“Fuck,” I whispered. Her nostrils flared and those beautiful eyes lit up. She lifted her chin slightly in a silent challenge, and I didn’t wait one second longer. She wasn’t getting away from me. I was a professional hockey player, a finely tuned athlete at the top of my game, a man with one thing on his mind. And that happened to be Caro.

I bolted around the counter; she raced to the other side. I faked a lunge in one direction. She dashed the other way, and I reversed direction, catching her off guard.

She squealed, attempted to spin, but she wasn’t going anywhere. I wrapped my arms around her, pinned her against the counter, and brought my mouth down on hers before she had time to react. She pushed against my chest but abandoned her struggle a heartbeat later. She melted into me. Her mouth, her tongue, her lips claimed me, as I was claiming her.

Caro’s fingers curled into fists in the shirt fabric at my shoulders, and she leaned harder into me, kissing me like a woman who’d been sexually starved for too long. That made two of us.

I slid my hands down her waist and cupped her gorgeous ass in my palms, pulling her even closer, letting her feel the hardness under my jeans. She made the cutest sounds as she ground her hips into mine. She was fucking driving me insane.

I was going to strip her naked and bend her over the arm of the couch. I’d thrust into her like a man possessed.

She was breathing hard as she dragged her mouth away from mine. I protested and captured her lips once again only to have her elude me once me.

“The…kids…” she said in raspy voice.

I didn’t understand her words at first. They sank in slowly.

“How much—how much time do we have?” I panted against her neck.

“They’ll be back any second.” Her answer was robotic, her eyes glazed.

As if they’d been waiting for their cue off-stage, we heard the pounding of feet running down the hallway from the elevator.

“Fuck,” I groaned, gripping her ass tighter. I didn’t want to end what we’d started.

“Perfect timing.” She pushed on my chest again, and this time I released her.

“Yeah, perfect.” I backed away and leaned down to pick up a box of decorations, feigning interest in their contents, but I had the boner of all boners, and my boy wanted satisfaction. So did I. We were screwed, and not in a good way.

The door slammed open and hit the wall with a bang. Two whirlwinds stormed into the living room and slid to a halt in front of the large tree. They stared up at it in awe.

“We got a tree. It’s really tall. Can we decorate it now? Is it real? Where’s our star from our old house?” Hailey rapid-fired the questions at no one in particular.

Heath glowered at me, almost accusatorily.