Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
“There is where I come from,” I say as I pull away from his chest. Crap. I got tears all over his nice tie.
He touches the bottom of my chin with his leather glove and tilts my head up until I’m looking into his eyes.
I gulp as they fixate on me.
The intensity in them is surprising. It’s unexpected as he stares down at me, looking at me like no one ever has before. I don’t know what to think.
The warm scent of his cologne fills my lungs and gets me all flushed. Who is this guy?
Whoever he is, he’s got a lucky girl in the passenger seat of his truck. She’s got to be a total knockout and one hell of a catch to be with a man like him.
He’s beautiful, but not in the classic sense. If you’re one of those freaks like me who get turned on by the villains in movies, then you’d understand. His face is all hard sharp edges. Narrow lines. Dark eyebrows. Heated possessive eyes that instantly tell you you’re out of your league with this man.
All I can do is take heavy shaky breaths as I look up at him through my snow-dusted eyelashes.
“Are you hurt?” he asks as he grips my arms with his hands and looks me up and down.
Heat blooms within me as his eyes drag up and down my body.
Am I really getting turned on? Come on, Holly. You just ran this poor guy off the road. We’re in the middle of a snowstorm and your car is fucked. Now is not the time to get these kinds of thoughts.
No matter how hard I try to shame myself, the feeling doesn’t go away. It intensifies.
I’ve always been drawn to older men—Teachers, my dad’s friend, the guy who mows his lawn shirtless down the street—those are the kind of men who have always gotten my attention, but I’ve never gotten theirs.
This man is different. He’s looking at me in a new way. A way that’s getting my toes curling in these soaked running shoes.
He must be in his early forties. I just turned twenty-two. That’s a hell of an age gap, but as we stand here staring at each other… it doesn’t seem to matter one bit.
“I’m okay,” I say in a soft voice, not quite believing it.
Physically, I’m fine, but with him now in my life… I don’t know. I might never be okay again.
Chapter Two
Nate
* * *
“What’s your name?” I ask the Christmas miracle in my hands. I’m gripping her arms like I’m never going to let her go, and right now, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to.
I want her.
She’s already consuming me. My truck is probably stuck in the snow, but I don’t even give that a passing thought. I’m fixated on her.
I’m being pulled in hard. She’s so alluring. So seductively innocent. I need this girl in my life. I need this girl to be my life.
She’s looking up at me with those rosy cheeks and those big blue Bambi eyes. Fuck… it’s hitting a part of me that’s never been hit before. A protective possessive part that is raging to life as we stand here in the snow.
It wants me to pick her up and bring her to my truck. Put her in and drive. Peel that big coat off her body and see what wonders she’s hiding underneath. It wants me to take that beautiful innocence radiating off her. It wants to be consumed by her. And it wants it now.
“My name is Holly,” she says in a voice so sweet and pure that it gets my heart aching. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. I’m in pain as I watch her. I’m tender all over. “Holly Evans.”
A Holly for Christmas. That’s all I want.
“And you?” she asks with a swallow when I just stand there, openly staring at her in awe.
“Nate Thomas,” I tell her. She nods her sweet head and drops her eyes to my hand that’s gripping her arm a little too tight.
I catch myself and quickly release her even though every cell in my body is screaming at me to do the opposite—to grab on and never let go.
“Should we exchange information?” she asks as she glances back at her car. Her head turns and her big wooly scarf separates a few inches from her neck. I nearly buckle at the sight of her soft supple flesh underneath it. I want to put my lips on her skin as I strip her bare, revealing the rest of this angel’s heavenly body. I want to see every inch of her. The gentle sloping curve of her hips, the round and plumpness of her young breasts, her sexy belly button, the arch of her spine, the light tuft of hair between her legs, the pinkness of her pussy as I slowly pry it apart with my fingers…