[Holiday Encounters 01.0 - 03.0] Boxed Set

by Amy Lamont

  Well, there might be one thing I valued more than sleep.

  Twisting carefully, I peered over my shoulder into the face of Jared Sloane. Enough light crept into his bedroom through the opening in the thick draperies to let me make out his features. And I was hooked.

  I turned in his arms, moving slowly to keep from waking him. As I shifted to face him, he stirred and I froze. The arm he’d flung over my waist tightened, pulling me closer. He mumbled something incoherently before he relaxed back against the pillows, once again pulled under into a sound sleep.

  A slow smile touched my lips. Jared Sloane was the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Sliding Violet. He and I met by chance right before Christmas and ever since then, any time he’d been in town, he’d given me a call. Since December, he’d hit town pretty often.

  I grimaced as I recalled how many times I’d had to turn down his offers for drinks, dinner…or other things.

  I shook my head and reminded myself that I’d managed to find some time for other things when Jared had called yesterday afternoon. I’d had a rare night off from the hospital. With spring break looming next week, my classes had been a hair less crazy than usual, and all three of my roommates had made plans for the evening already.

  I fought a giggle as I thought of my roommates. Jade, Emma, and Katelyn would die if they knew where I was right this second. But for the moment, for reasons I hadn’t even started to explore yet, I kept my dates with Jared a secret. Something just for me.

  Staring into his beautiful face, relaxed in sleep, I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend my few precious minutes. Usually Jared was a bundle of energy. He could barely sit still, and when he did, there was an air of unrestrained energy about him.

  But in sleep, he relaxed completely. My gaze traveled over his hard jaw with its dark stubble, the lips that looked too soft in his rugged face, the high, sharp cheekbones and up to his mess of dark hair.

  Something deep inside me melted at the sight of him so vulnerable and peaceful. It didn’t escape me that few people got to see Jared like this. Fame had its price, and even in the short time I’d known him, I’d learned there were only a small number of people he allowed to get close to him. Too many people wanted a piece of him, his fame, his money, his notoriety. The few he let in were the ones he knew wanted nothing more than him.

  And don’t ask me how it happened, but somehow over the last few weeks he’d started counting me among that limited number.

  I couldn’t resist lifting a hand and running my fingers over his dark hair. I loved the softness, the messy disarray that was pretty much the same way he wore it when he was awake. My fingers drifted over the sharp slash of his cheekbone and down to trace the outline of his lips. I slid my hand lower over his shoulders and then to the hard plane of his chest until it rested over his heart.

  A strange warmth unfurled in my belly and I closed my eyes. I inhaled deeply, and my whole body filled with the warm, musky male scent of him, almost making me dizzy.

  For the first time in I can’t remember how long, I was completely in the moment. I wasn’t rushing to work or my next class or the library to get some studying in. I wasn’t planning my schedule for the week while I tried to get laundry done and wondering when I’d be able to fit in a trip to the gym.

  I was completely here. And for one brief moment I allowed myself to wish. I wished for days I could sleep in next to a man I really liked without worrying about the alarm going off. Wished I was excited for the day ahead instead of looking at every minute as the opportunity to cross one more thing off my to-do list.

  I shook off the thoughts, letting go of the wishes, determined to enjoy these few minutes for what they were—a moment out of time, something completely separate from the reality of my life, a fantasy.

  Kind of like most of the time I spent with Jared.

  I opened my eyes on a shuddering exhale, and found myself gazing straight into an intense stare.

  I offered Jared a soft smile and cuddled in to place a sweet kiss on the top of his shoulder. “Morning.”

  He raised his hand from where it rested over my hip to push my hair off my face. His eyebrows drew together and a teasing glint lit his eyes as he placed the palm of his hand against my forehead. “You’re awake and you’re still here. Are you sick?”

  I wrinkled my nose at him. “No. I don’t get sick.”

  “Ah, I forgot. No germ would dare mess with Paige Jordan’s schedule.”

  I smacked him on the arm, though his mocking wasn’t too far from the truth. I had no time or patience for illness.

  The thought made me want to sigh. Maybe I should pencil in some time for a head cold or one of the other normal human ailments.

  “Hey.” He rubbed the back of his hand down my cheek. “You know I’m just teasing you. I can’t help it if I’m excited to wake up to find you still here. Usually you’re up and out the door before I can get my eyes fully focused.”

  I relaxed into him, nuzzling in closer to his body. His bare chest against my breasts made me suddenly very aware that we were both completely naked under the comforter.

  His arms slipped around me pulling me even tighter against him. From the hard length nudging against my belly, I’d venture a guess I wasn’t the only one aware of all the bare skin between us.

  “I woke up before the alarm.” I pressed a kiss to his chest before glancing over my shoulder at the clock. “Looks like I have another twenty-two minutes before I need to get moving.”

  “So you’ve been up awhile, huh? And you weren’t going to wake me?” He slid his nose along my hairline, down to my ear. He stopped there to nip my earlobe.

  His teeth and lips on my skin made every nerve-ending tingle, but I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me at his question. It caused lyrics from one of Sliding Violet’s most popular songs to pop into my head.

  I sang the words to him, “I lie beside you, watching you sleep. Nowhere in the world I’d rather be.”

  He laughed out loud. “My own words coming back to bite me in the ass.”

  “Well, it is a very fine ass,” I said.

  “Which brings me back to the question, why wouldn’t you wake me when you have an entire twenty-two minutes before you have to go?”

  I nipped his shoulder. “You’re a rock star. I figured you needed your beauty sleep.”

  “Hey, just because I’m not performing surgery or curing cancer doesn’t mean I don’t take my career seriously. You don’t get to be a successful musician by sitting on your ass all day.”

  I bit my lip. For a brief second the thought of what my sisters would say if they heard the words “successful” and “musician” in the same sentence floated through my head.

  But it didn’t take much effort to tamp that down. I had at least twenty minutes where I had nobody and nothing waiting on me. I was going to make the most of every single second.

  “Aww, did I bruise the rock star’s ego?” I batted my eyelashes at him and pouted.

  He grinned, shaking his head.

  “Are you sure?” I kissed his chest. “I can kiss it and make it better.”

  “In that case, my ego might be just a little bruised.”

  I smiled against the warm skin covering his hard pectoral muscle before moving to kiss a little lower.

  “Hmm, my medical training seems to be failing me. I can’t remember exactly where the ego is located. Maybe here?” I slipped down the bed, kicking the comforter away as I went, and pressed another kiss to the bottom of his rib cage.

  I looked up from beneath my lashes. His eyes were back to intense, his gaze steady on me, a small smirking smile playing over his lips.

  “Oh, look, there seems to be a trail here.” I slid my lips slowly over the light line of hair that began just under his belly button. “Maybe this is the way to your ego.”

  As I kissed and nibbled my way down his belly, his cock grew longer and harder between my breasts. I eased up to look at it before sending him a teasing gl
ance. “What have we here?”

  His grin grew, but he stayed silent, waiting.

  I used the tip of my tongue on him, swirling it over the head of his dick. A small drop of salty fluid hit my tongue. I lapped it up, and once again sent him a flirtatious smile as I looked at him from beneath my lashes. “So that’s what ego tastes like.”

  Without warning, Jared flew into motion. He sat up and snatched me under the arms, yanking my body up. He twisted us in a move so smooth I lost my breath.

  “I was enjoying that,” I said.

  “Believe me, I was, too.” His lower body pressed against mine as he braced his shoulders over me with his palms flat against the mattress by my head. He eased himself down until his chest hit the tips of my breasts, the slight smattering of hair causing a delicious friction against my already hard nipples.

  “Then why’d you stop me before I really got going?” My breath came out in pants, as I tried to pull off looking unaffected.

  The wicked glint in his eyes told me I hadn’t succeeded.

  “Because you only have,” he turned his head to the side to see the clock, “nineteen minutes left. And I want to make sure I get to start my day buried deep inside you. The way you were going, I don’t think we would have gotten there before you had to leave.”

  “Good reason,” I whispered, reaching up to kiss him.

  He met me halfway. His lips pressed down on mine with a ferocity that forced my head back onto the pillows. His tongue sought entrance to my mouth, and I opened to him.

  God, this man made me crazy. Just his lips and his body against mine created an aching need at my center. As he kissed me senseless, I wrapped my legs around him and the tip of his hard cock nudged my entrance.

  Jared slid his mouth from mine, pressing forward a little more. Not enough to enter me, but enough to make the ache grow into a burning need unlike anything I’ve experienced.

  “Are you ready for me already, baby?”

  “Yes.” I rocked my hips, wanting nothing more than for him to plunge inside me. “Please, Jared, now.”

  He slid one hand up to the back of my neck under my heavy hair. He held my head still as his lips trailed hot, wet kisses along my jawline and up to my ear. “Are you sure you’re ready?”

  I rocked again, gasping as his tip hit my clit. “So ready. Jared.”

  The needy voice calling his name didn’t sound anything like mine, but I was beyond caring. All I wanted was him, inside me. Now.

  He slid his hips backwards and once again his tip nudged teasingly at my entrance. I shifted, trying to get him inside me. But he pulled away, this time twisting to the side and off me completely.

  I wanted to scream in frustration.

  “Shit, baby. Condom.”

  Well, crap. I’d spent my teen years getting lectured by my parents about all the things that could derail my plans for the future, things like pregnancy and STDs. Then I spent four years of college learning all about biology and anatomy. Not to mention my half a year in medical school.

  And here I was like a dumb teenager, throwing it all out the window because the feel of Jared against me wiped all coherent thought from my head.

  Jared grabbed a condom from the nightstand. My freak-out left my mind as I kept my eyes glued to his hands as they rolled the condom down his shaft.

  In seconds, he was back over me, pressing against my opening. He stared down at me, his eyes searching mine. “You good?”

  I arched up and hooked a leg over his hip. “I’d be good if you were inside me already.”

  “So impatient.” He smiled and shook his head at me.

  “Hey, we’re trying to beat the clock here. If you leave me hanging and send me off to the hospital, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

  And that was why, as he slid inside me, the room filled with his laughter.

  Something shifted deep inside me. He engaged every one of my senses. My inner muscles clenched around him and every nerve ending rippled as he began to thrust inside me. The sound of his warm laughter sent goose bumps dancing across my skin. And the way his eyes got darker as the intensity of the feelings building inside us grew, made me clench around him.

  He drove harder, going deeper inside me, and my back arched. I rocked my hips in the rhythm of his movements, and when he hit that certain spot, my eyes closed as a loud moan broke from me.

  He shifted above me and my eyes drifted open. He balanced his weight on one hand while the other slid up to cup my breast. His thumb tweaked my nipple and I bit down hard on my lower lip as electricity surged through me.

  “Jared.” His name broke from me on a throaty groan.

  “What, baby? What do you need?” The pure, gravelly quality of his voice made me shiver and pushed me closer to the edge.

  “Just you. I just need you.”

  Some emotion drifted over his face, but I was too far gone to decipher it.

  “You got me, baby.” His hand slid back to the bed and his hips moved even faster. He surged in and out of me, and I raised both legs to wrap around his waist. I lifted my hands to his shoulders and held on tight, my nails digging into his skin as tension grew inside me.

  “So close. Jared.”

  “I got you, baby.”

  The feel of him inside me, his raspy voice, his breath against my ear, the friction of his chest against the over sensitized peaks of my breasts—all of it came together into a fiery ball of sensation and burst inside me. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed over me, even as Jared picked up his pace.

  “Paige,” he groaned in my ear, as he pushed inside, once, twice, three times, before holding himself still deep within me.

  He collapsed on top of me and I delighted in his weight pushing me down into the mattress. His arms held me tight and I nuzzled my face into his neck, loving his warm scent. For long moments neither of us moved.

  And then the moment was broken by the blaring of my alarm.

  “Shit.” Jared didn’t move his face from where it was tucked beside mine on the pillow.

  A giggle escaped me. “I’m sorry sir, but it seems your time is up.”

  His shoulders shook with laughter as he shifted, sliding out of me before flopping onto his back next to me.

  I grabbed my phone. Part of me laughed at the timing of the alarm, the other part of me wanted to curse out loud. Never had I resented the career path I was on more than right this second. Just once it would be nice to spend a lazy day in bed.

  I slid my thumb over the screen to turn the alarm off, and scooted to the edge of the bed, swinging my legs off the side. I dropped my head, closed my eyes and in my mind’s eye indulged in a full minute of imagining falling back into bed. Spending the day lazing, napping and making love. We could order room service and a movie and fill up the big tub in the bathroom and soak until we got pruney.

  With a sigh I opened my eyes. I hadn’t had the luxury of spending enough time in a bath or shower long enough to get pruney in years.

  Ignoring the fact my limbs felt like they were weighted down by lead, I stood up and peeked over my shoulder. “Mind if I use your shower real quick?”

  “Ah, there’s the Paige I know and love.” He flipped over onto his stomach, stuffing a pillow under his head. “You know you don’t have to ask.”

  I yanked the pillow out from under his head and then smacked him playfully with it.

  “Hey, what’s that for?”

  “Because some of us don’t get to laze the day away.” I ignored the twinge in my belly at my own words, determined to keep things light and easy between us. “Some of us have real jobs.”

  “I have a real job.” He snagged the pillow from me and turned over on his back, shoving his hands under his head while he grinned up at me. “Don’t get your panties in a twist because you chose a real job that requires you to get up at oh-dark-thirty.”

  I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. He looked every inch the stereotypical rock star right now—mussed hair, cocky grin, dark circ
les under his eyes from a night that lasted a little too long.

  That thought pulled a groan from me and I leaned down and whispered a kiss over his lips. “Don’t remind me. In my next life I’m going to come back with a trust fund and buy a house on an island somewhere. I’ll spend every day lazing on the beach and every night dancing and drinking cocktails with lots of fruit and frilly umbrellas.”

  I stood to go, but he curled a hand around my wrist and tugged me down for one more lingering kiss. I took a few seconds to indulge before I pulled back slightly.

  “I have to shower. I have to be at the hospital in forty-five minutes.”

  “Okay. I’ll let you go.” He pressed one last quick kiss on my lips and then released my wrist.

  I made a face and picked up my clothes from the floor before trudging to the bathroom.

  “Hey,” he called out just before I closed the door, “I can’t offer a beach right now. But I know you have spring break next week. Take the week off work and come on tour with us.”

  I stopped cold. “What?”

  He sat up straight. “It would be great. We’re just doing a few dates to start promoting the new album.” He warmed to his topic as he went on. “Come with us. We can hang out, hit a few parties. It’ll be a blast.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “One hundred percent.” Jared’s eyes danced and he moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

  My heart jumped in my chest and then began racing. What he described sounded awesome—wild and fun and spontaneous. All things that had been in short supply since med school started. Even my holiday break had been spent picking up extra hours at the hospital and covering for some of the staff who needed the time off to spend with family.

  My shoulders drooped as I realized my spring break was no different. I needed the time to catch up with my reading for school, to pick up some extra hours at work, and to sleep for at least eight hours in a row.

  I offered him a small smile. “I wish. Maybe next time.”

  His eyes dimmed a little, but as I was coming to realize was usual for him, he rolled with it. “I’ll hold you to that.”