Jingle Spells by Vicki Lewis Thompson Read Free Book Online

dark except for a small light on the antique desk by the front door. Wall sconces glowed at intervals along the stairway leading to the second floor.
    â€œI was so nervous.” Taryn walked on tiptoe to the bottom of the steps. “I was afraid you’d think I was too skinny.”
    He followed her up the stairs, careful not to let the suitcase bump against the railing. “I was afraid I’d come too fast.”
    â€œWhich you did.” She giggled softly.
    â€œYeah, but I made up for it later.”
    â€œYes, that’s true.”
    â€œSaved my rep.” That first time, he’d been so incredibly turned on by her he’d lasted about thirty seconds. But at twenty-two, his recovery time had been phenomenal. During the next go-round, he’d given her two orgasms.
    â€œThat was my first orgasm with a guy.”
    â€œIt was? Wish you’d told me. We could have celebrated.”
    â€œI was too shy to admit it. I figured you’d think I was a dork. I wanted you to think of me as cool and sophisticated.”
    â€œI did.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œYou were the coolest girl I’d ever met. You understood string theory.” He paused. “Your room’s at the end of the hall, on the right.”
    She headed down the hallway, her footsteps muffled on the patterned carpet runner. “I didn’t want to be cool because I was smart. I wanted to be cool because I was sexy.”
    â€œYou were sexy, too.”
    â€œYou’re just saying that.”
    â€œNope.” He followed her down the narrow hallway. Soon. Very soon. “Smart is sexy, at least to me, it is. Besides, you had a killer body.”
    â€œ
Had
?”
    â€œ
Have
.” He thought it was cute she was worried about that, especially when she had nothing to worry about. “Still. Even more so.”
    â€œYeah, right. You’re supposed to say stuff like that when you’re about to see me naked for the first time in years. I’m nervous just thinking about it.”
    â€œYou think you’re nervous? I figure I’m destined to repeat that first night.”
    She reached the end of the hallway and turned back to face him. “That’s fine with me.” She smiled as she looked him up and down. “As long as you repeat every bit of that first night.”
    His cock jerked in response to that seductive smile, and his heart hammered at the prospect of being inside that room alone with Taryn and a big feather bed. “I will, but I’m not twenty-two anymore. The second time might not happen as fast.”
    â€œI’m in no rush.” She held his gaze. “We have all night.”
    Lust slammed into him with such force he stood there trembling.
    â€œDo you have the key?”
    â€œYeah.” He dug into his coat pocket and handed it to her. “You’d better open it.”
    Her eyes widened. “Are you shaking?”
    â€œYes.” He clenched his jaw against the primitive urges rolling through him. “And if you don’t open the door and go inside
immediately
, I’m going to take you right here in the hallway. Better move it, Harper, before we give Mrs. Gustafson the scare of her life.”

Chapter 5
    A nd
that
, Taryn thought as she quickly opened the door and walked into the dimly lit room, was why she’d never forgotten Cole Evergreen. No other man had ever wanted her so intensely, as if he might spontaneously combust if he couldn’t have her in the next ten seconds.
    Ten seconds was about all she had to drop her messenger bag to the floor, shrug out of her parka, and glance at the unlit fireplace and the giant four-poster bed that dominated the room. Then the door clicked shut, the lock shot into place, and Cole was there, spinning her around to face him. He made a sound low in his throat, something between a growl and a groan, and then he claimed her mouth.
    If he’d kissed her this way in the hall outside her