The Christmas Wish (8 page)

“I”—her gaze fluttered away and then she turned back to him—“I haven’t been on a date in a really long time.” Her voice was soft and it seemed almost laced with embarrassment. “When you first called, I wasn’t even certain that this”—she waved her mittened hand between them—“was a date.” She tapped her hand on her lips and tilted her head. “I mean, I
thought
this was a date and I hoped it was, but it, wellllll…” She glanced again toward her front door. “A date with you just didn’t seem possible.”

Tyler squinted. Not possible? Their date was an impossibility? Brinn bit her lip. Those warm brown eyes of hers. Damn. He could fall into those eyes.

“I didn’t even tell Ma. I knew she’d hear about it because town is so small. I just didn’t want all the questions that went with having dinner with you.”

“Ah, the joys of a small town.” Tyler pressed his head back against the leather headrest. The knot that had tightened in his chest started to loosen. “She’ll know by tomorrow.”

“Right. I just”—she looked at him—“I’m not sure how to do this. I’ve never really dated in Powder Springs, and not that we’re
dating
.” She lifted both her hands.

He reached out his hand and grasped hers. “I’d love to take you out again.”

A gasp flew over Brinn’s lips.

Want tightened in his belly and traveled farther down to below his belt. His gaze caught hers. The desire to kiss her throbbed through him. To lean forward and bridge the space between them in the cab of his truck. To press his lips to hers and wrap his fingers in those thick ringlet curls.

But he didn’t.

She looked too shocked and surprised over his admission that he wanted to take her out again. Maybe dating him wasn’t what she wanted. Maybe she was trying to be polite and tell him that they were just friends and he wasn’t picking up on the signs.

A smile spread over Brinn’s face. “I’d love that.” Her eyes brightened.

Tyler’s heart felt lighter than air.

“So you’ll come in? Before your coffee gets cold?”

Tyler nodded. In this moment, there wasn’t anything he wanted more than to walk into Brinn’s cozy little house with its white lights and a Christmas tree, then stare even longer into those beautiful brown eyes.

Brinn flipped on the lights and rushed ahead into the house. Tyler Emerson was in her house. Brinn closed her eyes and forced breath in and out of her lungs. The enormity of this event was nearly incomprehensible. The boy, and now man, that she’d crushed on since she was ten years old was alone, with her, in her house.

She scanned the living room. Her place seemed cleanish. No glasses on the end table or plates balancing on the sofa cushions. Her bedroom was a disaster zone thanks to her inability to pick an outfit without first trying on every piece of clothing she owned, but what were the odds that Tyler would end up in her bedroom?

She pulled off her winter coat and opened the front closet door. “Sorry it’s such a mess.” She picked up a pair of tennis shoes and tossed them into the closet.

“Mess? You should have seen my place in Denver before Charlotte and I found a housekeeper. My baby girl was growing up in a biohazard.”

Tyler’s gaze trailed around the room. How did her place look to him with her red and white tree and her Christmas snow globe collection on the bookshelf?

“Your place looks great.” He walked to the built-in breakfast bar that separated the kitchen from the dining room and set the box of cannoli on the counter.

Her heart fluttered in her chest. Brinn hurried into the kitchen. “Let me get some plates.” She rubbed her hands together and flitted about the kitchen. She grabbed two plates from the cabinet beside the stove and a real coffee cup from above the sink. She picked up Tyler’s to-go coffee and dumped it into the ceramic mug.

“There you go, that’s better.” She lifted a cannoli out of the box. Feeding people, taking care of them, baking, that calmed her. Her mind could accept that Tyler was here, at her house, for a cannoli, but the idea that he was here for her? Nope. Too much to digest. Sweet treats for a friend was understandable. Tyler in her home, after a date, after he’d said he wanted to take her out again? Her brain might pop out of her head. She pushed the plate across the breakfast bar toward Tyler and held out a fork.

He cut into the cannoli. “Did you make this?” That beautiful smile, filled with charm, curled up across Tyler’s face. She could stare at that smile for days.

“I did. These are really fresh. We had to make more halfway through the day. I did them once I got back from the Grande.”

Tyler lifted the golden-brown pastry filled with mascarpone and pistachio to his lips.

Brinn’s heart froze in place. Please let him like her cannoli. Nonna said the way to a man was through his mouth, which led to his stomach, which caused his heart to fall. His gorgeous, full-lipped mouth opened. Damn, she could kiss that mouth.

Heat flamed up her neck.

The fork slid between his lips. “Oh my God, Brinn, do you have any idea how good this is?”

Brinn ducked her head and a smile widened across her face. She did. She was a pretty great baker and pastry chef. Always nice to get an acknowledgement of all the work she’d put into mastering her craft.

Tyler held his fork toward her with a bite of cannoli on the end. Her gaze met his. Heat fired in her belly. Tingles collided in her fingertips. He was so close, his mouth was so close. She opened her mouth and Tyler slid the fork between her lips. The sweet taste of mascarpone with bits of pistachio rolled over her taste buds. So intimate.

Tyler leaned forward, his lips now millimeters from hers. “Amazing.”

Her tongue swept out over her bottom lip, which she pulled under her top two teeth.

“And I don’t mean the cannoli.” He moved forward and his lips were on hers.

Brinn’s body burst into flame. His tongue pressed along the seam of her lips and Brinn opened her mouth to his. Tyler’s fingertips wove through her hair as his other hand reached out and grasped her shoulders. He stood and Brinn stood with him. The length of her body pressed to his. His maleness pressed against her hip and her nipple pebbled beneath her shirt. How long since she kissed a man? How long since there’d been a man she wanted to kiss?

Tyler’s hand cupped her chin, and he pulled his lips from her mouth and kissed along her neck. Deep tendrils of heat thickened through her body as his mouth and hot lips trailed across her skin. The desire to strip off his clothes, to strip off her clothes and get into bed with this man clawed through her. His fingertips slid under her sweater and trailed along the edge of her jeans. His hands, those hands. His touch drew her in. Until…

Oh no. Her muffin top. His hand spread over her belly. Her very soft belly that proved that not only did she bake a lot of cannoli, but she ate a lot of them too.

Brinn pulled away.

“I’m sorry Brinn, I didn’t mean to…” His gaze clouded. “I didn’t mean to move too fast.” His lips pressed to her forehead. He didn’t. He hadn’t. She wanted to wrap herself up in bedsheets with Tyler.

“It’s not you.”

Would these insecurities forever plague her? How fabulous to have the perfect body and classically beautiful face, the type of beauty that made men swoon. But that wasn’t her. She was a little round, a little soft, a little handsome, and not at all what Tyler was used to. His ex-wife had been near supermodel proportions, and that definitely wasn’t Brinn.

Even Tyler looked like a god cut from marble. How could she possibly measure up to the women that Tyler had been with? If his ex-wife was any indication, he usually went for tall, leggy, and big-boobed. She had the big-boobed part, but the tall and leggy? Not so much. A man like Tyler could have his pick of women, so why would he choose her?

He wouldn’t. This, whatever it was, had to be convenience. The whole thing was convenient for Tyler. Not real.

His brows creased. He lifted her chin with his fingertips and forced her to meet his gaze. “Brinn? What is it?”

She stepped back. Away from him. She couldn’t help it. She’d made a horrible mistake with Marco. A mistake she never wanted to repeat.

“I…” Her gaze fluttered toward the floor. What could she say that wouldn’t make her sound desperate and needy and just completely weak and pathetic? “I have something for Charlotte!” Brinn walked away and cool air replaced the heat between them. “I’m sorry, I just thought of it, and I don’t want to forget.” Brinn moved around the counter and back into the kitchen, where she opened the cabinet beside the refrigerator and pulled down a wicker basket. She picked up three cellophane-wrapped cookie castles. “There are three granddaughters, right?”

Tyler smiled, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “They’ll love them.”

Brinn walked out of the kitchen and handed him the three wrapped cookie castles.

“I guess I should go. Early morning for you tomorrow.”

Ache cascaded through her heart. If only she could make the leap. Believe that Tyler really did want her, no matter how pudgy or rectangular her body was. She wasn’t ready. As much as she liked Tyler, as much as he turned her on, how could she ever believe that he would be interested in a girl like her?

He lifted his coat and his scarf dropped to the floor. Brinn reached for it, and as she stood, Tyler—gorgeous Tyler—was right in front of her. Sun-kissed hair that dared to retain shades of blond even in the dark of winter. Bright blue eyes that still held shadows of want. That square jaw and those damn lips. Lips that had traced down her neck. Heat fired between them. A desire they couldn’t fake.

In a split second, Tyler’s lips were on hers again, this time not tentative or seeking but with a solid passion and hard desire. Brinn kissed him back with the same urgency. Forget her belly fat. She wanted him and he wanted her. Brinn pressed the flat of her hand up under his Henley to the hard, well-muscled plane of his belly. Little electrical pulses shot through her fingertips. Her hand moved up the fine hairs on his belly to his chest.

Oh my God, his chest. Pure perfection. She pulled the Henley up and over his head. He stood in her living room without a shirt. She leaned back. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. That body.

Brinn was wet for him, and that was before his fingers pulled her sweater up and over her head. He slid his fingertips around to the back of her bra and opened the clasp, and her breasts fell free.

“Brinn, you’re gorgeous.” He pulled her tight bud of a nipple between his lips.

Heat seared through her, and a sharp breath rushed over her lips. Brinn’s head fell back as his mouth worked her nipple and his other hand slipped down the front of her pants and grazed her panties. Her hips arched forward. With one deft snap, her jeans were unbuttoned.

He walked her back to the couch and they both sank onto the soft material. She rested her head on the pillow, and he bent over her, his lips sucking her nipple while his other hand caressed her breast. Such pleasure. Such pleasure she hadn’t experienced in so long. His lips trailed across her chest to her other breast and pulled her nipple into his mouth. His hand unzipped her jeans and pulled them down over her hips, her knees, her legs.

She was nearly naked. Her entire body splayed out in front of Tyler. She fought the sudden urge to cover herself, to cross her arms over her breasts and her middle. She was so exposed. He was so beautiful and she was simply so…

“Brinn, you’re amazing.” Want filled Tyler’s eyes. Pure desire.

Her fear seeped away. His lips trailed over her belly and he rolled her panties down over her legs and tossed them on the floor. Brinn’s hips thrust upward. Tyler kissed along the edge of her mound, then down one thigh and up the other. His hand slid between her legs and gently parted them.

Her muscles tightened, and she squeezed her eyes shut. How could she do this? Why would Tyler want to do this? God, please let him do this. His tongue slid along the inner sensitive flesh of her thigh, and his finger trailed down her center.

She gasped, nearly unable to breathe.

“So hot. So wet. So beautiful.”

With his words, her whole body simply melted into the sensations of his mouth above her sex. His tongue slid along the side of her folds but had not yet touched her most sensitive spot.

Brinn’s hips pressed upward. She sought his mouth, his touch. Tyler pressed two fingers into her wet center. He slowly pulsed in and out of her sex. Pleasure coursed through her, but it wasn’t enough; she wanted his mouth on her. Her hands grasped his blond hair.

“Please, please,” Brinn begged.

A smile crossed Tyler’s face and his lips were on her. His tongue stroked her clit and traced circles along that sensitive spot. Her body trembled. A quiver started low in her back. Her sex squeezed around his pulsing fingers.

He pulled his lips from her. “Come for me, Brinn.”

With another stroke of his tongue upon her clit, she trembled, her entire body shook.

“Tyler!” Brinn convulsed and fell over the edge.

The third tower on the Christmas castle was built. Brinn climbed down from the ladder. Her hands clasped her hips and she examined the castle. Strong. Sturdy. Not yet beautiful, but soon. Decorating would begin in the next two days. She turned to Pieter.

“Thank you for helping today.” Her gaze bounced past Pieter to the giant glass doors of the Grande lobby.

There was Tyler.

Heat flooded through her body and her sex tingled. The memory of his mouth heated her blood. She closed her eyes for a split second and sank into the memory. His lips upon her lips. His tongue upon her sex. The earth-shattering feeling of falling over the edge.

He walked toward her. He was the type of man that men wanted to be friends with and women wanted to sleep with, and she was merely Brinn Bartoli. An average-looking baker from Powder Springs.

How was this happening to her?

“Hey.” The fresh scent of soap and mint wafted around him. He gripped her elbow and leaned forward and planted the sweetest kiss on her lips.

Brinn’s heart beat hard with surprise. She slid her eyes to the left and to the right. The lobby contained not only tourists but many locals from Powder Springs. If Ma hadn’t heard about Brinn’s date last night, she definitely would now.