Hot Winter Nights

And here she’d been worried about how she’d look to him and she’d been wearing one elf ear . . .

He laughed softly, lazily, and took the ear, tossing it behind him, where it took the same trip through the air that her clothes had. Then he lay back and had her straddle him, gliding his hands reverently up her legs.

“Love having these wrapped around me,” he said huskily, tugging her down for a kiss.

Gasping at what she found pressed up against her good parts, she smiled. “Again?” she murmured hopefully.

“If you like.”

Oh, she’d like . . .

She awoke some time later. It was still dark and still raining. Her head was on Lucas’s chest where she’d fallen asleep, his skin warm beneath her. His breathing was slow and deep and she could feel the steady beat of his heart beneath her face and fingertips. A strong heart, a steady heart.

The air in the room was chilly. The contrast between the heat of where they touched and the cold where they didn’t was almost erotic.

She shifted against him and felt him respond in his sleep—a slow contented rumble from deep in his chest. There was just something about him that made her own chest too warm. Warm and . . . tight, the latter having been there since last night when she’d thought they were done.

“Hey,” he murmured in a sleepy rough voice, pulling her in closer, wrapping her up in his warmth. “You okay?”

“Very.”

Lucas ran a hand up her back and down again until he had a palmful of her ass, pressing her close. “Warm enough?”

“Yes, thanks to my own personal heat source.”

He smiled against her neck and then began kissing her there, working his way up to her mouth. The kiss was tender and he cradled her head in his hands.

“Lucas?” she whispered.

“Yeah?”

“I’m in trouble with you.”

He lifted his gaze to meet hers. “The way I see it, that’s a lot better than being done with me,” he said.

She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to his.

“Hey,” he said gently and then waited for her to look at him. “What happens in this apartment stays in this apartment.” He paused. “But only if you want it to.”

Unbearably touched by that, she stroked the rough stubble of his jaw. “I have no idea what to do with you,” she whispered. “You know that, right?”

“Maybe you’re thinking too hard. Maybe you just take it one minute at a time.” He put his hands over hers. “And I bet you can figure out what to do with me this minute . . . Yes?”

She met his gaze, which had gone from sleepy to sexy hot. “Most definitely yes,” she whispered.

Chapter 22

#Balls

The next day, Lucas was in a staff meeting, but his mind was back in bed with Molly. He’d made it a point to never spend the night with a woman, and yet he’d done so a couple of times now with her. True, for one of them he hadn’t been sober, but still. He hadn’t driven her home last night, not until this morning.

And maybe even more surprisingly, she hadn’t asked him to.

They’d woken when his alarm had gone off. Stunned to realize it was morning, he’d reached across a still-dead-to-the-world Molly to turn it off before lying back down. She’d been warm and naked beside him, and far too tempting. So he hadn’t even tried to resist pulling her in for a rare cuddle.

Still asleep, she’d turned to him, pressing as close as she could, her arms around his neck. “Don’t go,” she’d murmured.

And he’d thought that had sounded like the perfect plan. Not to go anywhere.

But then Archer had called, and within thirty minutes he and the team had been on a job that had involved rappelling down a twenty-story elevator shaft, all in the name of security and investigation.

Now it wasn’t quite noon and he was falling asleep in the meeting in spite of the huge cup of coffee he was mainlining. It took him five minutes to realize that all was quiet around him.

The meeting had ended.

“Problem?”

He looked up at the soft sound of Molly’s voice. She refilled his coffee while he stared up at her face. “I’m tired,” he said.

She looked around to make sure they were alone. “Yeah, well, that’s the price you pay when you’re a sex fiend.”

He snorted and caught her hand before she could turn away, studying her face. She was . . . glowing. And smiling too, eyes bright. She looked positively cheerful, which she absolutely never, ever did, at least not before noon. “How is it that you’re not looking like you’re about to kill someone?”

Her smiled softened. “I guess having a one-night stand agrees with me. Who knew?”

A one-night stand. Which was right up his alley. So why then did he feel a little insulted? “Technically,” he said carefully, “it’s been more than one night.”

“And technically,” she said. “We weren’t going to have any night stand.”

Molly left work at lunch to hit the gym. She needed an hour to get out the kinks in her back and leg. Normally she went before work, but her second job as an elf was taking up too much brain power and she’d been too tired to get up early.

Bad Santa was really cutting into her life.

As were all the orgasms with Lucas . . .

Okay, truth. She needed out of the office and away from Lucas to think. Think about how she kept doing the opposite with Lucas than she planned. Think about the look on his face this morning when she’d said they weren’t having any night stand.

She made him . . . happy. And hell if he didn’t return the favor. He made her very happy. Which was terrifying.

In the gym, she wasn’t surprised to find Caleb going at a hanging bag, beating the shit out of it with a combination of punches and kicks. And given the look of him, drenched in sweat, face grim, he’d been at it a while.

She didn’t disturb him. Instead she warmed up with stretches and then hit the weights. She was at the bench press when two hands caught the bar and adjusted her arms, pushing it up a little higher.

Caleb.

He watched her, nodding in approval as she finished her set.

“Thanks,” she said. “You done beating up whoever ruined your day?”

He held her gaze, arms crossed over his chest. “I could ask you the same thing.”

She sighed.

“Work?” he asked. “Love life?”

“Both.” She gave him a look. “And you?”

He lifted a broad shoulder. “Same.”

“So we’re both screwed up?”

A very small smile curved his lips. “No doubt.”

She went by her place for a shower, her body humming from the workout. She was feeling pretty good, though she wasn’t sure it was from the exercise or how she’d spent last night. She glanced at the time. She never took a long lunch. But she wanted to today. She told herself she could take another thirty minutes or so if she wanted.

And oh, she wanted. She reached for her phone to send a text.

Molly: I have some research I could use an assist on. Are you anywhere near my place?

Lucas: Please tell me that “research” is a euphemism.

Molly: Of course not.

It totally was a euphemism.

He got there in ten minutes. She was still in just her towel from her shower. “Oh,” she murmured. “I didn’t realize you could get here so quickly. I haven’t had time to get dressed.”