“My mother isn’t like that. She doesn’t let my bad decisions pass without comment.”
“You haven’t seen her in five years.” Michael’s voice was rough with sleep. “She could have changed.”
Or not. “What if this whole thing is a mistake?”
He pressed her back against the bed and kissed her. “We are going to have the best Christmas ever.”
Were they? He didn’t know their mother.
He slid his hand from her hip to her thigh, and then higher, and she decided that for now at least she’d leave him to his fantasies because she was having a few of her own.
“Are you making a move on me?”
“Several moves.” His mouth was on her jaw, her throat, her breast. She felt the softness of his mouth and the rasp of stubble over sensitive skin.
Desire, warm and wicked, unraveled inside her. He wasn’t her first lover, but she’d known from that first heated kiss they’d shared that he’d be her last.
Michael.
She slid her arms round him, curved her legs over his. “I love you.”
“Of course you do. You’re a woman of taste. Ouch!” Michael winced as she moved her knee. “If you think you’ll ever want a second child, you should be careful.”
“I don’t know if I want a second child. Would it turn out like you?”
“You mean smart and wickedly handsome? We’re a rare breed. I can’t guarantee it.” He kissed her, smothering her response.
She put her hand on his shoulder, ready to push him away and carry on talking, but then he deepened the kiss and she forgot what it was she’d wanted to say. The kiss turned from soft and deliberate to wild and urgent.
She felt the skilled glide of his fingers and the erotic stroke of his mouth against the most sensitive parts of her.
Only when she was pliant, writhing, desperate, did he finally ease into her. She wrapped her legs round him but he held himself still, kissing her until she was almost in a frenzy. When he finally started to move, it was a slow, rhythmic teasing of her senses, controlled to the point that she might have thought he wasn’t as desperate as she was, except that she knew him. She cupped his face in her hands, saw the feverish glitter in his eyes and knew the effort it was taking him to hold back.
“I love you.” She whispered the words against his mouth. “Love you. Love you.”
He held her gaze, and she squirmed at the sheer pleasure of it, urging him to please, please just—
He thrust deeper, and she would have cried out but his mouth was on hers, the erotic intimacy of his kiss stoking her pleasure. Sensation built and built until she felt herself tighten around him, her body beyond her control as she reached the peak and fell.
She felt him shudder, burying his face in her neck to muffle the sounds. Finally he lifted his head and cupped her face in his palm. “Love you, too.” He kissed her gently. “Very much.”
Her heart was full, but she gave him a teasing smile. “Of course you do. You’re a man of taste.”
Acknowledging her comeback with a smile, he rolled onto his back and pulled her against him. “Now go back to sleep.”
She did, and the next time she woke there was a pale streak of sunlight poking through the windows. Michael still had his arm locked around her, and she lay for a moment feeling utterly content.
“What time is it?” She reached for her phone and groaned. “It’s late. How could we oversleep?”
“Blame the incredible sex.” Michael tugged her back against him but she pulled away.
“I can’t believe Tab slept this late. She always crawls into bed with us at 5:00 a.m.”
“Remembering what we were doing at 5:00 a.m., I’d say it’s a good thing she overslept.”
Ella kissed him and slid out of bed. Her head felt as if it had been stuffed with down.
“I’ll just check on her.”