Read Online Holiday Wishes by Nora Roberts - Free Book Online Page B

on his shoulders and her eyes were directly on his. “I fell in love with you. There were reasons for it. You were kind though you pretended not to be. You wanted to be considered tough and a troublemaker because you felt safer that way.”
    He smiled and ran a finger down her cheek. “I was a troublemaker.”
    â€œMaybe I liked that, too. You didn’t just accept things. You weren’t afraid to question.”
    â€œI nearly got kicked out of school twice because I questioned.”
    The old anger stirred. Had no one understood him but herself? Had no one else been able to see what had been racing and straining inside him? “You were smarter than anyone else. You’ve proved that if you needed to.”
    â€œYou spent a lot of time defending me, didn’t you?”
    â€œI believed in you. I loved you.”
    He reached for her face in an old gesture that melted her heart. “And now?”
    She had too much to say and not enough ways to say it. “Do you remember that night in June, after my senior prom? We drove out of town. The moon was full and the air was so sweet with summer.”
    â€œYou wore a blue dress that made your eyes look like sapphires. You were so beautiful I was afraid to touch you.”
    â€œSo I seduced you.”
    She looked so pleased with herself that he laughed. “You did not.”
    â€œI certainly did. You would never have made love with me.” She touched her lips to his. “Do I have to seduce you again?”
    â€œFaith—”
    â€œClara’s having dinner next door at Marcie’s. She’s going to spend the night. Come to bed with me, Jason.”
    Her quiet voice raced along his skin. The touch of her hand to his cheek seared like fire. But tangled with his need for her was a love that had never grown old. “You know I want you, Faith, but we’re not children now.”
    â€œWe’re not children.” She turned her face to press her lips into his palm. “And I want you. No promises, no questions. Love me the way you did on that one beautiful night we had together.” Rising, she held out her hand. “I want something for the next ten years.”
    With their hands linked, they walked up the stairs. He pushed away all thought of the other man she’d chosen, of the other life she’d lived. He, too, would block out ten years of loss and take what was offered.
    Night came early in the winter so the light was dim. In silence she lit candles so that the room glowed gold and shifted with shadows. When she turned back to him she was smiling, with all the confidence and knowledge of a woman in her eyes. Saying nothing, she came to him, lifted her mouth and offered everything.
    Her fingers were steady as she reached for the buttons of his shirt. His trembled as he reached for hers. Murmuring, she waited for the brush of his hands against her skin, then sighed from the sheer glory of it. They undressed each other slowly, not tentatively, but with the quiet understanding that every moment, every instant would be treasured.
    When he saw her, as slim, as lovely, as unexplainably innocent as she’d been the first time, his head spun with needs, with doubts, with desires. But she stepped to him, pressed her body against his and dissolved all choices. She was stronger than she’d been. He could feel it, not in muscle but in spirit. Perhaps she had changed, but the longings that were racing through him were the same as they’d been in the boy on the brink of manhood. As heedlessly as the children they’d once been, they tumbled onto the bed.
    They didn’t relive the experience. It was as fresh, as wildly thrilling as the first time. But they were man and woman now, more demanding, hungrier. She drew him closer, running her hands over him with an urgency just discovered, with a turbulence just released. She’d waited so long, so very long, and wouldn’t wait a moment