“Warmer?” he asked at last.
“Mmm,” she purred as his lean, hard body took her on the beginning of what she hoped would be a very sensual ride. She inhaled, savoring the masculine scent of his cologne, letting him seep inside her pores and her skin.
“Rina?”
She tipped her head backward, forcing her heavy eyelids open. “Yes?”
His thumbs brushed over her lips, letting her dampness coat his fingertips. The sensations as he caressed her mouth overwhelmed her and she swallowed a moan.
“Do you want to get even hotter?”
His voice took on a low, husky quality that reverberated over her already sensitized nerve endings. She couldn’t mistake his meaning. She already knew she wanted the night to end in bed.
Meeting his gaze, she nodded, but didn’t feel anything like the courageous wanton she pretended to be. “I want to burn.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” His hand in hers, he led her off the dance floor, silent understanding about what was to come surrounding them.
By driving into Boston with Corinne, she’d left herself free to return home with Colin. On the long car ride, Rina had a lot of time to reflect on the woman she’d become around Colin. She’d never been so brazen before, not in thought or deed. But no other man had ever allowed her such freedom to be herself. None had ever seen her playful side. She bit her lip and glanced out the car window. The white snow in contrast to the jet-black night made her think of the woman she was…and the woman she’d been. These days, she’d returned to being the Rina whose ideal Christmases as a child had been spent playing in the snow, then warming up with hot cocoa at the kitchen table.
Colin respected that woman. Colin, a man who’d taken one look at her outrageous red dress and rather than disapprove, he’d drooled, and even grown jealous. She studied his handsome profile. Just the sight of him quickened her pulse and a ripple of excitement darted through her.
She clenched and unclenched her fists, all too aware of the fact that with Colin, she felt not just accepted, but alive.
One hand on the steering wheel, he met her gaze. Carnal need flared in his eyes and found an answering heat in hers. Beneath her dress, her nipples were hardened peaks awaiting his touch, and inside her panties, dewy desire trickled and her body pulsed with restrained need.
She squirmed in her seat, desperate for a distraction. “Mind if I turn on some music?” she asked.
“My place is closer,” he said at the same time.
They’d agreed to be together. They hadn’t discussed where. He doesn’t bring women back to his place, Logan had said. The beating of her heart echoed in her ears in the confines of the small car. “Is that an observation or an invitation?” she asked, needing to keep things light. Needing an answer even more.
He laughed. “You don’t play games. I respect that about you.” He reached over, his hand touching, then covering hers.
Heat seared her already sensitized skin.
“It’s an invitation,” he said. “One I don’t extend lightly.”
He met her gaze once more, hunger and more than she was ready to deal with shimmering in the darkened depths.
He doesn’t bring women back to his place.
Apparently he did now.
She drew a deep breath before answering. “I accept. And it’s not something I do lightly, either.”
His hand squeezed hers, his thumb caressing her skin, making her burn. He turned off the highway an exit earlier than her own. Two or three short turns later and he drove into a gated town house complex. Lit only by street lamps and the occasional room occupied by a night owl, they were enveloped in a cocoon of darkness that fit the wanton, decadent way she was feeling.
Staring out the car window, Rina couldn’t get a mental image of the development where Colin lived. She’d have a better idea come morning.
Oh wow.
She stepped out of the car and glanced up. When had it started to snow? She’d been too preoccupied with her thoughts to notice. Needing the release, she spread her arms out and twirled around, letting the flakes hit her face and the wind whip around her until Colin pulled her into his arms.
“You’re the ultimate snow bunny.” Serious and intense as she’d ever seen him, he dipped his head for a lingering kiss, one hot enough to melt the snow around them. His mouth sizzled against hers, making her burn. She’d come here for one reason only, and he obviously intended to give her what she desired.
By the time he took her hand and led her inside, awareness and desire had all but overwhelmed her. But she had no reservations, no doubts. She was ready.
DESPITE THE COLD OUTSIDE, Colin burned. He watched as Rina shrugged off her jacket, revealing the sexy dress that had tied him up in knots all evening. He reached out for her coat then dropped it onto the couch beside his. “You know, if it wasn’t for the snow on the ground, we’d never have made it inside.”