Authors: Erin McCarthy,Donna Kauffman,Kate Angell
Tags: #Romance, #Fiction, #General, #Contemporary, #Anthologies
“Thanks.” She shrugged, but her smile was a little forced. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be a downer, but it suddenly hit me that I just spent a thousand dollars, which took me an entire year to save, on a trip I won’t be taking. That sucks. A lot.”
“That does suck. And I won’t give you a pep talk, I know how annoying that is.”
“You’re a smart man.”
“But I really think I should sing for you.” He nudged her arm, very much aware of how little she was wearing and how close they were sitting.
Blue turned and gave him an incredulous look. “What about that is a good idea? Can you even sing?”
“No. But that’s not the point. You want music.” He stood up and cleared his throat. “And I shall provide it.” He had to admit, this was a gamble. She might just get totally annoyed, but he thought that he was just awful enough that he’d get a laugh out of her, which was his goal.
“You’re a nut, you know that, don’t you?” Beneath her towel, she adjusted until she was sitting on the bed crosslegged. “And you’re scaring me.”
Christian grinned. “You so don’t look scared.”
“I am. I’m terrified of what is going to come out of your mouth.”
“The King, baby.” He stuck his hip and his hand out. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“No.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and frowned in confusion.
“Blue Christmas,” he sang in an off-key, warbly attempt at Elvis. “I’m having a—”
“Oh, my God.” Blue held her hand out, her lips twitching. “Stop. That’s not going to happen.”
“Why not? It’s the perfect song because your name is Blue, obviously as you know, and it’s Christmas, which again you know, and you’re well, blue, as in feeling blue, so see, isn’t that a great irony?” He gave her a cheesy Chesire grin.
“I was thinking more like it’s awful, but really isn’t irony just another word for awful?”
“Basically. Well, if you don’t like my Elvis, there’s always the Porky Pig version. B-b-b-b-blue C-c-c-christmas.”
Blue burst out laughing. “You’re insane.”
So he kept going, spouting the whole song in the infamous pig’s voice, adding hand gestures where it seemed appropriate. By the time he was halfway through, she was laughing so hard she was clutching her sides.
“Stop. Oh, my, God, stop, you’re literally killing me.”
“See? Doesn’t that make you feel better?” He got close to her and bent over so that his face was level with hers. “B-b-b-blue. What’s so funny?”
“Did I mention you’re insane?” Her laughter petered out, but she was still grinning. “Thanks for distracting me and replacing Santa Baby in my head with the grating sounds of Porky Pig.”
Her lips were temptingly close to his and Christian dropped his eyes to them. “I could distract you from that too.”
The remnants of her laughter disappeared as she caught his intent. Her head tilted slightly and her eyes widened, the blue in them darkening. “How so?”
“By kissing you.”
“That would definitely work.”
Oh, yeah. Christian put his hands on the bed on either side of her and moved closer until his mouth claimed hers.
Chapter Five
A
s Christian’s lips had descended on hers, Blue had experienced a brief second of panic that maybe the kiss would suck, and then she’d be stuck here with Christian in awkward-ville. But then he touched her and that silly little doubt vanished in a kiss that she felt from head to toe, and mostly in between.
It was total perfection. His mouth moved over hers with confidence and skill and it took all of two seconds for her to reach up and place her hands on his bare biceps. Muscles. What a novelty. The way he surrounded her, the smell of his aftershave, the roughness of his chin under the delicious softness of his lips, was perfect. After a long minute of him taking her mouth and her surrendering, Blue pulled back, her breathing heavier than normal.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, voice husky and low.
“Nothing.” She shook her head before lying back onto the bed on her back, holding her hand up for him to join her. “I just wanted to do this.”
To surrender. To take the kiss vertical, him over her.
“Oh, damn,” he said, his Adam’s apple moving as he swallowed hard. “You are so unbelievably sexy.”
“Thank you.” She’d had a moment of doubt, since after all she was in a bikini, but as he moved up the length of her on the bed, and settled his man bulk down onto her, Blue was glad she was barely dressed. Besides, everything always looked seriously better when it was flat instead of when she sat and her stomach made that funny little roll. Not that she wanted to think about any of that. She really only wanted to think about him. Banishing all stupid insecurities, she sank back onto the bed and relaxed.
God. His body was so hard and warm and overbearing. She reveled in the pleasure that sensation and novelty brought. His hardness made her feel feminine, soft and small and seriously aroused. Who cared about a potential stomach roll when she was downright skinny next to his masculine bulk?
“You’re pretty hot yourself,” she told him in all seriousness, running her hands across his chest. She had to pause a second and close her eyes just to take it in, that smooth skin pulled taut over rippling muscle.
Most men she’d been with had only been smooth and hard in one place, and as Christian’s erection nudged her bikini bottoms, she was amazed that all of him was as exciting to touch and stroke as that part. This was a whole new education in the male form and she was definitely enjoying the lesson.
Especially when he started kissing her again, his hand sweeping back her hair, his lips doing delightful things to her mouth and to her insides. When his tongue swept across her lips, Blue gave a soft sigh and without thought or intent, shifted her legs apart so that his body settled more fully on hers.
“I don’t want to crush you,” he said, trying to move back.
She grabbed his butt—and was so glad she did—to hold him in place. “No, I like it, your weight on me.” And now that she had been forced to brace her hands on his ass, she might as well explore that fine behind while he went back to kissing the corners of her mouth, her neck, her shoulders.
Her greedy hands rushed over the denim, searching out all the contours of his muscles and squeezing. Wow. Just wow. Even his ass was hard. Blue felt her desire shifting, kicking up a notch from aroused to seriously ready to feel him inside her.
“Babe, you’re driving me crazy,” he murmured, as his tongue slid down over her bare flesh between her breasts.
“I could say the same for you.”
“Really?” Christian lifted his head and gave her a satisfied smirk. “Good.”
He lightly sucked her nipple through her bikini top.
“See, like that, right there?” Blue fought the need to pant. “Driving me crazy.”
“That’s good information.” He proceeded to do the same thing to her other nipple, sucking and lightly nipping through the thin fabric.
As he drew on the tight bud she felt a responding tug between her thighs and out of instinct and desire opened her legs even more. Christian gave a low moan.
“You know where this is going right?” he said, looking up at her, his brown eyes intense.
“Uh, yeah.” She smacked his butt for emphasis. “Hopefully sooner than later.”
“Just checking, and giving you a chance to bail if you want to.”
While that was the right thing for him to do, she also thought he was clearly insane if he thought she wanted to just make out and stop when they were stranded in a motel room in a snowstorm with tequila. “I don’t want to bail. At all.”
He gave a satisfied smile and returned to her nipple, pulling the fabric down this time and swirling his tongue over her tight bare flesh. That was more like it. Just as she was relaxing and letting arousal spread out in her body, he lifted his head again.
“I have a question.”
“Can it wait until later?” He already knew her middle name and what the hell else did he need to know?
“Is there like an angry crazy ex-husband or boyfriend with tattoos and a mohawk that I should know about? Or worse, a crazy current husband?”
Blue smacked him again, much harder this time, feeling fairly insulted. “Don’t you think I would have mentioned that before now if I did?”
“Not if you wanted to have sex with me.”
“Well, then how do you know if I’m telling the truth if I say no?”
His head tilted. “Huh. I guess I don’t.”
“Then just shut up and kiss me.” It wasn’t that hard to figure out, seriously.
“Aren’t you going to ask me if I have a girlfriend or wife?”
“I already did on the highway.” Blue grinned up at his cute face. “Besides, I’d know if you were lying. You have no game.”
“Excuse me? I have game.” On his knees between her legs, he lifted his arm and flexed, showing off a Celtic cross tattoo. “And guns.”
Blue fought the urge to laugh. He really was just so freaking cute. She should be miserable tonight, yet he had her constantly grinning. It was weird and unnatural. Didn’t he realize she was a cynic?
“You do have guns. Very nice ones.” She trailed her finger across his impressive bicep. “But game? No, sorry. You’re clearly frighteningly honest.”
Giving a grin, he shrugged. “Well, that’s true. I’m sorry, I can’t help it. I just can’t bring myself to be an asshole. But I can try if you want to.”
Now she did laugh. “No, that’s okay, thanks. I kind of like that you’re a good guy.” Though she would like it if he were a good guy removing her bikini top even better.
He leaned down and surprised her by kissing her, then biting her bottom lip in a sharp, unexpected aggressive move that had her body reacting immediately. Everything on her went tense, from her shoulders to her gritted teeth, to her nipples, to her clenching inner thighs. “Oh, God,” she murmured.
“No more talking.” Christian slid his fingers behind her neck and undid the tie to her bikini. He peeled it down, baring her breasts.
Normally Blue didn’t love getting naked in the dead of winter, but the room was as warm as a sauna and Christian’s appreciative gaze heated her up equally as the furnace. Then his brown eyes disappeared as he lowered his mouth to her nipple, and there definitely was no more talking as he licked and teased her sensitive flesh. She’d never really considered herself easily aroused by breast play, but whatever he was doing, however it might be different, she was really enjoying it.
Letting her fingers skim across his amazing biceps, Blue let her eyes drift closed as he moved to her other nipple. When his thumb began to slowly brush up and down over her clitoris, running along the smooth fabric of her bikini bottoms Blue sighed in both pleasure and anticipation. The motion, the soft barely there contact, repeated over and over, while his tongue laved and wet and sucked at her nipple, until the tightening deep inside her was aching and she shifted her ankles restlessly on the bed.
“Christian,” she murmured, opening her eyes and staring down at his light brown hair.
“Shh.”
Blue was about to protest that even spoken in that languid tone, she was not a woman to be shushed. But she forgot to worry about it when he obliged what had been her original complaint and moved his thumb from outside the fabric to inside. That slick slide of the pad of his thumb in a firm, confident stroke over her swollen clitoris made her groan.
She just lay there, more passive than she usually was in bed, and enjoyed the sharp arousal he drew out in her, reveling in the satisfaction when he finally plunged his finger inside her and hooked it.
Oh, my God, he’d found her G-spot in under two seconds. Without benefit of her coaxing, visual aids, or a GPS directional system. Just like that. He was in and on it.
Blue was so unprepared she couldn’t control her body and her response and lifted her hips as she burst into a very unexpected and very powerful orgasm. Gripping his shoulders, she rode it and his finger hard, a shocked burst of pleasure leaving her lips.
Stunned, as her body quieted down, she felt her cheeks pinken. She had felt that orgasm in every inch of her and she was actually mildly embarrassed. Now who was the one who had no game? That had taken him less time than it had to stammer out b-b-b-blue in his Porky Pig accent.
That off-kilter feeling was back big-time. Something weird happened to her around him and she wasn’t sure she liked it. Or she did like it. Which embarrassed her. So when faced with mortification there was only one thing to do. Call on her inner-sass.
“You suck,” she told him, her chest rising up and down in a heaving cliché.
His eyebrow shot up. “Excuse me? I don’t think you can deny you enjoyed that, so how do I suck exactly?”
“Oh, I did enjoy that. That’s the problem. You should not be allowed to get me off that easily.” It made no sense and was totally contrary and made her sound pretty bitchy and ridiculous, but his smile, his easy temperament, his muscles . . . it was all a little too appealing and that was freaking her out.
Christian burst out laughing as he stared down at Blue, her dark blue eyes meeting his unflinchingly. Her cheeks were pink from her orgasm and her hair was spread out on the bed in exotic black strands. Never in his entire life had he been criticized for bringing a woman to the point sooner than later.
But then again, he’d never made love to a woman like Blue.
It wasn’t hard to figure out that she had a bit of a wall up in the form of eye-rolling sarcasm. Given her parents it wasn’t any big surprise. But he found her intriguing and sexy and adorable. There was a vulnerability hidden beneath the cynicism and he couldn’t believe how hard he’d fallen for her in the space of just a few hours.
“I’m about to get you off again,” he told her, kissing the corners of her mouth and enjoying the sharp exhalation of air she gave. “So you’re going to be really pissed at me in five minutes.”
“It’ll never happen,” she murmured, her eyes hooded as he lazily ran his thumb over her firm nipple. “That had to be a fluke.”
“Oh, yeah?” Christian knew he had a certain class clown quality to him, but he knew what he was doing in bed. He could make her come again, no question about it. “Are we placing bets?”