“It’s been a while since we’ve done this,” he said, looking as pleased as rum punch. “We should do it more often.”
His father nodded. “I could not agree more but there’s just one thing missing.”
Ransom looked up from the plate on which he’d been piling chicken, roast beef and string beans. “What’s that?”
“Grandkids,” Bill said, looking directly at him. “When are you going to give me some of those?”
Ransom drew back. “Hey, why are you asking me? Talk to those guys.” He looked at his brothers, one after the other, his eyes challenging.
“You’re the oldest,” Rafe pointed out and he drew the macaroni pie closer. That had always been his favorite.
“Yes, Ransom, you are.” His mother gave him a pointed look. “When are you going to get serious and settle down? When are you going to bring home a nice girl and tell us you’re getting married?”
“Yeah, Ransom. When?”
Ransom scowled at Ridge. It was too much to expect him to keep quiet.
“When I’m good and ready,” he said. “Now let’s eat.”
Effectively changing the subject he turned everyone’s attention back to the food. He breathed a sigh of relief when nobody brought up the ‘bring girl home to Mom and Dad’ scenario again.
As soon as his mother had said the word there was a girl who had come to mind, a girl who had climbed into his heart and made herself comfortable there, probably a bit too comfortable. If she got too comfy in there he’d be in real danger of losing his whole heart to her.
For now it was best to keep all that to himself.
He glanced around the table at the family he loved so much. One day he would make them happy with kids running around the table while they ate. And it could be sooner than anyone of them would imagine. If he played his cards right…
Smiling at his little secret he lifted his glass of wine. “Merry Christmas, everybody,” he said. “May we have many, many more.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“I can’t believe it’s New Year’s Eve already.”
“Believe it, honey. The year’s at an end.”
Solie sighed, snuggling against Ransom’s warm body as they lay on the softly padded wicker sofa in his gazebo. “I’m glad I’m spending New Year’s Eve with you.”
His arms wrapped around her, Solie felt Ransom bend to kiss the top of her head. “Ditto. There’s no better way for me to usher in the New Year than to be with you.”
At his words she turned her face up to his, gladly accepting his kiss.
She’d spent six days in Panama and, as much as she loved her family, she could not leave fast enough. When they said ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’ they’d definitely been talking about her. She’d been counting the days – no, the hours and minutes – till she would see Ransom again.
It was funny how she never realized she’d fallen for him – like slip-on-the-ice, feet-flying-in-the-air, landing-on-your-back kind of fall – until she was too far away to touch him, feel his arms around her, draw in the woodsy scent of his cologne. The smell of the woods and Ransom…heaven.
And now as she relaxed into him she was glad they’d decided to forgo the festivities and simply wait out the time together, under the stars, as they approached a brand new year.
And then as a the fireworks went off, lighting up the sky above, Ransom gave Solie her first kiss for the brand new year, only thirty seconds young. A light breeze wafted by and Solie shivered and snuggled even closer.
Ransom’s lips grazed her and he whispered softly, “Let’s go inside and warm up now. How does hot chocolate sound?”
She could think of a lot better ways they could warm up but she only smiled and nodded then, tucked into his side, she walked with him back into the house.
As soon as he’d closed the door behind them Ransom turned her round and backed her against the wall. Taking her chin in his hand he tilted her face up and began to kiss her – hungrily, almost ravenously – as if he’d been starving for love. When he drew back he left her panting.
“What about the hot chocolate?” she managed to gasp but she knew that was a joke. If the bulge in his pants was anything to go by, hot chocolate was the last thing on Ransom’s mind just then.
And Solie was guilty of the same. She’d asked the question in jest because seriously, who needed hot chocolate when the passion between them could set a whole forest ablaze?
“Hot chocolate be damned,” he whispered, his voice husky with desire. “All I need is you.”
It was those words that were Solie’s undoing. She wanted him so bad and he wanted her, too. More than that, he needed her and what could he have said that could be more flattering?
The torch of her desire lit and blazing, Solie was holding nothing back tonight. She slid her hand up and inside his shirt. He jumped and she laughed. “Sorry. I’ll have to blow on them to get them warm.” She started to withdraw but he captured her hand with his.
“No, don’t stop. It will warm up soon enough. Let me feel your hand on my body.” He closed his eyes and when she slid her hands back inside his shirt he moaned.
Spurred on by his ardor, Solie decided to be bold. Sliding her hand across his chest she found his nipple, a taut pebble on a solid wall of muscle. She captured that pebble between index finger and thumb and flicked it and rolled it until his moan deepened into a guttural groan.
She gave him a second’s reprieve, just long enough for her to loosen the buttons on his shirt, and then she was on him again but this time it was with her lips. She kissed him right in the crease between his pectoral muscles. When he sucked in his breath she slid across the warmth of his skin to cover his turgid nipple with her lips. There she nibbled and sucked, feeling his body stiffen at her teasing, hearing his breathing grow ragged and his heartbeat pounding in her ear.
Knowing the effect she was having on him Solie did not let up. As she slid her palms down his sides and to his h*ps she moved her lips to the other nipple where she continued her tantalizing caress and soon her nips at the taut bud morphed into lascivious licks and sexy kisses that had him practically hyperventilating.