, no.”

“Ah. What do your parents do, Anna? I don’t think you’ve mentioned it.”

Gabe wouldn’t have noticed the stiffness in her shoulders if he didn’t know her—if he wasn’t sitting so close. “Chase, I’d rather hear about your plans. You’re definitely going to stick around, right?” he said, hoping to divert the conversation.

“Oh, yeah.” Chase beamed. “I’m going to work with my friend’s company from the Elk Lodge and direct the athletic program. It’ll be the best of both worlds.”

Anna relaxed as the conversation turned to work plans and stories from their childhood, and Gabe let out a breath. He’d done it. He’d protected her. Of all his achievements in life, this ranked pretty high.

The conversation rose and fell around them. It settled into a rhythm Gabe recognized from his younger days—Chase telling an old story about learning to ski, and Jonas telling one about the first night managing the hotel on his own. The evening reached the end of its cycle when his grandmother stood. “Time for bed,” she said. “I’ll see all of you tomorrow.” Everyone responded with a chorus of goodbyes.

Anna stuck tight to his side on the way to their room. “You’re quiet,” he said, as she kicked off her shoes and put away their coats. “I hope—I hope we’re all right.”

She looked at him, an instant of warning before she was on him, backing him up against the wall for a change and kissing him with desperate, hungry little noises. “Thank you,” she murmured against his mouth. “I didn’t want to talk about my family, and you... you... thank you.” Her hands worked at the buttons of his shirt and then lower, lower. Anna sank to her knees on the carpet in front of him, and he gripped the waist-high chair rail. Every inch of him came alive, the feeling made even more intense by the sound of his belt coming undone in her hands and his zipper slipping down.

Gabe was already hard, and it was the sweetest relief when Anna unleashed him from the cage of his boxers and pants, her hand wrapped around him. She kissed the tip of him, and it was so unbearably sexy that he let his head fall back against the wall.

And when she took him into her mouth...

Heaven. A wet, warm heaven with a rhythm he settled into, his body arching toward her with every long pull of her tongue. The rest of the world fell away. All the acting, all the stolen kisses, they were elsewhere. Gabe only existed here, at this moment.

He ran his fingers through Anna’s hair, feeling them catch and tangle, and allowed himself a few more moments of pleasure so intense it was almost pain. Then he coaxed her up with his hands and with urgent whispers. “Here.”

Gabe took her to the bedroom and went for her clothes. Her pants came off first, then panties, leaving her shirt intact. Anna was ready in seconds, and he perched her on the edge of the bed and spread her legs. It wasn’t enough to have her mouth on him—he needed his mouth on her delicate folds. Now.

The first gentle kiss of his lips made her shiver. The first lick made her shudder, and suddenly she was gripping the covers and moaning as he devoured her. Delicious. Soft. Pink. Wet. He licked along her core with a full-on fantasy in his mind.

This, repeatedly, for the rest of his life. Anna coming home to him each night so he could please her. She writhed a little, and his tongue contacted new, undiscovered places between her legs. Oh, he needed this. It wasn’t until now