Read Online Caribou's Gift by Eve Langlais - Free Book Online Page A

more, and she managed to gasp, “Enough.”
    With a final kiss on her tender parts, he stood and wrapped his arms around her. He hugged her, and she hugged him back, not a word spoken, just basking in an intimate moment that allowed her to gather her wits.
    Now that he’d pleasured her, time to return the gift.
    But when she went to slide her hands down his body to his waist, he caught them and brought them to his lips, placing a kiss on each before releasing them.
    “I should go now.”
    It took a moment to process the meaning of his words. “You’re leaving?” She couldn’t help the incredulity in her tone, especially since she could see the evidence of his need bulging against the crotch of his jeans.
    “I told you I was different, and I’m going to prove it to you.”
    “By not having sex with me?” She couldn’t help the puzzlement.
    “Exactly. I know things are moving fast between us, which is probably freaking you out. I know it’s freaking me out a little. But in a good way,” he hastened to reassure. “I’m not leaving because I don’t want you because, trust me, I do.”
    “Says the guy about to walk out the door.” She was still processing the odd turn of events.
    “Leaving to go home to a cold shower and lonely bed.”
    “You don’t have to do that.” Really, you can stay, here with me. She held back from begging aloud. What was wrong with her? He was trying to act a gentleman, and here she was, practically forcing him to stay.
    “Much as it pains me, I have to go. You need time to adjust to what’s happening between us. To understand I’m not going to mistreat you and Gigi. That I’m a man you can count on. So, despite the fact I want to stay in the worst possible way, I’m not. Not until I think I’ve earned your trust.”
    Honor? That still existed? “You’re nuts.”
    “Borderline certifiable according to the army shrinks.” He grinned. “But, unlike my buddy Boris, I don’t have a thing for guns, so they let me go. However, while I might not decorate my home in weapons, I do warn you I am a techno freak. Getting together with me means putting up with wired sound to every room in the place. An alarm system that will know if a fly farts. And losing me a few hours a week to gaming with my buddies online.”
    “You speak as if you’re planning to stick around.”
    A sensual smile stretched his lips. “You mean you hadn’t figured that part out yet?”
    Hope blossomed, a warm spot in her chest, which she’d not felt in a long while. “I was afraid to think that far ahead,” she admitted. “I’ve been disappointed a lot in the past.”
    “And that’s going to change. From now on, things will be different. For you and Gigi. Fuck, I can’t believe I’m even thinking this way. A few days ago, before I met you, all I could think of was, well, myself,” he said with an unrepentant grin. “But now, I’ll be damned if the idea of a we, as in family, doesn’t have more appeal.”
    “Maybe you got infected with the Christmas spirit. It might wear off.”
    “More like I got smacked with it, and no, baby, it ain’t wearing off. I’ve made you my mission.”
    “Mission?” she said with a laugh, oddly enough not perturbed by the fact that she was having a conversation, wearing only a shirt that barely fell low enough to cover her hips, with a man who’d just made her come. What a sight they must present.
    “Yes, mission. I’ll warn you right now that, as part of my disorder or, as I like to call it, adorable personality trait, I tend to think of things in terms of missions.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Okay, and that means what?”
    “Well for example, I’m working on mission #746: Be the best fucking Rudolph ever for one little girl.”
    How ridiculously disturbing, yet cute. “I like that mission, and do you have any missions concerning me?” Coy? Yes, but she couldn’t help but ask, and not just because of her curious inner kitty.
    “Plenty where you’re