“I think I knew the second I saw you that you’d change me,” he said, almost as a whisper.
“Change you? How?”
“All I think about now is how to be wherever you are.”
“Yeah?” A silly grin spread across my lips.
“Yeah,” he said, twisting his fingers in the long strands of my hair that fell over my shoulder. “And all the places I want to go together. Things I want to show you. I saw you from across the room and it was like a whole future flashed before my eyes.”
I shoved at his chest. “You’re full of shit. But I like the way it sounds.”
Charles held my wrist and pulled me to lie across his chest. His arm behind me lifted my shirt to trace patterns across my back. The sensation was like he was drawing on my skin with fire. It set every nerve humming.
“I’m not,” he said. “I swear. I got one look at you and never turned back.”
His arm curled around my back and he grazed his fingers along my ribs, barely brushing the side of my breast. With his other arm, he hitched my leg over his hips. As we kissed, I felt him grow hard against my thigh. His hand was tangled in my hair, holding me firm against his body while our tongues played, until he rolled me over to lie on top of me, settling between my legs. Charles kissed my cheek. The side of my neck. His hands found mine to extend out above my head among the pile of blankets and pillows that made our makeshift bed on the floor.
With both my wrists gathered in one hand, he returned his mouth to mine. The language of his kiss was deliberate and attentive. Not urgent or hurried, but sensual. Patient. Gently his free hand pushed up the hem of my shirt to lightly tease my skin before cupping my breast, making me arch into his touch.
“I’ve thought about touching you again every day since that first night,” he said. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed this,” he breathed against my mouth.
“Yes, I do,” I told him confidently.
Because it was the same longing I’d tried to tamp down since I’d gathered the courage to leave that hotel room. There were armies of women out there who probably would’ve killed to switch places with me that morning. But I suppose things had a way of working themselves out.
As Charles hovered over me, I wrapped my leg around his hips, encouraging his hand that continued to tease my breast. The flames danced across his face, fire shimmering in his eyes while shadows painted patterns around us.
“You are so beautiful,” he hummed, then sealed his mouth over mine again.
Finally, I pulled my hands free to unbutton his shirt as he peeled mine over my head. His mouth explored my chest, leaving warm kisses and gentle licks of his tongue, sucking one pebbled nipple into his mouth. The attention was almost excruciating, alighting every nerve and coiling my muscles into a single knot of overwhelming desire. I was wound up so tight I felt I might shatter.
Then he slid farther down my body, mapping a trail of kisses across my flushed skin. Sinking between my legs to spread my thighs. Reverent, he caressed his cheek against the tender flesh, starting at my knee and working closer, closer, until his mouth met my core. I shuddered beneath him. Too sensitive. Already teetering on the edge of self-control. My eyes snapped shut, teeth digging into my bottom lip while his tongue drew out my muffled moans. Charles hitched my leg over his shoulder, daring me to tumble over into ecstasy. This man made me delirious.
“What do you want me to do?” he whispered.
I couldn’t speak. Could barely breathe. My heart was racing too fast. I knotted my fingers in his hair and writhed against his mouth. Encouraging him. Pleading. Racing toward that ultimate moment of exquisite release that washed over me like an avalanche. Quaking in response to his touch.
I dragged him up to unzip his pants and pulled down his boxers to take him in my palm. I had to get us closer. I wanted to feel all of him. Warm and safe in our secret retreat, where nothing else could find us. Not our fears or the world’s expectations. In here, making love in front of the fire, we belonged only to each other.
Opening me with his hips, Charles reached one hand between my legs to caress me. It was almost painful, my body too sensitive. Yet I craved it, shivering in response to his touch. I bent my legs, urging him forward. Fingertips digging into the pulsing muscles of his back. Watching his eyes as he gazed into mine and entered me. That feeling of completeness. Of being exactly where I was supposed to be.
Nothing had ever felt so perfect. So right. Like we had been made to find each other. A thought that settled into my head and seeped into my blood. My heart. Growing with every kiss. Every thrust. I hadn’t known I was capable of such strong emotion until that moment. Until Charles gave himself to me completely, and me to him.
Chapter 27
I was practically bouncing through breakfast service the next morning. Mostly because of spending such an incredible night with Charles. But also, because Megan and Hannah had finally arrived to help me execute this event. Deliveries started arriving at the chalet at 8 a.m. There were cocktail tables, linens, decorations, and so many boxes of dishware and cutlery. Thank goodness for Ali. She wrangled the whole circus while I pushed breakfast out, then hopped in the Land Rover to go check on my Denver girls.
“There she is!” Megan waved me over as I entered the dining room of The Snowdrift Inn. “Oh, it’s so good to see you. I know it’s only been a couple of weeks, but somehow it feels like forever.”
She stood to hug me, until Hannah all but shoved her mom out of the way to get her turn.
“You look great,” she said with a suspicious smirk. “Mountain air agrees with you, huh?”
I smothered a grin because, let’s face it, she’d seen me stroll into work once or twice, a little hungover and a tad peppy after a hookup. And that was absolutely not a conversation we were having in front of her mother. I was supposed to be a good influence.
“This town agrees with me,” I said instead, and took a seat between them at the table, where they were already enjoying their Snowbird Specials.
“I love it here, Elle,” Hannah said, her eyes sparkling. “The snow, the lights—it’s like a fairy tale!”
