Chasing Christmas Eve

“Holy cheese toast,” she murmured. “It’s the mother lode.”

“Help yourself.”

Said the spider to the fly . . .

He began plying her with an armful of cookies and the like. He added on one too many packages of cookies and it all fell out of her arms to the floor.

Laughing, she bent low to scoop them up, just as he did the same. They bumped heads, and not nearly as graceful as he, Colbie fell backward to her ass.

“Sorry!” they both gasped at the same time, and then their gazes locked and there was that crazy spark again, bouncing through Colbie’s insides, touching down at all her good spots—of which she seemed to have far more than she remembered having.

Spence, still crouched low and easily balanced on the balls of his feet, dropped to his knees and pulled her up to hers. Brushing the hair from her forehead, he eyed the spot where they’d connected. “You okay?”

She started to say yes but his gaze slid to her mouth and she lost her train of thought, instead licking her suddenly dry lips.

Spence, watching the movement avidly, let out a rough breath. “Colbie,” he said quietly, in a very serious, very low octave that sounded like pure sex.

She stood up. “Y-yes?”

Also standing, he slid his hands up her arms, giving her a very slow tug, almost as if expecting resistance.

There was no resistance. Hell, she nearly took a flying leap at him.

He laughed softly, sending a bolt of heat through her. Her knees wobbled and his arm wrapped around her waist, steadying her. Their gazes locked and they both froze in place, she from a sudden rush of emotions, Spence probably from watching them play out across her face. She once again started to say something—still had no idea what—but was silenced by his hot mouth covering hers.

Yes was her only coherent thought and she pressed up against him as he angled his head, taking the kiss even deeper. His arms tightened on her, pulling her in hard, and she squirmed to get closer still, suddenly desperate to feel as much of him as she could.

He kissed her long and deep, and she heard a moan. Hers, she realized, shocked at the neediness of the sound as well as the hunger and desire that flooded her at the same time. It’d have humiliated her to the core if she’d been alone in this but with Spence’s arms closed around her, along with his rough groan, she knew he was right there with her.

When she was breathless—which took shockingly little time—and on the verge of ripping off his clothes, she forced herself to pull back. Out of her comfort zone, with her heart threatening to secede from her chest, she stared at him as the battle raged inside her. Fear and lust were in mortal combat, the outcome uncertain. “Okay,” she said breathlessly. “So now I’ve really gotta go.”

Spence drew in a deep, shuddering breath that wasn’t much steadier than hers and pulled off his now crooked glasses. “Hang on a second.” He tossed them aside. “I need to check on something.”

“What?” she asked warily.

Once again he slowly drew her in, his eyes heated and focused on hers, infusing her with some of his calm. “I want to see if this is how it’s going to be.”

“How what’s going to be?” she whispered.

“This.” His kiss started out just as slow and thoughtful as the first, all careful control. But when his tongue touched hers, control flew straight out the window. So did all good sense as they went at each other, desperate and hot. Suddenly, her back was to the wall and Spence was plastered against her front and she was trying to get even closer.

Good God.

When they broke apart rather than suffocate, they stared at each other, breathing unevenly.

“Okay,” he said, stroking the pad of his thumb over her lower lip. “So that’s definitely how it’s going to be.”

She didn’t have words. Neither did he, it seemed, because he used his actions instead, lowering his mouth to her neck, nuzzling in.

“You smell so good,” he murmured against her skin. “I want to eat you up.”

She was all for that, she really was. But there were extenuating circumstances. Weren’t there? Before she could do something stupid—like take off her clothes—she backed away. “Gotta go,” she whispered and headed to the door fast as her feet would take her, which wasn’t that fast, because her feet didn’t seem to remember they belonged to the rest of her body. She took the stairs to the third floor and got to her door before she remembered.

She’d left her purse—with her keys—inside Spence’s apartment. “Monkey balls,” she said and thunked her head against her door a few times.

“Careful—you’ll knock something loose.”

Forehead still pressed to the door, she opened her eyes and found her purse dangling in front of her.

From Spence’s fingers.

Spence watched—through blurry eyes because he’d left his glasses upstairs—as Colbie pressed her forehead to her door before slowly turning to face him with a wry smile.

“Guess that’s what I get for running off like that, huh?” she asked and took her purse. “Thanks.” She sorted through a mountain of what appeared to be notes to locate her keys.

Spence gently took them from her and unlocked the door.

The black cat came running with a chirpy greeting and wound herself around Colbie’s ankles until she scooped her up and nuzzled her.

“Colbie,” Spence said.

She looked up at him, her gaze guarded. “You’re not wearing your glasses.”

“I know. And I can’t see shit.”

She smiled a little. But only a little, because for whatever reason, he’d spooked her and she clearly didn’t want to discuss it. “Rain check on dessert?” he asked.

She hesitated and then nodded.

“ ’Night,” he said.

“ ’Night.” But she didn’t move. She nibbled on her lips and stared at his mouth, and under different circumstances he’d have nudged her inside for a repeat of that brain-melting, heart-stopping kiss they’d just shared upstairs.

It’d be fun. Hell, he had a feeling it would be explosive . . . But it wasn’t going to happen.

Shouldn’t happen.

It wouldn’t be good, for either of them, and she’d just realized it before he had, that’s all.

And yet she was still looking at his mouth like she wanted another taste of him. He let out a low groan and a rough laugh and then gently pushed her inside. “I’m going to shut your door behind me, Colbie,” he said. “And then you’re going to lock me out.”

“Probably a smart idea.” She met his gaze. “Thanks for tonight. It was . . . perfect. Everything felt perfect. Even you. I guess that’s why I had that little momentary freak-out back there. I’m sorry about that.”

He shook his head, waving off the apology. “Trust me, I’m not even close to perfect. If you were staying in San Francisco for any length of time, I’d prove that to you.” He believed that, 100 percent. He would focus on work, prioritizing it over her without even realizing it.

“So you’re saying . . . you’re going to disappoint me?”

He felt his smile fade. “I have no doubt.”

She stared at him for another beat and then nodded. “Good to know.”

Several days later, Spence had pulled his second all-nighter in a row in front of his computer and needed caffeine more than he needed his next breath of air. He left his office and blinked at the morning sun, feeling like a vampire. He’d spent months being frustrated at the press and at being followed around thanks to Brandon, at having everyone and their mother want him to invest in their crazy schemes. It’d fueled him to bury himself in creating the security program for the medicine delivery drones. And he’d been really getting somewhere too, on the verge of completing it . . .

And now nothing. The thermal imaging cameras he was using were necessary for medical care but they were heavy and wore on the batteries. Balancing those two things was taking more than physics.

There was a solution, he knew it. He just needed to concentrate but all his brain cells had been dedicated to bugging him to go find Colbie and finish what they’d started.