Page 70 of The Christmas Tree Farm

‘Yeah?’

‘Holy shit, yeah. Don’t stop.’

‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’

He kept going, his hips thrusting into hers, his fingers digging into her and the fact that he wasn’t at all intimated by the buzzy little robot in her hand just made the whole thing hotter. As it turned out, she had found some kind of magical sex unicorn in her fields.

Pleasure shot through her, a hot flash, so intense it almost felt like pain.

‘That’s right, just like that. Let it all go.’ Bennett’s words rained down on her overheated skin and she broke.

Sobbing and babbling, her orgasm tore through her like Bennett had performed some sort of sex exorcism, wringing every last bit of worry and stress from her body and replacing it with pleasure. She dropped the vibrator when she couldn’t take any more.

Bennett lowered her legs, leaning over her again, dropping kisses along her sweaty brow.

‘You okay, Peaches?’

She could barely nod, barely whimper, ‘Yes.’ Because that damn nickname was too sweet and she liked it far too much. This all was too much. She couldn’t. She shouldn’t. But he was there. Still there, kissing her and shushing her and telling her she was beautiful and perfect and it was alltoogood.

She didn’t deserve it. Any of it. But shewantedit.

Bennett was still moving inside her, gently, slowly as he kissed her.

Kira ran her hands down his back and he shivered. ‘I need you,’ he whispered, his voice rough. ‘Just a little more. I need you, Kira.’

She wrapped her legs around him, kissing him deep, nipping his bottom lip, giving him permission to go harder, to thrust into her until he came, too, with a fierce curse, his body trembling with the force of it.

He pressed his forehead to hers when it was over, her legs dropping to the bed.

‘Did I hurt you?’ he asked.

Kira shook her head, amazed that the first words out of his mouth were concern for her, but of course, they were. ‘No, I always cry during sex,’ she said, afraid of the emotions sweeping through her. Teasing was safer.

His low chuckle ghosted across her cheeks. ‘Okay.’ He dropped another kiss to her nose.

‘But that was better than sex with an asshole, I’ll give you that.’

He let that slow grin cross his face, and it was even sexier now that she knew it was warranted. ‘Glad to hear it, Peaches.’

‘We have not agreed on that nickname.’

‘Oh, right. I forgot’ One more kiss and he got up, braving the cold to deal with the condom. He came back cursing. ‘Goddamn, Kira. You need to raise the prices of those trees. You need that boiler now.’

She laughed, standing up to wrap a blanket around him. ‘Come on, let’s go take a nice, hot shower. The storm isn’t over yet.’

She threw a flirty wink over her shoulder on her way out of the living room, hoping she was covering the panic currently flooding her veins at the thought of all this ending as soon as the snow plows came rolling through.

She should have known this was another one of her bad ideas. Another example of her taking what she wanted and giving no thought to the consequences.

But at least this time, she’d be the only one to get hurt.

ChapterNineteen

‘So how long do you think the storm will last?’ Kira asked as she studied her letter tiles. They had found an ancient Scrabble board in the back of the closet Kira had been using for her towels and it was now laid out between them on the mattress.

After their shower, he’d built the fire back up and it crackled and popped, filling the room with warmth and calm. They’d just finished what Kira called a snowstorm-empty-the-refrigerator-charcuterie-board for their dinner. It consisted of cheese and crackers, several types of pickles, leftover rotisserie chicken from the little grocery store in town, grapes, and chocolate-covered almonds that Kira bought in bulk. It was delicious.

‘Seems like it’s already winding down.’ He’d been avoiding looking out the window for a while now, not wanting to confirm that the snow had significantly slowed down, although the wind continued to rattle Kira’s old windows.