she flushed and quickly transferred her gaze to Emma. Rina tried to look innocent. She really did. But when Emma nodded Colin’s way and murmured, “I agree he’s hot, but put your tongue back in your mouth,” the slight flush in Rina’s cheeks started to burn.
“You’ll have to forgive Rina. She’s off balance,” Emma said to Colin. “And I can’t really blame her, considering.” She propped an elbow on her desk.
“Considering what?” Colin spoke to Emma, but his blue-eyed gaze never left Rina’s. He hadn’t stopped staring since her blunt admission.
Emma sighed. “Young people. You never take time to look around you and appreciate the scenery.”
Oh, if Emma only knew how wrong she was, Rina thought wryly, realizing Colin’s eyes had small laugh lines surrounding them, a sexy attribute that added character to an already amazing face.
“Look up, children. You’re both standing under mistletoe,” Emma said with glee. With a huge smile on her face, Emma pointed up.
Rina groaned, and Colin, one eyebrow raised, followed Emma’s lead to look at the ceiling. Sure enough, the green sprig hadn’t moved, changed or fallen to the floor. And neither had Rina since the time Emma had called her over to Colin’s desk.
She’d been had. A notion the older woman verified when she not so subtly picked up her purse.
“Well, Colin?” Emma asked. “Aren’t you going to follow tradition?”
Rina knew from experience life rarely doled out second chances. Standing under the mistletoe with Colin was a one-time opportunity. She’d been doing a lot of talk about living a new life and starting over.
She glanced up at the mistletoe that teased her and tempted her to follow her most erotic impulses. Emma obviously caught the sexual undercurrents that had been running between Rina and Colin since day one.
No sense trying to hide them now.
“I wonder,” she whispered softly, for Colin’s ears only. Taking advantage of the new, liberated Rina, she leaned forward, closer to Colin and those super-sexy lips. “Do you have the nerve?”
CHAPTER TWO
FROM THE CORNER of her eye, Rina saw Emma slip out the door.
“Emma’s gone,” Colin said. He sounded as stunned as she felt at this sudden turn of events, and his voice held a husky, low timbre that resembled rough whiskey.
“And she definitely left some excitement in her wake.”
“Is that what you’d call it?” He studied her shamelessly, as if taking her measure. Looking for what, Rina couldn’t be sure, but with each passing second, those blue eyes seemed to see inside her.
To read her mind. If he could, he’d know she took this tradition seriously. Now that Emma had put the idea in her mind, she wanted to know what it would feel like to be kissed under the mistletoe. Right now. By Colin.
His hands came to rest on her shoulders, his palms hot and strong. Heat burned within her and her stomach curled with silken anticipation as the need to taste him grew.
“Rina?”
“Yes?”
He removed her glasses, placing them on the desk, and stared. “Did you know you have golden flecks in those brown eyes?”
Unable to speak, she licked her dry lips and was rewarded when his hungry gaze followed the movement.
“Reminds me of sunshine.”
Warmth tingled through her veins. Born and raised in the Bronx and a New York girl at heart, Rina wasn’t shy about asking for what she wanted. And she wanted her new life to begin now. Despite barely knowing Colin, she was going to test the waters. Take whatever he was willing to give. “You should know, I’m not one to let a mistletoe moment pass.”
“And you should know, I’m not a man who takes a challenge lightly,” he said, obviously referring to her earlier question. Did he have the nerve to kiss her? “Nor am I the type to defy tradition. No matter how unexpected,” he whispered an instant before he lowered his head and his lips touched hers.
He’d called her bluff, taken the initiative, and now he toyed with her, playfully testing, learning the feel of her mouth and letting her learn him. Then his tongue slid briefly, seductively, over the seam of her lips, electrifying her with his moist touch until their tongues lightly met.
The experiment yielded high-impact results. Colin tasted of pure male desire, a flavor that stirred a hunger long denied, and awakened passions she’d never experienced before. Passions she’d never thought existed before now. She trembled, and in response he squeezed her shoulders, his fingers biting into her skin, providing a carnal awareness of the fact that she affected him, too.
But from deep inside, caution clawed its way to the surface, breaking through the surprising desire that still burned hot inside her. She’d been floored by a simple kiss.
As if anything about this kiss—or Colin—was simple.
She lifted her head, breaking the kiss but not the awareness. He met her gaze. Heat flared bright in his eyes and flushed his cheeks, and the shock that reverberated inside her was evident in his expression. Another emotion shared.
She stepped back and ran trembling fingers over her lips. “That was…”
“Fun.”
Not exactly the word she’d have chosen and Rina blinked, startled.
“Isn’t that what kissing under the mistletoe is supposed to be?” Colin shot her a boyish grin.
She wished it was as easy for her. She exhaled hard and forced a casual smile before meeting his eyes. “Of course it was fun. Emma set us up and we responded like any two adults caught under the mistletoe would.”
She took a step backward, then another. A few more and she made it to her desk so she could regroup, leaving Colin alone under the mistletoe laden with tradition.
“Fun’s meant to be repeated.” His expression still showed shocked surprise, but he couldn’t hide the warm appreciation in his gaze.
She reached for her jacket, caught off guard when he stepped forward and helped her slip on her wool coat. His hands were gentle as he adjusted her collar, and his callused fingers brushed her nape, eliciting a tingling sensation that shot straight to her toes.
She hadn’t known he was a gentleman. “Thanks.”
“My pleasure.”
Without turning, unwilling to look into those blue eyes once more, she barely managed to grab her series folder, call a quick goodbye and beat a hasty retreat to the door.
“Rina, wait.”
She turned, her heart pounding hard in her chest. “What?”
“You forgot something.”
She accepted her glasses and bolted into the cold night.
