around his hips, cradling him inside her.
“Colin.” She shivered as the first luscious tremors of passion inched through her. “I’m almost there….”
Taking her cue, he increased his speed, his hips moving more quickly as his cock moved in and out of her willing wetness. Emily felt her body start to tighten and she ran her nails down his back as her hips bucked to meet his every thrust.
“Baby, I’m going to…” he groaned, and she cried out in approval. The two of them were frenzied in their joining, as if they couldn’t get close enough to each other. He let out a guttural shout as he emptied himself into her with a hard, definitive motion, triggering an orgasm that eclipsed her first. She cried out again, a sound of pure pleasure, as her body clutched around him. To her surprise, he shuddered again as their hips melded together, rocking in the aftershocks of climax.
After long moments, he rolled off her, leaving them both sweaty and breathless. He stared at her, his green eyes like beacons.
“You were right,” he said. “I would have regretted saying no to you for my entire life.”
She basked in the compliment of his words, even as a small part of her conscious brain registered what he was saying.
This is a one-night stand. She’d just had her world spun on its axis by a man she’d fantasized about for years…but this was it. This was all she was going to get.
Is this going to be worth it?
She glanced at him. In the aftermath of sex, he still looked sinfully tempting. There was no sense of regret, no lingering return of reason that asked her, What were you thinking? She knew exactly what she’d been thinking when she decided to seduce Colin Reese. She knew because she was still thinking it.
But what are you going to do when you can’t have him again?
He’d made it clear that there was no future. He was leaving, crossing an ocean to get away from Tall Pines. He was certainly not about to return to the small town that he had caused so much grief—and which wanted to return the favor by prying into every minute detail of his now almost famous local-rebel-makes-good life.
So where does that leave you?
She sighed. It left her here, in Tall Pines. Alone.
He leaned over, kissing where her heart beat. “You are going to haunt me,” he said softly.
He was going to haunt her, too. But then again, it never could have lasted. She’d been well aware of that going into this little arrangement.
She might settle for the comfort of friendship and a passionless relationship, she thought as his fingers brushed over the surface of her skin, bringing the nerve endings to life. She was a realist. Would she ever find a man she reacted to as strongly as she did to Colin? She could either agonize over the question or simply enjoy the moment.
Tonight was all they had, and she would make the most of it.
“You have to leave at nine tomorrow, you said?” Emily asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“We’ve still got hours,” she reminded him, just as she had before, in the living room.
“Really,” he drawled. “What shall we do with ourselves?”
She smiled, licking her lips. “As it happens,” she said, her voice husky with sexual promise, “I’ve got a few ideas I’d love to try.”
“I SAID, WHERE TO, mister?” the cab driver asked, slowly and carefully, as if Colin were hard of hearing.
Colin guessed that the man must have repeated the question several times. “Sorry,” he said. “I need to get to the airport in Hartford.”
The cabbie snorted. “I’ll give it a shot.” The taxi began slowly creeping out of the Stanfield Arms’s circular driveway.
Colin stared out the window in a daze. The entire town of Tall Pines was smothered in mountainous drifts of snow, making the whole scene seem oddly muted. It only added to Colin’s feeling of surreal displacement.
Did last night really happen?
Yes, it had happened—and in a way was still happening for him, since he’d gotten no more than a catnap or two the entire night. Once he’d given in to his urge and slept with Emily, it was as if he couldn’t get enough of her. Fortunately, she’d seemed to feel the same way, because the two of them had feasted on each other for hours, and even now weariness hadn’t quite settled in.
They’d made love twice in the bed, once in front of the fireplace, once in the shower and once on the countertop of her bathroom. He hadn’t had sex like that for years. His body felt well used, just this side of sore. His mind, on the other hand, kept replaying the more vivid highlights of the previous night—and suggesting new and exciting variations that they might try in a second round.
Pity there isn’t going to be a second round.
That was why they called them one-night stands, he reminded himself. One night. He wasn’t quite sure where the “stand” part fit in. Although now that he thought about it, the shower…
“You all right, mister?”
Colin refocused on the cab driver. “What?”
“You look sorta out of it,” the guy said, peering at Colin from his rearview mirror. “Don’t tell me. You had yourself a merry little Christmas, huh? Really tied one on?”
“You could say that,” Colin said ruefully, obviously not willing to divulge secrets.
“Hard to believe you could party that hard in a town like this. Tiny little mom-and-pop stores, all those wrought-iron lampposts with holly around ’em. It looks like an old movie or something.”
Colin looked out the window as if seeing the place with a stranger’s eyes. It was picturesque, he had to admit. The windows were decorated with paint and candles, and the streets were clear of the litter and debris that he was so used to in the sprawling cities he normally worked in. Most of the stores were brick or stone, not concrete. The houses had nice landscaping and everywhere were Christmas decorations, tasteful and old-fashioned.
“I’ll have to tell my wife about it,” the cabbie continued cheerfully. “She loves this kind of crap. You live here?”
“No,” Colin said.
“Just passin’ through, then?”
“Yup. Just passing through.” The thought brought a pang.
How long is this sensation going to last?
He’d known that sleeping with Emily was going to be trouble even before he’d set foot into her bedroom. Apparently it was going to be more trouble than he’d bargained for…and he hadn’t even been away from her for an hour.
“Well, it’s cute and all, but it’s a pure pain in the ass to get to,” the cabbie stated. “Especially with the blizzard.”
“Wait a minute,” Colin interrupted. “Especially with the what?”
“Blizzard. Man, it’s been on the news all over the place,” the cabbie said. “They’ve had travel advisories. It’s been on the radio and the television and the newspapers. Where have you been?” He shook his head. “That must’ve been one hell of a party.”
“It was,” Colin said. “I’ve got a flight to New York, then a connection to Paris. Any word on airports shutting down?”
“I think there are delays but nothing too bad,” the driver reassured him.
“Oh,” Colin said. “That’s…good.”
“Don’t sound so enthusiastic,” the cabbie joked. “Paris, huh? Ooh la la. Vacation or something?”
“No, I’m moving there.”