Mismatched Under the Mistletoe - Jess Michaels Page 0,26

for the catch of her breath, for the way her lips parted slightly just as he brushed his mouth over hers. He drowned in how she opened to him, allowing him in as her arms came around his neck. She tasted like honey, so sweet it was almost overpowering, and he lost all sense of reason when she lifted against him with a soft, guttural moan of pleasure.

She wanted him. Not just when she was swept away by a moment, but she’d admitted she felt the same even when her feet were firmly on the ground. He had pined for her, ached for her, burned for her for so long. How could he resist if there were any option at all that he could have even a taste of heaven?

Just a taste would be enough, wouldn’t it?

She tensed in his arms and he drew back, looking down at her without releasing her. She looked so conflicted, so lost, and he shook his head. “I can stop.”

“I don’t want you to stop,” she admitted, and her cheeks went pink. “I just don’t know how to say what I do want. Not to you.”

He slid his hands down her back, memorizing the feel of every curve of her body. She shivered as she lifted against him.

“You want this,” he whispered, and cupped her backside. Her eyes went wide, but she didn’t pull away. Instead she nodded. He ground her against him, letting her feel the hardness of him as it grazed her softness. “You want this.”

This time her response was a garbled hiss. “Yes.”

“You want this.” He ducked his head and kissed her again, and she dug her fingers into his hair, fingers abrading his scalp as she tilted her head and deepened the kiss with wild desperation.

He quivered with the desire that had pulsed through him for so many years he almost couldn’t remember a time when it didn’t exist. And now it was about to be brought to fruition because he was going to make love to this woman. To Emily. He was going to make love to her until she quaked beneath his touch.

And if he was lucky enough or skillful enough or strong enough, perhaps that would open the door to something more. The thing he dared not name as she whispered his name into his mouth. For now this was enough and he wouldn’t let go.

Chapter 7

Cav was unbuttoning her dress. Emily was vaguely aware of it as she kissed him and kissed him while the world outside the door faded away. He was unbuttoning her dress with those strong, lean fingers that obviously knew what they were doing. It was in that moment that she fully grasped what would happen between them.

She could stop it. If she said no, he would pull away. If she demanded he never touch her like this again, he would obey.

But she didn’t want that. She wanted this wicked, wonderful stolen moment so much that she could hardly stay upright. Luckily strong hands supported her, just as they had supported her for years.

She trusted him. That mattered more than anything.

He broke his mouth from hers, his breath coming in desperate pants as he glided her dress away from her shoulders, down her arms, past her breasts, her waist, and let it crumple on the ground between them. He stared at her in her chemise, the thin straps and soft fabric barely covering her curves. He licked his lips and her body twitched in response.

“Before you…before you take off the rest,” she gasped, feeling the burning heat of her cheeks. She must look like a plum!

He nodded and dropped his hands, clenching them in fists at his sides as if he were forced to do that to maintain control. “Yes?”

“Aside from my maid, no one has seen me like this in years,” she whispered. “I don’t know if I’ll please you. I don’t know if I know how to please anyone anymore and I’m…I’m…”

“Nervous?” he asked softly, his deep voice soothing as much as it was stimulating. How could it be both?

“Yes,” she admitted, and bent her head.

He tucked a finger beneath her chin and forced her to look up at him again. His gaze focused on hers, held her steady, centered her as she had come to depend on him to do. He smiled, something slow and heated.

“There is no way you won’t please me, Emily, I promise you that,” he whispered. “And I know it’s been a long time for