Tall, Dark & Rich: His Christmas Virgin / Married by Christmas / A Yuletide Seduction. Carole Mortimer

Since the moment he first met her, in fact. He had no doubt that leaving him sitting alone at a table in the middle of a crowded restaurant had been deliberate on her part.

      A public restaurant wasn’t the ideal place for what he now had in mind, either, but to hell with that—Jonas had realised in the last few seconds that he didn’t just need to kiss Mac, it had become as necessary to him as breathing.

      ‘Guess,’ he murmured throatily as he stepped even closer to her.

      Her eyes widened in alarm as she took several steps back until she found herself against the wall. ‘Garlic breath, remember,’ she reminded him hastily.

      He gave an unconcerned shrug. ‘That will just make you taste even better.’

      ‘This is so not a good idea, Jonas,’ she warned him desperately.

      Jonas was all out of good ideas. At this precise moment he intended—needed—to go with a bad one.

      His gaze held Mac’s as he reached up to cup his hand against the silky smooth curve of her cheek and ran the soft pad of his thumb over her slightly parted lips, the warmth of her breath a caress against his own highly sensitised skin. An arousing caress that made his stomach muscles clench and his thighs harden.

      He drew in a sharp breath as he stepped closer still and Mac instinctively lifted her hands to rest them defensively against the hardness of his chest, the warmth of those hands burning through the silk material of Jonas’s shirt as he deliberately rested his body against hers.

      Mac suddenly found herself trapped between the cold wall and the heat of Jonas’s body, her hands crushed against his muscled chest as he slowly lowered his head with the obvious intention of kissing her.

      She knew she should protest. That she should at least try to ward off this rapidly increasing intimacy.

      And yet she didn’t. Couldn’t.

      Instead her lips parted in readiness for that kiss, her breath arrested in her throat at the first heated touch of Jonas’s lips against hers.

      Oh, Lord…

      Mac had never known anything like the sensual pleasure of having Jonas’s mouth moving against hers, exploring, sipping, tasting, teeth gently biting before that kiss deepened hungrily, his body hard and insistent against hers as her hands moved up his shoulders and her fingers became entangled in the dark thickness of his hair as she pulled him even closer. Jonas pushed her against the wall and lowered his body until his arousal pressed into Mac, making her respond with an aching hotness that pooled between her thighs in a rush of moist and fiery heat, her breasts swelling, the rosy tips hardening to full sensitivity as they pressed against the lacy material of her bra.

      Her fingers tightened in the silky softness of Jonas’s hair as that heat grew, their mouths fusing together hungrily, Mac groaning low in her throat as she felt the firm thrust of Jonas’s tongue enter her mouth. Hot, slow and deep thrusts matched by the rhythmic movement of his thighs into the juncture of her sensitive thighs.

      Mac groaned again in pleasure as that hardness pressed against the swollen nub nestled there, creating an aching heat deep inside her before it spread to every part of her body, arousing her to an almost painful degree.

      God, she wanted this man with a ferocity of need she had never imagined, never dreamt was possible. Here. Now. She wanted to strip off their clothes and have Jonas take her up against the wall, her legs wrapped about his waist as he thrust deep inside her to ease that burning ache.

      As if aware of at least some of her need, Jonas moved his hand to curve about her left breast, the soft pad of his thumb unerringly finding the swollen tip and sweeping across it.

      Mac whimpered as the pleasure of that caress coursed down to her thighs, and she wished Jonas could touch her there, too—

      ‘Well, really!’ a shocked female voiced gasped. ‘This is a public restaurant, you know,’ the woman added disgustedly as she walked past them to the washrooms. ‘Why don’t the two of you just get a room somewhere?’ The door to the ladies room closed behind her with a disapproving snap.

      Mac had wrenched away from Jonas the moment she’d realised they were no longer alone in the hallway, burying the heat of her face against his chest now to hide her embarrassment at being caught in such a compromising position.

      In a public restaurant, for goodness’ sake!

      With Jonas Buchanan, of all people.

      What could she have been thinking?

      She hadn’t been thinking at all, that was the problem. She had been feeling. Experiencing emotions, sensations, she had never known before.

      If that woman hadn’t interrupted them then Mac might just have gone through with that urge she’d had to start ripping Jonas’s clothes from his body before begging him to ease the burning ache between her thighs!

      Oh, God.

      CHAPTER FIVE

      ‘SO, WHAT do you think?’ Jonas asked as he stepped back from Mac.

      ‘What do I think about what?’ She blinked up at him as she straightened away from the wall to push the tangle of her hair back from her face; her eyes fever bright, her cheeks flushed, and those sensuously enticing lips slightly swollen from the fierce hunger of their kisses.

      A hunger that had made Jonas forget, not only who they were, but where they were. All that had mattered to him at that moment was tasting Mac, devouring those tempting red lips, pressing the heat of his body against hers, her fingers becoming entangled in his hair as she responded to his desire.

      Jonas knew he hadn’t been this physically aroused, so totally lost to reason, since he was an inexperienced teenager. And he didn’t like the sensation of being out of control. He didn’t like it at all.

      His mouth twisted. ‘The two of us getting a hotel room for the afternoon.’

      Mac’s eyes widened. ‘Certainly not!’ she exclaimed indignantly.

      ‘Why not?’ he taunted.

      ‘Why not?’ Mac repeated as she glared up at him. ‘I have no idea what sort of women you usually associate with, Jonas, but I can assure you that I do not go to hotel rooms with men for the afternoon!’

      ‘I wasn’t suggesting you went with men plural, Mac, just me,’ he drawled.

      ‘I said no!’ She was breathing heavily in her agitation, the fullness of her breasts rapidly rising and falling.

      Something that Jonas was all too well aware of as he looked down at her and his still heavily roused manhood pulsed achingly in response. ‘You want me, I want you, so why the hell not?’ he rasped.

      He would have felt happier about this situation if Mac had just said yes to the two of them going to a hotel for the afternoon. That way he would have found her less of an enigma than he did now. Less intriguing than he did now.

      Because Mac had definitely returned his passion. Yet it was a passion she made it clear she had no intention of doing anything about, probably not now nor in the future. He already knew his own afternoon was going to be as uncomfortable as his morning had been, but how did Mac intend dealing with her own unsatisfied arousal?

      ‘Unless you’re trying to tell me you don’t want me?’ he murmured.

      Mac wasn’t sure which of her emotions was the strongest—the urge she had to slap Jonas’s arrogant face or the one she had to just sit down and cry at her own stupidity.

      Because he was right, damn him. She did want him. She had never physically wanted a man more, in fact, her whole body one burning ache of need. Something Mac knew was going to bother her long after he had gone back to his office to attend his afternoon meetings.

      But she definitely wanted to slap him too. For bringing that physical awareness down to a purely basic level by suggesting they get a hotel