“A fantasy,” she said with a nod. “Yes.”
I brought my other hand up to cup her cool cheek. “I’m at The Hummingbird’s Nest.”
“Guess we need to go get your car. It’s a bit of walk, and I’m freaking cold.”
I laughed. “Then let’s get you warmed up.”
“I’m sure you have a few ideas for that.”
“You know what they say…”
“Skin on skin is the quickest way to warm up?”
“Damn, I like the way you think.”
Chapter Eight
ELLIE
The heater was blasting in Callum’s insanely bright car. Even in the dark of Dare’s parking garage, it was like a neon banana. However, when the engine purred, I couldn’t deny I enjoyed that bit of extra testosterone.
It was already thick in the air anyway. He’d practically dragged me over to the garage. Not that I could blame him. I’d been wishy washy in the extreme. Talk about hot and cold—even in my own mind.
Now that I’d given him the green light, he was going to run with it.
I wasn’t used to being impulsive. That was my mother. And watching her make the same mistakes over and over again with men made me so careful not to do the same.
I glanced over at him in the shadows of the car. The bright blue lights of the various dials and speedometer tossed his face into stark relief. The hollowed out cheekbones and square jawline gave him that classically handsome look that made women stupid.
Clearly, I wasn’t immune.
He curled his fingers around the shifter, and then he paused and directed all that ridiculous beauty my way. “This doesn’t have to go any further than our date night. I can drop you home and pick you up and take you out for a proper dinner tomorrow.”
I stuffed down the urge to laugh. “A proper dinner on Christmas Eve?”
He shrugged. “Or I can cook you dinner.”
“Is that right? At The Hummingbird’s Nest?”
“No, my place. Well-rounded, remember?”
I leaned into him, and he met me halfway. “Just take me to your room.” I said it against his mouth, the demand oddly reminiscent of how he’d been trying to convince me to go out with him all day.
He cupped the back of my head and kissed me hard before sitting straight again and fastening his seatbelt. I did the same and stared out the window at all the lights swaying in the increasing wind off the water.
There was a lot of pedestrian traffic, so our trip was slow going. We were a hearty bunch in the Cove, but most of the vendors were starting to pack it in. People had families to get to and holiday plans to finalize. And here I was with a stranger, feeling more at home with him than I did with most of my friends.
Not sure what that said about me—or maybe him.
He was so easy with everyone he met. I was polite and friendly, but not like him. He just instantly took to people. And to be truthful, they took to him. Dancing in the park like he’d choreographed it himself. Not missing a beat even when Mr. Phillips ended up in his arms. He was our town Santa and that dance had been the sweetest thing I’d ever seen.
And the sexiest.
Callum was so at ease within his own skin that he was able to be sweet, sexy, or funny in an instant.
I wanted to see all the other sides of him.
He gave me an absent smile as he turned up the radio. An old Creed song was on, and he exaggeratedly sang “Arms Wide Open” until I was laughing with him instead of overthinking everything.
The ride to The Hummingbird’s Nest was over before it started. He pulled into the winding road, and we sang along to the next song as he parked. An old Keith Urban song went through a few stages—from messing up lyrics, to laughing, to kissing.
I couldn’t get enough of his mouth. It was full and warm and oh so talented. He nipped at my lower lip until I practically climbed into his lap to get closer.
He opened his door, and the slap of cold air broke us apart. He quickly got out and came around to help me out of of the low slung car with more kisses and laughter.
“You’re so damn beautiful.” He threaded his fingers through my hair. “Unbelievably beautiful.”
I flushed and looked down. “You’ve got me here. You don’t have to pour it on.” I leaned back into his car to get my bag from the floor.
“Evidently, I do.” He circled my waist and hauled me against him. “It’s not just physical, Ellie. I keep catching these flashes of something under that serious face. When you let yourself enjoy the moment, you glow.”
“Stop.”
“I’m an artist. Do you know how hard I look for that glow? And it’s in the most random of people. A woman in her nineties I found at a park. She was feeding pigeons of all things. Greta Bloom. I’ll never forget her. She had that light. And here you are with the same one, but you also have so much more.”
He lowered his mouth to mine and I gave in. I didn’t even care if it was a line at this point. He made me feel like there was something warm and bright inside of me, and I was willing to believe to keep this feeling.
We stumbled our way up to the entrance, barely able to keep our hands off one another. There was a crush of people at the main desk, probably overflow from the festival. Because he was already settled in a room, we were able to sneak around and head for the stairs.
I wasn’t paying attention and nearly wiped out on the small caution sign.
“Shit.” He lifted me and hauled me over one of the signs that explained they were renovating.
The stairs were an old spiral style, and we kept bouncing off the railing and one another as we tripped our way upstairs and down the hallway to his room. He fumbled with his key and backed into the room, dragging me in with him. Coats hit the floor, and his sweater followed them before he went to work on his shirt buttons.
I flipped my own sweater over my head, and he stopped in the middle of the room. “Sweet Zeus.”
I frowned. That seemed like an odd phrase, but I didn’t have time to think about it. I needed to help him out of his shirt. There were far too many buttons. We both fumbled with the tiny pearlescent disks. My fingers shook and his were too large.
My goodness, he was proportional. Finally, we got them all, and I pushed the gold and gray plaid shirt off his shoulders. Before I could get it down his wrists, they were caught. We’d forgotten the buttons at his cuffs.
He was at my mercy and I kinda liked it.
He kept trying to get his wrists free as I scraped my nails through the just-right amount of hair on his chest. It covered his extremely impressive pecs and arrowed down his lean torso with a lighter and silkier texture. I brushed my cheek along the softness and kissed my way down his abs.
“Ellie.”
My name was a strangled moan as I dropped to my knees. I flicked my tongue over the little divot of his navel. “It’s been a little while since I’ve done this, but I think I remember how this goes.” I jerked the tail of his belt free from the loops and loosened his buckle.
His cock curved up against his zipper, bulging for freedom. I flicked open the button of his jeans and slowly peeled down his zipper. The chili pepper boxers I revealed made me laugh.
“Better be the boxers you’re laughing at, woman.” He finally got his hands free from the shirt and tried to draw me up to my feet.