he had never been a fan of a dark room. Kissing Lindsey was like the first time he’d hopped in the half-pipe and had the ride of his life.
She’d awakened something inside him that was so much more than physical. It was easy to say the affection and lust roiling through him right now was due to the day he’d spent with her. They’d both been in the bridal party. Lindsey as a bridesmaid and Carter as a groomsman. The other couple standing up for Elizabeth and Bradley was a real couple, so she and Carter had sort of been forced together. In spite of all his faults, he’d never been a big fan of lying, even to himself.
She cupped his butt again and groaned. He wanted to take this slow, but if she kept fondling him it was going to be a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am encounter up against the wall of his hotel room.
Even the thought of that made him shiver. God, he wanted her.
“Want a drink?” he asked, forcing himself to take a few steps from her. He hoped the distance would clear his head and maybe penetrate the red haze of lust that was surrounding him. Make him remember he’d wanted her for a long time. Their first time should be epic.
“There is only one thing in this room that I want, Carter Shaw, and I’m looking straight at him.”
She kicked off her high heels as she sauntered toward him, her hand under her arm. For a moment it looked as if she was cupping her own breast. He groaned as she slowly dragged her hand down the side of her own body. The dress gaped and he realized she was getting naked.
“Slow down, gorgeous, we have all night,” he said, toeing off his shoes as she closed the distance he’d put between them.
“It’s midnight, Carter, which means we only have six more hours until morning. Until the cold light of day. I don’t want to waste a second of it.”
She was different. He wanted to be, too. He wanted to just go with it and pretend that this was the real Lindsey. Except he knew it wasn’t.
Was she playing a game tonight?
She placed her palm flat on his chest, and then leaned into him. The scent of her perfume once again surrounding him, inundating his senses. Pressing even closer, she went up on tiptoe to kiss his neck, just above his tattoo, as her hands pushed his jacket off his shoulders and down his arms.
He let the jacket fall to the floor, then slipped one of his hands into the gap in her unzipped dress. Her skin was cool and satiny smooth. He felt his way over her ribs toward her breasts. Her breath hitched, and she caught the lobe of his ear between her teeth and bit down lightly.
“I’m curious where those other tattoos of yours are,” she said, her fingers moving between them and undoing the buttons at the front of his shirt.
Her breath brushed over his neck and made him throb even more. Shivers spread down his body; blood pooled in all the right places, making his skin sensitive and cock rock hard. He stopped thinking of how he wanted this to be and just followed her lead.
Lindsey wasn’t going to let him put her off her goal. And as she’d said downstairs, her resolution for the year was him. He’d never been anyone’s anything special before. Fun time, sure, but that wasn’t all he intended to be for Lindsey tonight.
He pushed his hand farther into her dress, up her back, and found the clasp of her bra. Undoing it with one hand and then rubbing his hand between her shoulder blades, pulling her closer to him as he lowered his head to take her mouth with his.
She tasted like the promise of a night he’d never forget. Her mouth was both languid and passionate under his. Her tongue tangled against his in a slow, sensuous dance that felt as though it would never end. As though it didn’t have to end tonight.
Her hands slid under his shirt, her fingers cool against the fabric of his T-shirt, and he felt the bite of her nails into his pecs. “Where is your skin? How am I going to see these rumored tattoos of I can’t get to you?”
A laugh rumbled through him. “Sit on the bed.”
“No.”
“I thought you wanted to see me?”
“I do, but that doesn’t mean you get to be bossy,” she said.
Lindsey slipped her hands up over his shoulders again and pushed his dress shirt down his arms. “You forgot my cuffs.”
“No, I didn’t,” she drawled. “I think you’ll see that you are trapped. And I am in charge.”
He wasn’t trapped at all. He might not have a full range of motion, but he could still hold on to her waist, which he did. But she stepped back and put her finger right in the center of his chest. “Why don’t you go sit on the bed?”
He laughed again, that jolt of lust and joy taking him by surprise. And he did what she asked, slowly working his hands to free them as he sat. As soon as his hands were free, he leaned back on his elbows and arched one eyebrow as he looked over at her. “Okay, now what?”
“Hmm...let me see.” She moved forward, straddled him on the bed and brought her mouth down hard on his. She sucked his tongue into her mouth, and everything inside him came to attention as she nipped his tongue and then abruptly stood. “Take off your T-shirt.”
“Take off your dress. I’m dying to see what you look like without it.”
“Can I keep my tiara on?” she asked impishly.
“Definitely. I think the Ice Queen should always wear her crown.”
She stepped away, shimmied out of her dress and then let her bra slowly slide down her torso, pulling first one arm free and then the other and dangling it from one finger. She stood there with that cool Nordic beauty. His gorgeous ice queen, very sure of herself and her appeal.
He started to get up, but she wagged her finger at him. “Did I say you could move?”
“I think you’re going to want me to move,” he told her.
“Not yet.”
He sank back on the bed and grimaced as his slacks cut into his erection. He shifted and then thought, To hell with it, and unzipped his pants, pushing them down his legs.
“You look good, Carter. You could be an underwear model.”
He’d done a few ads in his day, but lately he preferred to keep some things for himself and his lovers. His body was one of them. He stood and slowly pulled the hem of his T-shirt up past his abdomen as he closed the gap between them. She reached out and traced the tattoo on his left side. Her fingers were warm and seeking as they moved over him.
The design disappeared into the top of his boxer briefs, and she pulled the elastic waistband away from his skin, pushing the side of the briefs down so she could see the entire thing.
“Is this a mountain?”
“Yes. Nagano.”
“Why Nagano?”
He let out a groan. “Now? You want to talk now?” he asked, painfully aware that he could barely string together two words as she leaned lower to examine his ink. Her beautiful, lush breasts swayed forward and her
