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“Try harder.”

Twenty-four years old. Five-foot-four. Freckles. And bossier than every board member I’ve ever sat across from.

I lower my head to kiss her again.

“Maverick,” she murmurs against my lips.

“Hmm?”

“Drop the towel.”

I let go of the towel. It hits the floor.

She feels it go. I know because she freezes against me, every muscle in her body going still, and then she breathes out a single shaky word against my mouth. “Oh.”

That word again. It nearly takes me to my knees.

I pull back far enough to see her face. Her eyes are huge, her cheeks are flushed. Her gaze is not on my face.

“Noelle.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Eyes up here, sweetheart.”

“I heard you.” She doesn’t look up. “I’m just taking a minute.”

I huff out a breath that’s half a laugh and half something rougher, and she finally lifts her eyes to mine, pink to the roots of her hair, and grins.

That grin.

I’m completely gone.

I take her face in both hands and kiss her until the grin melts. Until her fingers curl against my bare chest and then slide, slowly, curiously, over my shoulders and down my arms. She traces the shape of me like she’s memorizing it. Like I’m something worth memorizing.

No one has touched me like that in years.

Maybe ever.

Our kiss is slower this time. I want to learn her. The shape of her mouth. The soft sound she makes when I tilt her chin up with two fingers. The way she goes up on her toes to get closer, like there’s still too much space between us and she won’t stand for it.

I find the hem of her shirt. Stop. “Can I?”

She nods.

“I need you to say it.”

Her eyes soften. “Yes, Maverick.”

I lift it slowly, giving her every chance to change her mind. She lifts her arms. The shirt goes over her head and falls somewhere behind her, and then she’s standing in front of me in nothing but the snow-light and a pair of cotton panties with tiny candy canes on them.

Of course they have candy canes on them.

I’m going to think about those candy canes for the rest of my life.

She crosses her arms over her chest.

Not all the way. Just enough. Her shoulders curve in, and she looks down, and for the first time tonight, I see her hesitate.