The Christmas Dare Read online

  “What are you saying? Brass tacks?”

  “Tell the woman you love her, dumbass.”

  “She made it clear she doesn’t want me for the long term.”

  “She’s just throwing up a wall to protect her own feelings or maybe, hell, she’s trying to protect you.”

  “I’m not sure about that.”

  Joel rolled his eyes. “Okay. Have it your way. But don’t come crying to me when you lose the love of your life for a second time.”

  Chapter 26

  Pulse beating in his veins, Noah knocked on Kelsey’s door. He was so keyed up and ready to make love to her that he couldn’t stand the tension.

  She was dressed in a modest, long-sleeved green wrap dress. He couldn’t wait to take it off and get his hands on what was underneath.

  “What do you have in store for me tonight?”

  “Just you wait and see.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “We’re staying right here on the island.”

  “Hmm,” she said going up on tiptoes to nibble his earlobe. “Your room?”

  “No. You’ll need your coat.”

  “I can’t wait.” She slipped into her coat.

  He took her by the hand and led her down the corridor. The hallway was empty. Since it was Saturday evening, most of the guests were out on the town.

  They climbed the stairs that led to the upper deck. Cold wind blasted them when Noah opened the door and Kelsey huddled deeper into her coat.

  “This better not be our destination,” she said. “I know I’m stepping out of my comfort zone but sex on the bridge is not my idea of a good time.”

  “Not the bridge,” he said. “The dome.”

  He led her around the bridge toward the glass dome he’d built for night sky viewing on the river. Tonight the sky was overcast. No stars to be seen. But that was okay. They wouldn’t have much time for stargazing anyway.

  “Oh look,” she said, stopped at the railing. “You can see the town square from here.”

  He stopped behind her, put his hands on her shoulders. Her sweet scent tangled up in his nose.

  “It’s so beautiful all lit up.”

  “The spirit of Christmas,” he murmured.

  She took a deep breath of cool, bracing air. Held it. Noah realized he was holding his breath too. At last, she exhaled. “I can feel the Christmas spirit here. In Twilight. With you.”

  He wrapped his arms around her, cuddled her against him. In this moment, he was the happiest man in the world. She turned into him, went up on tiptoes again, tugged his head down to meet hers.

  “Your nose is cold,” he whispered.

  “So is yours.”

  “Let’s get warm,” he said.

  “And then we’ll get naked?”

  He laughed. “Slow your roll, hotshot. We’ve got all night.”

  “Are you sure you can last that long?” She winked.

  “C’mon,” he said. “Let’s get inside where it’s warm.”

  He opened the door to the glass-domed room. There was an electric fireplace spreading warmth throughout the room. The dome had been built for maximum comfort, the furnishings designed so guests could lie back and gaze up at the stars. Two big comfy sectional couches with ottomans for lounging were positioned directly under the center of the dome. On the wall above the fireplace hung a seventy-two-inch flat screen TV and it was playing a winter scene of snow falling.

  The room had been decorated with Christmas lights. Five thousand in all. He hit the remote in his pocket and the lights came on, glowing their special magic.

  “Oh my,” Kelsey whispered and touched her chin in awe.

  Noah shrugged out of his coat, helped Kelsey off with hers, and then he drew her to him and kissed her beneath the twinkling lights.

  With each kiss, things just got better and better. Her mouth was a honeypot, sweet and hot, stoking the fires of his desire. He was nervous about this. Tonight, no more fooling around. They were finally going to go all the way.

  There had been enough buildup. The time had come for the real deal. He’d been waiting for this moment for ten long years.

  And Noah had every intention of loving her until the sun came up.

  They were fated. He knew it to the very center of his bones. After his talk with Joel last night he realized his brother was right. He’d been underestimating himself . . . and Kelsey.

  Tonight, he would show her how much she meant to him. Tonight, he would touch and taste every inch of her beautiful body. Tonight, he would prove his love for her.

  There was food and drink in the mini-fridge, a deadbolt on the door, and black velvet curtains that would be drawn around the lower portion of the dome, sealing them into their love cocoon.

  His lips, his tongue, his eyes, his hands would traverse the sweet territories of her soft form, exploring the boundaries, pushing beyond them to tap into her heart, her mind, her soul.

  Slowly, he undressed her in the misty glow of Christmas lights, his humble fingers tugging at the back of her dress.

  She slipped the dress off her shoulders and let it pool to her feet, stepped from the circle of the material, looked up at him with shiny tears. She wore a purple bra and matching silk panties, all frill and lace.

  He stared at her, enrapt.

  It was her turn to undress him. She worked the buttons on his shirt with deliberate slowness, slanting him coy sidelong glances as she took her time. And when he was down to his boxer briefs, she ducked her head and giggled like a schoolgirl.

  God, he loved hearing that carefree giggle.

  They took off their own underwear at the same time, staring into each other’s eyes as they stripped, then left their clothes on the floor in a heap. He reached out and took her hand. Together they walked toward the sectionals that formed a giant square filled in by the big ottomans.

  Gleefully, they piled into the middle of the setup. The cushions were soft and bouncy. Earlier, he’d brought a king-sized sheet and blankets and together they made a pallet over the ottomans.

  “We’re going to be able to see the sky while we make love,” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “People could stumble up on the roof and see us through the glass.”

  He reached for the remote he’d left lying on the back of the sectional, hit the button that brought the heavy black curtains from where they were hidden inside the wall, and slowly the mechanism spooled the curtains out to join at the back of the sectionals.

  She applauded. “It’s like we’re floating on a cloud.”

  “A Christmas cloud,” he corrected, as he hit another remote and soft Christmas music seeped through the speakers.

  “I feel like I’m in one of those old 1960s romantic comedies where the playboy guy has all these gadgets of seduction.”

  He wriggled his eyebrows as Dean Martin started singing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

  She crinkled her nose. “Boy, how times have changed since that song was popular.”

  “Good thing I’m not a playboy.” He drew her closer.

  “Nope?”

  “Not in the least.”

  “Not even with all the women chasing you?”

  “I’m a one-woman man.”

  “And I’m that woman?”

  “You are.” He kissed her forehead. “It’s always been you, Firefly.”

  “Even when you were married?”

  “I’ve always carried a torch for you. Might have been why it didn’t hurt so badly when Melissa left me.”

  She cuddled against him. He inhaled the scent of her hair.

  “I could die happy right now.” She sighed.

  “Let’s not do that,” he said. “Let’s live to the fullest and make up for lost time.”

  “I’m on board.”

  “Oh,” he said. “I almost forgot your Christmas present.”

  “But it’s not Christmas.”

  “Trust me. You’re going to want to open this package. Be right back.�
� He dashed to the restroom where he’d stashed his props. Wrapped himself in the battery-powered strand of Christmas lights she’d won at the casino, then topped it with his Christmas Bards costume.

  He came out and did a personal striptease for his woman, complete with blinking holiday lights that played “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

  Kelsey applauded and catcalled. He winked and performed for her with everything he had inside him. She patted her palm against her heart as if it were about to beat out of her chest.

  He grinned, gyrated closer.

  She giggled, blushed, ducked her head, peeked at him from behind a strand of hair falling over her face.

  When he was stripped of all his clothes and was left draped only in the blinking lights, she reached out her hand and wriggled her fingers in a come-hither gesture.

  He dove onto the sectional with her, the lights all going red and him blinking like Rudolph on Christmas Eve.

  While the fire blazed and the snow fell in the TV scene and music played and Christmas lights twinkled, and the clouds moved to reveal stars twinkling overhead, they plowed underneath the covers together.

  She touched him in the right places and his shaft rose hard into the palm of her hand. Noah was overwhelmed by how easily she manipulated him.

  And she was loving every minute of it.

  Their mouths met, and his fingers traced her jawline. She was hot. Burning with passion and power and feminine strength. Touching her seared his skin with a blistering energy of his own.

  Kelsey encircled him in her arms, tugging him down into the covers, her kisses growing more and more demanding.

  She was beautiful, and he was so lucky. She was a goddess, rare and splendid. Her cool exterior had completely melted. Her inner firefly, bright and free, had emerged. The vivid woman he’d always known was hidden beneath her hesitation and self-doubts. She shed her reserve for him. Let go of her fears.

  For him.

  For them.

  She touched his body without caution or fear. Not holding back. Giving him her all. She didn’t hesitate. She was his past, his present, and he prayed that she was his future too. Never before had a woman possessed him so entirely. Her tongue was sweet torment. Her fingers delicate tools of exquisite torture.

  Her courage.

  Her confidence.

  Her daring.

  Yes. She’d dared to leave her comfort zone and join him in his world. He loved her for that and for so many other things. She had surrendered her mask. Allowed him to see the real Kelsey beneath. Engaging with him in the flow of their bodies as they caressed and kissed each other.

  They were directly under the vast expanse of sky. It felt as if they were entangled in the Milky Way, mating in the stars. Her feminine energy merged with his masculine essence. Together, they were complete. Whole.

  Kelsey pushed Noah onto his back, let out a wicked little laugh, and straddled him. She locked her legs tight around his waist, pressing her pelvic bone against his.

  His erection pulsated. He ached to be inside her.

  To at long last be joined with her in the sacred dance as old as the stars.

  Noah felt as if he’d been given a most cherished gift. A second chance at love. And she was the prize, his golden-haired goddess.

  Over the years, he’d tried to forget her. To move on with his life. And he’d managed to cobble out an existence many people envied. But no matter what he did, what he achieved, who he was with, there was always this secret longing at the back of his mind. The sad realization that there was something missing.

  His life had been like one of those complicated puzzles that took months to finish, only to find when the puzzle was finished that there was one piece missing. One piece gone.

  Now he felt as if he’d finally found that lost piece and snapped it into place. His puzzle complete.

  Their lips traveled the landscape of each other’s skin, with measured, meticulous movements. Lingering now and again to finger or lick the boundaries of an erogenous zone. To investigate and uncover deeper and deeper layers of sensation.

  They whispered sweet nothings to each other as they nibbled earlobes and breathed over clefts and valleys. Lips buzzing vibrations over bellies and breasts, napes and necks.

  He groaned.

  She moaned.

  He whimpered.

  She mewled.

  The surface beneath them was so soft they sank lower and lower into the cushions.

  He kissed her face, her eyelids, her nose, her temples. She stroked his abs, the V-shaped musculature that ran along his pelvis. He licked a trail from her nipples to the triangle between her thighs.

  Kelsey threaded her hands through his hair, stopped him from sliding farther. “No.” She breathed. “I want more. I want you. Inside me.”

  “It’s too soon,” he whispered.

  “No, it’s not soon enough.”

  “If we go now, I won’t last five seconds.”

  “I don’t mind. We’ll go, then start again.”

  “I have a better idea,” he said.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “The deep freeze.”

  “Deep freeze? That sounds cold.”

  “’Tis the point.” Noah winked wickedly, grabbed her hand, and hauled her to her feet.

  “Wh-where . . . Noah . . .”

  He didn’t give her a chance to back out, just draped a blanket around them both and hustled her to the door.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Outside,” he said and plunged them from the warm cocoon room into the brisk air on the dark bridge. Naked save for the blanket thrown over their shoulders. The air was brisk, and snowflakes began drifting from the sky. The wooden flooring beneath chilled her feet. The moment was surreal, crazy.

  It was absolutely epic and nothing she would ever in a million years have imagined herself doing.

  “What now?” she asked through chattering teeth.

  “Ten deep breaths,” he said. “Then we go back in.”

  “Oh thank God, I thought you were going to suggest we jump into the water.”

  “There’s deep freeze and then there’s hypothermia,” he said. “We want to avoid the latter.”

  “Good thinking.”

  They inhaled together, cold filling their lungs. Noah’s skin turned pink and his cheeks flushed red and she supposed hers did the same. His grin hung from his face like a Christmas wreath. He was still wearing those silly lights, though some of them had come unwrapped and were dragging behind him.

  “You’re amazing,” she said, shivering alongside of him as they breathed in tandem.

  “Me?” He speared her with his gaze. “For dragging you naked into the cold?”

  “By giving me new experiences that crack my world wide open.”

  “Let’s get back inside, Miss Adventuresome. You’re starting to turn blue.”

  “But we’ve only taken six deep breaths.”

  “Good enough. I no longer have a hair trigger.”

  “Our goal achieved.”

  He swept her back into the dome, shut and locked the door behind them. Wrapped the blanket tightly around her and whisked her to the fireplace. “Warm up,” he said. “I’ll get us a hot toddy.”

  After tippling some rum into the eggnog, he heated it in the microwave, brought the mug over to her. They sipped eggnog and stood by the fire until they were warmed inside and out and then he led her back to their makeshift bed.

  As she looked into his eyes, Kelsey understood that this was going to be the most erotic moment of her life.

  Noah lay down on his back and pulled her on top of him. Her knees straddling either side of his body. The strand of lights still wound around his head like a crown, still blinking their fun Christmas magic. His hands went around her waist, holding her snug against him.

  “Firefly,” he said. “You’re in charge. You set the pace.”

  He produced a condom and she put it to use, rolling it onto his erection. She f
elt daring and dangerous, hot and horny. This, at long last, was the real Kelsey.

  “Take your time,” Noah coached. “No rush.”

  “I’m so excited,” she confessed. “This feels like we’re in a safe little Christmas cocoon.”

  “We are,” he said. “That’s the point of being here.”

  “You made tonight so perfect.”

  “It’s not over yet. Not by a long shot.”

  She touched the tip of her tongue to her upper lip and gently eased herself down over his throbbing shaft.

  Noah sucked in a short breath.

  It felt so good to have him inside her at long last. So precious. And so damn daring. Slowly, she began to move over him, sliding up and down over his long frame.

  Noah threw back his head, exposing his Adam’s apple. His dark hair curled against the white sheet.

  She moved like water, fluid and light. Up and down. Picking up the pace. Going faster and faster.

  Their slick friction welded them together. She swayed, slippery, electrified by the contact of their sultry bodies. They were fully merged, and it was impossible to tell where she started and he ended.

  Leaning over his long torso, she kissed him, her knees locked at his hips so that he couldn’t slip out of her. She pulled her head back and looked into his face, her hair falling like a curtain around his head.

  They stared at one another, both awestruck.

  She tightened her inner muscles around his throbbing shaft.

  “Kelsey,” he gasped, unable to say anything more. His hands clutched at her waist as he pulled her down harder on him.

  She rotated her hips.

  He groaned. “Faster.”

  She galloped. Giving him everything she had. Christmas music spun around them. The fireplace flickered. Lights blinked. It was a sensual symphony for the senses.

  They were one. The rider and the ridden. Ensnared in the whirl of red-hot sensation and the miracle of long-held dreams coming true. Saying yes to adventure had led Kelsey here. To this man. Her first and only love.

  The world belonged to them.

  They owned it.

  And when their release was upon them, they came together on one shattering crescendo, calling each other’s name as they tumbled into the sweetness of their own special Christmas magic.