His Secret Temptation

He pulled her into his arms. She felt his chin against the top of her head and wrapped her arms around his waist. Unlike a moment before, this was a platonic hug between friends. Silence stretched between them that Caroline didn’t know how to break.

Simon was the first to speak. With one last squeeze, he said, “I guess I’d better get some wine open before my dad has a chance to poison anyone with his martinis.”

“I’ll get the glasses,” Caroline said, all too aware of the hot color in her cheeks. She avoided looking Simon’s way as she entered the butler’s pantry and pulled out wineglasses.

The fight and subsequent apology seemed to reset Simon’s good humor, but he remained glued to Caroline’s side until it was time for dinner. As they entered the large, formal dining room, his mother neatly separated them and put her on the opposite end of the table between Charles and Jerry.

The brothers kept her entertained throughout the meal with stories of their misspent youth. She could easily see the similarities between the generations of Holcroft men and had little trouble picturing Dane and Simon’s children getting into mischief of their own.

Intimidated to be seated between a judge and a retired district attorney, Caroline kept relatively quiet through the meal, answering only direct questions and volunteering little.

Simon smiled encouragingly at her from down the table, where he was having a worse time, seated as he was between his mother and his aunt.

After dinner, everyone except Dane and Harold adjourned to the library and sat down to what Caroline discovere

d was a Holcroft family tradition: Scrabble. Charles scattered the tiles across a table that comfortably seated six, and Caroline helped him turn them all face down. The board pivoted on a base, allowing the players to view it right side up when it was their turn.

Caroline chose the highest numbered tile and started first. She didn’t have much to work with, and Simon smirked at her when she placed four tiles and spelled “bids.” His smugness worked to his disadvantage, however, because he drew mostly consonants and appeared to be a magnet for the letters X, Z and Q.

The Scrabble authority turned out to be Aunt Delores. She outplayed them all by a hundred points each of the first two games. Caroline knew she could have done better if Simon had stopped stealing her vowels and leaving her with the hardest letters to place. She was giving him warning sidelong glares halfway through the third game, but he refused to stop cheating until she spelled “equalize” on a triple word score, pushing her total ahead of Delores for the first time.

They all laughed at his dumbfounded expression, and Caroline forgot herself long enough to reach out and cradle his cheek in her palm. With his eyes shooting blue sparks, he caught her hand before she realized what she’d done. He turned his head and pressed a kiss on her palm, lightly nipping at the mound at the base of her thumb. The tender bite set off a chain reaction inside her, rippling sensation from her breasts to her loins, setting her alight. He acknowledged her response with a minute lift of his eyebrows. His lips curved in satisfaction when he released her. Caroline’s palm slipped away, but she couldn’t resist dragging her thumb across the corner of his mouth as her hand fell to her lap.

When she turned back to the table, she found four pair of eyes watching them in various degrees of surprise and amusement. Whatever heat had built in her body with Simon’s kiss exploded out her cheeks.

“One more game?” she inquired weakly, ignoring Simon’s smug expression and the way he laid one arm across the back of her chair in a proprietary manner.

Suddenly everyone began yawning. Before Caroline could blink, Simon’s parents stood and began herding his aunt and uncle up to bed. Caroline rose as well, and Simon took her hand. They walked toward the foyer with the other couples, exchanged goodnights, and Caroline found herself alone with Simon as the grandfather clock in the hall chimed eleven.

He still held her hand.

Chapter Six

They stared at each other for a long moment. Caroline knew what awaited them upstairs. Her mouth went dry as she contemplated what would it be like to stretch out in bed beside this man. To feel his weight settle over her, his hands and lips caress her skin, trailing fire.

He would be both masterful and playful, encouraging her to explore him in turn. Long languid hours would be hers to discover every rise and fall of his powerful muscles. He would give her that time, but in the end he would resume control and skillfully wring every last moan from her before he took his own pleasure.

“Feel like going for a walk?” His blunt question shattered the sensual fog she’d drifted in.

Caroline gulped. “Sure.” Fresh air was exactly what she needed right now.

“I’ll get our coats.”

They left by the front door. Cool night air slapped her hot cheeks and she welcomed the chilly wake-up call. Mooning over whatever Simon would be like in bed was a huge error in judgment. So what if she’d never felt attracted to another man like this before. That didn’t mean surrendering to it made any sense and she’d promised her mother she’d prioritize her education above her love life.

They strolled down the driveway and Caroline noticed what she’d missed on the drive up. A wrought-iron fence surrounded the Holcroft property, decorated with fresh evergreens, red bows and strings of white lights. She glanced back toward the house, seeing the electric candles softly glowing from each window and the twinkling white lights of the enormous Christmas tree in the front parlor.

She sighed. “This is beautiful.”

“Wait. There’s more.”

Across the street was a park that Simon told her was called Forsyth Park. “Every year the city puts up a huge tree and decorates it with thousands of lights. I thought we could walk over and take a look.”

Caroline slipped her hand into the crook of his arm and nodded. Together they walked in companionable silence through the fifty-degree evening. The mild weather had drawn others out. She saw couples, young and old, strolling together, enjoying the holiday atmosphere.

“Tomorrow I’ll take you on a walk around the Historic District. There’s lots of great architecture and I’m an excellent tour guide.”

She loved the idea of seeing Savannah through Simon’s eyes. The way he’d spoken of the city that night in Atlanta had made her eager to sample the magic for herself. “If it’s all right, I’d like to do a little Christmas shopping for your family as well.”