Free Two in Winter by Vanessa North Page B

music, her eyes closed, her skin shining with exertion. When she threw her head back and he saw a bead of sweat traveling down the side of her neck to her cleavage, something in him let go, and he found himself pressing his lips to the spot behind her ear where that bead of sweat had come from.
    A thick groan vibrated in her throat against his lips and she buried both her hands in his hair. Taking her response as acquiescence, he moved his lips up along her jaw, tasting the salt of her skin before taking her lips with his own. She gave a soft sigh as her lips parted. His hands found the sides of her face, angling her just right. She was tall enough she fit to him perfectly. Heat rolled, careening through him as he tasted the sweetness of berry lip-gloss, felt her hips rocking against his, still moving them to the beat of the music.
    The moment stretched out as he learned the contours of her mouth, shaping and reshaping them as they swayed to a new rhythm. A hand gathered his hair, let it go, again. Her body pressed to his: soft to hard, breasts to hard planes of muscle on his chest, feminine heat to his hard erection.
    Maybe it had just been that long since he’d kissed a woman, but he couldn’t ever remember a kiss making him this ravenous. The needy little sounds she made as her hands dropped to his shoulders made him wonder what she’d sound like in bed, that hair spilling across his pillow, those round breasts his to touch and taste, all that skin and heat his to explore.
    Sliding one hand down her back to cup a buttock, he hauled her as tight as he could against his body as he broke the kiss. Her chocolate-brown eyes drifted open, wide and startled.
    “Let’s get some air,” he shouted over the music. She nodded, her full lower lip disappearing between her teeth. She gestured at the door leading out to a patio, and he followed her, watching her hips sway from side to side as she went.
    Outside, the wintry air was crisp and cold and it felt wonderful after the hot sweaty mess of the dance floor. There was a small outdoor bar, plenty of people around, but the music was quieter out here. The heaters didn’t really provide enough warmth to encourage lingering, but he welcomed the sharp scent of snow in his nostrils.
    “Can I buy you a drink?” He leaned toward his dance partner. She shook her head—of course, she was being cautious. He nodded his understanding as he walked to the bar. He ordered two bottles of water and made his way back to her.
    She smiled gratefully as he handed her a bottle, still sealed, fanning herself with that ridiculous straw cowgirl hat. She took a long, deep pull on the bottle and he wondered how she made drinking water look sexy. After she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, his eyes followed, wishing his mouth were pressed to hers again.
    “Hi.” She giggled, looking at him. He grinned back.
    “Hi. You’re some dancer.”
    “I love to dance. I hardly ever do though, so on the odd occasion where I can actually get away and do it? Hell yeah.” She laughed, a surprising amount of glee on her face.
    “So this isn’t a regular thing?” He heard the surprise in his own voice. She shook her head.
    “Girls’ night out, probably the first one I’ve been on in years. I travel a lot for business, and so does Stacey—the one dancing with your friend?—so the three of us are so rarely in the same city at the same time. Anna wanted to do something quieter, but she was outvoted. She was kind of annoyed when Stace started dancing with your friend practically the second we arrived.”
    “So what? Anna seemed pretty enough, she could find her own dance partner.” Eric shrugged. Apparently there was some etiquette thing involved in girls’ night out that he didn’t quite get.
    “Well, Anna would have preferred not going dancing, but having a few drinks some place quiet so the three of us could catch up.”
    “So, the redhead is Stacey. The brunette is Anna. The blonde who tastes