Merry Christmas, Baby(18)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

“I’m open to meeting as many people as possible,” she said, her smile rocking him.

He smiled back. She’d just told him she wasn’t caught up in meeting Gaylord because he was a straight guy.

She held her wineglass in one hand and the other arm she stretched along the back of the couch. She rubbed small circles with her finger. Her hands were elegant with short, functional nails. There it was again. It was subtle but she had an energy about her that drew him.

Jared sipped at his wine and copied her, stretching his arm along the back of the sofa, as well. He lightly traced his finger along the back of her hand, leaving her every opportunity to pull her hand away. She didn’t. She simply smiled at him over the rim of her wineglass, her brown eyes taking on a smoky quality.

Her skin was soft and smooth like warm velvet beneath his fingertip. Tension wound between them, beckoned them.

“We just met,” he said, leaning in closer.

“I know.” Her husky tone stroked through him.

“This is crazy.”

“Insane,” she agreed. “And I bet you never opt for insanity.”

“I never have before.”

They both placed their wineglasses on the coffee table and moved toward one another on the couch. Jared leaned in and her breath fanned against his face. There was something almost miraculous about Teddy Monroe, something that got next to him, that tugged at him.

“Would you take your hair down? I’ve wondered all night what it would feel like.”

“You have?”

“I have.”

She reached behind her head, her movements sensual and languid, and pulled the elastic out of her hair. With a slow shake of her head, her hair tumbled about her shoulders. She threaded her fingers through it, as if combing it. “Better?”

“Much.” He fingered one of the blond swaths. In the lamp light it looked like molten honey and felt like silk. “You have beautiful hair,” he said.

“Thank you.” She leaned in closer.

He buried his hand in her hair and his fingertips brushed against the back of her neck. She shivered faintly beneath his touch.

And it should feel kind of crazy considering he’d just met her but the strong urge to kiss her simply felt right. He pulled her to him. Her lips were warm, soft…and potent. Even though she tasted faintly of red wine, the effect was like a shot of smooth, aged whiskey going down. Heat spiraled through him and went straight to his head…both of them.

Teddy deepened the kiss and Jared ran with it. Her mouth opened beneath his and he swept the moist recesses with his tongue. He explored the soft, wet heat of the inside of her cheeks, the velvet length of her tongue. She moaned into his mouth and he swallowed her sound, absorbing it.

Her sweet, hot mouth wasn’t enough and he slaked kisses against the line of her jaw, down the column of her neck to the area just below and slightly behind her ear. “Oh, oh, oh,” she said, half gasp, half actual words.

Her neck was incredibly sensitive. He teased his tongue against the soft skin and she arched her back and canted her head to one side, allowing him greater access. She grabbed his shoulders and held on to him, her fingers digging into his muscles. Her impassioned response turned him on all the more. Jared felt more alive, more in tune with her than he’d ever felt with anyone before.

He nuzzled at her neck, kissed, and then sucked at the tender spot. It was as if he couldn’t get enough of her. He lapped at the delicate shell of her ear, then traced the line with the tip of his tongue.

Meanwhile her touch was warm and arousing as she kneaded the muscles in his shoulders, down to his chest. She found his male n**ples through his shirt and teased her fingers against them, the sensation arrowing straight to his penis.

And then they were kissing again. Teddy wrapped her arms around his waist, her hands smoothing along his back. Her kiss was intense, deep, hot. He cupped one of her br**sts in his hand and she moaned, pushing harder into his palm. She was just the right size and she felt so good he thought he might explode. Even through the layers of her bra and sweater her nipple thrust against his palm.

His dick was throbbing like nobody’s business, straining against the zipper of his pants. He cupped both of her br**sts in his hands, massaging and kneading. Her ragged breath matched his.

He’d only just met her, she was a virtual stranger, and he wanted to strip her nak*d and plunge into her. He wanted to feel the heat of her skin against his own without sweaters or jeans or underwear.

Jared pulled her onto his lap. Linking her arms around his neck, she settled against him.

TEDDY WAS ON FIRE. NO man had ever kissed her or touched her like Jared, where she felt as if she were beyond the point of reason. She had never, ever known this frantic need—to have him closer, to feel his hands and mouth against her br**sts, to experience the smooth, hot thrust of him inside her. She ached for him. She felt as if every desire she’d ever known was concentrated in her br**sts and between her thighs.

Seize the day, the moment, the opportunity urged a part of her she hadn’t even known existed. She reached between them and grasped the hem of her sweater in both of her hands. She was on the upward pull when somewhere in the still-functioning part of her brain, she realized something was wrong. Not wrong per se, just different. She heard footsteps climbing the stairs and voices in the stairwell.

Gus. Nick. On their way here. Like a shot she tugged her sweater back down while scooting back to one end of the couch. She snagged her wine with her right hand and attempted to straighten her hair with her left.

Meanwhile, Jared shifted back to the opposite end and picked up his glass of wine, as well. Teddy glanced pointedly at his crotch where his erection was making itself known by tenting the front of his trousers impressively. He crossed his ankle over his knee which helped. She supposed there wasn’t much to be done outside of that.

His voice wasn’t quite steady when he said what she guessed was the first thing that popped into his head by way of making conversation other than I’d really like to sleep with you which was doubtless his primary thought. “Thanks again for letting me stay here.”

“No prob—” Her voice sounded as if it had been dipped in rust. She cleared her throat and tried again, “No problem.”

The door opened and Gus and Nick stepped into the room. They both looked startled. “Oh,” Nick said, “we thought you’d be in bed by now.”

Teddy felt herself blush to the roots of her hair. Hopefully some of it was masked by the room’s dim lighting. She hoisted her glass. “We were just getting there. I mean after, you know, we had a glass of wine.”

Somehow that didn’t make it any better. And she was doubly sure that between Gus’s sharp eyes and Nick’s nose for ferreting out details and news, they both knew Teddy and Jared had been getting hot and heavy on the couch.

“What he means,” Gus said, mercifully, “is he thought Jared would’ve hit the wall by now.”

Teddy stood. “I kept him up talking.” He was up all right, but it wasn’t because of talking. She didn’t dare glance Jared’s way. Now that the heat had gone out of the moment, she was moderately mortified.

Jared spoke up, “I got a second wind so I’m wide awake. Teddy was gracious enough to keep me company.” He hoisted his glass in her direction. “By the way, the wine is excellent, almost as good as the company.”

“Is that a shiraz or a pinot?” Gus asked.

“It’s a shiraz,” Teddy said, already moving toward the kitchen. “Can I get you a glass?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Nick said.

Gus nodded. “Sure, I’ll try it.”

Her mind whirling, Teddy poured two more glasses of wine. She’d only just met Jared and within no time she’d been on his lap. Another minute and Nick and Gus would’ve walked in to find her sweaterless. Actually, given the momentum and the heat behind their encounter, she was certain one more minute beyond losing her sweater and she’d have been without her bra as well.

And God knows what Jared must think of her. This was so not her modus operandi. She did not jump on the laps of men like some sex-starved chick—primarily because she wasn’t. She wasn’t fast and she wasn’t easy but she’d just come across as both.

She handed Nick and Gus their wine and retrieved her own. However, she was too jangled to sit down with the three of them right now, which was altogether more disconcerting because she was supposed to be an actress dammit, and she should be able to act her way through this situation, but she simply couldn’t.

“If you guys don’t need the bathroom right away, I think I’ll hop in the shower,” Teddy said.

There was a general round of consensus that no one needed the facilities at the moment so Teddy took her glass of wine and fled to her room.

She was gathering up clean underwear and her pajamas and robe when a knock sounded on her door. She was so jumpy she nearly startled out of her skin. “Yes?”

“It’s me,” Gus said. Of course it was. Neither Nick nor Jared would knock on her bedroom door. “Can I come in for a second?”

“Sure. It’s unlocked.”

Gus stepped into the room, her wineglass in hand, and closed the door behind her.