Misbehaving Under the Mistletoe. Heidi Rice

Which she would definitely have to do. Because while she’d done her usual copious research for all the Christmas presents she had to buy, she hadn’t actually got round to buying any yet.

      Sitting back at her easel, she lifted up the Sugar Plum Fairy design and scrunched up the card. Then drew out a new card and started drawing. She’d finish her Christmas card design, get Manny at the printing shop round the corner to do a rush job, then post them before she packed up some stuff and went round to The Chesterton later.

      There was no big rush, especially as Jace wouldn’t even be there.

      This was a casual affair. That was how he was treating it, and how she would treat it too. No blowing it out of proportion in any way. And no getting upset about him having to rush off to a business meeting, especially as she had lots of things to rush off and do in the next few days too.

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

      ‘IT’S Sunday!’ Cassie stared at the Sunday papers she’d just noticed folded on the coffee table, the spoon of muesli poised in mid-air. ‘It can’t be.’

      Jace glanced up from the plate of Cumberland sausage and eggs he’d been tucking into. ‘That’s correct. Sunday usually comes right after Saturday.’

      Cassie plopped the spoon back into her bowl. ‘But Sunday is Christmas Eve.’

      ‘Is it?’ Jace said, apparently unconcerned as he sliced into his sausage.

      Cassie blinked. Watching him as he chewed the meat, then swallowed, her mind having gone completely blank. How could this have happened? She’d arrived at his hotel suite on the night of the twentieth of December. And now it was the morning of the twenty-fourth!

      Which meant, even with her atrocious maths skills, that they’d spent three whole days cocooned in his hotel suite. Ordering in room service and indulging in an orgy of sexual pleasures, fulfilling every prurient fantasy she’d ever had, not to mention a great deal more that she’d never even dreamed of.

      ‘I can’t believe it’s nearly Christmas Day already,’ she murmured, feeling disorientated.

      Three whole days. It didn’t seem possible she could have spent all that time doing nothing but making mad, passionate love to Jace Ryan.

      The small talk he’d promised hadn’t really materialised. Not in the way she would have hoped. He’d asked her a lot of questions about her work as an illustrator and she’d learned a little about his web design business, which was clearly very successful. But the few times she’d strayed into more personal territory, he’d clammed up and then distracted her. Mostly with sex. And she had forced herself not to take it personally. And not to push. Revelling instead in the passion he stirred so easily.

      He shrugged, sent her a suggestive smile that had the heat pooling low in her abdomen. ‘We’ve been busy.’

      Cassie’s skin heated as he pierced her with that hungry look again.

      Pushing back from the breakfast table, she tightened the tie on her robe. ‘I should shower and get dressed. I’ve got a lot to do today.’ Three whole days had gone by in a haze of lust and passion and she hadn’t even noticed.

      As she went to walk past him he snagged her wrist. ‘How about I come in and scrub your back for you?’

      She tugged her hand free, dismayed by the way her pulse punched his thumb and her hormones instantly jitterbugged into overdrive as if leaping for joy at the prospect.

      They’d made love less than half an hour ago when he’d woken her up to tell her breakfast had arrived, his fingers had started stroking and before she’d known it she’d been rocketing to orgasm while she was still barely awake. And just like all the other times they’d made love, she’d felt the clutch in her chest, the tightening in her heart muscle as he’d carried her into the suite’s living room and plopped her down in front of her breakfast. And she’d steadfastly ignored the bump. But even she couldn’t ignore the fact any longer that her behaviour was veering out of her control.

      If this was all just about sex, why couldn’t she seem to get enough of him? And why was the need inside her increasing with each passing day instead of abating?

      ‘I’d better shower alone this morning,’ she said, remembering how last morning’s shared shower had ended.

      ‘Hey.’ He stood up as she turned to go, circled both of her wrists with his fingers to hold her in place. ‘What’s the matter? You look kind of spooked.’

      Spooked was putting it mildly, she realised as she looked into his pure green eyes, and realised she didn’t actually know any more about him than she had four days ago. ‘I think I’m just getting a little stir crazy,’ she said. That had to be it. She simply wasn’t used to a physical relationship of this intensity. And it would probably be good to dial it down today. Plus she really did have a lot to do. She had a ton of Christmas presents to buy. ‘We haven’t left the hotel suite since Wednesday night,’ she reasoned.

      ‘True.’ He lifted his hands to frame her face, leaned in to give her a quick kiss. ‘I guess I haven’t kept my promise, have I?’ he said sheepishly.

      ‘What promise?’

      ‘Not to keep you a prisoner here.’

      She felt herself flush, and her heart clenched again as she sent him a crooked smile. She forced the feeling of elation down. Don’t be daft. The intensity of the relationship in the last three days had been purely sexual. His desire to spend time with her had no more significance than fulfilling a physical urge. For both of them. And the fact that her body still responded to him with such intensity was proof of that. For goodness’ sake, she’d just established the fact that she hadn’t got to know him, as she’d planned. And that hadn’t just been his doing. She hadn’t pressed because she’d been happy with the way things were. Because she’d been determined not to read anything more into their intimacy.

      ‘I’ve enjoyed it,’ she said. ‘But I’ll have to break out today. I’ve got a ton of shopping to do.’

      His hands trailed down her arms, gripped her wrists for a second then let go.

      ‘I guess that means I’m going to have to let you go for the day,’ he said, sounding genuinely disappointed.

      ‘Not necessarily,’ she heard herself reply. ‘You could always come with me,’ she added, before she lost her nerve.

      While she totally understood this was about great sex and nothing more, the compelling desire to spend time with him outside the hotel suite was unstoppable.

      It would give them the chance to talk properly. And there were so many things she’d become curious about in the last four days. His failed marriage, his past, how the moody boy from a ‘bad home’ she remembered from school had become such a charismatic and successful man. All things she hadn’t had the chance to ask about. Maybe that was why the heart bumps kept getting worse. Because she wanted to know more about him, and the more she didn’t know, the more he avoided giving her that information, the more vulnerable she felt.

      If he came shopping with her, she’d be able to quiz him without him being able to distract her quite so easily.

      She dismissed the niggling little voice that told her she might be straying into dangerous territory. She’d become more sexually intimate with this man than she had with any other man. He knew things about her body that no other man had ever even bothered to discover. How could it be wrong to want to know a bit more about him? It didn’t mean she would lose sight of her objectives. They’d already set out exactly what this relationship entailed and what it didn’t. And they’d been busy reinforcing that point in the most delicious way possible for three whole days. So where was the harm in satisfying a little of her curiosity about him now?

      Jacob Ryan had been a fascinating enigma ever since