“You can’t go to the store, Nathaniel.”
“Of course, I can.”
“It’s Christmas Day. I’m sure there might be some places open here and there, but probably not in walking distance. Quit worrying. I can stretch the food we have left until Monday afternoon. We can always do something simple tomorrow like bacon and eggs and pancakes.”
He stripped off his outerwear a piece at a time, feeling ridiculous. “I keep forgetting it’s Christmas,” he muttered.
Dani shook her head in amusement. “First I’ve inundated you with too much Christmas, and now you say you forgot about it entirely. Make up your mind.”
He shot her a glance, feeling his resolve wane. “I needed to get out of the house,” he said bluntly. “Away from you. It wasn’t really about the groceries.”
“Oh.” She looked stricken.
“I want you, Dani. Under the circumstances, it doesn’t seem fair to you.”
“Because?”
“Because you can’t say no without causing tension between us.” When she didn’t say a word, he lifted his shoulders and rotated his neck. “Never mind. I’m going for a walk. Call me if there’s an emergency.”
Desperate to get away, he turned on his heel and strode out of the room. He made it to the front door before Dani intervened. The relief he experienced when he heard her voice call to him was overwhelming and inexplicable.
“Don’t go out in the cold, Nathaniel. Stay with me.”
He turned around slowly. She smiled faintly, but her eyes held secrets. Clearing his throat, he tossed his gloves on the console by the door and ran his hands through his hair. “If I stay, I’ll make love to you. Sooner or later. You know that’s true.”
She swallowed visibly. “Yes.”
“Things between us are complicated. You have to be sure.”
Waiting for her answer was the longest five seconds of his life.
“I can’t think of a better way to spend Christmas,” she whispered.
The look on her face made him damned glad she had stopped him. “Now?” he asked hoarsely.
“Shouldn’t we wait until tonight?” she said, her wide-eyed expression betrayed the struggle between madness and common sense.
“Maybe. But I can’t.” Deliberately, he began undressing, not only his cold-weather gear, but his socks and shoes and belt and everything down to his shirt and pants. Dani watched him intently, her cheeks flushed.
The door to his bedroom was open down the hall. They would hear the baby if she woke. “Say something,” he demanded. “Tell me what you want.”
“I’m not sure what I want,” she said, wincing. He heard the truth in her words. “Maybe I just need you to know that I know.”
His hands stilled on his shirt buttons. “Know what?”
“That we’re taking a moment out of time. Period. That this ends when we walk out your front door tomorrow. I get it. You don’t have to worry about me, Nathaniel. You’re a sexy, interesting man. I want to be with you. But I won’t make any uncomfortable demands. No awkward endings. You have my word.”
Her ability to see right through to the deepest layers of his psyche alarmed him. The trouble was, he didn’t have any pretty speeches to say in reply. Dani was one hundred percent correct. They had today and tonight and maybe tomorrow.
After that, the snow melted, the baby was reunited with her mother and Nathaniel went back to being top dog at New Century Tech. Business as usual.
He held out a hand. “Come here, little elf.”
The choice on his part to remain still was deliberate. He needed Dani’s physical assurance that she wanted to take this step.
Instead of taking his hand, she flung herself at him, wrapped her arms around his neck and knocked the breath from his lungs. “Merry Christmas, Nathaniel.”
He hugged her instinctively. Finding her mouth with his, he dove in for the taste that was his new addiction. “God, you’re sweet.”
She bit his neck, sharply enough to bruise. “I’m not particularly interested in sweet right now. Take me, Nathaniel. Show me the real you. I won’t break, and I won’t run away.”
“God help us both,” he muttered. He kissed her wildly, sliding his hands beneath her sweater and finding warm, soft breasts. “You didn’t have to wear a bra,” he complained.
“Your fault.” Her voice was muffled against his collarbone. “New clothes. Didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
Clumsily, he tugged the sweater over her head and unfastened the offending undergarment. When Dani was bare from the waist up, he put his hands on her hips and dragged her against him. “I’m too close to the edge,” he groaned. “Embarrassingly so. Give me a minute.”
Dani shook her head and leaned back to look up at him, her eyes bright with pleasure. “I like driving you mad,” she said. “It gives me power.”
She was joking. He knew that. He knew Dani. Still, the words sent a frisson of unease down his spine. Shaking off the sense of foreboding, he kissed her gently. “Take all the power you want, little elf. Tonight, you’re mine.”
* * *
Dani was under no illusions. She could only take what Nathaniel gave freely. There was a part of him that was off-limits to her, to everyone. She would have to be satisfied with the very appealing bits and pieces he offered. If the next twenty-four hours were to be their swan song, this unlikely pairing would be as special as she could make it.
Stuffing her doubts into a dark closet, she cupped his face in her hands. “You know how in movies the hero sometimes takes the heroine up against the front door, because he can’t make it any farther before he has sex with her?”
Nathaniel rolled his eyes, but he grinned. “I get the general idea.”
“Well...” She removed his shirt and pressed her naked breasts to his wonderfully hard, warm chest. “I was thinking we might try that.”
He shuddered when she linked her arms around his waist and slid her fingertips inside his jeans, caressing his lower back. “I could use some exercise,” he said soberly.
“Sex burns calories,” she muttered. Perhaps they might just stand here like this all afternoon. She felt safe and warm, as if nothing bad would ever happen.
Nathaniel took her idea and ran with it. Before she blinked twice, he had her pants and undies down her legs. “Step out of them,” he demanded.
There must have been a draft in the foyer. Gooseflesh broke out all over her body, and her nipples went on high alert. Stark naked, she wrapped her arms around her breasts. “Stop,” she said hastily. “Your pants have to go, too.”
He lifted an eyebrow, kneeling at her feet. “I’ve seen one or two of those movies. The guy keeps his pants on sometimes. You know...’cause he’s in such a hurry.”
She chuckled, despite her tendency to hyperventilate. “Now you’re mocking me.”
“A little bit.” He stood and shucked his trousers and boxers casually, removing a couple of condoms from his pocket along the way. “If my back goes out from these shenanigans, you’ll have to carry me to bed.”
The humor didn’t really compute. A naked Nathaniel Winston was even more powerful and intimidating than the one in the tailored