AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He glanced down at her gloves pointedly.
“What? You know how cold my hands get.”
He tightened his jaw. Yes, he remembered how many times she’d stuck her cold hands and cold feet against his skin for warmth. Especially her hands. She loved to tuck them under his shirt.
“Come on. Show me what you want me to do,” Shane said.
“I get to give you direction? It’s a Christmas miracle.”
“Watch yourself.”
She bent into the bin and took out three packs of bound lights. “Or you’ll what?”
“Don’t tempt me, Kendall.”
She smirked up at him and tossed him two cardboard flats with lights strung around them. “Promises, promises. You can go wrap these along the rail on the other side of the porch. Just plug it in the end of the lights at the front. They all link together.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to the back, and I’ll meet you in the middle.”
“Race?”
“So competitive.” She grinned. “Deal.”
He had the upper hand in special knowledge, but it didn’t mean anything on her agility. She had damn tiny fingers and spindles for arms. Before he could get to the halfway mark, she was lapping him.
“Don’t forget the bottom rail.”
“Son of a bitch.”
Her laugh was infectious, and he found himself tangling around her to get the bottom rail done.
“Unfair!” She dissolved into giggles as he wound the cardboard around her hips and pulled it under a post, effectively trapping her into the lights.
“Now that’s my kind of decorating.”
She looked down at her waist and thighs, then back up at him. “Don’t you usually like to tie up my wrists?”
He stopped and groaned. “That’s playing dirty, Sunshine.”
She held out her hands, and without a word he wound the lights around her gloved wrists. The train of lights pooled at their feet, flooding the floor with a rainbow of colors.
He pulled her linked hands up and ducked until they were around his neck. Her eyes were hooded with awareness. He nuzzled his nose against hers, keeping his mouth just out of reach. Breathing her in, then breathing out into her mouth, he kept them both on the edge. Not quite touching, not quite apart. He brushed the bow of her top lip with his lower lip. The flick of her tongue urged him to stop the teasing, but he wanted to draw out the pleasure.
He couldn’t let it be more than a kiss, but he was starved for her touch. He had to savor this.
* * *
KENDALL ROSE ONTO her toes and tried to get him to kiss her. Really kiss her like he’d done at the truck when they’d gotten the tree, but Shane was determined to tease her out of her mind.
The day had been full of flirtation, mixed messages, and that undeniable fairy dust that blew between them when skin-on-skin contact happened. She wanted to swallow all of it whole and move the emptiness out of the pit of her stomach.
Finally he traced the seam of her mouth with his tongue and gently, thoroughly, tasted her. The lingering tang of his beer and the underlying flavor of pure Shane burned her tongue. He sipped from her, bit her lower lip, and infused every part of his taste into her mouth.
She sagged against him. If she hadn’t had the lights to keep her hands together, she would have slid into a boneless heap of pleasure at his feet. He held on, humming into her mouth as she cupped the back of his head and lifted the cap off.
His hair was longer now, and the silky strands fluttered between her fingers. She stroked her tongue along his, flicking the roof of his mouth and ending on a scrape of teeth over his lower lip.
