Jingle Spells (17 page)

“What the hell do you think you're doing, Dash Evergreen? I really don't appreciate you playing with me. Aren't you a little old to be pulling that kind of shit? Grow up.”

He opened his mouth to argue with her, but he had no idea what to say. How could he? What the hell was she talking about?

Spinning on her heel, the hard click of her stilettos hitting the concrete floor blasted around him like gunshots. His own temper flared. Before he could think through the implications of his actions, he was striding after her. Grasping her arm, he whirled her back to face him.

She glared, the sharp cut of her beautiful eyes slipping straight between his ribs. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Her teeth ground together as if she didn't want to dignify his question with an answer. Too bad. He shook her shoulder, not hard enough to rattle anything, just to make her realize he had no intention of letting her go until she explained what she meant.

“That stunt back there. I have enough bullshit to deal with right now. I don't need one of your pranks piled on top of everything else.”

“Prank? What prank?”

“All that husky whispering and those touchy-feely hands.” She dropped her voice down into a growling register. “‘I've got you, Elle. Let it go.'”

A sharp breath pulled in through her teeth. For the briefest moment he thought he saw the glitter of tears in her eyes, but she blinked and they were gone.

“What the hell did you hope to get? Me falling back into your arms?”

He did not appreciate her harsh laughter.

“Why let me think I was doing all of that?” Her hand swung to encompass the car, still perfectly invisible. “If you were just going to do it your damn self.”

She thought he'd cloaked the car. The realization did nothing to bank the anger flickering through him. It increased it. Why did she constantly underestimate herself?

His voice was silky and dangerous when he said, “That was all you, Elle.”

She scoffed, the harsh sound scraping across his eardrums. “Yeah, right.”

Jesus, he wanted to shake some sense into the woman. And then he wanted to strip her completely bare and revel in her heat and fiery passion.

“I. Did. Nothing,” he bit out.

“I felt it.” She flung the words at him like an accusation. “The burst of energy. I felt it.” Her voice wobbled. Her chin quivered. Her throat worked overtime, trying to swallow.

And the anger just...evaporated.

He didn't mean to, but somehow his fingers tangled into her hair. His palm cupped the nape of her neck. Closing the space between them, he tipped her face and made her look at him.

The slick sheen of tears covering her eyes nearly sent him to his knees.

“God, I hope so,” he rumbled. “That was you, Elle. The piece of yourself you've kept locked down for as long as I've known you. That was you finally letting all of your power free.”

His control stretched to the breaking point, Dash couldn't hold back. No longer remembered why he should even try.

His mouth slammed down over hers. He wanted to be gentle, knew he should hold back and coax her. But couldn't find the willpower to do it. Not when he'd struggled to keep his hands off her for months. Not when it had been so long since he'd tasted her.

He might regret the moment, but not now.

Her squeak of surprise quickly morphed into a groan. Her mouth opened beneath the probing force of his. She let him in. More than that, met him measure for measure.

Her tongue tangled with his, taking just as much as she was giving. Hands tugged at his hair, coaxing him closer. She went up on tiptoes, pressing her body flush against his.

The past and the present melded together. The taste of her was just the same, peppermint and sunshine.

But the moment his hands brushed against the cold leather of the holster tucked between her shoulder blades cold reality came crashing down around him.

They both jerked back. Panting, they stared at each other. Dash didn't know what to do or say. His body wanted her, so much that he throbbed with the pain of it.

But this wasn't the girl he remembered. The one he'd fallen in love with so long ago.

This was the woman who carried a gun everywhere she went. The one who'd left him.

Chapter 3

G
od, she shouldn't have kissed him, Noelle thought later that evening. Rubbing her hands down her face, she tried desperately to wipe the memory from her brain. Yeah, like that was going to work.

Even hours after walking away from him, she couldn't seem to think of anything else. Her body still buzzed with energy and ached in all the right places. It would have been so easy to get swept up in the moment and give in to what they both obviously wanted.

And if she'd shared that kind of unbelievably overwhelming kiss with anyone else, she probably wouldn't be pacing restlessly inside her room, but instead stretching languidly next to a warm male body.

Dash had been the one to make her body light up like a damn Christmas tree. He'd always been the one to do that. The only one. She'd dated and even taken lovers since she'd left him. But none of them had made her feel as raw and alive as Dash always had.

With a growl of frustration, Noelle yanked open her bedroom door and stalked out into the silent hallway. It was almost dawn. No doubt she'd need copious amounts of Diet Coke to keep her eyes open today, but for now, whenever she put her head down on the pillow all she could think about was rolling across the bed tangled in Dash's arms.

Maybe a walk would clear her head and exhaust her body enough that she could at least get a few hours of sleep.

Like the barn, from the outside the lodge resembled a quaint ski cabin. But the place was big enough to house the entire Winter clan. The elves had their own village close by, protected by magick just as the lodge was.

Everyone had their own apartments but shared common spaces—the dining room, a game room, a movie theater, and a huge living area with soaring ceilings and a man-size fireplace. The lower floors housed the communications and security hub and Dash's hot shop.

At this hour the hallways were quiet and deserted, or at least she thought so, until she rounded a corner and ran smack into someone. Belle's high-pitched
oomph
and rounded green eyes greeted her.

“Noelle,” Belle said, her voice filled with anxious surprise.

“What are you doing wandering around in the middle of the night?”

Belle's gaze jerked sideways, refusing to meet hers. Noelle had enough interrogation experience to know when someone was hiding something.

Her sharp gaze catalogued Belle's attire, the same outfit she'd worn earlier but a little more rumpled. She clenched her fist around the familiar Cup of Cheer mug as if it was a lifeline. The shop had been closed for hours.

Noelle's eyebrows quirked up and a smile threatened the corners of her lips. If she was reading the signs correctly, Belle Evergreen had just returned from a midnight tryst. For weeks she'd wondered just what the youngest Evergreen had been up to.
Coffee breaks, my ass
.

“I won't tell your brothers,” Noelle promised.

Belle's startled gaze flew to hers. “What are you talking about?”

“As long as you're not spilling company secrets, I don't care who you're sleeping with, Belle. And neither should your brothers, although we both know they're likely to go all caveman the moment they find out. So, I won't be the one to tell them.”

Her entire body sagging with relief, Belle flashed Noelle a brilliant smile. “I appreciate it.”

With a shrug, Noelle left Belle standing in the hallway. It was none of her business, and women had to stick together.

The encounter with Belle gave her something else to think about as she wandered around. Eventually she hit the ground floor. She told herself it was simply to check in with her nighttime team. But she never quite made it that far.

For some reason her feet stopped outside the closed door to Dash's workroom. Light shone through the crack at the floor. He was inside. Of course he was. This was where Dash came whenever something was bothering him.

Toward the end of their marriage it had upset her that more and more he'd sought out the hot shop instead of her. She'd woken up countless mornings to an empty bed, her heart a little crushed. Maybe if it had been another woman, she could have fought, but it wasn't.

She had felt him slipping through her fingers and hadn't known how to stop it. The more he'd hurt her, the more she'd withdrawn. The more she'd withdrawn, the more he'd disappeared. Looking back, she could see the vicious cycle their marriage had dissolved into. Maybe if they'd been older...

But they hadn't been. Leaving Gingerbread and taking the position with the CIA had been what she'd needed. The chance to challenge herself in ways that didn't require the use of magick. Considering she'd spent all of her youth struggling to become as adept at using it, it seemed like a good idea to try living without it. She'd had to learn how to rely on just her intelligence and physical strength.

And she'd been damn good at her job.

What surprised her was that so far she wasn't missing her work with the CIA. The long hours, isolation and cloak-and-dagger existence had been starting to wear on her. And she hadn't even realized it until she wasn't part of it anymore.

She'd left the lodge certain it could never be home. But the moment she'd walked back inside it had felt...right. Where had those misfit feelings fled to?

And then what had happened this afternoon with the car?

Noelle wasn't entirely certain what to make of that. Had it really just been
her?
Part of her wanted Dash to have given her a little boost, but looking into his deep, honest eyes, she hadn't been able to believe he was lying to her.

But what did that really mean?

She had no idea.

Thinking about that burst of heat that had spread through her like she'd mainlined hot cocoa brought her full circle to the man who'd been holding her. The spread of his hand low across her belly. The way his fingers had rested right beneath the curve of her breast. His fingers entwined with hers. The unavoidable buzz of need.

God, even now she wanted him. Her body was begging her to open that door, forget everything that was between them and give in to the need.

Her hand rested on the knob, indecision freezing her muscles.

No. She couldn't do this. This man had destroyed her. Broken her heart and let her walk out of his life without even a single word asking her to stay.

Her hand dropped uselessly to her side. But before she could turn away, the door jerked open. Dash was framed there, blinking at her like she was a mirage he was trying to clear away from his brain.

“Elle?” he asked, his voice low and fluid.

His hand wrapped around her arm, holding her in place when everything inside her urged her to run.

“What are you doing up?”

She could have told him she was just checking in with her team. Or that she hadn't been able to sleep and was wandering. But she didn't. She didn't say anything. She couldn't. Her throat refused to work. All she could do was stare up into his eyes, the hum in her body steadily increasing as if someone was ruthlessly turning up the volume on her desire.

His skin glowed with heat. Several damp strands of hair clung to his forehead. He needed a haircut, but what else was new? His dark hair was always just this side of too long. It had been a running joke. Slowly, she reached up to push the mess away from his face. She wanted to see him.

The moment she touched him she knew it was over. All the struggle to pretend she didn't still want him. Dash Evergreen had always been her weakness.

“Elle?” His fingers tightened around her arm, biting into her.

She knew what he was asking, but she didn't really have an answer. Shaking her head, she swiped her tongue across her suddenly parched lips.

The groan that rocketed up from his chest made her tingle in the strangest places. Before she could blink, they were both back inside his shop. The door slammed shut behind them and her back hit the hard surface.

Caught between the thick slab of wood and the towering height of Dash's body, she couldn't think. Didn't want to.

His mouth devoured her, touching everywhere. The hard press of his lips trailed across her exposed collarbone. For the first time she questioned the intelligence of prowling the halls in the tiny shorts and tank top she liked to sleep in. Until the tip of his tongue slipped beneath the low edge of her shirt to find the tight tip of her breast.

“Oh, God,” she breathed, her fingers clenching his hair to hold him close.

Her body was on fire, as surely as the banked furnace pumping heat into the room.

She didn't protest when he grasped the hem of her shirt and pulled it straight over her head. She played tit for tat and made his own damp shirt disappear.

God, the man had a body. He was rock-solid, hard muscles beneath her questing fingers. Bulging biceps from all the glass work. Abs that made her want to lick him everywhere.

Her own mouth grasped for any patch of skin she could reach, greedy for the taste of him after so long. His skin was salty-sweet. She'd always loved him best when he'd come straight from the shop. It had taken her a long time to convince him she didn't want him to shower after he'd been down here.

The familiar smoky scent of the fire clung to his skin. She breathed it in, filling her lungs and holding him close.

Grasping her hips, Dash boosted her into the air. Her legs wrapped around his waist, bunching tight as she clung to him. She reveled in the feel of him sliding against her.

The hard ridge of his erection settled exactly where she wanted. Her own hips ground against him, pulling a ragged sound from between his lips. The brush of heated breath whispered across her skin.

Throwing her head back, she delighted in the feel of him.

“Jesus, Elle,” he groaned against her belly, her own muscles tightening beneath the caress.

But his mouth moved away, and suddenly there was nothing but cool air touching her skin. His hands bracketed her face, scraping hair off her forehead. He stared up at her, the intense glitter of his green eyes nearly her undoing.

“Do you have any idea how much I want you? I can't get you out of my head. Haven't been able to since the moment I caught you sneaking out of your bedroom window when we were eighteen. The tempting swell of your ass in that tight little skirt as you shimmied down the drainpipe. Your tart mouth when I came out of the shadows to order you back inside.”

Strangled laughter burst from her chest. “The way you tailed me to the Gingerbread party and interfered with every guy I tried to hook up with.”

“None of them were good enough for you.”

“Oh, and you were?”

The words were out before she thought about the consequences. With regret, she watched the manic heat fade slowly from his eyes.

“Hell no.”

He tried to set her down, but Noelle just shook her head and tightened her thighs. “Oh, no you don't, Dash Evergreen. You are not going to light my body up like the Fourth of July and then send me back to my room unsatisfied. I've been fighting this since the moment I walked back into Evergreen Industries, and I'm tired. I don't want to do it anymore. I want you.”

To prove her point, she arched her back, letting the door take all of her weight as her body went off center. His hands scrambled to hold her, but she wasn't worried. Dash would never hurt her, at least not physically. She trusted him with her body and always had. It was her heart he'd screwed with. But as long as she could keep that piece of herself out of this...

Her legs flexed, driving her body higher, before she relaxed and brought them even tighter together. The soft cotton of her shorts rubbed perfectly against his denim-encased length. The combination of rough and soft nearly made her whimper.

It had been so long. She was close enough that if she rubbed in the right place she might just go off. But that wasn't what she wanted. If she'd wanted quick and easy she could have done that for herself.

Noelle wanted Dash deep inside her, filling her up and rubbing in all the right places.

“I tried to do the right thing, Elle,” he ground out. “But no matter what, I just can't seem to succeed. Not where you're concerned. You trump every one of my good intentions.”

“I don't remember asking you for good intentions, Dash.”

With a snarling growl of surrender, Dash wrapped his arms around her back and spun. Swiping his arm across one of the metal tables in the middle of the room, she heard the clatter as tools hit the floor.

She hissed when her naked back hit the cold steel. He didn't wait, but followed her down, keeping their bodies locked tight together.

He ripped her shorts from her body, literally tearing them straight down the seam. Some small part of her wanted to protest, but she didn't. How could she when the gloriously naked heat of him descended on her?

He played with her, teasing fingers slipping through the evidence of her desire. A strangled cry erupted from her lips when he finally plunged inside. Her entire body bowed off the table, searching for more and delighting in the pleasure.

He drove her to the brink, leaving her gasping and whimpering, but he wouldn't let her go over. The moment she got close he'd back off, pressing featherlight kisses across her belly, down her thighs and over her eyelids.

Good thing she didn't need to see to feel him. He wasn't the only one who could dish out a little torture. Her fist wrapped around his hard length, remembering just what would drive him insane. She dragged several gasps and guttural groans from him.

They were both delirious, completely consumed with each other. If he'd asked her to walk across hot coals at that moment she would have done it. Done anything. If he'd just give her what she wanted.

“Please, Dash. Please. I need you. Now.”

He panted, his ribs expanding and contracting erratically beneath her hands. “I know. God, baby, I know.”

Grasping his hips, Noelle widened the cradle of her thighs and settled him right at the entrance to her body. A snarling sound of relief slipped through his parted lips just as he flexed and thrust deep.