Christmas with Nicholas: - an Untwisted seasonal story (Untwisted series) by Alice Raine Page B

place a swift kiss on my temple. Moving his lips to my ear he whispered, ‘Besides, I thought you’d learnt that delaying something often improves the final pleasure?’ If possible my cheeks flushed even redder as Nicholas’ comment sunk in. It was a blatant reference to something he’d tried on me in bed a few weeks ago. Orgasm denial, he’d called it – I’d called it two hours of teasing tongue torture. Although to give him his credit, when Nicholas had finally allowed me to come – after bringing me close to orgasm so many times I’d lost count and almost consciousness – it had been an out of this world orgasm. A climax like no other I’d ever experienced, and something that I probably wouldn’t mind trying again.
    Nicholas was obviously intent on keeping our destination a secret, so rather than waste time pointlessly guessing I snuggled into his side and let the warmth of the car relax me after my busy day at work. The week before Christmas was always crazy at the bookshop, with last-minute present hunters landing on our doorstep in a panic. Tomorrow would be even worse – we were hosting a special 10% discount sale to entice yet more Christmas shoppers to pop in for a bargain present, so I was fully expecting to be run off my feet all day.
    I must have fallen asleep in the dark warmth of the car, because the next thing I knew I felt Nicholas undoing my seat beat and placing a soft kiss on my lips. ‘Wake up, sleepyhead,’ he murmured, as he helped my sleepy, uncoordinated body from the car. The frigid air rushing into my open jacket woke me instantly, and I hastily buttoned it up and wrapped my arms around myself, silently cursing Nicholas for making me leave my scarf behind. It was only when I turned to moan at him that I took notice of where we were and suddenly forgot all about my cold neck. ‘Why are we at Heathrow Airport, Nicholas?’
    My eyes were drawn to Mr Burrett’s movements at the rear of the car; he already had one large suitcase sitting on the pavement beside him and was currently busy hoisting a second from the boot. As my confusion mixed with curiosity I turned to Nicholas and found him ginning as he pulled two rucksacks from the car as well. ‘This is your present … I’m taking you on holiday for Christmas.’ My jaw dropped open at the same time as my heart went loopy in my chest. A holiday? With Nicholas? For Christmas? How frigging exciting! But then reality settled in thick and fast and popped my excited bubble as I frowned with almost unbearable disappointment. ‘I can’t, Nicholas, the bookshop, it’s our busiest time of the year.’
    Grinning Nicholas shook his head, ‘I cleared it all with Louise last week; she was working anyway but apparently your weekend worker Robin jumped at the overtime because he’s saving up for a new Xbox.’ Oh … that certainly sounded OK then, I knew without a doubt I could trust the two of them with the shop, and two staff members would be more than enough in my small bookshop. Well, in that case there really wasn’t anything holding me back then!
    Nicholas must have taken my pause as hesitation because he frowned. ‘We already agreed that we’d see your family for New Year so we could spend Christmas as just the two of us.’ Tipping my chin back he looked straight into my eyes with that intense, focused stare that always made me shiver. ‘What’s holding you back? Don’t you want to go on holiday with me? I thought it would be a nice surprise …’ He sounded so deflated that I immediately felt guilty for taking too long in my pondering, so slapping a huge grin on my face I leant up and kissed him hard on the mouth before bouncing up and down on the balls of my feet.
    ‘Of course I do! It was just a bit of a shock at first, but this is so exciting, Nicholas! Thank you! Where are we going?’
    ‘You’ll find out when we land.’ Nicholas replied smugly, looking far more relaxed now and handing me one of the backpacks,