Mills and Boon Christmas Joy Collection. Liz Fielding

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      “Kiss me?”

      He smiled and then lifted one of his hands, pulling the ponytail holder from her hair very carefully so he didn’t snag even one strand. He ran his fingers through her hair, fanning it out and pulling it forward over her shoulders. Then he tunneled his fingers through it, tipping her head back, and very slowly lowered his head toward hers.

      She kept her eyes open this time. This kiss, she wanted to see his emotions, ascertain what he felt and try to figure out if she was doing this right. Because if she’d learned anything from watching Carter over the years, it was that he knew how to roll with the punches. He moved effortlessly through life and didn’t get slowed down by emotional entanglements. Something she knew she had to master before she started to like him any more than she did at this moment.

      It could be just sex. Sex was healthy and something she’d never denied herself, but any other kind of attachment wasn’t. She’d been focused on skiing and being the best in the world. There hadn’t been time for a relationship when she’d eaten, drank and even dreamed about her downhill runs. She had to remember that.

      But as his lips moved over hers, just rubbing lightly, and he dropped nibbling kisses along the line of her jaw to her ear, all the while whispering hot promises about all the places he wanted to ravish her, she knew she was in very real danger of forgetting.

      * * *

      LINDSEY KEPT HIM on his toes, always dancing just out of his reach, which normally was exactly what he wanted and needed. But today he didn’t. Today he wanted to hold the woman who was so brave and strong but didn’t see those qualities in herself. Today he wanted a few moments where he didn’t feel as if he had to chase her. And now that they were at her condo—her sparse, nondescript home—he had hoped he’d be able to relax.

      But this was Lindsey and she surprised him. Never more so then when he held her in his arms. She wanted him. That was obvious from the flush of her skin and how she kept coming back into his arms when normally she would have been running for the hills.

      Last night he’d taken it nice and slow; savored each and every delectable inch of her. But he wasn’t sure he could take his time right now. He kept feeling that the harder he tried to keep her by his side the more easily she slipped away from him. And it hit him that the reason was that she saw him the way everyone else did.

      As the careless playboy who’d taken too many women to his bed. And for once, he was with a woman that he wanted to be different with, and it wasn’t going to happen.

      He kissed her, and he meant for it to be a sort of sweet extension of everything that had gone on before, but his control slipped and he plunged his tongue deep into her mouth. His hands tangled in her hair as he urged her head back so that he could get even deeper.

      He rested one arm on the wall and leaned in over her, surrounding her yet at the same time keeping some small distance between them. He needed to do that or he was going to rip her clothes off and be on her like a man who hadn’t had a woman in years. Instead of just a few hours.

      Dammit.

      He’d never been this close to the edge of his control. But Lindsey, with her wide-open, chocolate-brown eyes that gazed up him, searching his face for something—almost daring him to try to make this about something other than sex—goaded him on.

      It made him struggle to find a balance between what she expected and what he wanted. That was the key. He knew what he wanted and he had to figure out how to walk that fine edge without revealing to her how desperately he desired her. Not just for this afternoon but for...

      How long?

      He tore his mouth from hers, reaching for the top of her snow bib and sliding the shoulder straps down. Then he pulled the sweater she wore underneath up and over her head. He tossed it to the floor and stepped back to look at her.

      She stood there with the bib folded down from her waist with just a simple cream-colored bra covering her. Her skin was soft; he knew that from the night before. And he remembered how much he’d enjoyed caressing her. She stood there staring at him with that intense gaze that made him harden.

      Lindsey took a step forward, grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled him back to her. She went up on her tiptoes to kiss him as she tugged the fabric up over his chest. He felt her fingers on him. Her nails scraping over his nipples and digging into his pectorals.

      “Why do I want you?” she asked under her breath as she pulled her head back. “Why you?”

      “There was always something between us, Linds. We both knew that.”

      He unhooked her bra with one hand and pulled the fabric from her torso. Tossed it on the floor and then leaned down to kiss one nipple. He’d barely had time last night to taste them. They were pinkish red and hardened under his lips. He skimmed his hands over her ribs and down to her narrow waist.

      Carter spanned it with both of his hands, pulling her from the wall and more firmly toward him. Then he turned so he could lean against the wall. Her hands roamed up and down, bringing every nerve in his body to red alert.

      He wanted her now.

      But he was trying to...

      Why? Why was he taking this slow when he knew that Lindsey was a sixty-miles-per-hour girl? She liked the exhilaration of speeding through life. But he wanted it to take longer. Needed to tease it out for his as much as her pleasure.

      This morning had showed him just how fragile his hold on her was, and he knew that every time he took her in his arms it might be his last.

      He lifted his head from her tempting body and looked up at her. Her eyes were half-closed and her skin had a pretty rose-colored blush to it. She was lightly skimming her hands over his skin as she chewed her lower lip.

      A moment later she pushed her hands into the waistband of his pants and shoved them toward his feet. He stepped out of them. Then she pushed his boxer briefs down, as well. Standing naked in her hallway, Carter realized he was where he wanted to be. She took his erection in her hand and stroked him up and down while he frantically shoved her clothes out of the way. Then, groaning low in his throat, he lifted her into his arms and turned so that her back was braced against the wall as he thrust into her.

      He pushed himself all the way inside her and then rested his head on her shoulder. He took several deep breaths, but her fingers moving up and down his spine and then lower to cup his buttocks urged him on.

      “Take me,” she said, whispering the words directly into his ear.

      He was already there, moving his hips as she lifted her legs and wrapped them around him, forcing him farther inside her. She tipped her head back, her silky blond hair sliding over his shoulders as he plunged in and out of her.

      His world narrowed to just her, and he couldn’t think beyond the urge to go deeper, to take her so completely that there wouldn’t be a Lindsey and Carter when he stopped, but just one being.

      He felt his orgasm at the base of his spine and cursed as he tried to slow it or stop it. But it was too late. He was too close to the edge, and she dug her heels into his thighs, arching up against him as he came inside her. Realizing she wasn’t there yet, he reached between their bodies, finding her clit and stroking it while he kept moving in and out of her body.

      She felt so good. He felt her tighten around СКАЧАТЬ