Merry Christmas, Baby Read online

  “The briefs, too,” she said, her voice low and husky, her mouth dry with anticipation while other parts of her were very much wet.

  He stood by the side of the bed and did as she’d requested. Teddy didn’t have much experience with naked men but what she saw, she liked. His equipment was definitely larger than any she’d seen before but it wasn’t grotesquely or even intimidatingly big. Once again, she’d vote for just right.

  He knelt on the edge of the bed and slid one bra strap, then the other down her shoulders. He reached beneath her and unhooked her bra. Slowly, as if he were unwrapping a present and wanted to savor the experience rather than ripping into it, he pulled her bra away. His eyes glittered in the candlelight.

  He bent his head and languidly licked one nipple and then the other. Teddy felt as if she was coming undone at the stroke of his tongue against her tips. With a groan he took one pink nubbin into his mouth and sucked. Sweet, sweet heaven. He alternated from one breast to the other, leaving her writhing, the area between her thighs drenched, her breasts heavy with need.

  Jared kissed his way down her chest and the slight rise of her belly to nuzzle at her panty-covered mound. He licked the inside of one thigh and then the other. Using his teeth, he tugged her panties down past her hips. He hooked his fingers in to finish the material’s journey down her legs.

  He bent his head, parting her thighs and did what no man had ever done before. He leaned in and kissed her intimately, his mouth and tongue warm and wet and she thought she might just expire on the spot at how good it felt. He kissed, licked and sucked over and over until she was nearly mindless. Finally, when she was clutching the sheets in her fists and thought she couldn’t stand it any longer, he raised his head.

  “So sweet,” he murmured. He slowly slid up her body and kissed her. Teddy tasted herself on his lips. She found it intensely erotic.

  He rolled on a condom and spooned behind her. She’d never had sex in this position but instinctively she raised her top leg to grant him access.

  She gasped as he slowly entered her, filling her. He felt good. And then it just got better as he worked in and out. Teddy found her own rhythm, thrusting back against him. He reached around and caught her breast in his hand, squeezing, toying with her nipple.

  “Oh, oh, oh,” she said in sync with the rhythm they’d both set.

  “Here, roll onto your back,” he said. At this rate she’d do pretty much anything he requested if it all felt as good as what they’d done so far.

  When she was on her back, he positioned himself between her knees and pulled her to him. There was something very arousing about the slide of sheets beneath her, and the strength in his hands and arms. He entered her again and once again she gasped at just how good he felt inside her. Leaning forward on his arms, he was deep into her, her face buried against his neck, even as he buried his face into her neck. His breath was warm and wonderful against her. And then he caught her sensitive skin between his lips and sucked as he ground into her and Teddy’s world shattered into a million fragments of light.

  6

  JARED DIDN’T KNOW WHAT had hit him. He’d never felt like this before. Sex had never been like this, not even with Trish. Not only had it been good, it had been somewhere beyond that. He couldn’t even say exactly what it was, but it was out there. And then it struck him—he was content for the first time ever. It had taken him a moment to figure it out, to recognize the feeling, because it was foreign to him. And he’d never really been aware of his discontent before now.

  He’d been sated before, sex was good for that. But there was a marked difference in satiation and contentment.

  He pulled Teddy closer, her hair against his cheek, her buttocks nestled against his thigh and hip. “How are you?” he asked.

  She practically purred. “I’m wonderful,” she said, echoing his sentiments. She stretched, shifting against him, and smiled. “I guess we should get up. I’m supposed to be at Jenna’s spa—” she glanced at the clock “—in half an hour.”

  Somehow he found that disappointing. She hadn’t struck him as a spa kind of woman—not that there was anything wrong with women who went to the spa, it was just so common in Manhattan. It seemed so many of the women he knew prided themselves on having a high-maintenance reputation. “Got a spa appointment set up?”

  She shot him a look that was part amusement and part disbelief. “I’ve been helping out part-time during Chrismoose when we’re swamped with visitors. She was supposed to have her new spa open but a fire delayed that, so now she’s working temporarily in part of the community center. She’s booked up.”

  Jared noted Teddy’s generosity. She’d signed on to help Lucky transition the restaurant, plus she’d pitched in to help during Chrismoose. And now she was giving Jenna a hand.

  “What do you do there? Massage? You certainly have the touch. Not that I’ve ever had a massage, but if I was going to have one, well, I liked the way your hands felt on me.”

  She smiled, the smile that seemed to be hers alone, unlike any other. “Hmm, thanks. I like the way yours felt on me as well. But no, I’m not qualified as a massage therapist or any of the other high-brow positions there. I’ve been covering the reception area and cleaning and setting up the rooms afterward.”

  Okay, that fit more with the woman he’d just met but already felt as if he knew. She was a mix of earthiness, energy and a slight dreamer quality that showed in her acting aspirations.

  Call him uncharitable, but he couldn’t help but think that Trish would’ve been mortified to admit she worked in the capacity of cleaning or setting up anything. Hell, most of the women he knew inflated what they did to make themselves and their jobs sound more important than they were. Hyperbole came with the territory as far as he could tell.

  “Do you like working at Jenna’s?” he said.

  She rolled out of bed, pulling on her underwear. “Sure. I really like Jenna and it’s a good way to meet people. Otherwise I’d just be sitting around twiddling my thumbs. As you’ll discover, there’s not a whole lot to do in Good Riddance.”

  “How long have you lived here?”

  “My family moved here when I was four. I don’t remember much at all about where we were before. It’s a great place in a lot of ways, but I can’t pursue my career here and that’s important to me. Everyone has a purpose in life and I think we’re all unfulfilled until we discover our purpose and then live it.”

  It was uncanny how she’d just voiced what had been nagging at him for months now. “And you feel your purpose is acting?”

  “No. I know my purpose is acting. I’ve known it from when I was a kid. And now it’s time for me to get out there and do what I was meant to do.”

  He liked her surety and her determination. Far be it from him to ask her if she knew just how damn hard it was to earn a spot on a marquee. He had a feeling she did.

  “What about you? You never did say last night. How did you get involved in stockbroking?” She smiled as she tugged on her socks. “It’s sort of hard to imagine a kid sitting around thinking they want to run Wall Street.”

  “Not if you grew up in my house.” Success and the world of finance had been part of his life for as long as he could remember. There had seemed to be no viable alternatives. Lately he was thinking it was time for him to review his options. If he left the firm now, he left on a high note, and that was always the best time to go.

  “Oh. That doesn’t sound like fun.”

  He grinned. “The fun was always over at Nick’s house.”

  Teddy brushed her hair, static electricity leaving long strands sticking up. She merely grinned at him in the mirror and pulled it back, holding it in place at the nape of her neck with a long barrette. She turned and walked over to the bed and patted his hand. “Don’t worry, I grew up in a sucky household, too. But the main thing is we make the best of the hand we’re dealt. I’ll be finished around one today. Want to meet up at Gus’s for lunch afterward?”

  “Are y
ou asking me for a date?”

  “Well, yes, I am, Mr. Martin.”

  “Then let’s back things up a little because I fully intended to ask you for a date. Want to meet me for lunch today around one downstairs?”

  “I’d love to. I’ll be the one wearing the snowflake sweater.”

  “I think I can manage to pick you out of the crowd.”

  They were joking, but he realized as she closed the door behind her that he could easily pick her out of a crowd, because she was one of a kind.

  “YOU’RE CERTAINLY GLOWING this morning,” Jenna said with a broad smile as Teddy slipped on the black “lab coat” with Spa embroidered in gold across the left breast. Jenna had gone ahead and brought in the accessories for the new place even though it wouldn’t be open now until spring.

  Teddy did feel as if she was glowing…and floating on a cloud. “Uh-huh.”

  “I’m thinking this has a lot to do with a certain New Yorker who was at dinner last night.”

  “It might. It just might.” Jared was wonderful. Teddy began folding the clean hand towels in the basket behind the makeshift front counter.

  “It’s about time,” Jenna said, waggling her delicately arched eyebrows.

  “I guess it is, isn’t it?” She sighed. “It was just so quick.”

  “That’s a shame,” Jenna murmured, deliberately misunderstanding her.

  Teddy laughed and rolled her eyes. “Not quick that way. I mean, I just met him. I don’t really know him.”

  Jenna waved her hand in dismissal. “That’s the way it happens sometimes. Look at me and Logan.”

  “Uh, you guys went to high school together, Jenna.”

  Another dismissing brush of her hand in the air pshawed Teddy’s logic. “Whatever. I think it’s when you least expect it, that it whacks you upside the head.”

  Teddy paused, but she and Jenna had grown close in the last year. Jenna was a good listener and gave great advice. Teddy could talk to her about things she couldn’t talk to her older sister about sometimes. Now would be one of those times. “Jenna, the sex was great. It’s never been like that before.”

  “Double good for you. Make hay while the sun shines. And just think, you’ll have someone already in place when you move to New York.”

  “Well, if we’re pulling out clichés, I’m not counting those chickens before they hatch. Good Riddance is one thing, Manhattan is another. I think the competition’s a little stiffer there.” The very idea made her stomach clench.

  Jenna quirked one of her eyebrows. “He’s been living in Manhattan and he hasn’t been seeing anyone so apparently that competition’s not as heavy-duty as you make it sound.”

  Teddy wasn’t surprised Jenna knew all about Jared. For the most part, there were no secrets in Good Riddance. Except when the occasional secret surfaced it was a doozy, such as when everyone found out that Merrilee hadn’t been divorced for the past twenty-five years and was still married to the man they’d thought was her ex-husband. Or when they’d discovered Gus had been engaged to a psychopath who’d stalked her, so she’d changed her name and gone into hiding in Good Riddance. But other than that, everyone seemed inclined to share everyone else’s business without compunction, so it was no shock Jenna knew Jared was divorced and hadn’t been seeing anyone since his divorce.

  “Yeah, well, there’s nothing like being in the right spot at the right time. And I believe we can safely assume I’m his post-divorce rebound.”

  “You never know. It could be more.”

  “Not on my part and I’m pretty sure Jared’s feet are solidly on the ground.” Teddy knew that sometimes people thought she was a dreamer because of her acting aspirations. Nothing was further from the truth. Her acting career was a goal. She’d very determinedly saved her money, always with that goal in mind. And most importantly, she’d guarded against getting involved too deeply with anyone, her mother being the proverbial cautionary tale.

  No, Teddy would never trade her goals and dreams for a man, any man. She knew firsthand the way that turned out. And the easiest way to do that was to simply have fun but not get too involved. Jared was here for three days. Sex or no sex, emotional involvement wouldn’t be a problem. How attached could you get to a person in that time span?

  JARED WAS ALREADY SITTING at a table in the restaurant, nursing a cup of coffee, when Nick and Gus came in and spotted him.

  “So,” Nick said as he and Gus settled at the table. “How’d your morning go?”

  Between his activities with Teddy and his subsequent walk through town, Jared couldn’t remember a better time. “It’s the best day I’ve had in recent memory. I think I’m in love.”

  “Say what?” Nick said and Gus did a double-take.

  “With Good Riddance. I spent the morning walking around checking out the businesses, meeting people. It’s the most laid-back place I’ve ever been. I really dig it here.”

  Nick looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “You realize this is a busy time of year for the town. In fact it’s buzzing. There’s twice as many people as usual because of the Chrismoose festival.”

  “Yeah, I get it. It’s great! No honking horns, no traffic jams, and you don’t have to look past skyscrapers to see the sun. There’s fresh snow and trees instead of dirty snow and concrete. The air smells amazing. And there’s not a fake Santa on every street corner.”

  Nick looked at him and shook his head. “You’d go nuts within a month of living here. It’s a nice, make that great, place to visit, but…”

  Given their earlier conversation, he hadn’t expected Nick to be so surprised.

  Gus spoke up. “Nick’s right, Jared. I lived here for four years. It was a haven and the people are wonderful, but it’s not New York. I’m fairly certain you’d go stir-crazy.”

  “Maybe. But then again, maybe not. I think it might take a long time, or it might simply never happen. I like it here.”

  “Well, good, then we don’t have to worry that you won’t enjoy the next couple of days.”

  “Heck, no. You’re going to have a hard time getting me on the plane to head back to New York.”

  Gus laughed. “I’ll put Teddy in charge of making sure you make it back to New York. And speaking of the devil…”

  Gus trailed off as Teddy arrived at the table. “Speaking of the devil? Me?” Teddy, her eyes sparkling and a smile curving her lips, settled into the empty chair next to Jared. Her arm brushed against his and just that brief touch coursed through him.

  “We were just telling Jared we’re putting you in charge of getting him back to New York,” Gus said. “He’s decided Good Riddance is the place to be.”

  Teddy laughed. “Yeah, right.” She looked from Gus to Nick, her laughter dying. “Wait…you’re serious?” She looked at Jared as if he’d manifested a third eye. “We have no—” she made a circle with her finger and thumb in case he was missing the point “—traffic lights.”

  “I noticed.”

  “Okay, if you say so.” Teddy laughed again, shaking her head, but there was a hollow note to her laughter and a hint of a shadow in her eyes. “Are we still on for snowmobiling this afternoon?”

  While they took all of this for granted, it was a whole new world to Jared. He’d never been snowmobiling before. He was seriously excited about it. When had his life gotten into such a rut? Hell, maybe he’d been born in a rut and never made a move to get out…before now. Perhaps that had been part of his marital woes. “I’m looking forward to it,” he said.

  But not as much as he was looking forward to some more alone time with Teddy because all too soon he’d be getting back on a plane for New York, if only to wrap up his affairs there. He was feeling more and more at home in Good Riddance.

  7

  THE MOMENT TEDDY CLOSED the door, Jared slipped his arms around her from behind.

  “I’ve been waiting all day to do this,” he said, nuzzling her neck and pulling her against him.

  “Mmm.” Teddy offered up a sigh of
contentment. “Alone at last.”

  “My sentiments exactly, but snowmobiling was fun.”

  “It was, wasn’t it? Especially with you behind me.”

  “You don’t know how many times I wanted to kiss you.” He teased his lips against the nape of her neck, sending a shiver coursing through her.

  She turned, linking her arms around his neck, her internal thermostat hitting a high note. “Gus is taking Nick’s mother and sisters to Jenna’s spa this afternoon.”

  “And Nick is taking his brother-in-laws and father ice fishing.”

  Which translated to alone time in her apartment for them. She teased him. “You didn’t want to go ice fishing?”

  “I had something else in mind that involved far fewer clothes…?.”

  “Now that sounds like a good idea.”

  They went into Teddy’s room and closed the door. Although Gus and Nick were supposed to be otherwise occupied, erring on the side of caution struck Teddy as a good thing.

  “I like your town,” Jared said.

  “Good. I like your ‘town’ too.”

  “That’s only because you haven’t lived there all your life,” he said.

  “You might feel differently about Good Riddance if you’d been here since kindergarten, as well.” He couldn’t seriously be considering staying here. First, he was simply too New York and second, well, it was simply too unfair if he showed up just as she was leaving… And she was leaving.

  “It’s possible.”

  “Probable,” she said. The thought crossed her mind that it was a good thing Jared hadn’t turned up in Good Riddance any earlier in her life or she might’ve been sorely tempted to not leave. But she had a ticket now, and she’d bet after another day or two Good Riddance’s rustic charm would wear thin and Jared would be ready to hot-foot it back to Manhattan.