Don't Open Till Christmas Read online

  She’d also never imagined the eroticism of revealing her body for the first time to a man. Because under Mark’s obviously appreciative stare, she felt wanton and powerful. Beautiful and sexy. Something she’d never experienced before, when time, location or her own inhibitions had led her to seek out dark rooms and late hours for any sexual activity.

  It’s because he’s your stranger. You can do anything and not feel a bit self-conscious about it.

  The inner voice made Noelle smile and gave her confidence to go further. Further than she’d ever gone.

  Lifting one hand, she began to touch herself. She let her fingertips trace a path over her hip, then slide across the indentation below her belly. Moving up, she caressed her own stomach and midriff, until her hand rested just below her breast. Parting her lips and closing her eyes, she began to stroke her nipple, which was still curtained by her own thick hair. The softness against her sensitive skin was delightful and she almost purred at the pleasure of it.

  “Your hair is incredibly beautiful,” he murmured, still standing at the foot of the bed. “Yesterday, when you were tasting me, I couldn’t help imagining your head in my lap and all those dark curls spread across me.”

  Picturing it, she moaned. “It does feel good.” She plucked at her softly encased nipple, rubbing it between two fingers. Her hair would slide just as easily over parts of Mark’s body, and she smiled at the thought. “It’s going to feel amazing softly draping between your legs when I’m sucking you.” Her own eyes flew open as she realized what she’d pictured…more importantly, what she’d said aloud. “Oh, I didn’t mean…”

  Mark wasn’t shocked. In fact, he was watching her with an expression of hungry anticipation. “I hope you did mean.”

  His approval gave her the courage to go on, to be wanton. Daring. So she slid her hand down again, touching herself the way she wanted him to touch her. Soon.

  Noelle reached lower, until her fingers brushed the thin elastic at the top of her panties. She’d pleasured herself before—refusing to allow her ex-fiancé’s betrayal to deny her of any sexual satisfaction at all. But she’d never done it while someone watched. Someone dark-eyed and intense, staring almost enraptured. But the way he’d spoken earlier in the dining room told her he wanted this. He’d fantasized about it.

  The clenching in his jaw deepened as she dipped her fingers below the elastic, scraping them through her dark curls, then up again. He moved closer, until his legs touched the bed. “More.”

  She did as he asked, reaching deeper, to delicately touch her swollen clitoris. The rush of pleasure made her sigh.

  “Take them off,” he ordered. “Let me see you.”

  Feeling almost in a haze of sensuality, Noelle pushed the flimsy panties down, then crawled out of them, coming closer to the edge of the bed. Closer to him.

  He didn’t have to say what he wanted. Noelle knew. So, still silent, she leaned back and shifted her legs open…to let him see how much he’d already aroused her, just as he’d told her he’d pictured her doing.

  “Perfect,” he whispered, devouring her with his eyes.

  “I’m already dripping and you’ve barely even touched me,” she admitted.

  “You’re doing fine on your own,” he replied, a faraway tone in his voice, as if he was totally mesmerized by watching her.

  Reaching down again, Noelle touched herself, focusing more on the expression on Mark’s face than she was on her own pleasure. When she let her fingers slide between the wet folds of her sex, his whole body stiffened.

  She moaned. Or maybe he did. Probably they both did.

  As if he couldn’t endure any more, Mark reached for her arms, tugging her a little closer, so that the tips of her breasts almost brushed against the smattering of wiry hair on his chest. Almost…but not quite. The sensation was so delightfully torturous, she didn’t know whether she wanted him to move that scant millimeter closer or not.

  Holding her by the wrists, he lifted her arms and draped them over his shoulders. His skin sizzled to the touch and she could feel the flex and play of muscles beneath her hands—silk encasing steel.

  Turning his head, Mark kissed the inside of her elbow, then slid his lips higher, pressing open-mouthed kisses all the way to her wrist. Lacing his fingers in hers, he pulled her hand to his mouth and delicately tasted his way across her palm, nibbling lightly on its fleshiest part.

  When his tongue slid out to glide over the length of her middle finger, she realized he was tasting her, the essence of her, and liking it. That suspicion was confirmed when he drew her finger into his mouth and sucked, licking away any last bit of moisture from the intimate touches she’d given herself.

  Noelle closed her eyes and dropped her head back, her hips arching forward a bit in response. “I want you naked.”

  He released her hand, only to move his mouth to her neck. His rough cheek scraped deliciously against hers as he kissed the hollow beneath her ear. “I want you on your back.”

  Again there was a hint of demand in his voice. She was helpless to resist. So without another word, she moved away and lay back on the bed. Bathed in the bright light of day streaming in through the sheers covering the window, she was cloaked in absolutely nothing…not even shyness.

  Reaching for his belt, he unfastened it, then unbuttoned his jeans. Noelle watched, her pulse tripping over itself as he unzipped, but to her consternation, he stopped there. With the unfastened jeans riding low on his lean hips, he bent over her, surprising her with a sweet, delicate kiss to the inside of her ankle. As he had when kissing her arm, he moved with intoxicating slowness up the limb, delicately sampling her skin. He tasted the curve of her calf, nibbled at the indentation at the back of her knee.

  All the deliberate attention was incredibly erotic. He wasn’t ripping off his clothes and zeroing in on a few key body parts, as every other man she’d ever slept with had done. No. Mark was the soul of restraint, as if he could dine on her skin and be completely fulfilled. Stroking, blowing lightly. And oh, as he went higher, up her thighs, going back and forth between her legs to provide equal attention, how the tension increased.

  She couldn’t help wriggling, restless as she looked down at his black hair, stark against her pale body. “Mark…”

  “Shh. You have the softest skin Noelle, did you know that? Delicate and smooth. I love the way it feels against my cheek.”

  His low voice and sweet words aroused her almost as much as his kisses and his touches. And when he moved even higher, maneuvering her legs apart to gain access, she took a deep breath and gave herself over to whatever he wanted to do to her.

  She had a pretty strong suspicion of what that was.

  “Oh, yes,” she said on a deep moan, unable to help it when his silky hair brushed against the V of her thighs.

  “Oh, yes,” he echoed, his voice sounding as though it came from very far away. But she didn’t have time to worry about that because his mouth was moving over her…there…oh, there.

  Noelle’s hips jerked up in response, wantonly demanding more than that fleeting brush of his lips on her swollen flesh. But as he’d done on his long way up her legs, he took his time. He brushed his lips against her curls, blowing on the swollen lips of her sex. Delicately licking at her clitoris, he then moved away to taste the delicate skin where leg met hip. When she was ready to lose her mind with the anticipation, she moaned, “Please, please I need more.”

  With no warning whatsoever, Mark opened his mouth on her, licking deeply into her wet folds and Noelle let out a tiny scream. He didn’t notice, continuing to make love to her with his tongue. His hands remained on her thighs, holding her still. Suddenly, as if wanting to deepen the carnality, to bare her completely to his hunger, he lifted her legs over his shoulders. The position tilted her even closer to his waiting mouth and she saw him stare down at her—glistening and open to him—and smile.

  That was when sanity deserted her completely.

  “Say my name when you come,” h
e demanded, not bothering to look up to get her response. His self-confidence was so damn sexy she nearly came just at the sound of his voice. She was already incredibly close. And when he covered her clit with his tongue and slid his finger into her wet opening, she did exactly what he’d asked for, climaxing and crying out his name.

  Mark moved up her body and caught the last of her cries with his mouth, kissing her deeply. Noelle caught her own taste on his lips and was both shocked and titillated. No one had ever pleasured her quite that intimately before and her whole body felt inundated with new sensations.

  “Would you please take off your jeans?” she asked, as she greedily ran her hands over his thick shoulders and arms.

  “Nuh-uh.”

  She groaned in frustration, then in delight as he began doing that wickedly delicious slow sampling again, this time to the top half off her body. Her neck. Her collarbone. Her earlobe. The hollow of her throat. And finally—thank heavens—her breasts. When he sucked deeply on her nipple and moved his hand between her legs again, Noelle felt another orgasm wash over her, and rode it out with a moan.

  It rocked for several long moments, during which she barely noticed Mark removing the rest of his clothes. But when he reached across to the bedside table and grabbed a condom from the top of it, she had a chance to study him all over.

  She almost came again.

  “Please hurry,” she said as she stared at all that big, male heat that was about to fill her to the brim. He was rock hard and thick and while there were a million wicked things Noelle had fantasized about doing, right now all she wanted was the most basic. Him. Inside her. Now. “Please.”

  “You begging me now?”

  “You bet I am and my patience is almost gone.”

  His throaty laugh warned her not to push him too hard, or he’d keep torturing them both. She clamped her lips shut.

  “Got anything else to say?” he asked, looking down at her.

  She shook her head.

  “You sure there’s nothing you want to tell me…no secret desires you want to beg me to fulfill?”

  Oh, if only the man knew all the secret desires she still wanted him to fulfill. But this one was the most pressing, so she simply responded by lifting her hips in blatant invitation.

  “Tell me, Noelle,” he ordered, not giving her what she wanted. Pressing his lips to her neck he gently sucked her there. “Tell me what to do to you and how to do it.”

  She blew out an impatient breath. “I had kinda hoped you’d know how.”

  Her insult bounced right off him. “Beyond that. Come on, honey, I know there are things you want to do,” he said. “Things you’re dying to try. And the first one is so very…very easy. All you have to do is open your mouth.”

  She licked her lips, casting a quick glance down, wondering if the condom was a flavored one. Mark laughed softly. “I don’t mean that. I mean you need to say it. To say what’s on your mind, no matter how sexy or erotic.”

  “I’m afraid to distract you,” she said, almost whimpering.

  “I’m not easily distracted.” He eased closer, his hard chest brushing her nipples, his hips between her legs.

  Noelle parted her thighs wider, wrapping her calves around him, trying to tug him close. She might as well have tried to move a building. He remained just out of reach and she almost shouted in frustration. “What do you want from me?”

  His rough cheek scraped her jaw and he nibbled on her earlobe. Lower, his erection teased at her wet flesh, dipping close enough to get a taste, then moving just out of reach, increasing the frenzy. “I want you to say it out loud. Say all the wild, wicked things you’ve never said to a man. Because that’s what you’re dying to do, isn’t it? To scream. To get loud. To get a little down and dirty.”

  It was. Lord, it was. Carnal images and naughty words filled her mind, but couldn’t quite leave her lips.

  “I can start, if you want,” he said, still whispering, his lips still close to her ear. “I want to fill you up, Noelle. I want to feel how tight and wet you are. I want you to squeeze my cock dry when I eventually let myself come.”

  She jerked, feeling a sizzle of reaction shoot through her body, just at the words.

  “I want to make you moan and shake.” His whispers continued to float over her sensitized skin, even as his body hovered just out of reach. The wiry hair on his chest teased her nipples and his breaths caressed the tender skin at the nape of her neck. His strong legs were tangled with hers. And teasing her with the promise of what she was not yet getting, was the thick rod she wanted him to plunge into her. “I want you to scream for it.”

  A low moan built in her throat and started to rise. Because she was ready to howl and scream, to demand and to take. Throwing her head back and keeping her eyes closed, she tangled her hands in Mark’s hair and pulled him to her throat. She whispered an order, told him what to do, and was rewarded both with his satisfied groan and his mouth sucking her nipple. Hard and sudden. Amazing.

  “More,” he ordered. “Tell me more.” He punctuated his demand with a quick, short thrust inside her, over so fast she barely had time to appreciate the ecstasy of it.

  That taste of what was to come snapped the last of Noelle’s restraints, leaving her nearly incoherent with need. Wrapping her legs tightly around his hips and thrusting upward, she gave him the raw carnality he wanted. Which was, as he’d somehow known all along, what she’d wanted as well. “Give it to me, Mark. Please take me, do me, fuck me now.”

  He shuddered with triumph, but didn’t revel in it. Instead, he gave her what she’d begged for, plunging into her in a deep thrust that left her howling. “Yes, yes,” she moaned, thrusting up to meet his deep strokes. “Harder. Faster. More.”

  She’d never felt this way, certainly never lost control of herself—of her inhibitions—enough to act the way she was now. Somehow, though, she couldn’t bring herself to care. Because he was big and powerful and filling her so deeply she had to gasp at the shock of his possession.

  They moved together, fast and wild, but even as the frenzy intensified, as thought disappeared and instinct took control, she noticed the care Mark took to never hurt her. He held himself on his powerful arms, riding her hard but never crushing her with his weight. He watched her face, kissed her over and over. Growling erotic things in her ear, he told her how good she felt and how much she pleased him. Mark used coarse language that would make her blush in the light of day but was perfect now, in the heat of the greatest passion she’d ever known.

  Yet, always, she knew he’d stop if she needed him to.

  That certainty—that security—was enough to allow her to completely let go of any lingering concerns or misgivings. So she gave herself completely over to him, holding absolutely nothing back. Until they were both breathless, panting and shaking, and finally, crying out in deep, mutual satisfaction.

  “YOU GOT LAID.”

  Sue stared at her cousin, seeing by the immediate blush rising in Noelle’s cheeks that she was right. She almost clapped her hands, delighted the other woman seemed to have moved on with her romantic life at last.

  The two of them were alone in Sue’s room Monday morning, sharing a few quiet moments and a cup of tea. Randy was doing some work in the baby’s room and the rest of the house was nearly deserted. There had only been one guest the night before, and judging by the way the man had been looking at Noelle Saturday night, she’d venture a guess that he’d been the one to put that satisfied look on her cousin’s face. “Admit it. You got some.”

  “Sue!”

  “Don’t Sue me, sweetie. You think I don’t know why a woman walks in that spread-legged way first thing in the morning? Wow, I miss the days of doing that because of something big going in instead of something enormous feeling like it’s about to fall out.”

  Noelle snorted a laugh. “I can’t believe you said that. You know, they say unborn babies can hear everything around them.”

  “Auntie Noelle got some, honey,” Su
e said, laughing as she stroked her big belly. “And judging by the way she keeps fidgeting, she got a lot.” She kept on laughing, glad for the distraction. Her cousin finally having a sex life again after that rotten Jeremy Taggert had practically left Noelle at the altar last year was definitely a welcome distraction. “Tell me everything. It’s him, right? That big, hunky guy who’s staying in your old room?”

  Noelle pretended to be busy stirring some sugar into her cup of steaming hot tea. “You’re imagining things.”

  “Oh, right. Like I can’t see those red marks on your neck.”

  When her cousin’s hand instantly flew to her throat, Sue smirked. “Aha.”

  “Tell me I don’t have any hickeys.”

  “No. But there’s definitely some red marks. Better put on a turtleneck before my mom gets here.” Hearing the dejected note in her own voice, Sue thanked Noelle’s suddenly active sex life for another reason. It gave her something else to think about other than the impending arrival of her mother, who was coming here to “help.” Which translated roughly to “coming here to drive Sue insane.” Randy might argue that she already was, at least lately, but he hadn’t seen anything yet. Her mother had this incredible ability to find anyone’s vulnerable spot and rub and abrade it until it turned them into an absolute lunatic.

  “Tell me all about him,” she said, shifting a little on the mound of pillows to get herself nicely situated for a good long sex gab. “How’d you meet? How long have you been dating?”

  “We’re not dating,” Noelle said, her voice sharp.

  “Okay, how long have you been sleeping together?”

  Noelle quirked a brow. “So you don’t care that we’re not dating?”

  “Why should I care?” Sue asked, meaning it. “You obviously like him enough to go to bed with him, so whether or not he buys you a steak first really doesn’t matter, does it?”

  Her cousin said nothing for a long moment, looking surprised.

  “Oh, please, you think you’re the first woman to have a purely physical relationship, do you? There’s nothing wrong with great sex without strings.” She rubbed her tummy and smiled ruefully. “Just as long as you know it can sometimes lead to strings.”