They were stopping to check Jo’s ankle, he reminded himself as he vaulted down from the sleigh and negotiated a couple of drifts to get to Jo. He’d propped her up against the back of the sleigh with both legs out straight and the injured ankle elevated a little. She was nearly hidden in the shadows caused by the tall trees surrounding them, but he had an excellent memory of how she’d looked lying there, as if she was expecting something nice from him.
“How was the ride?” he asked. “I tried to take it easy.”
“The ride was fine,” she said. “You’re making too much of this. It’s a slight sprain, is all.”
“Let’s find out.” He climbed carefully into the sleigh. There was just enough room for him to kneel beside her. He pulled off his gloves and laid them in the sleigh bed. “Now stop me if I hurt you. I’m gonna take off your boot, first.”
“And what are you going to take off after that?” she said softly.
Beneath his jeans, stirrings began. “Now, Jo, don’t be sayin’ such things and distractin’ me. You could be hurt bad.”
“Nope. Some torn ligaments. That’s it.”
“You wouldn’t admit it if your ankle was broken clean through.” He found the zipper on the side of her boot and eased it down. “Does that hurt?” Her floral scent reached out to him, teasing him to come closer.
“No, it doesn’t hurt. Russ, I’m not married. I’m really not.”
“So that’s your story, and you’re stickin’ to it.” He worked the boot off slowly, all the while thinking about the last time he’d taken off her boots and the sweet loving that had followed.
“I’m not asking you to help me cheat. I wouldn’t do that.”
“I’d like to believe you, Jo.” He drew off her wool sock.
“You can believe me. And I should warn you, I’ve hidden the list,” she said.
“Is that right?” Cradling her heel, he gently pushed her sweatpant cuff up over the slight swelling in her ankle. The boot had probably helped keep it down. “I suppose you’re not gonna tell me where?”
“Not if you’re thinking of taking me home.”
He smiled to himself. He was beginning to cherish that stubborn streak of hers. Married or not, she was a challenge he enjoyed. “That’s probably where you should be, at home with this ankle propped up on a pillow.”
“Then I guess you’ll have to search for the list before you take me home.”
“And where would I be searchin’ for it?” As if he didn’t know. He ran his fingers lightly over her ankle.
“Let’s just say I’m keeping that list very warm.”
Lord, he could imagine where she’d tucked that piece of paper, right next to her soft skin, maybe between her breasts, or even between her thighs. He sucked in a breath. “Sweetheart, you’re makin’ it hard for me to concentrate.”
“That’s because you’re concentrating on the wrong thing.”
Forcing himself to ignore the invitation in her voice and the pictures it painted in his mind, he probed her ankle with caution. “Does that hurt?”
“Not too much. You could make me forget all about my ankle, you know.”
“Jo. Now quit.” It took all his willpower not to start taking off the rest of her clothes. At least she wasn’t yelling as he touched her ankle. If she’d been hurt really bad, she wouldn’t be able to stand the pressure he was putting on it He held her foot, massaging it gently while he thought about what to do.
“If you’re so worried about my ankle, we could probably figure out a way to use snow to make an ice pack,” she said.
The minute she made the suggestion, he realized he had the perfect thing in his wallet. No wonder he’d thought of it, considering the way his mind was working. But if he made it into an ice pack, he couldn’t use it for its intended purpose. Maybe a guardian angel was keeping him from heeding the devil’s call.
“In fact, you do have something we could use for an ice pack,” she said.
He sighed and decided he’d allow himself to be saved from the flames, although they did look tempting. “Yeah, I do.”
“See, I don’t need an emergency room. We can wrap an ice pack around my ankle and make the last two deliveries just fine.”
“That’s right, little darlin’, we sure can.” He reached in his hip pocket and pulled out his wallet. As he took the condom out of it and started to slip his wallet back in his pocket, Jo grabbed his arm.
“What is that?” she asked, leaning forward to see what was in his hand.
“It’s gonna be your ice pack.”
She started to laugh.
“Yeah, it might seem funny, but it’ll work. This is a real good brand and shouldn’t leak or anything. Nobody will see it, anyhow, if you’re worried about bein’ embarrassed. We’ll wind your scarf around your ankle and pull your sock over that.”
She was laughing so hard she barely got the words out. “Is that the only one you have?”
“Yeah, but one will be enough until we get to your house.”
She choked back another burst of laughter and cleared her throat. “That all depends, now, doesn’t it?”
“On what?”
She grasped the collar of his coat and pulled him toward her. Her voice grew low and seductive. “Russ, that isn’t what I had in mind when I mentioned making an ice pack.”
Her warm breath against his face drove him wild as the flames of temptation flickered to life and began to scorch him all over again. “It...wasn’t?”
“No, you sexy cowhand. I was talking about the plastic bag you used to hold Blackie’s carrots.”
He grinned. “Oh.” Then as he realized what that meant, his heart started pounding. She could be married, and he could be sending himself to the devil for loving her. He angled his head and leaned closer, his lips almost on hers. “I guess that would work, too, wouldn’t it?”
She ran her finger along his lower lip. “I think they would both work...in different ways.”
He combed his fingers through her hair and cupped the back of her head. He might be willing to walk into hell for one more chance to make love to her, but she had to answer for it, too. “Lady, do you know what you’re saying?”
“I’m saying that I want you to use the carrot bag on my ankle and the other item for loving me six ways to Sunday, right here, right now, cowboy.”
“Let’s try for seven,” he murmured, leaping straight into the fire.
THE BAG OF packed snow numbed Jo’s ankle and took away some of the pain, not that she cared much at that point. True to his word, Russ found her clothing no barrier to what he wanted. The layers she’d put on to protect herself against the cold didn’t stand a chance against the heat of his exploring caress.
Carefully propping her bandaged ankle on a rolled blanket, he eased her legs apart so that he could kneel between them. Taking off his hat, he leaned down and cradled her face in both hands. “Oh, darlin’, how I’ve missed touching you.”
“I’ve missed touching you, too,” she murmured, reaching for the zipper on his heavy sheepskin coat.
“I’ve missed the feel of your sweet mouth.” He kissed her with slow deliberation, working up to the moment he took possession with his tongue.
As he showed her with sensuous strokes how he intended to pleasure her, he opened her coat and pulled up the hem of her sweatshirt. The snaps of her long underwear gave way, and in short order he’d pulled the Christmas list from where she’d tucked it between her breasts.
He lifted his head and smiled down at her. “Found it.”
“Does that mean you’re finished with the search?”
He tucked the list in his coat pocket. “Nope.” With calm precision he continued flipping open snaps. “No tellin’ what other secrets you have in there.”
She was wearing nothing beneath the long under-wear, and the cold night air puckered her nipples. “Keep me warm, Russ,” she murmured.
“That’s my intention.” The heat of his mouth soon drove away the chill. Suppo
rting her with an arm beneath her bottom, he tilted her back just enough so that he could tunnel his fingers through the curls between her thighs. The minute he found the aching nub concealed by those curls, she began to quiver.
She’d never responded to a man so quickly as she did to Russ. As his finger drew a lazy circle over that flashpoint, the tightening deep within her began, as it had on their first night together. He pleasured her breasts and kept up that slow stroking. Her breathing quickened as the pressure grew under that light but persistent touch. He knew just how, and just where, she needed that touch to bring her joy. She began to shake, and finally arched upward with a soft cry of release.
He brought his mouth back to hers, murmuring to her between. kisses. “That’s it, honey.” He pushed his fingers in deep to prolong the moment by caressing her there. “Catch fire for me. I love how you do that.”
“It’s...the way you...touch me,” she said, struggling to catch her breath.
“I hope so. I surely do.”
“Russ, I need you,” she murmured, cupping the bulge straining the denim of his jeans. “I need you bad.”
“And that’s real good,” he whispered against her mouth.
The ache within her became so fierce that she unfastened his belt and opened his fly to get closer to the source of her satisfaction. He moaned as she rubbed him through the cotton underwear that barely contained him.
Hungry for more, she slid her hand inside his briefs and took a handful of warm, rigid male. He gasped against her mouth. Using both hands, she pushed his underwear down so that she had better access. He began to tremble as she continued stroking him.
Raging need made her bold, and she pulled back from his kiss. “Aren’t you cold, too?” she murmured, brushing her thumb over the moist tip of his erection.
“Not even close.”
“You must be on a night like this. Rise onto your knees a little more, and let me make you warm, the way you made me warm.”
He hesitated. Then with a sigh of surrender, he did as she asked, bracing his hands on the back of the sleigh as she took all that pulsing arousal into her mouth. The sheepskin liner of his coat brushed her cheeks as she loved him, and the loving made her moist and desperate to have that fullness deep inside her.
“Stop, little darlin’,” he said between gulps for air. “You’re too accomplished at that business for your own good.”
She slowly drew back, but kept her hand wrapped around the prize she wanted so desperately. “Give me the condom, Russ. Now.”
He fumbled in the pocket of his coat, pulled out the envelope and gave it to her with a trembling hand. “Be careful, sweetheart. You’ve got me to the boilin’ point.”
“I won’t let you boil over.” She opened the package and unrolled the condom over him. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Ah, Jo. It’ll be soon.” He eased down and took off his coat.
“Russ, put that back on! You’ll freeze!”
“Not with what I’m about to be doin’, I won’t.” He folded the coat so the sheepskin side was out. “And I need your sweet bottom up a little higher for this next part.”
“I can—”
“Not with your ankle, you can’t.” Scooping an arm under her, he lifted her and shoved the folded coat under her hips. “Now lean back just a little, so I can...there...” His shaft probed between the soft folds of her femininity that parted so easily, giving him entrance. “That’s good...oh, little darlin’.” He held her hips and pushed home. “Ah, Jo.” He groaned and shifted a fraction to slide deeper still. “We do fit real nice.”
“Yes...” Her breathing grew shallow. “We do.” Her senses reeled with the beauty of it. She’d wondered if her memory had exaggerated the perfect nature of their joining, but her memory hadn’t done this moment justice.
He eased back and snugged in again. “There’s been no others since you.”
Tremors radiated through her body from the sensitive spot where they were joined. “Not for me, either.” As he stroked back and forth again, she whimpered at the glorious sensation. “I need you, Russ. I need this.”
His lips were close to her ear as he moved sensuously within her. “How much do you need it, sweetheart?”
“A whole...lot,” she whispered.
His breathing became labored as the pace increased.
“Would you...cheat for it?”
Through the haze of pleasure created by his sure rhythm, she realized what he was asking. “No,” she said, gasping as the tremors began to take her.
“I would, darlin’.” He thrust harder, driving her closer toward the edge. “I would do most anything...to get inside you...like this.”
“Russ, I’m not... ” She lost all speech as a stunning climax exploded in rhythm with his relentless movement. Wave upon wave of pleasure crashed over her, wringing little cries of wonder from her lips.
His voice rasped in her ear. “Most anything at all...ah, Jo. Hold me tight, girl.” He groaned and pushed in deep as his body heaved and shuddered against her.
Jo stroked his back as aftershocks quivered through him. As his words echoed in the cold stillness of the winter night, she wondered if he knew how much he’d admitted just now, if he’d ever told anyone else in the world that he needed them that much.
RUSS EXPECTED GUILT to hit him sooner or later, but right now, as he got dressed again and helped Jo button up, he couldn’t remember feeling better in his life. He decided not to think past the next couple of hours and just enjoy feeling good for a change. Misery would come to visit him soon enough. It always did.
Maybe it was the happiness coming from Jo that put him in such a great mood. He’d done her right, and this time he could see the results of that. When they’d made love before, he’d cut out before she could let him know how much pleasure he’d given her.
She was letting him know now, all right. While he was tucking her in and arranging the blankets so she’d stay warm during the rest of the ride, she kept smiling as if she couldn’t stop.
“You look happy, sweetheart,” he said, smiling back because he couldn’t help himself.
“I’ll tell you something, Russ. Nobody’s ever loved me the way you do.”
“It’s easy.” He pulled the heaviest blanket up under her chin. “Only an idiot wouldn’t be able to make good love to a woman like you.”
She took hold of his collar again to pull him closer. “Then I guess I’ve been unlucky enough to run into some idiots.”
He was beginning to like her getting him by the collar like that and tugging him down so her full lips were only an inch or two away.
“Kiss me once more before we head out, cowboy,” she murmured.
He didn’t have to be asked twice. Her mouth was one of the wonders of the world, in his opinion. As he enjoyed the soft texture and the exciting taste of her, he remembered how he’d felt when she’d used her mouth to “keep him warm,” as she’d said. That was the moment when he’d known he’d give up anything, even his soul, to have her. Just thinking about her tongue and what it could do made him hard again.
He drew away, although he sure didn’t want to. “I can’t kiss you anymore until we’ve delivered the last two presents,” he murmured. “Or the job won’t get done.”
“Will you kiss me after we finish the job?”
He brushed his mouth over hers, just once, teasing them both. “Maybe.”
She got him back by running her tongue over his lower lip. “Will you take my clothes off again after we finish the job?”
He was getting hot all over again. He’d better climb into the front seat and get on with playing Santa Claus. Still he lingered, dropping a brief kiss on her lips. “Maybe.”
“Will you—”
“Yes,” he said, giving himself up to one more kiss.
When the pressure against his fly became almost painful, he forced himself to move away from her. He was breathing as if he’d just chased down a runaway horse. “Did you...figure out the next house we
’re supposed to go to?”
“I think the name was Bobby or Benny or something. That part was smeared. But the address wasn’t too far from here.”
“Benny Turnbull. He wouldn’t be far from here. Steve and Claire laid out the route so there’s no doubling back.”
“And who’s Benny?”
“A little kid. I think he’s about five. He came out to the ranch this summer with his dad. I guess his mother— well, she got into drugs, and they tried all sorts of treatment programs, but nothing took. Finally she left, and the last thing I heard, nobody knew where she was.”
“Poor little guy. Poor father, too.”
“Yeah. I guess he knows Steve from somewhere, and Steve asked him to bring Benny out and go riding last fall. We have a gelding that’s real good with kids. But then the guy had to go to Phoenix, where there was work, and he took Benny. They must be back now.”
“Then we’d better get over to Benny’s house.”
“Right.” He started to climb out of the sleigh.
“Oh, how’s your ankle feeling?”
“Like I could dance a jig. I think your cure did the trick.”
He actually believed that she might not be feeling the pain now. But his “cure” hadn’t really fixed her ankle. “Don’t be doin’ any dancin’. I think you’d best stay right there when we get to Benny’s house.”
“Only if you promise to come back and check on me after you’ve delivered the present.”
He gazed at her and longed to climb right back under those blankets and start all over again. “You’re a temptation, darlin’.”
“So are you, cowboy.”
Determined to finish his task, he grabbed his gloves and pulled them on as he headed for the front of the sleigh. Before he climbed into the driver’s seat, he walked up to Blackie and dug out a few of the carrot chunks that were now rattling around loose in his coat pocket.
“Here you go, boy,” he said, feeding the chunks to Blackie. “Lord, I’m glad you can’t talk,” he murmured. “You must have wondered what in tarnation was goin’ on in the back of the sleigh just now, all that bumping around and moaning.” He scratched under Blackie’s mane. “Thanks for standin’ so quietly all through it, son. If you’d taken off, you coulda maimed me for life.” With a grin, he patted the horse one more time before returning to the sleigh and swinging up to the driver’s seat.
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