Christmas with Her Ex(24)

Connor rose and pulled out her chair, waited for her to precede him in the direction of her cabin, not his, and then followed at her shoulder so she could feel him brush against her as she made her way past tables filled with crystal and silver and satiated patrons.

People she didn’t see. Past his grandmother, and the red-haired lady, and the couple who had danced, and always Connor’s hand hovered below her waist in case she lost balance with the rock of the train. So she was safe from injury but moving forward towards a different sort of delicious possibility.

Her senses seemed more alert. Her skin more sensitive when he brushed against her. Her peripheral vision seemed filled with him and it was a very strange sensation amongst a sea of sensations.

Connor leaned forward and opened the door for her, and for a crazy moment she wanted to bury her nose in his shirt and have him wrap his arms around her.

She wasn’t even sure he liked her but maybe there would be time for that later.

She couldn’t help the smile that curved her lips as she looked up at him and his hand tightened on her shoulder.

‘Best not to look at me like that when we’re in public,’ he murmured with a wicked hint of warning in his voice.

Her stomach kicked and her face flamed. What were the rules for a first date with someone you’d once loved? Someone you’d thought about on and off over the last fifteen years. Someone you’d once known as well as yourself and who’d always left you deliciously alert. She’d never known him that way—though they’d had a few close shaves—but Connor had always said he’d wait until they were married.

But that had been then and this was now. Now they were both consenting adults with no ties. She was no longer a virgin—and it would be highly unlikely that a gorgeous man like Connor would be one either.

They passed through the bar car and she didn’t see anyone. Just a blur of obstacles to avoid. Was she being too forward?

Would he think she’d turned into a nymphomaniac if she asked him to bed? Because that was what she was thinking, though it could be problematic in a small train with very thin partitions between the cabins.

His hand stayed in the small of her back, hot and possessive and the tension eddied and churned between them and her belly swirled with a mounting ache that had her squirming as she walked faster than she probably should have towards her cabin.

They came to a deserted corner between carriages and he leaned her against the wall and pinned her there. His face was all angles and intent and a hint of a smile in his eyes as he took his time studying her face.

‘Now. About that first kiss… ’ This time he didn’t miss and Kelsie felt her head bump back against the polished rosewood parquetry as she melted bonelessly against him. His mouth was strong and hot and demanding and she couldn’t have denied him if all the passengers had trooped past them.

His hand was in her hair, absently rubbing where she’d bumped it, murmuring against her lips with a smile in his mouth, and she kissed him back with all the angst of fifteen years of regret and apology and finally pure desire, and became lost.

Then someone did come along, coughed and made a small joke, and they broke apart. Kelsie smiled down at the carpet, avoiding the face of the other passenger, and heard Connor’s relaxed, ‘Good evening.’ How could he be so cool? She not accidentally, though unobtrusively, brushed his thigh with the back of her hand and heard his indrawn breath. Still able to smile and pretend nothing was going on, Connor?

She glanced up at him as the footsteps died away and his eyebrows hiked as he smiled down at her.

‘My, my. Haven’t you grown up?’ He leaned in again and flattened himself into her so that she could feel the length of him pressed solidly against her. He grinned lazily. ‘Has anyone seen Kelsie?’

‘I’m here. And you’ve been practising your kissing.’

‘Fortunately.’ They both smiled as he stepped back, took her hand and led her into the next carriage, and then the next, until they stood outside Kelsie’s door and she opened it.

Kelsie put her fingers to her lips. Inclined her head towards the cabin next door. ‘Sh.’

He leant down until his lips just brushed her ear and she shivered as he whispered, ‘I can do quiet.’

Kelsie decided there was something very intimate about whispering in a darkened compartment on the Orient Express.

Especially when golden chains of her dress had been lifted aside and Connor Black was spreading wonder over her bare skin as they stood pressed together in the darkness of her cabin. It was all a blur of whispers and touches but mostly it was feeling Connor’s mouth against hers.