He looked down, startled, then grinned. “You’re either lost or haunting me. Either way, I’ll take it.”
I walked closer, pretending to inspect the setup. “Haunting’s more my speed. You’re missing a snowflake, by the way.”
He glanced at the ceiling, then back at me. “Guess you’ll have to help me fix it.”
The words were light, but there was that familiar gleam in his eyes, the one that always seemed to find me, even when I wasn’t looking for him. I didn’t realize how close I’d gotten until he climbed down the ladder and we were standing a breath apart.
“When do you think you guys will be heading home?” I didn’t care, but needed something to say so my lips would be otherwise engaged, and I could eliminate the threat to just lunge forward and kiss him.
“Ethan’s finishing paperwork. Miles is rearranging bows like a lunatic.” He nodded toward the front. “And you? What’s your excuse for being out and about at this hour?”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
He smiled faintly. “You’re a terrible liar.”
The air between us changed. The lights from the snowflake display glowed soft gold around us, and I could feel my pulse syncing to the rhythm of the muted hum overhead.
Adrian reached for a piece of stray tinsel caught in my hair, his fingers brushing against my temple. The touch was light. Innocent enough to ignore, suggestive enough to make me warm all over.
“You’re supposed to be working,” I said, but my voice didn’t sound like mine.
He eyed me with that easy smile of his. “You’re supposed to be home.”
“I’m bad at rules.”
“I’m counting on that.”
He stepped closer, close enough that I could smell the faint trace of coffee on his breath, the clean, fresh scent of sawdust clinging to his shirt. My frantic heartbeat drowned out everything else.
When his mouth found mine, it wasn’t a question. It was an inevitability.
Everything I’d been holding in since the harvest market—all the guilt, all the wanting—broke loose in that instant. My hands slid up the front of his shirt, finding the heat beneath, and whatever self-control we’d both been clinging to didn’t stand a chance.
The store felt miles wide and paper-thin at once. Somewhere in the distance, a light flickered off. He muttered my name against my neck, and I forgot how to breathe.
When he kissed me, it was nothing like being lost in the maze. He was more possessive. More intentional. Passion overtakes us quickly, the kiss becoming something greedy and forceful, ourmouths hankering for each other as if there would be no other time to find satisfaction.
He swallowed my gasp as he grabbed my ass and lifted me off my feet, carrying me backward. I had no idea where we were going, but I didn’t care that much either. As long as his mouth kept doing what it was doing.
I wasn’t blameless in the entanglement. I kissed him back with just as much impatience and hunger, knowing that if he tried to slow things down I’d probably tie him up with string lights and make this go the way I wanted it to.
Thankfully, holiday restraints weren’t necessary.
Adrian staggered once, then turned around so he could sit on the first ottoman that showed itself, bringing me firmly into his lap. His hard-on strained between my legs as I rolled my hips, desperately searching for that sweet friction to soothe the ache throbbing there.
I arched into him, hands too eager to take hold of anything. My fingers raked through his unruly nest of curls, coasted over the hard planes of his chest, the flex in his shoulders, cupped his face as a shaky moan spilled out of me and into his hot, wanton mouth.
God, I was dizzy with want for him.
He gripped my hips, then his hands slipped into my sweatpants from behind, grabbing onto my ass cheeks. My ulterior motives laid bare, he broke the kiss to lock eyes with me, a cocky grin on his face.
“No underwear, huh?”
I clasped my hands at the nape of his neck, still grinding myself against the bulge in his pants. “I read somewhere that barriers to entry were the number one reason new ventures failed.”
He gave a husky laugh, full up on bottled arousal. “I like the way you think, Calloway.”
“Is that all you like about me?” I rocked my hips and watched him spasm with pleasure under me, his jaw slack with it.
