She reassured him with a touch to his arm. “What’s important is that we’re both here and can attend the conference.”
“Agreed,” Jack said, an inscrutable look on his face.
They finished checking in at the desk, then went up to the room. It was smaller than they had expected. The bedroom was barely able to fit a king-size bed and a wall-mounted TV. The sitting room had a nice view of the city lights, a love seat, with the aforementioned pullout bed inside, and a desk and chair. The bathroom located in between was on the small side, too, but nice, with a spa-like shower.
Quickly, she volunteered, “I’ll take the pullout.” Even without being extended, Bess could see there was no way a man as big as Jack would fit comfortably on the twin-size bed within the love seat.
“No. I will.”
Bess figured they could argue about it later. In the meantime, she wanted to find out about the dollhouses, so they could get started looking for those. “Do you mind if I call some of my friends who have little girls, before it gets any later?”
“I appreciate the help.”
She got out her computer tablet and phone and sat down at the desk in the sitting room. He moved into the bedroom, presumably to give her privacy.
She notified everyone she could think of. It wasn’t long before the calls, emails and texts started coming in. Twenty minutes and several conversations later, she had a good idea where to start looking and, more important, what features they might want to search for.
Bess hung up and went to tell Jack. He was sitting propped up against the headboard on the bed, fast asleep.
Chapter Eight
Jack woke with a start. A cursory inspection of his surroundings revealed he was lying propped up against the headboard on a king-size bed, in what looked like a hotel room. It was dark outside. And he was fully dressed except for his shoes. A blanket had been drawn across his lap.
The door was partway open. Lights were still on in the next room, and he could hear the murmur of a woman questioning someone. Bess?
As the melodic sound of her voice flowed over him, it all came flooding back. He scrubbed a hand over his face and got up. Moved soundlessly to the door until he was able to see her talking on her cell, with her back to him. He turned away, eased his toiletries bag from his duffel and went into the bathroom.
By the time he came out again, she was off the phone and sitting at the desk in the living area of the suite, her head bent as she made notes on the paper next to her tablet.
He stood there for a moment, awed by her beauty, just drinking her in. Damn, but she was captivating, no matter what time of day or night, no matter what the situation. She’d changed into a knee-length cranberry-red-and-white-striped nightshirt and oversize white sleep cardigan. Her chin-length hair was twisted up into a loose sexy knot on the back of her head, lips bare, her complexion freshly scrubbed and glowing.
“Hey.”
She looked up in surprise. “You’re awake.”
And aroused. He came closer. Stopping just short of her, he inhaled a whiff of her sweet lavender scent. “Was I not supposed to be?”
“Not really.” She looked him over, lingering just a millisecond too long on the apex of his jeans, before returning to his face. “I expected you to sleep until morning.”
Willing his body to calm down, he slid his hands in his pockets, pushing the fabric out. “Nah.” He glanced at her tablet. The screen was filled with dollhouses, normally something guaranteed to make his eyes glaze over. Able to see that it had the opposite effect on her, he asked casually, “Any luck?”
Bess leaned back in her chair. Clasped her fingers together and stretched her arms out over her head. “Oh, yes,” she reported happily, still stretching the kinks out of her lithe body. “In fact—” she dropped her hands and stood so he could see her tablet “—I was amazed at how many choices there are now.”
Already overwhelmed, Jack groaned.
She edged closer. “What?”
He peered down at her. “When it comes to shopping,” he informed her ruefully, scraping a hand beneath the stubble on his jaw, “too many choices can be as bad as too few.”
“Not in this case.” She beckoned him with a come-hither look. “Want to see?”
He watched as she leaned over and began flipping through a dozen bookmarked pages. The sight of the nightshirt inching up her thigh was as enticing and feminine as the rest of her.
Oblivious to the lusty direction of his thoughts, she murmured, “I think any of these would do for Chloe.”
Jack forced himself to get back on task. “Mmm-hmm.”
She scrolled through another dozen images. “These would be good for Lindsay.” More. “These for Nicole.”
Aware he had to get his mind off what a desirable woman she was if they were to platonically share a hotel suite, he went to the mini fridge. After perusing the contents with more than necessary care, he removed a sparkling water and a pack of chocolate-covered almonds. Politely looking over his shoulder, he asked her, “Want something?”
She picked up her tablet and held it in front of her like a shield, thereby blocking his view of the swell of her breasts. “Any more of those?”
“Yeah.” He handed her both. Bedtime snack in hand, he settled on the sofa. “Tell me you have some favorites already. Please.”
She laughed at the comical expression on his face, then sat down next to him so he could see the screen. The action caused her nightshirt to ride up past her knees. Sliding one hand beneath the tablet on her lap, she discreetly tugged it down. She teased him, “I guess having you look at dollhouses is kind of like having me look at toy construction trucks.”
“You have something against big machines?”
“You know what they say.” Her elegant brows knit together. “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”
He chuckled, as he knew she’d meant him to, his awareness of her increasing by leaps and bounds with every second. Reminding himself they were both adults, and practical ones at that, he pushed desire aside. “So, what do you think would be best?” he asked.
She got right back on task. “For Chloe, I think it’s between these two.” She showed him two dollhouses, one a Craftsman style.
Jack decided, “I think she’d like the Victorian, because it looks the most like our house.”
“Agreed. Lindsay is getting sophisticated, so she might like the two-story city loft, with the retail shops beneath.”
“Very cool.”
“And Nicole’s very pet-oriented these days, so maybe the Southern traditional that comes with cats and dogs and pet doors?”
“Also nice.” He paused. “What about the furniture and the people?”
“All will have the furniture and accessories pictured. And all three of these will fit the size dolls that come from the specialty store we’re going to visit on Saturday.”
Jack nodded. He turned toward her, his knee accidentally bumping her cotton-covered thigh. “Last question. Can we get them in time?”
Bess sat all the way back against the sofa cushions, then shifted her upper body slightly to face him. “That’s who I was talking to on the phone,” she said, pleased. “All the ones you want are currently in stock. With expedited shipping, you can have them next week. But of course they recommend you order as soon as possible because the most popular tend to sell out.”
He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and got out his credit card. “Is it okay with you if we use your tablet to place the order?”
“Happy to help. And by the way, if you want to have the dollhouses shipped to my place, I can store them in my garage until Christmas.”
Short minutes later, the order was placed, the confirmation going to his email. She shut her tablet. Jack smiled his gratitude, wishing there were some way to repay her for all that she had done for him. “I�
��m going to owe you a steak dinner for all of this.”
She rose. “Or another bag of chocolate-covered almonds.” Winking, she started to move away.
He laughed and stood. Catching her hand before she could ease away, he held her in place and looked at her in all seriousness. “I mean it, Bess,” he said softly. “I owe you for all your help.”
* * *
Bess knew Jack wanted to repay her. She wanted to find a way to express her gratitude, too, for the way he had confronted her over the two Christmas letters, then gently but firmly forced her to look at her attitude and change it. He’d encouraged her to make this her happiest, instead of her loneliest, yuletide yet.
“Just tell me what you want, need...” he continued, gazing down at her earnestly.
Desire fluttered inside her, more potent than ever. “You’re serious,” she whispered.
He nodded. “Yes.”
Then there was only one thing that would make the month of December complete, Bess knew. Only one thing that would ease their mutual loneliness for just one night. She rose on tiptoe, wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and said, “This.”
He drew her all the way into his arms and tunneled his hands through her hair.
Defiantly, she held the challenge in his eyes.
“Sure?” he rasped.
“Very.” Reassuring herself this did not have to change anything—not for long, anyway—she shrugged out of her sleep cardigan, let it fall to the floor. She let out a shuddering breath as she lifted her face to his.
The gentlemanly, protective side of him seemed to be warring with their mututal desire for sex. He stroked his thumb across her lips. “Bess...” He regarded her ardently, a sense of purpose in his eyes. “If we get started...”
“I know we’re not going to stop, but here’s the thing, Doc,” she said as she pressed the softness of her body against the hardness of his and felt the heat and strength of his arousal. “I don’t want to stop.”
Nor, apparently, did he.
Their lips met in an explosion of heat and need, yearning and passion. She put everything she had into the kiss, adjusting her lips to just the right angle. Exploring his mouth, tasting his tongue with her own.
The kiss he gave her in return was hungry and wet and unbearably evocative. Taking command, he kissed her again and again, until she was lost in the touch and taste and feel of him. Lost in the ragged intake of their breaths, the chorus of their low, shuddering moans.
* * *
Jack hadn’t expected this to happen. Not here, not tonight. But now that it was, now that she was in his arms, kissing and holding him tight, he could not fail to see this through. Maybe they didn’t want the same things out of life, he reflected as he eased his hands beneath her nightshirt and found the temptation of her breasts, the enticing slope of her abdomen, the sweet silkiness of her inner thighs. But they did have a connection between them that was deeper and more enduring than anything he had ever imagined.
As she let everything she wanted come through in another soul-searing kiss, he realized what she seemed to know already, that happiness during the holiday season was not so far out of reach after all.
Excitement building inside him, he explored and caressed, and her body shuddered and yielded against his. He let all he wanted come through in another long, heated kiss. As he finished undressing her and drew her down onto the sheets, then stripped down and joined her there, she seemed to want more than just sex, too.
He shifted so she lay over top of him. An ache spread outward from his groin. He could feel her nipples beading against his bare chest. She rubbed up against him as they kissed, the softness of her thighs brushing over his.
She wanted to hurry.
He wanted to take his time.
So he did, shifting again so she was stretched out on her back.
“Beautiful,” he whispered, rubbing his thumbs across the dusky crowns of her breasts. He cupped their weight in his palms, then kissed his way down, from the V of her collarbone, across the soft swells, to the valley in between. Her skin heated as he suckled gently.
“Jack,” she gasped.
“I know.” He chuckled, tenderly caressing her stomach, moving lower. “I’m getting there.”
He adored her with silken brushes of his fingertips, soothing strokes of his palms, light strokes of his lips and tongue. She surrendered until she lost herself completely in the pleasure. When her quaking stopped, he moved upward once again, the merging of their bodies as electric as the joining of their lips. She wrapped herself around him, taking him deeper.
And then there was no more holding back. The desire they felt dissolved into wild, carnal pleasure. They were lost. Free-falling into an ecstasy that connected them as never before.
Afterward, they clung together. “Regrets?” Jack asked.
Nipples taut, her breath still coming erratically, Bess tensed for a long moment and then sat up. She slanted him a brisk smile that definitely spelled trouble. Averting her eyes, she shook her head, as if her desire had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. “Not as long as we both understand what this was.”
Destiny? Not in her view, apparently. He studied her kiss-swollen lips and the deliciously tousled state of the silky waves of hair, and the desire to make love to her all over again hit him hard and fierce.
“Fun?” he parried lightly, giving her the room to pretend she wasn’t anywhere near as romantic deep down as he knew her to be.
She reached for her nightshirt and drew it over her head, covering her gorgeous body from view. “Well, that,” she admitted mildly, slipping from the bed. She snatched up her panties and sleep sweater, too, holding them in hand. “As well as a way to relieve some sexual tension and alleviate the curiosity about what it might be like to come together this way.”
Jack knew the key to making sure this happened again was ensuring they kept this as informal as they both needed it to be. Ignoring the instinctive urge to haul her back into his arms and kiss her senseless once again, he lounged against the pillows. “And now that we’ve done that?” He sensed it would be a mistake to push her on this.
“Had our gloriously thrilling and wonderful one-off?” She picked up where he left off. Sobering slightly, she looked him in the eye and said, “I think we need to accept that if our friendship is going to continue unabated, we can’t let this happen again.”
Chapter Nine
If Jack had any ideas about Bess changing her mind, she quickly put them to rest. First, she disappeared into the bathroom, then came out and made up the sofa bed.
It already had sheets on it, but he moved to help her with the blanket and pillows. “I’ll sleep out here.”
She lifted her chin. “It’s more my size than yours. So I’m calling it.”
Argue? Or be a gentleman and let her have her way? He let his gaze drift over her one last time. “Okay,” he relented. “But if you change your mind...”
The stubborn set of her chin superseded the vulnerable sheen in her green eyes. “I won’t.” Fingers curling around his shoulder, she aimed him toward the bedroom. “Get some sleep, Doc,” she advised dryly. “I sure plan to.”
He tried. Despite his fatigue and the surge of post-sex endorphins, sleep would not come. Not for him. Or, judging by Bess’s quiet restlessness, for her, either.
Finally, he drifted off around 2:00 a.m.
When his alarm went off at six thirty, she was already up and dressed in a figure-hugging green cashmere sweater, a trim knee-length black skirt, matching tights and flats. The chin-length waves of her gold-and-caramel-streaked hair had been artfully styled, and sophisticated makeup applied.
She offered a cordial smile as she swung a black carryall over her arm. “I’ve got a breakfast meeting, so the suite’s all yours.”
“Thanks.” Before he could ask her if she was free for l
unch, she was gone.
And so it went for the rest of the day.
She appeared on the panel regarding nursing care for veterans at the same time he was prepping to teach the three-hour afternoon session on surgical repair.
At noon, he checked the ballroom where the lunch buffet was being held, but did not see her anywhere. By the time he got back to the suite to get ready for the evening banquet, he had already missed her again. He knew, because the shower was damp and the suite smelled of her soap and perfume.
By the time he had cleaned up and changed, and called home to talk to his parents and check on how all three of his girls were doing in his absence, it was time for the meal to start.
Seating for the Friday evening dinner was assigned. He was at the table for the surgeons who’d had speaking gigs that day. Bess was with the West Texas Warriors Association contingent from Laramie County, where she regularly volunteered, as did he. They were clear on the other side of the room.
He was still dealing with his disappointment over that when fellow surgeon Celine Ross came up from behind and grabbed his arm. “Jack!” she whispered in his ear. “You’re over here, dude.”
He knew. He just didn’t want to be.
Not when Bess was elsewhere.
He dug in his heels, said pleasantly, “I was going to say hello to someone.”
Celine shook her head. “You’ll have to do that later. They’re starting.”
So they were, Jack noted as the ballroom lights dimmed.
* * *
Bess usually enjoyed the Veterans Healthcare Summit, the highlight of which was usually the speeches given during the banquet on Friday evening.
Not this year.
As compelling as the personal stories, problems and solutions were, she could not pay attention for the life of her.
All she could focus on was the sight of Jack, a distance away, sandwiched between two really gorgeous women, both of whom, it seemed, were vying for his full attention.
A Tale of Two Christmas Letters Page 8
