Somewhere on that journey, as they laughed and sang together, he became twenty-two again, complete with reckless thoughts and powerful sex drive. When he’d first heedlessly plunged into a relationship with Taryn, she was the hottest, smartest female he’d ever met.
She was everything he’d wanted, with one tiny exception. She wasn’t a witch, let alone a witch from the Winter Clan. He’d glossed over that detail, certain that he’d find a way around her inconvenient status as a non-magickal being. But then, he’d been called away on a family emergency and he’d never gotten the chance to return to college and figure out a way to address the problem.
Someday he might bitterly regret falling in with her plan. But that was someday, and this was now. A now filled with the kind of heart-pounding excitement he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
After parking the sleek black sedan in a lot adjacent to the inn, he hauled her suitcase out of the trunk and they hurried, still laughing from their sing-along, to the inn’s front porch.
She stood next to him, shivering a little, as he located the keys in his coat pocket. “I feel like a kid out after curfew.”
“It’s the music. We stepped in a time warp.” He opened the front door and gestured for her to go inside.
“Exactly.” She spoke in hushed tones. “It’s just like that first time we spent the night together. Remember that?”
“I’ll never forget it.” He breathed in the scent of lemon oil and apple strudel. The main floor was dark except for a small light on the antique desk by the front door. Wall sconces glowed at intervals along the stairway leading to the second floor.
“I was so nervous.” Taryn walked on tiptoe to the bottom of the steps. “I was afraid you’d think I was too skinny.”
He followed her up the stairs, careful not to let the suitcase bump against the railing. “I was afraid I’d come too fast.”
“Which you did.” She giggled softly.
“Yeah, but I made up for it later.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“Saved my rep.” That first time, he’d been so incredibly turned on by her he’d lasted about thirty seconds. But at twenty-two, his recovery time had been phenomenal. During the next go-round, he’d given her two orgasms.
“That was my first orgasm with a guy.”
“It was? Wish you’d told me. We could have celebrated.”
“I was too shy to admit it. I figured you’d think I was a dork. I wanted you to think of me as cool and sophisticated.”
“I did.”
“Really?”
“You were the coolest girl I’d ever met. You understood string theory.” He paused. “Your room’s at the end of the hall, on the right.”
She headed down the hallway, her footsteps muffled on the patterned carpet runner. “I didn’t want to be cool because I was smart. I wanted to be cool because I was sexy.”
“You were sexy, too.”
“You’re just saying that.”
“Nope.” He followed her down the narrow hallway. Soon. Very soon. “Smart is sexy, at least to me, it is. Besides, you had a killer body.”
“Had?”
“Have.” He thought it was cute she was worried about that, especially when she had nothing to worry about. “Still. Even more so.”
“Yeah, right. You’re supposed to say stuff like that when you’re about to see me naked for the first time in years. I’m nervous just thinking about it.”
“You think you’re nervous? I figure I’m destined to repeat that first night.”
She reached the end of the hallway and turned back to face him. “That’s fine with me.” She smiled as she looked him up and down. “As long as you repeat every bit of that first night.”
His cock jerked in response to that seductive smile, and his heart hammered at the prospect of being inside that room alone with Taryn and a big feather bed. “I will, but I’m not twenty-two anymore. The second time might not happen as fast.”
“I’m in no rush.” She held his gaze. “We have all night.”
Lust slammed into him with such force he stood there trembling.
“Do you have the key?”
“Yeah.” He dug into his coat pocket and handed it to her. “You’d better open it.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you shaking?”
“Yes.” He clenched his jaw against the primitive urges rolling through him. “And if you don’t open the door and go inside immediately, I’m going to take you right here in the hallway. Better move it, Harper, before we give Mrs. Gustafson the scare of her life.”
And that, Taryn thought as she quickly opened the door and walked into the dimly lit room, was why she’d never forgotten Cole Evergreen. No other man had ever wanted her so intensely, as if he might spontaneously combust if he couldn’t have her in the next ten seconds.
Ten seconds was about all she had to drop her messenger bag to the floor, shrug out of her parka, and glance at the unlit fireplace and the giant four-poster bed that dominated the room. Then the door clicked shut, the lock shot into place, and Cole was there, spinning her around to face him. He made a sound low in his throat, something between a growl and a groan, and then he claimed her mouth.
If he’d kissed her this way in the hall outside her apartment, she might not have been so certain that he loved her. This kiss didn’t have a lot to do with love, but it had everything to do with lust. That worked for her, because she was just as desperate for him.
They wrenched at each other’s clothing, and didn’t succeed in getting much of it off before he shoved her down on the feather bed. She still wore one leg of her jeans, and although his coat was on the floor and his shirt was unbuttoned, that was all he’d accomplished. With a soft oath he unzipped his fly and tore open a condom packet.
He no longer trembled. Instead he moved rapidly and deliberately to sheath himself. She sprawled across the bed, and he grabbed the damp crotch of her panties. With one swift tug, the seams gave way.
The thrilling sound of him ripping her panties from her body nearly made her climax. He’d never been like this. She moaned, needing him, aching for him...and then he was there, surging into her with a powerful thrust that made her gasp.
His mouth hovered inches from hers. “I have you, now, my precious.”
She would have laughed, because Lord of the Rings quotes had been inside jokes of theirs during college. But his wild assault had left her breathless, and hot. She’d never been so turned on.
He seemed to have achieved total immersion, but somehow he rocked his hips forward and settled himself deeper yet. “There. Right there.”
The jolt of his penis set off her first tremor. “Cole.”
His laugh was low and rich with satisfaction. “Ready for me, you are.”
Hysterics and passion bubbled equally inside of her. “Not Yoda, too!” She gasped. “You’re killing me here!”
“I’m