Page 60 of A Love Like Christmas Time
“I usually am, but about what in particular?” She whispers, her finger drawing soft circles on my scalp, twisting a strand of my hair around it.
“Thosearedumb thoughts,” I whisper very seriously.
She lets out a shaky laugh. “I told you so.”
“You’ve got your place,” I assure her and pull her tighter against me, “right here.” My thumb draws a circle over her cheek, and her whole face softens, eyebrows scrunching together as her eyes well up.
“Thank you.”
Her voice breaks, and she blinks her eyes shut, tears threatening. It doesn’t work, and a single tear rolls down her cheek.
“Apparently, I really needed to hear that.” She quickly wipes it away and leans her head against my sternum.
“I’ll say it as often as you need to hear it.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” She lifts her head, chin resting against my collarbone. “That was certainly one way to distract me. Do it again? Please?”
My only answer is leaning in and capturing her lips with mine. But this kiss is different. It starts off sweet, careful, but somewhere between a shaky breath and her digging her fingertips into my back, it changes into an inferno.
“Caleb,” she breathes, my name trembling on her lips. Step by careful step, she backs me toward the couch. I sit down, breaking off the kiss. Without hesitation, she climbs onto my lap and her lips are on mine again immediately.
She opens her mouth slightly and the kiss turns fiercer and more urgent, stealing my breath. She runs her hands through my hair, pulling at it, keeping me right where she wants me. As our tongues dance, my hands roam her back, feeling the curve of her spine, that little dimple on the small of her back.
She shifts on my lap, making me groan into her mouth. I’m aware of every little sound. Her breath. Mine. A happy sigh when my hands find her ass, giving it a squeeze that makes her grin into the kiss.
My fingers slip under her shirt, tracing careful patterns over her skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake, until they nudge against the lace fabric of her bra.
I open my eyes and meet hers in an unspoken question. One she answers with a slight nod and a grin that she unsuccessfully tries to hide by biting her lip.
My hand sneaks behind her back, and within seconds I throw her shirt where I think it might land on the coffee table and open her bra. Her breath hitches as she slowly lets it slide down her arms.
My pulse jumps and blood rushes to my cock.
She’s mesmerizing. Her cheeks turn the cutest shade of pink as I watch her take it off, my hot gaze burning into every inch of skin she exposes.
Fuck. She’s beautiful. Her breasts are rounded, the perfect size in my hand as I palm them.
“Caleb,” she whispers, out of breath. “I need you.”
Her hands cup my face, and I barely have time to react before she pulls me into another kiss. It’s bold and unrelenting and needy, but in the best way.
I break the kiss only to trail my tongue down her throat, leaving a wet path of goosebumps down her collarbone, and further, until I close my lips around her nipple.
“So fucking perfect,” I mumble before nudging my tongue against it, making a soft sigh slip from her lips as her hands run through my hair.
Fuck. We’re still on the couch.
This might not be as romantic as I pictured it, but I’ll be damned if the first time I see Lauren naked is on my couch. Without a word, I get up.
“Caleb!” she squeals, then bursts into a giggle. My hands on her ass keep her pressed tightly against me, and she locks her ankles around my hip as I carry her to my bed.
Once I set her down, she opens her pants, shimmies out of them and kicks them off the bed with a seductive grin playing on her lips. She crawls further up the bed, watching me through hooded eyes and cheeks burning a bright pink when I take off my shirt.
“Damn,” she mumbles, eyes tracing over my naked torso. “That’s what you’ve been hiding under those flannels?”
“I’m not hiding anything,” I say lowly and step out of my jeans, then climb on the bed, covering her body with mine. “Not from you.”
We stare at each other, time standing still. All the things I keep to myself, everything I hide from the world, I want her to see.
