Kiss Me Katie! & Hug Me Holly! (11 page)

They never agreed on anything, unless it was how much they detested everyone else. Both of them held envelopes and glared at her as she came closer.

“Merry Christmas Eve, gentlemen,” she said. “Is there a problem?”

“You betcha, little girl,” Rocky grumbled, waving his envelope, which Katie recognized as the monthly statement she'd recently sent out in the
mail. “You charged me the going rate for fuel last month.”

She didn't understand the problem until Teddy grinned. “I got the favored customer discount.” His amusement dissolved as he, too, waved his bill. “But I got charged full price for tie-down fees, and missy, I
never
get charged full price.”

“I didn't get charged full price there.” Rocky beamed. “Because
I
got your preferred customer discount.”

“You—” Teddy's face turned beet red as he grabbed for Rocky's bill, but Rocky lifted it high over his head, chortling as the portly Teddy leaped up and down like a bullfrog, trying to grab it. Rocky wheezed with amusement, coughing from his forty year old cigar habit as if he intended to lose a lung.

Bryan grinned at the spectacle, and when Katie glared at him, he only laughed. “They'll get it out of their systems in a minute,” he told her. “Once they get in a good punch or two. Happens all the time.”

“Well, I can't let them duke it out here,” she said firmly, thinking of insurance premiums and lawsuits.

“Katie—”

“I can handle this.”

“But—”

“Let me do my job,” she insisted. “Gentlemen!” When they didn't appear to hear her, she reached over the counter for the envelopes, which were being waved by two greedy fists, high over the men's heads as they danced up and down trying to outmaneuver each other.

“Katie, I could just—”

“No,” she said to Bryan over her shoulder. “Believe it or not, I can take care of this on my own.”

“I realize that, but if you'd just—”

“Please.” Envisioning two heart attacks, or even a stroke or two, Katie reached out farther, but the counter hampered her. Teddy and Rocky weren't just grabbing for their bills now, but actually starting to wrestle, and picturing the calamity when one of them clobbered the other, she became all the more alarmed. “Come on now, let's settle this reasonably—”

That's when Teddy slid in low and punched. Rocky evaded, and in a comical twist that rivaled any raunchy television wrestling show, Teddy swiveled with the follow-through that ended up going nowhere. He fell on his butt on the lobby floor. With an enraged bellow, he went for Rocky's feet, wrapping his pudgy arms around
them just as Katie leaned all the way over the counter and grabbed both envelopes. Her toes left the floor, making her gasp at the loss of balance. She felt Bryan grab her legs, heard his worried voice calling her name.

But naturally, as this day was not one of her best, she overcompensated for her leap up. And as the laws of physics state, what goes up, must come down.

So it was only a matter of a second or so after Rocky tumbled to the floor in a heap over Teddy that Katie lost the battle for balance.

She would have toppled headfirst over the side of the counter, except that Bryan held her legs.

So actually, the only thing that fell was her skirt.

Right around her ears.

As she hung there, held by Bryan, his arms around her thighs, his face only an inch from her proffered tush, her plain white serviceable underwear flashing him, she was fairly certain that nothing else could possible go wrong for the rest of the day.

Naturally, she was wrong about that, too.

Because that was the exact moment that Holly and Matt made their reappearance. No one seemed to notice that Holly's lips were pleasantly swollen,
or that Matt had untucked his shirt to cover the front of his pants.

Why should they, when the upside down, dress-flapping-in-the-breeze Katie easily stole the show?

B
RYAN SHOULD HAVE
followed his heart's desire. He should have taken a bite out of Katie's tight, curvy and oh-so-temptingly close rear end.

But he hadn't, he'd actually followed society's unspoken rule—do not bite a lady's bottom unless invited to do so.

And now he was alone on Christmas morning.

Christmas mornings were typically pretty darn good for him. They had been all his life. For one thing, he was the baby of a very large family who believed in lots of love and laughter.

And lots of presents.

Because he wasn't the most organized of men, he sat on his bed and wrapped the things he'd purchased for everyone. Better late than never, he figured with a smile as he unrolled some festive paper and dug in.

He wasn't getting together with his family until dinner, which was good. He wanted to see Katie first.

The nerves surprised him, but as soon as he finished wrapping, he showered, dressed and got into his car.

Getting to her place took no time at all, but he wasted another moment in rare angst, staring at the dark windows and wondering what the hell he thought he was doing. She'd made it clear over and over again he wasn't what she wanted in a man. Not that it mattered; he didn't want to be any one woman's man anyway.

He really didn't.

So why was he here, sitting in his car staring at her house like a fool?

Because he
was
a fool.

Was she even there?

Last night he'd been hoping they'd leave work together, maybe have dinner, and indeed spend Christmas Eve together, just the two of them, but those hopes had gone up in flames at Katie's vanishing act.

She hadn't answered her phone, and he wondered now if she'd skipped town. He knew so little about her, really, and yet he felt her knew her so well.

How could that be?

And even more startling was how much he wanted to spend time with her. Wanted to talk,
wanted to share stuff, wanted to hear
her
share stuff. He wanted to laugh with her, wanted to make her laugh. Wanted to just…
be
with her.

And yet she was doing her damnedest to make sure it didn't happen.

Drawing a deep breath, he got out of his car and knocked on her door. From inside came an unmistakable meow, and he relaxed, knowing Katie wouldn't leave town with her cats alone in the house.

A few seconds later he could tell she was looking out her peephole. “Hello,” he said to the still-closed front door. “Merry Christmas, Katie.”

The door remained firmly shut, and he set his palms on the wood as if he could feel her right through it. “Katie? Let me in. It's—it's cold out here,” he improvised quickly, setting his forehead against the wood now, needing to be close to her. “You wouldn't let a man stand out here and freeze to death, would you?”

“Go home, Bryan.”

An apology, he decided brilliantly, staring at the door. Women liked apologies. “Katie? I'm really sorry.”

A rueful laugh escaped her at his soulful tone. “What are you apologizing for?”

“Um…being a man?”

“I'm not mad at you,” she said through the door. “I'm just—” he heard a clunk and knew she'd set her head against the wood “—just feeling stupid here.”

He had to press his ear up to the wood to hear her. “Why?”

“See! This is just what I mean! It'll seem really silly to a man who's never doubted himself for a single second.”

“I've doubted myself plenty.”

“Uh-huh. Over what?”

“You,” he said bluntly. “Over you.”

“I'm just one of too many women.”

“That's pretty much my point.”

Another short laugh. “Was that supposed to make me feel better?”

“What I mean is, this has never happened before.”

“What hasn't?”

“I can't walk away. I can't stop thinking about you. I dream about you, ache for you. I need you, Katie.”

“You…need me?”

“Open the door and let me show you.” At her silence, he sighed. “Please? I have a present.” Another trick learned from his sisters, all of whom
could be bribed. There wasn't a woman alive who could resist a present.

Except this woman, apparently.

“You said no presents,” she said accusingly.

“Open the door, Katie.”

She cracked it. “Why?” she asked warily, one cautious eye greeting him.

“Could you maybe open it just a bit more?”

“Well…okay. Just for a—
Hey!
” she cried when he used his superior strength to let himself in.

“Sorry,” he said, anything but as he gazed down at her. She was rumpled, her hair wildly rioting about her sleep-flushed face. She wore a pale-rose bathrobe that swallowed her up. Two bare feet poked out beneath the full hem.

He loved bare feet.

“This is crazy,” he said, wanting to devour her sleepy, mussed self on the spot. “Tell me what's wrong.”

“You mean besides everything?”

“Well…yes.”

She looked heavenward, then studied her feet.

“Katie?”

She rolled her eyes. “It's about yesterday.”

“I figured out that much.”

“You're going to make me say it specifically?”

“Well, since I'm clueless, yes. You'll have to say it. Specifically.”

“Okay. You saw…my panties.”

He stared at her, wanting to laugh, needing to laugh, but at the glare on her precious face he didn't quite dare. “Well, since I've been wanting to see your panties for some time, preferably on the floor, on the door handle, on the ceiling fan, anywhere but on you, I can't apologize.”

Her mouth opened, as if she had to do that to breathe. He took the opportunity to reach for her, haul her close and put his mouth to hers. To help her breathe, of course.

She let out a little sound, which he swallowed. Then she grabbed fistfuls of his shirt. He liked when she did that, a lot, but this time she happened to get a few chest hairs in with the material of his shirt and he was surprised at how much a few little hairs, slowly pulled out of his skin, could burn like fire. “Uh…Katie?”

“Mmm.” She buried her face in the spot between his shoulder and neck, and he decided he liked that, too, so much he could live with the fire in his chest.

For her, he'd do anything.

Which pretty much terrified him now that he thought about it. “It wasn't the panty thing,” he
whispered, holding her as tight as he could. “Admit it. You're just scared. Hell, so am I.”

“I don't like being scared.”

That made two of them. Not knowing what else to do, he kissed her again, a hot, wet kiss that had them both breaking off, panting for air.

“Where's my present, Bryan?”

Uh-oh. Damn, he should have known better. “Um…close your eyes.” When she did, he reached inside his pocket for a scrap of red ribbon from wrapping his family's gifts. He'd intended to let her cats have it. “Okay,” he said after a moment.

Katie opened her eyes and took in the red ribbon tied in a crooked bow around his neck.

He sent her a crooked smile to match it.

“
You're
my present?” she asked, her voice soft and hesitant.

“Don't tell me you want to return it. I didn't save the receipt. Plus, I bought me on sale, so—”

“Is it for keeps?”

Oh, boy.

“Never mind,” she whispered, covering his mouth with her fingers so he couldn't deny, couldn't sooth away that slightly stricken, embarrassed light in her eyes. “I don't want for keeps,
either.” Then she replaced her fingers with her mouth.

Katie kissed him hard, her heart squeezing so tight she thought it was a miracle she could kiss at all. She'd take what she could get with him and be okay with it. She'd be more than okay. She'd thought she'd never get over her humiliation from yesterday, but somehow he'd done it, he'd made everything okay, just as he had from the moment she'd made her Christmas party mistake.

Only maybe it hadn't been a mistake at all. “Keep kissing me,” she murmured, and the words were barely out of her mouth before his head descended again. He kissed her over and over, until they were panting, straining against each other. He ran his hands down her back to her bottom. With a hoarse murmur, he drew her to him, burying his face in her hair.

“I can't feel anything but warm woman under this robe,” he said, his voice so hoarse it was nearly gone.

“I was just about to get into the shower,” she admitted.

He groaned, and with characteristic bluntness, opened her robe. Never reserved or shy, he bent his head and looked at her, his eyes so hot she was
surprised she could stand so close and not get burned.

A flash of doubt hit her, because it had been a very, very long time for her, and because she'd never felt particularly comfortable in her own skin. “I'm sorry,” she whispered, feeling his sudden stillness like a weight. “I'm not— My body isn't— I really hate to exercise,” she finished lamely.

His unfocused gaze met hers. “What?”

“I'm not exactly…you know, perfect.”

His eyes blinked and focused. “Are you trying to tell me you feel the need to apologize for this body?”

“Well…” Miserable, she nodded.

“You're kidding me.”

“No. My tummy isn't flat.” He touched it and her breath faltered. “And my breasts…they're not exactly…perky.”

He switched his attention to them now and she could hardly speak. “And my hips…”

“Your hips?” he encouraged, but she didn't want to even go there.

“Forget it,” she muttered.

“Never.” He studied her, apparently not in the least disturbed by her curvy figure because he made a low, rough sound in the back of his throat,
almost a growl, and hauled her close. “Perfect,” he murmured. “Soft, round, sweet and perfect. You're beautiful, Katie.”

“But—”

“But you do talk too much,” he decided sinking to his knees and taking a love bite out of her belly before he dipped even lower, effectively shutting her up. Without another word, he opened his mouth on her. His hands, splayed wide over her bare bottom, drew her closer, then closer still as he nibbled, sucked and licked her halfway to heaven.

Unable to help herself, she cried out, because what he was doing to her simply caught her on fire. She had started to shake the moment he put his mouth on her. When she could no longer stand, he simply scooped her up and, following her breathless directions, took her to her bedroom. He set her down on the bed, but not before he spread her robe wide, gently tugging it away.

Morning light streamed in the windows, streamed over her nude body, but the last of her doubts faded in the light of his naked and fierce desire. Then he began to undress and she forgot all about herself. His shirt fell to the floor, revealing wide shoulders molded to a broad, muscular chest. Desperately ridding himself of clothes as fast as he could, his jeans hit the floor. His belly was flat, his
thighs powerful. Between them he was heavy and hard.

“Oh, my,” she whispered, staring, and he let out a groaning laugh. “Bryan, that's not going to— You're not going to be able to—”

“Fit? Oh, yes I am.” He crawled onto the bed and reached for her, running his hands over her breasts, her stomach, her thighs and in between, all the while murmuring husky, sexy, earthy promises that mixed with his greedy and oh-so-talented fingers, arousing her to the point of no return.

He kneeled between her legs, his eyes hot and hungry, watching her closely as he put on a condom. He touched her then, making her cry out his name. He said her name, too, on a tight breath as his fingers slid over her hot, glistening center, and then opened her legs farther and entered her. “See?” he whispered roughly, covering her with his deliciously heavy body. “I fit.”

Perfectly.

And then he started to move.

Instantaneous combustion.

It had never happened to her before, immediate orgasm, but it happened now. Endless ripples of pleasure rolled over her body, and her mind continued to reel as he thrust into her again. Then
again. Time stopped as he raced toward his completion, and she raced right along with him.

 

V
AGUELY SHE REALIZED
Bryan had braced himself above her, his arms trembling violently in the aftermath, his whole body trembling, breathing as harshly as she.

As if to savor the last of his pleasure, he pressed his hips to hers. A low sound escaped him, one that somehow conveyed all she was feeling, and answering it, she reached up for him just as he reached down for her. She pressed her face to the base of his throat, where his pulse still raced.

One big hand came up to cup her head and he held her close. “I had to come,” he whispered.

She smiled against his skin. “So did I. And we could always do it again, right?”

He went utterly still, then laughed. “I meant I had to come
see you.
”

“Oh.”

He snagged her tight when she would have rolled away in embarrassment. “I like your idea of doing it again,” he said with a grin. “I like it a lot.” His hands slid over her body, holding her hips still so that he could rock against her.

He was already hard, making her hum in helpless pleasure as his fingers came around and slid
between her legs. “Yeah,” he said in a rough whisper, finding her hot and wet. “Definitely again.” Before she could say anything, he lifted her up to straddle him, and in one powerful stroke buried himself deep inside her. “Ahhh.” His eyes opened, held hers. “I felt lost this morning. Until you opened your door, that is.”

She could hardly think. It took every bit of energy to open her eyes on his.

“I've found what I was missing,” he whispered.

“Me?”