Santa Crush (Nights in Winter Lake)

Chapter 1

The cabin door closed behind Asha with soft click, but it may as well have been the bone-jolting slam of a prison door.

There was no going back. He'd willingly agreed to do this, and it was far too late to back out.

Scrubbing a hand down his face he wondered how he would make it through fifteen nights sleeping in the same room as the woman who drove him crazy just by breathing.

Sarah.

Just thinking about her had his body tightening and relaxing simultaneously.

How that was even possible was beyond him, but he had six feet three, a hundred and ninety-five pounds of evidence to prove it could.

Dragging in a deep breath he willed his body to calm down. He hadn't even seen her yet and he already knew it was a losing battle.

Two years and six months of fighting his own body's reactions to Sarah Adair had done nothing to reduce the affect she had on him. If anything, the pull he felt toward her had intensified.

And he'd be fucked if he understood it either.

She was twenty-six to his forty-two. Five-feet five and barely a hundred and twenty pounds—and that was if she wore soaking wet snow gear.

He was old enough to be her father for fuck's sake.

A whole generation separated them.

They should have nothing in common.

Except they did. He couldn't deny it.

Asha had never gotten along with a woman the way he did Sarah. It wasn't just his physical reaction to her that drew him either. Her intelligence, her humor, her taste in books and movies and food...

Shit. He was fucked.

How the hell was he going to keep his hands off her when they were trapped together on a damn boat.

In the same damn cabin.

He eyed the room.

A cabin that only had one fucking bed.

He glared at the neatly made bed as though he could split the fucking thing in half with his vision.

Keeping away from Sarah was hard enough when they live in the same small town. When she worked down the hall from his office. When it was her voice more often than not coming through his radio.

He shook his head and moved deeper into the cabin. There was no point standing around overthinking everything. The best course of action was to get on with it.

He'd made a commitment and he'd stand by it. He was a man of his word—a man of honor—after all.

Walking toward the balcony door he dropped his bag on the far side of the bed and stepped up to the glass. It took him a moment to work out how to get the door open and when he did the heat of Miami slammed into him.

He wasn't a fan of hot weather—which was stupid considering he'd agreed to this tropical cruise—but right now he needed to get out of the room. The walls felt like they were closing in on him.

Stepping out, he closed the door behind him to keep the cool air in and hot air out, and moved to the railing. Forearms resting on the top, he looked down at the dock.

The activity of loading the ship with food and whatever else it needed for fourteen days of cruising kept him distracted and entertained for a while, but it wasn't long before his mind drifted back to Sarah.

He'd never wanted any woman the way he wanted her.

Not even his ex-wife. Which probably explained why that union hadn't lasted long.

Only long enough to leave scars, and though he hated to admit it, his failed marriage had kept him from putting himself out there, to allow himself to be that vulnerable again.

He'd spent the last thirteen years single and content with that. He hadn't had any issue with being alone until Sarah.

Sarah Adair of the lush body, intelligence, and sunny smiles. He couldn't deny part of her attraction was her ability to smile in any situation. She lit up any room she was in, and Asha wanted more than anything to bask in her warmth.

Fuck. Keeping his hands off her the next two weeks would be hard and he wasn't all that sure he really wanted to.

What would it be like if he said fuck it and went for it with her?

What was it that kept him from getting closer to her?

He'd seen the odd look she'd given him and the other day they'd ended up plastered together when she slipped on the ice on the front steps of the station as she'd been coming out and he going in.

It was the first time since they'd met that he'd touched her. Asha didn't count shaking her hand on her first day working as daytime dispatcher for the Winter Lake police department. Although that simple grip of hands had kicked his libido into gear faster than any sexual touch in his life.

The door behind him popped and he glanced over his shoulder, the light inside the cabin making it easy to see Sarah enter the room.

She looked rumpled and sweaty, and even a little messy, her ever-present smile missing, and just the sight of her gave him a jolt of lust.

Turning, he took a step, hand out for the door handle when she did something that sucked the air out of his lungs and froze him in place—flooded his cock with blood.

Before he could warn her he was there she stripped her tank top over her head, popped the front clasp on her bra and dropped them to the floor.

And while he was struggling to breathe, she wiggled out of her pants and underwear. For a second she stood still, and Asha couldn't do anything but look his fill.

Fuck.

He already wanted her but now... Seeing all that lush flesh...

Still struggling to breathe—or think—he watched her spin on her bare foot and walk into the bathroom giving him the perfect view of her smooth back and luscious ass.

Motherfucking fucker.

Fists clenched, blood pounding in his ears, and his cock aching with need so sharp he knew he'd never make it through the next two weeks without touching her, Asha prayed he got himself under control before she came out of the bathroom or else he feared he'd push her against the nearest flat surface and do all the dirty things he'd spent the last few years fantasizing about.