by Ali Parker
“Thank you,” she whispered.
I wanted to go on kissing her like that all night, but I suspected she wouldn’t enjoy having her family as an audience. So I backed off, and we called everyone to dinner. They took up their seats around the table and began filling their plates.
Piper sat next to me, and when everyone was settled in, she raised her wine glass. “I’d like to make a toast.”
Everyone followed suit and lifted their glasses. The eyes of all of us were on her as she smiled around at her family. “Thank you for being here and for making this a special Christmas Eve. And a special thank you to Camden for being my hero of the hour and knowing just what I needed tonight. You’ve really learned what the spirit of Christmas is all about.”
I suppose she was right. I hadn’t thought about it that way.
Maybe I had found my Christmas spirit. And to think, all it took was a beautiful young woman coming in and disrupting my entire way of life for a month.
“Cheers,” I said.
The food on everyone’s plate didn’t last long. We devoured our meals, and nearly everyone helped themselves to seconds. When we were done, Piper tried to clean up, but I insisted she leave it for now. Christmas Eve was short, and there were still things to tend to.
We moved to the living room.
I prepared specialty coffees with eggnog and rum and cinnamon, and we all got comfortable. Phillip told Piper about how the month had been at home while she filled her parents in on some of the festive things we’d done together over the course of December.
Janie, in all her free-spirited glory, gushed about the decorations Piper and I had put up together and expressed envy at how magical the place felt. Mrs. James echoed Janie’s sentiments.
“I always dreamed of having a home like this,” she said softly. Her husband put his arm around her shoulders as she gazed at the tree. “If we could have provided it, this is what we would have wanted for our children.”
“We had the best Christmases, Mom,” Piper insisted.
Mrs. James gave her daughter a weak smile. “Yes. We did.”
I’d heard a lot from Piper about what Christmas was like growing up. I had the impression they never had a ton of money, but sitting here with her parents made me see just how tight their budget really was.
How much had Piper and Phillip’s parents struggled to make Christmas special for their children every year?
And why couldn’t my parents have fought that same fight?
I felt a pang of jealousy and knew as soon as it rippled through me that it was unfair of me to think that way. Parents weren’t made the same. Neither were children. My mother loved me more than she loved anything in this world. I knew that for a fact. And my father ruined her. He ruined all of us.
“So,” Janie said, cutting through the quiet conversations happening around me. “How long are you all going to make me sit around waiting to open Christmas presents?”
Laughing, Piper extracted herself from the sofa beside me and went to the stockings hanging across the mantle. “I’ll be Santa for the first round. How about that?”
“Get me a good one,” Phillip hollered. “Something heavy.”
I didn’t know what this “being Santa” was that Piper mentioned, but I pieced it together fairly quickly as she made a pass through everyone’s stockings and pulled a wrapped gift out of each one. She proceeded to hand one gift out to all of us before taking her seat back beside me. Everyone unwrapped all at once.
I’d never done stocking stuffers before. This was a first for me. The travel-sized container of shaving cream in my hands made me smile.
Piper held up her soap victoriously while everyone else unveiled their little gifts. As we went through the stockings, we took turns handing out gifts. They were simple things like chocolate bars, toiletry items, and funny things like Christmas-themed boxers or kitchen towels.
When we finished the stockings, we moved on to the gifts under the tree. Everyone had to take their turn playing Santa for these rounds too, but Piper’s family did things a little differently. Everyone opened their gifts one at a time.
“Have you always done it this way?” I asked Piper as her brother dug into a gift from his parents.
“Yes.” Piper nodded. “When we were kids, there weren’t a lot of presents, so my parents insisted we do it this way. It stretches the moment to last a little longer. Which is nice since Christmas is so much prep work that’s over in just one day. And it taught me and Phillip patience. And,” she added with a smile, “the best part is watching people open the gift you got or made for them.”
Her brother pulled a knit dark-green sweater out of his gift box and thanked his parents.
Piper tapped the top of the gift in her lap. It was the same size as her brother’s and from her parents. “Twenty bucks says I got one too. But mine is—”
“Red?” I asked.
She grinned. “How did you know?”
“Piper James and red go together like rum and coke.”
She giggled and leaned into my shoulder.
“Your turn, Pipes,” Phillip called across the living room.
Piper pulled open the red ribbon on her gift and slid her finger across the edges, breaking the tape. She unwrapped delicately but efficiently, and I was stricken by how graceful she was. When she lifted a red sweater from the box moments later and held it up, she and I shared a smile behind it.
“Told you,” she snickered.
She thanked her parents, and the exchange of gifts proceeded. Whoever unwrapped chose who was to follow. And so we went like that until the bottom of the tree was empty and we all had little piles of treasures on the floor near our spots on the sofa.
“Tonight was wonderful.” Mrs. James sighed as she sipped the tail end of her coffee. “Thank you for inviting us, Camden. We were all pretty sad about not having Piper around for the holidays.”
“She does make it special, doesn’t she?” I asked.
Mrs. James had a twinkle in her eye as she nodded at me. “She does.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m not here, guys,” Piper muttered.
Her family stayed well into the night. It was close to two in the morning when Mr. James announced that they should head home and I called for a car to come pick them up downstairs. I brought them crates to bring their gifts home in and offered to help them down to the car, but Piper’s mother insisted we stay up here.
She patted my cheek. “You’re a good man, Camden. Thank you for looking out for my daughter this month.”
“She’s an amazing woman, Mrs. James. You should be very proud.”
“I am,” she said.
I said goodbye to Janie, who pulled me in for a hug before she got on the elevator. “I hope there’s a little something special coming Piper’s way tomorrow morning,” she whispered in my ear.
I chuckled. “You certainly are an overprotective best friend, aren’t you?”
She flashed me a smile. “You know it.”
I shook hands with Phillip and Mr. James, and Piper said her farewells with many hugs and cheek kisses. She waved goodbye as the elevator doors closed, and once they did, she turned toward me with her hands clasped together under her chin. There was a smile on her lips I hadn’t seen in over a week, and all the pain and grief that she’d carried these last seven days was simply gone.
Like magic.
“You,” she breathed, shaking her head slowly. “You wonderful, kind, too good to be true man. I don’t know how to thank you for this.”
“You don’t have to thank me. Consider us even. You helped me see this month differently. And that means a lot to me. I think I can finally close the door on a lot of trauma. This was the least I could do.”
“No. It was the most. And it meant everything to me.”
I gave her a kiss on the cheek. Piper caught my face in her hands and held me in place to press her lips to mine. She tasted like rum and coffee and cinnamon. I kissed her back, and she held hers
elf tightly to me.
I broke the kiss first. “You go up to bed. I’m going to get these dishes done.”
“We’ll do them together.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Together,” she insisted, taking my hand and leading me into the kitchen. And like the hopeless lovesick puppy she’d turned me into, I followed.
Chapter 23
Piper
Camden dried the dishes I washed and set them on a drying rack beside the sink. We’d loaded the dishwasher with the smaller items. The cleanup wasn’t bad since we’d ordered takeout, and by the time the place was clean, it was three o’clock.
My heart was as full and happy as my belly.
The mishap at the Casanova Christmas party felt like it had happened months ago, and I was granted this fuzzy moment of warmth where it couldn’t touch me. In Camden’s home with his company and the Christmas tree winking in all its glory, I was just a girl with a man she liked.
The rest of it didn’t matter.
The relief I felt as I turned off the sink and dried my hands was welcomed. For the first time all week, my head was clear, and my thoughts weren’t hateful toward myself. I was whole.
I turned toward Camden to find him unbuttoning the sleeve cuffs of his white button-up. He rolled the sleeves up to his elbows before popping open the buttons at his collar.
I’d thanked him a hundred times over for tonight, but words fell flat. I didn’t know how to show him how grateful I was or how close I was feeling to him, other than with kisses, so I stepped in close and put my hands on his hips.
He stroked my hair away from my face and looked me in the eyes. “Merry Christmas, Piper.”
“Merry Christmas, Camden.”
His fingers lifted my chin, and I closed my eyes seconds before our lips touched. The kiss was warm and soft. The stubble on his jaw tickled my cheeks, and his hand under my chin moved to cup the back of my neck and hold me in place as his tongue slid between my teeth.
I let out a soft moan as he explored me.
His free hand roamed down my side to rest on my waist, and then his fingers curled in my sweater and he tugged me closer.
I let out a soft laugh as he pinched my bottom lip gently between his teeth.
My eyes were still closed. “I want you.”
“How badly?”
I opened my eyes. He was so close, all I could see was him. The depths of his eyes seemed endless, like a dark stormy sea that stretched on forever. The kind of sea that wrecked ships and broke souls. The kind of sea a girl like me would get lost in if she didn’t remember who she was and why she was doing this.
But one night couldn’t hurt.
He and I both deserved a release. And I cared about him. Deeply.
Nobody had ever done something as thoughtful for me as he had tonight. He knew exactly what I needed to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and he’d executed it brilliantly.
And now I wanted to know every inch of him.
I pulled my sweater off over my head and let it fall to the floor. “Very badly,” I whispered.
Camden’s eyes roamed over my body. All I had underneath my sweater was a red lace brazier. One of the thin straps had already slid off one shoulder. The fabric didn’t offer any support or coverage. It was completely sheer.
It was no wonder Camden couldn’t stop smiling.
I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and batted my lashes at him. “Do you like what you see?”
Camden reached out to trace the edge of the fabric along the top of my cleavage. His fingers were warm, but his touch was so feather-light that it gave me goosebumps. As I watched him, I held my lip between my teeth. A knot had formed below my belly, a familiar tight strain of desire. An incessant reminder of what my body needed.
Now.
His fingers pulled the fabric aside.
My nipples went hard as soon as he grazed his thumbs over them. He held both of my breasts in each hand and massaged them gently. I let out a breathless sigh, and his eyes slid to meet my gaze.
“You’re a work of art,” he said.
“Your turn.”
“Not yet. I’ve waited too long to spoil the moment.”
A man who wasn’t greedy and who wanted more time was a huge turn on. Camden spent the next few minutes getting me so worked up I could hardly breathe.
He began with more kisses while his hands roamed over my half-naked body. I draped an arm around his neck to hold myself up as he reached behind my back to remove the brazier entirely. It fell to the floor by my sweater, and he pushed it out of the way with one foot while he backed me up against the kitchen counter.
He pinned me there with one hand planted on either side of me. I untucked his shirt from his pants and worked to undo his belt as our kiss deepened. As soon as I had his belt off, I began working to undo the buttons of his shirt.
But he caught my hands to still them. I obeyed his silent command and let my hands fall to my sides. He proceeded to kiss me and tease me, trailing his fingers along my lower stomach above the waistband of my leggings.
When he slid a hand beneath my leggings and over my panties, I let out a breathless sigh. He massaged me over my panties, and I wondered if my wetness had soaked through the thin silky fabric.
Most likely.
Camden let out a soft chuckle. “Somebody’s ready to go.”
That answered that question.
I hooked a thumb into his belt loop and tugged him in close. “I’ve been ready to go for hours.”
His lips crashed against mine. I undid his fly. He plunged his hand beneath my panties. The sensation of his fingers against my clit had me sucking in a sharp breath.
We’d waited nearly all month for this.
“Yes,” I whimpered, using the counter for support when he pressed harder and rolled his fingers in a slow circle. I hung my head back, and he kissed my throat and jaw, sending me closer to the brink of ecstasy.
I managed to keep my wits about me long enough to get his fly undone. He didn’t stop me this time when I pushed his pants down. They got stuck around his muscular thighs. I was too impatient to work them all the way down, so I left them there as I massaged him over his boxers.
I shouldn’t have been surprised at his size. And yet I was. He was thick and hard beneath the thin fabric, and the feeling of him against my palm had me panting heavily.
He pressed further into my panties. I struggled to stay on my feet as he eased a finger inside me. And then another. This man wasted little time when it came to giving a woman what she wanted.
I plunged my hand into his boxers and stroked his cock. He let out a soft groan that pushed me right to the brink. He worked me over nice and slow, and deep, and I gave in to the gathering pressure with a cry of pleasure.
Camden pushed in deeper against my orgasm and pressed up against my G-spot. My panties flooded, and he chuckled against my neck. “I don’t deserve you, Piper.”
No, he didn’t. He deserved better.
But that didn’t matter. Not right now.
“Shut up,” I whispered.
Camden lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he carried me into the living room. I could feel his cock pressing between my legs, and my heart fluttered with excitement. I needed him inside me. My body was ready. I was wet and swollen and hungry for his cock.
Camden set me down on my back on the sofa. He leaned over me, bracing himself on one thickly muscled arm. I worked his shirt off his shoulders, and he shrugged out of it. He was as jacked under his clothes as I’d expected. Every muscle was taut as he held himself over me, and I pulled him down for more kisses as I stroked his cock hanging above my stomach.
“Do you have a condom?” I whispered.
“In the bedroom,” he said.
“Shit.”
“Don’t rush me,” he grated out, nudging my face to the side with his so he could pinch my ear between his teeth. I sighed, and his hand fell between my thighs, cupping me before
he pressed his finger back inside me. “You’re so fucking wet.”
I rolled my hips, grinding myself against his hand. All the while, I was stroking his length, relishing in his size, and dreaming about how it was going to feel when I finally got what I wanted.
Needed.
The light of the Christmas tree painted him in a warm glow, and I was quite sure he’d never looked so handsome. His jaw muscle flexed as he restrained himself, and then he hit a point where he couldn’t take it anymore. He scooped me up once more and carried me upstairs to his bedroom, where he dropped me onto the bed and went to his nightstand for a condom.
I watched as he stripped out of the rest of his clothes and tore open the condom wrapper. I lifted my ass off the bed and pulled my leggings and panties off. Camden watched me with hungry eyes as he rolled the condom on.
Then he came to the edge of the bed between my thighs.
I nodded for him to give me what I wanted. Camden stepped in close and ran his cock up and down my slit. I moaned. He let out a small sound from the back of his throat too. And then he was sliding into me. Inch by inch. He pushed until I let out a sharp gasp, and then he paused, waiting for me to adjust to his size. He worked himself in and out slowly, not pushing in too far, until I reached for him.
He dropped down for the kisses I craved.
I plunged my fingers into his hair. He pushed in deeper. The pressure was as exquisite as it was painful. But I wanted all of him, so I wrapped my legs around his waist and used my heels to encourage him to give me more.
He did.
Somehow, there was still more of him.
I muffled my cry in his mouth. He slowed.
“Keep going,” I begged.
Camden’s eyes burned with need. In one final thrust, he gave me everything he had left. I gasped. The pain dissipated quickly and gave way to intense pleasure as he fucked me deep and slow. My eyes practically rolled back in my head with every stroke, and I gripped the sheets beneath me.
“You’re so fucking tight,” he growled.
Camden grabbed my ankles and held them together, pushing my legs back. I was held there as he worked himself in and out of my pussy, rolling his hips in a delicious movement. When he rubbed my clit in quick little motions, my body gave in to the convulsions of another orgasm. It rolled through every inch of me, and I came hard. Camden must have felt it because he let out a low growl and fucked me harder.
