Chapter Twenty-Four #2
James stepped by her, his palm catching her waist. “I’ll be right back.”
As he disappeared, Mari kicked off her shoes and stood in front of the fire.
White-hot flames lapped up one side of the logs as tiny wisps of smoke traveled up the chimney. Every once in a while, the path would switch and catch a patch of bark before moving back. Back and forth, back and forth, until the entire section of wood became one fiery blaze.
It was mesmerizing to watch and just the distraction she needed to ignore the way her pulse had picked up in the minutes James wasn’t by her side.
The flames had one goal. Heat.
But that wasn’t right. The flames offered heat, but they also released a scent only burning wood emitted.
It smelled like winter. It felt like a vacation.
Probably because the only times Mari had felt the warmth of a fire was when she wasn’t home.
Living in an apartment meant she didn’t have a fireplace to enjoy.
A fireplace that hypnotized her and pulled her away from any fear or anxiety she might be feeling.
The squeak of the floor behind her brought her attention to James walking back into the room. “Nice, isn’t it?”
Mari smiled over her shoulder, then went back to staring at the flames. “There are only two drawbacks of living where I do. No fireplace and no yard.”
James stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
Mari, captured, folded him close and leaned her back against his chest.
“What would you do with a yard?” he asked, his lips close to her ear.
“A garden,” she said without thought. “I grow a few things in containers on our terrace, but I’d grow more if I had room. There is nothing compared to tomatoes off your own vine or garlic out of your own soil.”
“Something tells me you’d create a culinary masterpiece with only tomatoes and garlic.”
“I’m not sure about a masterpiece.”
“I am.” James dropped his lips to the side of her neck.
She closed her eyes and tilted her head, giving him more room.
He moved his lips and grazed his teeth over the lobe of her ear.
Shivers raced up her spine.
She felt him chuckle at her response.
“You taste like spring.”
“I do?”
James trailed his attention down her neck. When her hair got in his way, he released her waist with one of his hands and swept it to the side.
Between the cold air and his warm breath, she felt her body responding again. A tightening in her belly and a wave of dizziness in her head.
James fanned the palm of his hand on her waist, his thumb edged the underside of one breast.
A simple yet so very intimate touch.
Her hand fell and grasped his thigh. All the while, James explored the column of her neck with soft, slow kisses.
“I want you more than I want my next breath, Mari. But if you need more—”
She stopped him by turning around and lifting her lips to his.
His kiss was fierce, a claiming.
Their mouths met with opened joy and a mix of tongues and teeth.
James held on to her hip and back.
Mari clenched onto his shoulder and waist.
She felt lost, blind and searching. And with every pull of her lips against his, her world started to ground. This . . . this with James was exactly right.
The feel of his hand wrapping around the globe of her butt and pulling her close made her gasp. The length of his desire pressed warm against her abdomen.
She made a noise that didn’t sound like her at all. The kind fueled by want and desire.
James walked her a couple of steps, until the wall beside the fireplace met her back and she had no place to go. He pressed into her, from hip to shoulders. Their lips never parting.
Timid touches morphed into demand. Cool air touched her waist when James reached up her shirt to grasp her breast, his finger and thumb bringing one nipple to attention.
She couldn’t breathe, broke their kiss. It had been so long, too many years of lying dormant. A rose frosted over in the snow, never feeling a spring thaw.
Mari pushed up on her tiptoes, her knee lifted until she felt the outline of his erection stretching in his clothing against hers.
One minute she was searching for more contact. The next, James lifted her off her feet, settling his hips between hers. “Hold on,” he told her.
She did.
Arms wrapped around his neck, her legs circled his hips.
James pushed into her and kissed the cry from her lips.
Even clothed, she saw stars.
Her body woke up. Not a slow stretch of sun poking over the horizon, but a quick drawback of curtains that blasted a blistering sun that shot you out of bed.
Her hips pushed into the pleasure James was providing.
As he pulled her away from the wall, she started to slip.
James gripped harder and turned them toward the couch that was blanketed in the light of the fire. “Here or the bedroom?” he asked, giving her the choice.
Flickering heat and the way the light danced off his face made the decision for her. “Here.”
He lifted a brow, his lips curled into a smile.
“It’s cold in there,” she added.
“I’ll keep you warm, wherever we are.”
“Promise?”
He let her slip out of his grasp, her feet touched the floor. “Lifetime guarantee,” he said.
Mari allowed her hands to pull at the edges of his shirt and began to remove it from his shoulders.
When one of his arms pulled free, he worked on hers until they stood there, his bare chest against her in only a bra.
There wasn’t time to wonder what he saw before James bent his head down and kissed the space between her breasts, his hands working to unclasp the hooks in the back.
As soon as her bra hit the floor, James’s breath passed over one nipple. The shiver that racked her didn’t come quietly. And it didn’t come without her own want to touch and taste.
She wanted more, wanted to feel . . . more.
Mari inched her hand between their bodies, her fingers grazing the outline of the hard length of him through his jeans.
James stopped what he was doing and rested his forehead against her chest.
What he said didn’t sound like a word she recognized. But she understood what he meant.
She started to pull her hand away.
James reached for it and put it back. “Please,” he whispered.
The power in touching him and the way he responded was addictive. She cupped him fully and played with the button of his jeans with her free hand.
James helped her, pushing at his own clothing until the bare heat of him settled in her grip.
He was bigger than . . . well, larger. Or maybe she’d forgotten.
Mari touched him like she had the right to.
James tilted her chin and forced her to look into his eyes. A rawness stared back as his hips pushed him into her hand. Her fingers tightened, and James’s eyes rolled back in his head.
A sultry laugh escaped her lips.
Was she ever this bold?
Yes. Always. Only she’d forgotten how wonderful this desire could be.
There must have been a button she pushed, because James started pulling at the remainder of her clothes.
Mari let him go to kick her pants aside, her panties along with them.
He kissed her again and lowered both of them onto the sofa. Mari was cognizant that a blanket had been draped over the back and pulled under them before they landed.
The deep couch had room for both of them. Just barely.
James stretched out beside her and rested his knee between her thighs.
“You’re beautiful, Mari. Every inch of you.” As he spoke, he traced a finger over her shoulder and down to her hip.
“I’m rusty at this.”
That made him smile. “If this is rusty, I’m in trouble.”
Laughter bubbled from her core.
His next kiss was tender, the kind that melted her from the inside.
“Tell me what brings you pleasure, stop me if it doesn’t.”
Their eyes locked.
She pulled her leg farther up his and opened herself slightly.
Understanding brightened in his eyes. James reached behind her for something on the table behind the sofa.
She looked to find lubricant in his hands.
He turned the bottle upside down and squeezed some onto his fingers.
Turned out she wasn’t all that rusty after all. Without looking away, James reached between her legs.
She opened and waited.
And when he touched her for the first time, she wanted to weep. Her body had already responded to his touch, his kisses, but the extra slide of his fingers took care of any leftover edges that needed more. “Oh, James.”
Mari closed her eyes and simply felt.
As James learned what it was she liked, Mari was reminded how much she enjoyed moments like this. Where she could only be a woman being loved by a man.
It wasn’t long before fingers weren’t enough.
She drew him down, forcing his body to lie on hers. The glorious weight of him, the way his lips possessed hers, this feeling would burn into her memory and keep her warm for weeks.
James pulled her underneath him. “I want to see your eyes when I bury myself in you.”
The rawness of his request had every part of her body stretch closer to his.
Not looking away, James inched into her.
Her breath caught. The feel of him filling her, stretching her. It was almost too much.
She stilled, and he stopped.
One breath turned to the next, and her body relaxed once again.
“Okay?” he asked.
All she could do was nod.
And then he was there. Not a hair of space between them.
Slowly, he started to move. And all that heat that brought them to this point returned. The friction, the need . . . everything.
Her hands grasped him, guiding his hips, his pace. Her body reaching toward his until he found exactly what she needed. “Just like . . . yes.”
And he did . . . just like that. Exactly like that. Not faster, not slower, until every nerve settled in the perfect place and rushed over the side.
James captured her release with his kiss. Only she couldn’t think enough to kiss him back.
Only when her soul found its way back into her body did James change his angle, his grip. Mari uttered soft words in Italian as his orgasm gripped him and he repeated her cries.
While they both caught their breath, the only thing that could be heard was the crackle and spark from the fire that warmed the room.