Jingle Spells (5 page)

She reached the end of the hallway and turned back to face him. “That's fine with me.” She smiled as she looked him up and down. “As long as you repeat every bit of that first night.”

His cock jerked in response to that seductive smile, and his heart hammered at the prospect of being inside that room alone with Taryn and a big feather bed. “I will, but I'm not twenty-two anymore. The second time might not happen as fast.”

“I'm in no rush.” She held his gaze. “We have all night.”

Lust slammed into him with such force he stood there trembling.

“Do you have the key?”

“Yeah.” He dug into his coat pocket and handed it to her. “You'd better open it.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you shaking?”

“Yes.” He clenched his jaw against the primitive urges rolling through him. “And if you don't open the door and go inside
immediately
, I'm going to take you right here in the hallway. Better move it, Harper, before we give Mrs. Gustafson the scare of her life.”

Chapter 5

A
nd
that
, Taryn thought as she quickly opened the door and walked into the dimly lit room, was why she'd never forgotten Cole Evergreen. No other man had ever wanted her so intensely, as if he might spontaneously combust if he couldn't have her in the next ten seconds.

Ten seconds was about all she had to drop her messenger bag to the floor, shrug out of her parka, and glance at the unlit fireplace and the giant four-poster bed that dominated the room. Then the door clicked shut, the lock shot into place, and Cole was there, spinning her around to face him. He made a sound low in his throat, something between a growl and a groan, and then he claimed her mouth.

If he'd kissed her this way in the hall outside her apartment, she might not have been so certain that he loved her. This kiss didn't have a lot to do with love, but it had everything to do with lust. That worked for her, because she was just as desperate for him.

They wrenched at each other's clothing, and didn't succeed in getting much of it off before he shoved her down on the feather bed. She still wore one leg of her jeans, and although his coat was on the floor and his shirt was unbuttoned, that was all he'd accomplished. With a soft oath he unzipped his fly and tore open a condom packet.

He no longer trembled. Instead he moved rapidly and deliberately to sheath himself. She sprawled across the bed, and he grabbed the damp crotch of her panties. With one swift tug, the seams gave way.

The thrilling sound of him ripping her panties from her body nearly made her climax. He'd never been like this. She moaned, needing him, aching for him...and then he was there, surging into her with a powerful thrust that made her gasp.

His mouth hovered inches from hers. “I have you, now, my precious.”

She would have laughed, because
Lord of the Rings
quotes had been inside jokes of theirs during college. But his wild assault had left her breathless, and
hot.
She'd never been so turned on.

He seemed to have achieved total immersion, but somehow he rocked his hips forward and settled himself deeper yet. “There. Right
there.
”

The jolt of his penis set off her first tremor. “
Cole.
”

His laugh was low and rich with satisfaction. “Ready for me, you are.”

Hysterics and passion bubbled equally inside of her. “Not Yoda, too!” She gasped. “You're killing me here!”

“I'm distracting myself. Turns out I don't want a repeat of that first night, after all.” He eased back slowly, setting off little explosions across her skin. Then he drove in again, filling her as only Cole could.

Her blood pounded through her veins as another spasm hit, and another.

“Ah, Taryn, you're going to come first.” And he stroked her again, and again, and again.

Cupping his face, she pulled him down, needing his mouth on hers, because she was about to come, and if she yelled, she'd wake Mrs. Gustafson. He made love to her mouth with his tongue, mimicking the same steady rhythm of his hips. He required an embarrassingly short time to achieve his goal. As he swallowed her soft cries, she arched upward in a powerful climax. If he hadn't had her pinned to the bed, she believed she might have flown.

As her world spun and she quivered in his arms, his rhythm changed. Now his hips rocked with more speed and less care. Lifting his mouth from hers, he began to pant. “Yes...yes...now...Taryn...
now.
” With one final thrust, he drove home, his body shuddering with the aftershocks of his orgasm.

Sliding both hands under his shirt, she caressed his sweaty back. Her hands remembered the texture of his skin and the ripple of his muscles. He liked to be caressed after sex. She'd forgotten that. Each memory that surfaced was a treasure she'd kept locked away, but now she could uncover them all. Cole was back in her arms at last.

* * *

Cole's technique had lacked eloquence, but he was pleased with the end result. Brushing a kiss over her full lips, he eased away from her and gave her a Schwarzenegger “
I'll be back.”

“You'd better be,” she murmured. “And next time I want it long and slow.”

“Me, too.” He headed for the little bathroom with its white antique fixtures. He'd never stayed here, but he'd toured the place. Whenever they had non-magickal folks visit Evergreen Industries, he put them up at the Nutcracker Inn. Everyone raved about it.

Good thing he wouldn't ever stay here, because now the place would be loaded with memories of Taryn. A sharp pain in the vicinity of his heart reminded him of the risk he was taking by falling in with her plan. These few days could turn him into an emotional cripple, but he was willing to pay that price.

Now that he realized no one else would do but Taryn, and Taryn was forbidden to him, he'd stay single forever. That might have sounded harsh to someone else, but to Cole, it made perfect sense. Marrying someone he loved less than Taryn would be unkind to them, and to himself.

Taking off his shirt, he walked back into the room and paused. She'd always been speedy at undressing, but she must have set a world record this time. Gloriously naked, she crouched beside the fireplace with a lit match in her hand.

The small flame illuminated her delicate features, and another pain sliced through his heart. So beautiful. She tossed the match into the fireplace and swore when it fell uselessly through the grate. Opening the box of matches, she struck another one.

Silly as it was, he wanted her to succeed, but he didn't give her method much chance. Focusing on the logs arranged in the fireplace, he timed his muttered incantation to her match-tossing. The logs caught.

“Yes!” She turned to him, her smile bright. “You were standing there thinking I wouldn't get it started, weren't you?”

“Actually, I thought you would.” He'd simply increased her odds.

“Let's make love here in front of the fire.”

“Why not?” He was touched that she'd ask, and that she'd used the phrase
make love
instead of
have sex.
They used to make love in front of the fire. His duplex had been a real find—a rental with a woodburning fireplace. He'd used magick to keep the blaze going while they were otherwise occupied.

An unmagickal fire required constant tending, which meant having sex by the fire was romantic in theory but inconvenient in practice. She'd never questioned the consistency of their fires. He hoped that was because she'd been too busy enjoying herself.

He wondered if she'd ever tried having hearthside sex with anyone else. If so, she would have discovered it didn't work quite the way it had with him. Selfishly, he liked knowing that their experience would stand out in her mind.

She rose from the hearth with an unselfconsciousness that showed she hadn't really been worried about revealing her body. He couldn't stop looking at her. She was the same, yet different.

The tiny mole positioned over her heart was still there, waiting for his kiss. But her breasts were more voluptuous now, and her hips flared a bit more, emphasizing her narrow waist. His gaze traveled the length of her slender legs. He had fond memories of those legs wrapped around his hips. She knew how to lock him in tight while giving him room to move. He didn't need much, just enough to create the right kind of friction....

She said something, but he was so lost in memories he missed it.

“Earth to Cole.”

“Hmm?”

“Your clothes, Evergreen. Lose 'em. I'll fix us a bed by the fire.”

He grinned at her and snapped a quick salute. “Aye, aye, cap'n.”

“Smart-ass.”

“Sweet-ass.” How quickly they'd become comfortable with each other again. Ten years had vanished, replaced with the easy relationship he remembered so well. Taryn got him. Well, not completely, because she didn't know about the magick. That should have been a huge omission, but somehow, when they were together, it didn't seem to matter. They made their own magick.

By the time he'd shucked the rest of his clothes and located another condom, she'd spread a quilt on the floor and tossed a couple of pillows there, too. He walked toward her, his cock already standing at attention. “You made your bed. Now lie in it.”

“I thought I would.” Dropping to her knees, she stretched out on the fluffy quilt with the lithe movements of a cat. Then she glanced up at him. “Come on down.”

“I will, but I just realized what's different. You're not squinting.”

“No, I'm not. Want to see my bedroom eyes?”

“Absolutely.”

“Watch this.” She lowered her lids to half mast and her eyes took on a smoky quality.

His balls tightened. “That's good.” He swallowed. “Very good.” He started to kneel.

“Wait. I'm not done.” Her gaze dropped to his feet. Then it traveled slowly up his calves to his knees, and beyond his knees to his thighs, until finally coming to rest on his pride and joy. At that point, she ran her tongue over her lips.

“Now you're done.” He sank to his knees before she figured out he was shaking again.

“No, I'm not.” She beckoned to him with a crook of her forefinger. “C'mere.”

A stronger wizard would have refused the temptation she offered. He'd intended this session to be all about her. Apparently he wasn't as strong as he'd like to think he was. He stretched out on the quilt and allowed her to have her way with him, and it was so good the fire roared in the hearth.

She drew back, startled. “Why did that happen?”

His breathing wasn't very steady, but he gulped in air and managed a quick explanation. “Pine knots. They flare up.”

“Oh.” She wrapped her fingers around his bad boy and leaned toward him. “Sorry for the interruption.”

“No, it's a good thing.” He cupped her cheek, stopping her descent. “I was about to get carried away.”

She glanced up at him with a seductive smile. “That's the idea.”

“Not this time. I have a few plans of my own. Be fair. Take turns.”

She hesitated.

“You used to really like some of the things I did.”

Her eyes darkened and her breath hitched. “Yeah.”

“Let me do those things again.” He stroked his thumb over her cheek. “You know you want me to.”

“Okay.” She flopped back onto the quilt like a ragdoll. “You convinced me, Evergreen. Do me.”

“You bet.” And he proceeded to. Revisiting all his favorite Taryn places felt like coming home, and she rolled out the welcome mat for him. In seconds she'd abandoned herself to the process of being seduced.

By the time he put on a condom and slid into her, she was on the brink of climax. One firm stroke on his part, and she came. He muffled her cries with the flat of his hand and kept pumping into her.

“Again,” he murmured.

She pulled his hand away, gasping. “I can't breathe.”

“Then, here.” Bracing himself on one arm, he cupped the back of her head and lifted her so she could press her mouth to his shoulder. When she came the second time, she bit him.

He didn't care. In fact, it made him happy to know she'd marked him. Eventually the mark would fade, but until it did, he'd have a physical reminder of loving Taryn.

Slowly she relaxed in his arms and he eased her head back onto the pillow.

She looked up at him, firelight dancing in her eyes as she massaged his back. “Amazing. Stupendous.”

“Mmm.” His own climax hovered, but he'd managed to keep the urge from overwhelming him. Holding her gaze, he eased in and out. “We've still got it.”

She nodded.

“There's no one like you, Taryn.”

“I'm a special snowflake,” she murmured.

“Uh-huh. Very special.”

“So are you, Cole.”

And there was that pain, burrowing into his heart. He might carry that ache forever, but that was okay, too. The pain would remind him that, for a little while, he'd had Taryn to love again.

She grasped his hips. “Your turn.”

“Not yet.” He hated for this moment to end.

“We can do this again tomorrow night.”

“I hope so.” But he had no guarantee of that. His intuition was excellent, and it told him he'd better treasure this moment and not count on any more.

Her grip tightened. “I think I can come again. Let's do it together.”

“All right.” He'd mastered that little trick before. The secret was watching her eyes and timing his response to what he saw there.

He bore down and increased the pace. Yes, she was right with him. Her pupils widened. He slowly slipped the leash on his own response and his heart began to pound.

The glow in her eyes was impossible to misunderstand. She loved him. His eyes surely reflected the same emotion, because he loved her, too. And because he did, he had to let her go.

But in this moment, as they surged toward a shared climax, he was hers and she was his. He held nothing back as he drove in one more time. She arched against him and he pulsed within her, each of them silencing their cries and their words of love. Yet their eyes said all their voices could not. And the fire roared.