And at the moment, he wished it would happen sooner rather than later.
“This is also about the chemistry between us.” Wade took another step toward her and she didn’t back away. His hand went to her face, tipping her chin up to look at him. Even in heeled boots, she had to strain to look him in the eye this close. “I’m not the only one to feel it, am I?”
Tori gave just a subtle shake of her head. He could detect it only by his hand against her smooth skin. “I feel it,” she whispered.
She stepped closer until their bodies were nearly touching. He was suddenly aware of the scent of her perfume again, an alluring earthy and floral mix. It made his whole body tighten with anticipation of touching her the way he’d wanted to earlier but couldn’t. Now he was free to act without the eyes of his family and their obnoxious critiques.
Wade didn’t need any more of an invitation. He dived into her, capturing her lips and cupping her upturned face in his hands. She was soft and open to him.
He felt her hands press against his chest, not to push him away, but to feel him through the thick wool of his sweater. Wade moaned against her mouth as her silky tongue glided along his own. It sent a sharp barb of pleasure through his body, urging him to take more than he should tonight. His hands fell from her face to slip around her waist. He tugged her to him, relishing the feel of her soft body against his hard angles.
Without pulling away, he inched them backward through the snow until her back was pressed against the cold metal of her truck door. She gasped but didn’t resist it. In fact, it seemed to light a fire in her. When his mouth left hers to finally taste the hollow of her throat, Tori wrapped her arms around his neck, her silky stocking-clad leg sliding up the outside of his thigh to hook around his hip and draw him in.
The throbbing of his groin pressing into her was almost as uncomfortable as the needling cold on his exposed skin. His hot lips scorched across her frosty throat in a delicious contrast. It wasn’t until her pebble-hard nipples pressed into his chest that reality intruded. He was practically devouring her in twenty-degree weather, and neither of them had on a coat.
Forcing himself to pull away, he took one last gentle kiss and backed off. Wade sucked in a large breath of painfully icy air to kill his arousal. He couldn’t walk back into the house like this. He grabbed her upper arms and pulled her away from the frigid metal siding of her truck. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You’ve got to be freezing. I didn’t think about that at the time.”
“To the contrary,” she said, her lips swollen and her cheeks still red. “I’m feeling quite warm for some reason.” She smiled sheepishly and brushed a long strand of red hair behind her ear.
Damn. He’d forgotten to touch her hair. He’d ached to do that from the first moment he saw it.
“You don’t have a coat on, either,” she said. “You’d better get back inside or you’ll spend your Christmas Day sick instead of with your family. You don’t want to miss the Grinch.”
Wade smiled and shook his head. “I’m certain they’ll wait for me, whether I want them to or not.” There were unnecessary words swirling in his gut that he had the urge to say before he left. They probably wouldn’t help the situation, but he couldn’t keep them inside. “I want you to know that all this doesn’t have anything to do with the land.”
Tori stood on her toes to press a soft goodbye kiss to his lips. “I know,” she whispered faintly against his mouth.
He had to force his hands into fists buried deep in his pant pockets to keep from reaching for her again.
“I’m glad this one wasn’t in front of your whole family,” she said with a grin. Before he could respond, Tori turned and ran around to the other side of the truck. “Merry Christmas, Wade.” She climbed inside and the engine roared to life.
Tori gave a quick wave as she turned her truck and pulled away from the Garden of Eden. Wade watched her disappear into the darkness, and then ran his hand through his hair.
“Merry Christmas, Tori.”
Six
Thursday night, Tori sat in her favorite seat at the counter of Daisy’s Diner. Now that the holiday had passed and the leftovers Molly forced on her were all eaten, it was back to her usual haunt.
Over the past few weeks she’d made her first friend in the waitress who handled the counter there. Her name tag said “Rosalyn,” but she told Tori to just call her Rose. Rose was off on Wednesday nights, but any other day of the week Tori would be at Daisy’s for dinner.