* * *
Colbie knew her body wasn’t perfect. Her hips were a little too big. Her legs would never be long and lean like a model’s. But she also knew how responsive she was to touch.
And she knew how much desire there was in Noah’s eyes whenever he looked at her. Lust flared so powerfully from him that heat flowed all across her skin.
From that first moment up on the snowy mountain, he’d looked at her like that. Whether she was covered in a down jacket or was naked except for her panties and heels, he desired her.
And for the first time in her life, she felt absolutely perfect. As beautiful as he’d—repeatedly—told her she was.
She didn’t know how long he simply stared before he finally put his hands on her. All she knew was that it was too long. But whatever she’d expected from him, it wasn’t this slow movement of his hands over her face, his fingertips caressing the curve of her eyebrows, the arch of her cheekbones, the thrust of her chin. And then down her neck to the curve of her shoulders, the soft edges of her breasts, the bones of her rib cage, until he reached the soft swell of her stomach and hips.
She tried to keep her eyes open, tried to hold onto rational thought, but oh, it felt so good, and ultimately she had no choice but to sink into the pleasure of his touch, her eyes fluttering closed as she drank in the shocking sweetness of his hands on her. Slowly, he ran his hands down her thighs, skirting past the extremely sensitive skin at the backs of her knees, to press his fingertips into her calves so perfectly that she groaned aloud at the pleasure of his touch. He slipped off her heels and when her feet were bare, he stroked them, too, with the pads of his thumbs, as if he wanted to give every part of her pleasure, leaving nothing out. And then, finally, he drew her panties from her body, too.
"Beautiful." The one word from Noah’s lips was more of a caress than any other’s man’s touch. "So beautiful."
She opened her eyes just in time to see him lick his lips at the sight of her sex, slick and wet and completely bared to his gaze...and she finally realized he still had all of his clothes on. Immediately, she reached for his jacket and slid it from his broad shoulders.
She could feel the heat of him, the barely leashed strength beneath the pressed dress shirt, as her hand moved to the buttons that ran down his chest. She wanted him naked, wanted to see all that power without anything covering it up. He could take off his clothes much faster than she could do it for him, but there was something so sensually satisfying about her being the one to uncover him, about being able to run her fingertips over his skin, his bones, his muscles, the dark hairs on his chest that curled against her knuckles as she undid one button and then another.
But when she finally had his shirt pulled out of his pants and all the way open, she had to stop...and stare.
Only, looking wasn’t enough. Touching wasn’t enough, either.
She needed to taste him, too.
She leaned up and put her mouth over his collarbone. It was natural—so perfectly instinctive—to slide her tongue into the hollow just behind the bone.
"Mmmm." He tasted clean, but a little spicy, too. She needed to taste him again, needed to memorize not only his scent, but also his taste, so she moved her mouth lower, down over one of his pectoral muscles. She found his nipple with the tip of her tongue and as his hands threaded through her hair, she put her teeth on him, the light scrape against his hardened flesh causing him to groan with pleasure.
Or maybe it was her own groans she was hearing, because Colbie had never done anything more pleasurable than taste—and tease—Noah.
She pushed his shirt off and together they worked to strip him of the rest of his clothes until he was wonderfully, beautifully naked…and she couldn’t wait to get her hands, her mouth, on every new hard, tanned inch of skin that she’d uncovered. His muscles jumped beneath the stroke of her fingertips, the lash of her tongue as she explored him with a greed that rivaled his for her. She wasn’t even close to getting enough of him as, on a groan, he pulled her back up his body and took her mouth again with his. She didn’t know when he’d pulled a condom out, but when her fingers brushed against the package, she immediately picked it up, ripped it open and reached for him. She felt him stiffen and was surprised to realize that he was holding his breath as she rolled it down his thick length.
She knew she’d never stop thanking her girlfriends for insisting on that ski trip. She wanted to send a truckload of chocolate-chip cookies to the little girl who’d whipped past on her pint-sized skis and sent Colbie falling face-first into the snow—just in time for Noah to come by with his strong hands, his warm arms, and his beautiful smile.