‘I’m offering to buy you a drink to thank you for the meal. Then I’ll walk you home.’
And I’m supposed to believe it’s as simple as that, her narrowed eyes clearly told him. Who could blame her when testosterone was firing off him in spears of hot light?
‘Do you have people to look after the animals?’ he asked.
‘We drafted in some extra help over Christmas. They’ll take it in turns to keep a watch through the night.’
‘Then you have no excuse.’ His lips pressed down as he shrugged.
‘Apart from natural caution, do you mean?’
‘What would Skylar say?’ he challenged.
She laughed. ‘I’m not sure I want to know.’
‘You need a break so you can enjoy Christmas too,’ he pointed out.
‘You think?’ Jess laughed as she wiped a forearm across her glowing face.
‘I know it,’ he stated firmly.
Her cheeks pinked up even more but she was in no hurry to give him her answer. Brava, Jess. This woman was exactly the challenge he wanted.
* * *
Should she go with Dante? Life was complicated, and he had made it even more so because she wanted to go with him, more than she’d ever wanted anything before.
There were so many reasons not to go. The kitchen was a mess—inevitable after a successful party—and she would have liked to stay and clear up.
‘You go,’ her father’s friend Ella told her, having intuited Jess’s dilemma. ‘I’ll handle this first thing tomorrow morning—and I’ll handle your dad too.’
Jess could believe it as she exchanged a smile with the older woman. Ella coped with a farm on her own so there was no reason why she couldn’t take on Jess’s dad. ‘If you’re sure?’
‘I’m positive. You’ve more than put the effort in to making today a great success, and if you can’t go and have a quiet drink down the local pub I don’t know what’s wrong with the world.’
But would it be a quiet drink down the local pub? ‘Thank you. You’re very kind—’
Before Jess had chance to continue, her father interrupted with the surprising news that she shouldn’t wait up for him.
‘I don’t know what time I’ll be back,’ he explained.
‘Oh.’ Jess’s jaw must have dropped. She quickly pinned on a smile. Yes, she was surprised. Things seemed to be moving quickly between her father and Ella, though she’d been away in Spain and, with work and the animals, maybe it was Jess who was guilty for being out of the loop. She had never asked the relevant questions. Her father had been lost and lonely without her mother; why shouldn’t he be happy now?
‘See you, Dad,’ she called out as he left with Ella. With all her heart, she wished them well, and her father a much better future.
They’d all come a long way, Jess reflected as the rest of their guests left for home. Dante was waiting by the door with her coat. So what was she going to do? Turn him down? She could stay here and nothing would change. He’d probably be gone by the morning. And what would she have missed?
That remained to be seen, she concluded, firming her jaw.
Glancing around the familiar kitchen, she couldn’t help feeling that, whatever happened next, her life would never be the same again.
* * *
When he planned something, he planned down to the last detail. He’d taken the top floor of the pub in advance and had Christmas gifts for Jess and her father in his emergency backpack. He would arrange the recovery of the SUV as and when; meanwhile, champagne was on ice and, as he’d also requested, tasty snacks were in the icebox he’d had installed in one of the rooms. This wouldn’t be his only visit to the village, so home comforts were essential. As for him and Jess? It was crucial they had a chance to talk in private.
Inviting her into the cosy sitting room, where the landlord had the good sense to light the log fire, he took her coat and then they stared at each other in silence.
Jess made the first move. Moving closer, she stood on tiptoe to brush her lips against his. ‘That wasn’t a mistake,’ she informed him. With a shrug she added, ‘Maybe it was as reckless as when I was seventeen, but I think I’m old enough to handle the consequences now.’
‘You expect consequences?’ He smiled and shook his head.
‘You’d better not disappoint,’ she warned cheekily.
‘What’s been holding you back?’
Jess’s mouth twisted as she turned serious to think about this. ‘Duty—like you? Career—like you?’
‘Disappointments in the past?’
‘If you think you can do better...’
She was only half joking, he suspected. ‘Try me and find out.’
‘I intend to.’
‘Do you think you should take your boots off first?’
‘My boots?’ she echoed with surprise, glancing down.
‘Your feet must be frozen.’
She stared at him and laughed. They both laughed, and were still laughing when he brought Jess into his arms to kiss her—gently at first, and then as if he would never let her go. Whatever doubts had been in Jess’s mind, it soon became clear she’d given them the night off. Having left her boots by the door, she informed him, ‘My heart is set on undressing you.’
He held his arms out. ‘Be my guest.’
She did this slowly and deliberately, as if every button took her closer to a personal goal that had less to do with sex and more to do with establishing trust between them. His urges were far less worthy. He wanted to strip her naked, throw her on the bed and make love to Jess until she was too tired to move, but this was such a pivotal moment for both of them he decided to run with Jess’s approach. Until she sank to her knees in front of him.
‘Did I do something wrong?’ she asked, wounded eyes fixed on his as he brought her to her feet.
‘You’ve done nothing wrong,’ he said gently. Now he understood why Jess’s sex life had been so disappointing. If she’d had to do all the work, what pleasure was there in that for Jess? Sex should be a shared experience with mutual pleasure.
Swinging her into his arms, he carried her into the bedroom. ‘Now it’s my turn,’ he warned as he peeled off the heavy socks she was wearing beneath her boots. ‘These are disgusting.’ He tossed them aside as she laughed, and then she took turns smiling and groaning with pleasure as he warmed her feet in his hands.
‘You know all the best routes to a girl’s heart.’
‘Dealing with frozen feet is my speciality,’ he conceded as he bathed her tiny feet in kisses and hot breath.
‘How many hearts have you broken with that technique?’
‘I’ve never been much interested in finding my way to anyone’s heart,’ he admitted.
She seemed surprised so he asked, ‘Why do you find that so hard to believe?’
‘Your reputation precedes you?’ she suggested.
‘Do you believe everything you read?’ When she shrugged, he explained, ‘I love my brothers and my sister, Sofia. And, before you ask—no, I have never put their feet near my mouth.’
Everything changed in that moment. Jess’s smile broadened until it lit up her face, and he knew that the biggest hurdle had been crossed. Before sex came trust, and he had won Jess’s trust.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DANTE UNDRESSED HER with as much care as he might have shown a skittish pony—if that pony had been wearing ten layers of Arctic gear. And with each item of clothing he removed, he kissed her. When she was naked the room seemed to grow very still. The only sound was their breathing—Dante’s steady and Jess’s interrupted by short gasps of pleasure when Dante found some new place to kiss.
It was possible to soothe and arouse at the same time, she was fast discovering, and Dante was a master of the art. Long, soothing strokes down her back quietened her, but made her want so much more. He gave her chance to feel her body waking to his touch, but his restraint was a torment. The urge to take the lead began to overwhelm her, but each time she tried to make a move Dante dissuaded her with kisses, telling her to concentrate on sensation and nothing else.
She hadn’t just stepped over that line; she’d leapt over it, Jess concluded as a soft moan of pleasure escaped her throat. They could never be close enough and when Dante’s hand found her she cried out loud with excitement. He’d made her wait so long she was right on the edge. ‘Please don’t stop,’ she begged when he moved his hand. His answer was to kiss her neck, her lips, her cheeks and her eyes, while she trembled with anticipation beneath him like a greyhound in the traps. Then he turned her and, holding her hands in one giant fist above her head, he made control impossible. As she bucked uncontrollably beneath him Dante released her pinned hands and captured her thrusting buttocks in one hand while he helped her to extract every last pulse of pleasure with his other hand. Having found her slick warmth, he made her take the short journey again, until she found herself right on the edge.