A Man for All Seasons (16 page)

Marlie exploded with laughter. “You look like Disco Big-foot!” Marlie was laughing so hard she was bent at the waist, which put her close enough to the floor to grab another handful and rain it down on him.

“Marlie!”
He reached for her before she could do it again.

“Oh, Ty, lighten up!” Still laughing, Marlie danced away from him, but her foot slipped on the tinsel-covered wood floor.

Ty clamped his arms around her before she sat down hard. As soon as she had her balance again, she tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but only succeeded in freeing one shoulder. “I'll let you go if you promise to stop with the tinsel.”

“Nope!” She pulled at his arms. “Not gonna.”

“Marlie, it's nasty stuff. You'll still be finding it next July.”

“So I'll clean it up along with the bajillion pine needles I'll find then, too.” She struggled forward, slipped, and ended up planting her bottom directly against his crotch.

It was a great fit, to which his body instantly reacted, every nerve coming to attention and letting him know how very much they liked it. He froze, willing her not to move. But Marlie being Marlie, she moved. A lot. His brain told him to let her go, but the rest of him said, “Not quite yet.”

Marlie's laughter faded. “Oh.” She stilled.

Ty closed his eyes.
Let her go. Let her go while you can.

Marlie wiggled her hips experimentally, spreading heat and longing through him. “That's either for me or for the tinsel.”

Ty bent his head to her hair and inhaled. It smelled like Marlie again. “Not the tinsel,” he breathed just above her ear.

Let her go or your plan is a bust.

He squeezed her tighter, so very glad she was back in his arms. In a minute. He'd release her in a minute.

“Mmm.” Marlie leaned her head back against his shoulder and slowly rotated her hips against him, pretty much drowning his brain in lust. “Are you going to let me go?”

“I don't want to.” Ever.

“I can tell.” She moved a little faster, a little harder. “Mmm.”

Ty had trouble remembering to breathe.
Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.
Why was remembering to breathe so difficult? He'd been doing it all his life. “Cut it out, Marlie,” he said as blood pooled in his groin.

“Why?”

“It's not a good idea.” He remembered that, if not the specifics.

“Liar.” She tilted her face up. “You think it's a very good idea.” And she bit his earlobe, distracting him, and broke free.

“Ha!” She scooped up a clump of tinsel and flung it at the tree.

“Marlie, stop.”

She flung faster, her cheeks flushed. “It's either me or the tinsel.”

As she reached for more, Ty grabbed her arm and spun her into his chest, face to face. Upon impact, three strips of silver slithered from his head and disappeared down the neckline of her tank top.

“I guess it's me,” she said softly.

It's always been you,
he thought over the rushing in his ears. And he would tell her when the time was right. The time was not now, in spite of her parted lips and pink cheeks and the wild blond hair that looked as though she'd just got out of bed.

Her chin tilted up and her eyes drifted closed and Ty decided he could use a reminder of why he was laying groundwork. Anyway, he thought as his lips settled against hers, kisses counted as groundwork.

Unless they caused earthquakes the way this one did. Passion, desire, tenderness, and a love that left him completely vulnerable all exploded within him. Zero to sixty in under a second.

Ty inhaled sharply and wrenched his mouth from hers. “I'm not ready for this,” he said when he got his breath back.

She rocked her pelvis against him. “Yes, you are.”

“No. I mean—I want—” He couldn't even form a complete sentence and he had to tell her that he liked life with her, her kind of life, and he wanted that kind of life now, too. But it was so, so important that Marlie believe him. He loved her. He wouldn't want that life with anyone else—but that didn't
mean he only liked it because that's what she wanted, only it did, because he loved her. It was too complicated to explain now.

He dropped his hands and stepped back. “I don't want to mess this up. You're very special to me, Marlie.”

 

H
E HAD TO BE KIDDING
. Ty did not just give the “you're-very-special” speech to her. He was going to pay.

“Ty!” She gave a good imitation of a laugh. “We're just playing a game. There's nothing to mess up.”

“A game?”

“Yeah. The tinsel game.” She stepped forward and pulled a piece from his hair over his ear and across his jaw where it snagged on the beginnings of stubble and slipped from her fingers.

Ty swatted at it, sending it onto Marlie's chest to trickle down and join the rest of the tinsel in her bra.

His eyes, dark and hot, stared down at her neckline. His breathing deepened. Marlie's chest rose and fell in time with his.

“Does the tinsel game have rules?” he finally asked.

“When it's no longer fun, you stop playing.”

He looked into her eyes for even longer than he'd looked down her top. “How do you play?” he asked and she knew she had him.

“Find the tinsel. Your turn.”

Ty lightly drew his fingers over her shoulders and throat. His touch was no heavier than the strips of tinsel, but it was warm where they were cool.

His gaze followed his fingers to her neckline. She felt a tickle and looked down to see that Ty was pulling on one of the strands that had fallen down her shirt.

“That tickles,” she told him.

He half-smiled. “Good tickles or bad tickles?”

“They could be better.”

He pulled faster and she inhaled in pleased surprise as the tinsel slipped over her skin.

“Better?”

“Yes.” Who knew?

“There's more.”

She looked down and saw that the first piece he'd withdrawn had brought up a tangle of the other two.

Ty picked up the twisted ends and moved the strands from side to side before pulling them out.

Marlie's breath hitched as gooseflesh raised on her skin. It hadn't been his turn, but she wasn't arguing.

“You've got tinsel all over you,” she whispered, and brushed at his hair, an ear, and pulled at the collar of his shirt. “A lot got caught in your collar.”

“I feel it.”

She tilted her head as though thinking. “The fastest way to get it out would be for you to take off your shirt.”

“Wouldn't that be cheating?”

“Wouldn't that be fun?” she countered.

Staring into her eyes, Ty started unbuttoning his shirt.

This was a dangerous game Marlie was playing, this tease and be teased. Ty had been very clear, maybe even insultingly clear, that while he was attracted to her, she shouldn't expect a relationship with him. So Marlie knew that whatever happened between them tonight would be just for tonight. She couldn't say he hadn't warned her and she couldn't say exactly what would happen.

She watched his fingers move from button to button, revealing glints of silver stuck to his skin as the shirt parted. After undoing the last button, he pulled off the shirt in a shower of silver.

Marlie watched his chest rise and fall. Reaching out, she plucked at the silver bits tangled in the light dusting of hair
and wanted to wind her arms around him and kiss him until she forgot that he only wanted her for the moment, but not in his life. His chest no longer glittered, but Marlie kept spreading her hands over his skin.

“The game isn't fun anymore,” he said and she looked at him, stricken.

He captured her hands and placed them on his heart. She stared at them, feeling his pulse beneath her fingers. “Because, for me, it isn't a game. The first time we kissed, I told you it meant nothing. I was wrong,” he admitted. “It meant everything.”

Her gaze shot to his face. Ty gave her a crooked smile. “Sorry I short-circuited for a little bit there.” He drew a breath. Beneath her palms, his heart picked up speed. “But I'm thinking clearly now. I love you, Marlie.”

It was exactly what she wanted to hear and, looking into his eyes, she knew that at this moment, he believed what he was saying. The moment wouldn't last, but she'd take it because it might be the only one she'd ever have.

So she gazed into his dark blue eyes and said, “I loved you even before I was aware of it.” He looked at her with such blazing happiness that she knew he would break her heart into so many pieces she'd never put it back together.

“There's more I need to say, but later,” he told her.

Marlie wasn't going to think about later.

He kissed her hands before lacing their fingers together. “How do you feel about making love under the Christmas tree?”

She grinned. “You mean, you want me to unwrap your package?”

“Yes.” He grinned back. “And I don't want to wait until Christmas.”

“Oh, we're not.” She reached for his belt, but Ty swooped
down and captured her mouth with his, swallowing her startled squeak, trapping her hands between their bodies.

Heat washed over her. Ty kissed her full on as though this was a continuation of the kiss that started it all. Marlie instantly lost herself in the kiss. This was how it was between them—all or nothing. No in between. No gentle warm up. Just everything at once.

Ty's hands were flat against her back, one dipping to her waist to skim beneath her thin cotton tank.

He pressed her back until her feet no longer held her and he did, kneeling and lowering her to the floor. He straightened and she smiled to see his head surrounded by colored lights. He undid all his careful mounds of batting and smoothed them into a cushion, picking off bits of silver. “I do hate tinsel,” he said without heat.

“I can make you like it.”

“Not possible.”

“Close your eyes.”

He did and Marlie sat up and whipped off her tank top. It was no big deal because she wore a wide sports bra beneath. But this is where it got interesting. There was no graceful way to get out of the thing, so she really hoped he wasn't peeking.

“I'm turning around,” he said, solving her problem. “I want to get into the cabinet.”

“Why?”

“I told you I had plans. Only I planned for the tree to be decorated before I carried them out.”

“It is decorated,” she protested, wiggling out of the stretchy sports bra.

“Someday, I'll show you decorated.”

“You'll come around.” She covered her torso in tinsel and leaned back on her elbows. “Ready.”

Ty set a small wooden box off to the side and turned to
look at her. He froze on all fours. For long moments he stared, and Marlie tracked his gaze by the movements of his eyes. “Wow.” Smiling slightly, he crawled over to her. “You make a very persuasive argument, but the tinsel is still in the way.” As he lowered himself onto his stomach, he exhaled. The puff of air caused a tiny silver avalanche. The movement caught his attention. “I'm seeing possibilities here.”

Marlie felt more tinsel slide with every breath she took, so she was trying not to breathe very much.

Ty blew a gentle stream of air that made Marlie's stomach contract. Tinsel flowed into the hollow.

His gaze heated and became very focused. Marlie looked down at herself and saw her nipples poking through the silver, revealing themselves a little quicker than she'd anticipated. Too bad. She'd just have to brazen it out.

Ty blew another stream and tinsel slithered over her ribcage. Marlie gulped air, which sent more tinsel rolling sideways, tickling her skin.

“I am officially a fan,” Ty announced. “You can wear all the tinsel you want.”

“What about the tree?”

“I don't want to kiss the tree.” He leaned over her. “And I don't want the tree to kiss me.”

“But—” His hand covered her breast right then and she forgot what she'd been going to argue. Or why. She'd been thinking about his touch, wanting it again. So now plain old relief overwhelmed everything else. And then plain old relief gave way to old-fashioned lust. “Ty,” she breathed right before he kissed her.

Marlie's quivering arms collapsed. The soft batting surrounded her as Ty kissed her with long, deep, drugging kisses that made her dizzy with wanting.

She ran her hands over his back and drew her foot up his denim-clad leg. Ty dragged his mouth from hers. “I forgot to
tell you you're beautiful. I meant to tell you. You're so beautiful. So beautiful.”

Great sentiment. Limited vocabulary.

“Incredibly beautiful.”

“And hot,” Marlie said.

“Yes. Hot. So hot. Incredi—”

“I mean, sweaty hot.” She raised an arm to show him the tinsel stuck to it.

Ty blinked passion-glazed eyes. She'd done that. She had turned her handsome hunk of a roommate into a babbling love zombie.

He sucked in air. “You're hot.”

“Yeah.”

“This kind of hot.” He reached for the snap on her jeans.

“Shoes and socks first,” she said.

He grinned. “You mean there's an order?”

“Shoes, socks, jeans, underwear. Which is logical, unlike your tree-decorating rules.” Marlie unzipped her boots and let Ty pull them off.

“You're so beautiful,” he repeated, going a bit glassy-eyed again and losing track of what they were doing.

“So are you. Take off your jeans.”

They struggled to undress without getting out from beneath the tree.

Naked, Ty looked down at himself. “When do we take off the tinsel?”

“Tinsel chooses you—you don't choose the tinsel,” Marlie told him. Then she hung tinsel where no tinsel had ever hung before.

“My manhood is suffering,” Ty complained.