Holiday Wishes by Nora Roberts Page B

drove out of town. The moon was full and the air was so sweet with summer.”
    “You wore a blue dress that made your eyes look like sapphires. You were so beautiful I was afraid to touch you.”
    “So I seduced you.”
    She looked so pleased with herself that he laughed. “You did not.”
    “I certainly did. You would never have made love with me.” She touched her lips to his. “Do I have to seduce you again?”
    “Faith—”
    “Clara’s having dinner next door at Marcie’s. She’s going to spend the night. Come to bed with me, Jason.”
    Her quiet voice raced along his skin. The touch of her hand to his cheek seared like fire. But tangled with his need for her was a love that had never grown old. “You know I want you, Faith, but we’re not children now.”
    “We’re not children.” She turned her face to press her lips into his palm. “And I want you. No promises, no questions. Love me the way you did on that one beautiful night we had together.” Rising, she held out her hand. “I want something for the next ten years.”
    With their hands linked, they walked up the stairs. He pushed away all thought of the other man she’d chosen, of the other life she’d lived. He, too, would block out ten years of loss and take what was offered.
    Night came early in the winter so the light was dim. In silence she lit candles so that the room glowed gold and shifted with shadows. When she turned back to him she was smiling, with all the confidence and knowledge of a woman in her eyes. Saying nothing, she came to him, lifted her mouth and offered everything.
    Her fingers were steady as she reached for the buttons of his shirt. His trembled as he reached for hers. Murmuring, she waited for the brush of his hands against her skin, then sighed from the sheer glory of it. They undressed each other slowly, not tentatively, but with the quiet understanding that every moment, every instant would be treasured.
    When he saw her, as slim, as lovely, as unexplainably innocent as she’d been the first time, his head spun with needs, with doubts, with desires. But she stepped to him, pressed her body against his and dissolved all choices. She was stronger than she’d been. He could feel it, not in muscle but in spirit. Perhaps she had changed, but the longings that were racing through him were the same as they’d been in the boy on the brink of manhood. As heedlessly as the children they’d once been, they tumbled onto the bed.
    They didn’t relive the experience. It was as fresh, as wildly thrilling as the first time. But they were man and woman now, more demanding, hungrier. She drew him closer, running her hands over him with an urgency just discovered, with a turbulence just released. She’d waited so long, so very long, and wouldn’t wait a moment longer.
    But he took her hand and brought it to his lips. He quieted her tumbling breath with his mouth.
    “I hardly knew what to do with you the first time.” Gently he nuzzled at her throat until she moaned in frenzied anticipation. Raising his head, he smiled at her. “Now I do.”
    Then he took her places she’d never been. Higher, still higher he drew her, then just as suddenly plunged her deep where the air was thick and dark. Trapped in the whirlwind, she clung. She’d wanted to give, but he left her helpless. Tender, soft, easy, his fingers caressed until her body shuddered. He drank in her sigh with lips abruptly urgent, ruthlessly demanding, then patiently soothed her again. Sensations rocketed inside her, leaving no room for thought, for reason or even for memories.
    When they came together it was everything for both of them. Time didn’t slip back but trapped them and held them close in the here and now.
    He kept his arms tightly around her and they were quiet. With her eyes closed, she absorbed the unity. She loved, and for the moment there was nothing else. For him both ecstasy and contentment were troubled with questions. She was so warm, so free with