“What about you?”
“I don’t mind the travel, but I’ve been thinking I might not want to stay in the bodyguard business permanently, either. I have some other goals I might look into after the holiday. Maybe talk with the guys about working part-time.”
Lydia’s surprise showed in her face. “How do you think they’ll be with that, especially since you’re starting to get some pretty big jobs?”
He shrugged, ignoring the prick of guilt at the back of his mind as Lydia voiced his own concerns. He didn’t know how his brothers would react, either, and he hated the idea that he might be letting them down.
“Well, we might be able to hire on, I guess we’ll have to see,” he said vaguely, steering their overloaded cart to the checkout area.
They left the subject at that, and Ely was glad. He was having a great time. As they chatted about their purchases and the festival, he realized that even standing in a long line at the store was fun when it was with Lydia. The thought should have worried him, but he pushed it away. Jonas and Garrett were ready to settle down, but Ely wasn’t—that hadn’t changed. Right now, watching her smile and unload toys with him onto the counter, he just wanted to enjoy the moment and was looking forward to the night ahead.
* * *
LYDIA HAD HAD a blast while toy shopping, even amid the craziness of the crowded store, more than she ever imagined she could. The back of the Subaru was packed with their purchases and then they had stopped to buy more wrapping paper, bows and tape. This added more work to her already heavy to-do list, but she was so excited to imagine the kids finding their new toys under all of the trees. They would be wrapping gifts for hours tomorrow.
She was almost looking forward to it, smiling at the sneaky bit of Christmas spirit that had worked its way into her life. Maybe it was because she was doing all of this with Ely, as well as Geri, Faith and the others. In previous years, she had faced the holidays alone, in spite of Tessa’s frequent invitations for her to stay home or join her family for Christmas. It hadn’t felt right; how could she celebrate Christmas with someone else’s family when she didn’t even go home to see her own? So she avoided it altogether, except for calling her parents and sending them some gifts.
Other than that, Lydia avoided the holiday. She’d had a lot of very happy Christmases growing up, and after what had happened with Ginny, she wasn’t sure she deserved any more of them. But she was happy now—mostly, in moments. More than she had been in a long time.
She was also relieved to know that the tension she had detected from Ely earlier in the day had to be due to his thoughts about leaving the bodyguard business. She wondered about what other things he was thinking, but he hadn’t seemed to want to talk. She hadn’t pushed, and she questioned whether or not he trusted her enough to confide in her.
She stopped that train of thought, not liking how it made her feel. They were having a wonderful day, and she wasn’t going to ruin it.
“Where are you going? The highway ramp is behind us,” she said, perking up and noticing that they were heading back into the city instead of out of town. “I told you to use the GPS.”
Ely chuckled. “I thought we might grab some dinner. I don’t know about you, but that shopping left me starving.”
“You’re right. I wasn’t even paying attention to the time,” she said, looking at her watch. As if on cue, her stomach grumbled. Loudly.
Ely grinned. “I’ll take that as agreement. What’s your pleasure?”
“I think you have a pretty good idea of what I like,” she said, unable to resist the tease. She was hungry—in more ways than one.
“That I do,” he said in a low, promising voice that made her toes warm. “You like Middle Eastern food?”
“I like pretty much all food,” she said. “But yeah, that would be fun, if there is any. This isn’t Philly,” she joked.
He pulled into the lot of a small Middle Eastern restaurant a few minutes later, to her surprise, almost as if he had known exactly where to go. She looked at him with narrowed eyes.
He shrugged. “I spotted it on the way through town the first time.”
“So many new places have sprung up—it’s much more diverse and cosmopolitan than it was when I was here. People were too conservative to want much other than steakhouses and chain restaurants then,” she said as they walked in. “This place looks new, and amazing. We might have needed reservations, though.” There were a ton of cars parked out front. It seemed very busy. A positive sign that the food was good, but a bad sign for getting a table.
“I’ll talk to the hostess, no worries,” Ely said confidently, and sure enough, they were being led to a very nicely positioned table a few minutes later.
A small, low stage was only a few yards away, their view unobstructed.
“Wow, this is great seating for just walking in—the place is packed,” she said, glancing around.
“I guess it was just meant to be,” Ely said lightly, scanning the menu.
Something in his tone and how he didn’t meet her eyes made Lydia pause, but then she shrugged and studied the menu. Ely ordered some wine and appetizers, and they both chose their entres.
“That’s going to be a lot of food,” she said, chagrined. “And I noticed baklava on the dessert menu—can’t pass that up.”
“We can take any leftovers with us for a treat later,” he said, pouring the white wine just as the stage lit and a woman walked out in silence, bowing to the crowd. They didn’t clap, but made a vocal sound of appreciation Lydia knew was called zaghareet. She and Ely joined in, and then everyone quieted as the dance began.
The music was sensual, the low beat traveling through the floor where Lydia could feel it up through the soles of her boots, and she glanced at Ely, who captured her hand on top of the table as they watched. His thumb rubbed her skin in a rhythm that matched the beat of the dance as the woman gracefully bent and swayed in almost impossible ways.
Then, to Lydia’s amazement, the dancer moved to the edge of the stage and picked up a sword, balancing it on the top of her head as she danced, and then on her forehead as she bent to the floor, laying back in a deep backbend, her hips and arms moving as her torso and head stayed still.
It was one of the most wonderful dances Lydia had ever seen. Ely agreed, she thought, his hand tightening on hers just slightly. She noticed he had stopped watching the dance, though, and was watching her. She didn’t mind at all. Ely might seem like a white-bread kind of guy, she thought, but he loved things that were exotic and different. Perhaps from his time in other countries, she mused.
“The sword dance is traditional in a lot of Middle Eastern and African countries,” Ely leaned in and whispered. “It’s a symbol of her reverence for her husband or lover’s masculinity and honor. The dance with the sword and the care she takes with it is a symbol of her devotion to him,” he said.
“It’s beyond amazing how she can do that,” Lydia agreed, but was also impressed with his knowledge. Lydia made a silent New Year’s resolution to look up some local belly dancing instruction when she got back to Philly. Maybe she could get Tessa to go along, as well.
Their appetizers arrived when the dance ended, and they ate for a little while, appreciating the savory fare of olives, hummus and spicy lamb kabobs. But the more they watched each other, and touched each other, the less important dinner became than being alone. Lydia met Ely’s eyes, speculating how on earth they could make it through this meal and back to the ranch before they would give in and rip each other’s clothes off.
“Maybe we should take this to go,” she suggested none too subtly.
“Let’s enjoy it. We have time,” he said mysteriously.
And so they did, feeding each other bits from all of the plates. Ely fed her some of his with his fingers, letting them touch her lips incidentally, and Lydia was almost dizzy with need by the time she finished the sensual, slow meal.
They ordered desert and Ely asked the server to pack it up with their leftovers, obvious
ly ready to go now, too. Once he paid, he headed to the door, her hand in his as he led the way. She wanted out, to get somewhere alone—and fast—where they could be alone to work off some of the heat.
Even the cold blast of air as they emerged from the restaurant didn’t dampen their arousal. They were barely inside the car when she crawled over to straddle him in the driver’s seat, kissing him with all of the desire that had built over the dinner.
“I don’t think I have ever needed anyone so much,” she said against his mouth, her breath coming in hard pants that steamed up the windows. “I can’t wait until we get back.”
He murmured agreement, his hands underneath her coat, holding her bottom and rubbing her where he was hard until she cried out.
“Unzip,” she said, moving to give him some room.
“Not here,” he said, his voice rough.
They stilled as voices rang outside the car, a group leaving the restaurant.
“Ely, it’s an hour back to the ranch, at least,” Lydia objected. “I want you now.”
“I want you, too, but we don’t have to wait that long,” he said, pushing her back into the passenger seat and starting the car.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I reserved a room. It’s just down the street,” he said, looking at her as the fogged windshield cleared.
“You got us a room? When?”
“As soon as I knew we were coming into town. I thought we could both use a break. Some private time.”
Light dawned and she nodded. “Ah. You had reservations at that restaurant, too, didn’t you?”
“Guilty as charged,” he said, putting the car into gear and pulling out of the lot. A few minutes later they were at the Crown Plaza.
“C’mon,” he said, running around to open her door and help her out, practically throwing the keys at the valet as they both laughed, hurrying into the lobby of the hotel.
Minutes later, they were in an elevator that was taking them up to what she thought she’d heard the clerk describe not as a room, but a suite. As she started to ask questions about that, Ely pressed her against the wall of the elevator and kissed any objections or worries away, reminding her of why they were here in the first place.
“Let me do this for you, Lydia. For us. Consider it an early Christmas gift,” he said against her ear, making shivers work up and down her spine.
No one had ever done anything like this for her before, and she wanted to object, but the idea of being alone, here, with Ely, for the whole night was too much temptation.
“But I didn’t get you anything,” she said with a smile, looking up into his eyes, relenting.
He grinned. “Sweetheart, you are more than gift enough,” he said as the doors opened.
Lydia couldn’t help but laugh as he stopped every three feet all the way to their room to kiss her senseless. He removed some piece of her exterior clothing—her hat, coat, gloves, scarf—so that by the time they reached the door of the suite, Lydia didn’t care about anything except him taking the rest of it off, which was clearly his plan, too.
12
LYDIA WALKED IN ahead of Ely; he turned on the lights and she stood and took it in.
“Wow,” she said. “I’ve never stayed in a suite before. This is so cool,” she exclaimed, running to the window and taking in the view. The window of the main room looked down over the city, all of the twinkling city lights and Christmas lights blending in together.
“It was the only room they had available on short notice, but I figured why not enjoy our night in style,” Ely said. He draped his coat over a chair and walked up behind her, sliding his hands around her and setting his chin on her shoulder. “There’s a hot tub,” he said, a mischievous grin reflecting back to her in the window’s surface.
She turned in his arms, looking up into his face. “Thank you. This is a lovely idea,” she said, pushing up on her tiptoes to kiss him lightly. But that only lasted a second before he took control and deepened the kiss to a purely carnal exploration that had her moaning against him.
Ely put his hands under her backside, pulling her up as she wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and her legs around his hips. Holding her with one arm while not breaking the kiss, he drew the curtains with his free hand and walked them back to the large sofa positioned in front of a flat-screen TV.
Settling back into the deep cushions, Lydia enjoyed the luxury of being able to take as much time as she wanted to explore Ely with no worries about anything outside of the room. This was their world, as far as she was concerned, and she planned to take advantage of every second of it.
Unwinding her arms and her legs and straddling him more comfortably, she slid her hands down and under the edge of his sweater, tugging it up over his head. He did the same for her, his eyes traveling over her face, then lower, reflecting his appreciation for the lacy bra and what it revealed.
“You’re so beautiful it blows my mind,” he said on a breath that made her catch her own. She leaned back, drawing her hands up her stomach, over her breasts and through her hair, letting her head fall back. He liked it when she put on a little show for him, and the hardening she felt beneath her bottom confirmed that.
Grinding against him in imitation of the belly dancer’s moves, Lydia smiled as he groaned.
“Feels good to me, too. I want this to last,” she said.
For all of their frantic rush from the restaurant, suddenly she wanted to take things as slow as humanly possible, drawing out every bit of pleasure she could from this night.
Biting her lip, she had an idea and wondered if Ely would go along. Sliding from his lap, she grabbed the remote control and sat back beside him.
“You want to watch television?” he asked incredulously. “With a perfectly good hot tub in the other room?”
“Not exactly,” she responded, grinning. “Hot tub later,” she said, clicking through the hotel menu options to the adult viewing schedule. She slid a look his way as the titles popped up on the screen.
“You into this, or will it turn you off?” she asked honestly. She didn’t watch adult movies as a habit, but she didn’t mind one now and then, depending on the situation. She had no idea of Ely’s tastes.
“Can’t say I watch too many, but I’m open to it,” he said, watching her curiously.
“You choose,” she said, handing him the remote and holding her breath in anticipation, wondering what he would choose. What secret fantasies would Ely reveal?
Lydia went to turn the lights off, allowing the glow of the TV to be the only lighting. He chose a film, and as it started, she stood in front of the screen. She took off her jeans and boots, leaving only her bra and panties on. Ely slid out of his clothes as well, welcoming her back to the sofa and into his arms where she curled up against his warm body, every nerve ending in her body hyperaware as the movie started.
The opening screen homed in on a beach sunrise, where a man sat alone on the beach, naked, and looking out at the water expectantly. His hand lowered and he started to pleasure himself, focusing on the water.
“Do it,” Lydia whispered into Ely’s ear, a little breathless, wondering if he would.
Pausing for a second, he shucked his shorts and took his cock in his hand, watching her rather than the screen as he made himself hard, stroking until Lydia sighed. He was gorgeous, and she loved watching him.
She turned back to the screen. “Oh, look. That’s who he was waiting for.”
“A mermaid?” he said with a chuckle.
“Hey, to each their own,” Lydia joked and rubbed her hand over the muscles of his chest. They watched the mermaid magically form two gorgeous legs from her tail as she emerged out of the water, also completely naked, of course.
The woman from the sea didn’t wait long to join her friend in the sand, falling down to his side and looking at him meaningfully as she stroked him and then took him fully with her mouth.
Replacing Ely’s hand with her own, Lydia did the same, w
rapping her fingers around him, and then sliding down to taste him as fully as the mermaid was doing for her lover.
“Oh, Lydia,” Ely said thickly.
The man on the screen pulled away, and brought the mermaid up for a deep kiss, and Ely, keen to the game Lydia was playing now, did the same.
Lydia was so hot she thought she might melt as Ely’s hands worked over her body. She was starting to have a very hard time keeping track of the movie.
Ely moved to kiss her shoulder, looking at the screen. “I think we might have a harder time with this part,” he said, his tone husky with arousal and laughter.
Lydia turned to find several more mermaids emerging from the water, joining in the fun.
“Yeah, that could be difficult,” she agreed, kissing him again, their own sighs and moans mingling with those on the TV.
He was hard as steel under her, his breath hot on her skin.
The need for Ely was merging with the sounds of ecstasy from the movie as she recited what was happening on screen. It pushed them both to an erotic peak that had her buckling into an orgasm almost as soon as he thrust inside. He followed quickly, pushing her over one more time before they both collapsed into each other.
The movie folks were still going at it; the man on the beach was being swarmed by horny mermaids. She and Ely couldn’t help but laugh as they caught their breath, clicking the movie off.
“Do you do this often, I mean, watching these kinds of films?” he asked, finally catching his breath.
She snuggled down beside him. “Sex has always been fun for me, and I don’t mind experimenting, as you know.”
“It’s one of the things that draws me to you, how different you are. Uninhibited. I like it. A lot,” he said warmly, looking down at her.
Something clenched in her chest at the way he looked at her, something more than sex hiding behind his words. She smiled, moving away, putting just a little distance between them.
“Good, because it’s still early,” she said with a wicked grin. “And there is that hot tub you keep talking about.”
Hers for the Holidays Page 15
