Whispers of Winter: A Limited Edition Collection of Winter Romances

by Nicole Morgan

  Ty handed me my beer but didn’t say anything, in fact, he didn’t even meet my gaze as he handed it off and instead focused on Britt and asked her what needed to be done.

  Over the next few minutes, Britt practically got out the whip and started cracking out directions as to what was going to happen and where things would be placed. All three of us stood in awe of her instructions as she zipped through all her plans and then pushed Ty and me toward a pile of boxes and told us to get moving on the tree while she and Reba started preparing cookie dough.

  For the next several hours, music played over her stereo while we worked. Ty and I talked quietly, and occasionally Britt would join the conversation. Every once in a while, Reba and I would lock gazes, and I’d forget what I was doing. I almost dropped a large wreath over the upper banister one time, and she almost cracked eggs onto the counter.

  The longer it went on and the more looks we shared, the more energized I felt. The air in the room sparked with electricity, and it was a good thing that we were on opposite sides because if we accidentally crashed into one another, there was going to be one hell of an explosion.

  That near-explosion came around ten that night. Britt’s house sparkled and shimmered with holiday decorations of all types, and we’d had Chinese takeout as a thank you from Britt, plus we’d eaten a lot of the cookies that had been baked throughout the day. Reba yawned and announced that she needed to get home, and I figured it was probably a good time to get my own ass back to my place.

  We were all converging on the front door when Britt squealed and pointed to the mistletoe on the ceiling above her head.

  “Who is going to kiss me first?” She batted her lashes my way, and I smirked.

  I leaned over and gave her a quick noisy smack on the lips as everybody laughed.

  She turned to Ty and smiled coyly. “You know, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to kiss you, Ty. I mean really kiss you.” She crooked her finger at him, and he grinned from ear to ear as he sauntered toward her.

  I stepped out of the way, trying to avoid smashing Reba against the wall and watched as Ty dipped Britt into a swoon-worthy hold and plastered her lips with a kiss most women would have died to have just once in their lives. Ty lifted her upright, and Britt stepped away, fanning her face with her hand. “Phew, okay, that was hot, not the best I’ve had, but definitely not the worst.” Ty laughed at her description and went to the coat closet to get his jacket, completely unfazed by her assessment.

  He pulled out my leather jacket and handed it to me, and then held out Reba’s long coat, but instead of giving it to her to put on herself, he held it open so she would slide into it. She smiled at him and after she was bundled in her coat, Ty glanced up and said, “Well, look who is under the mistletoe now?”

  Her lips parted as a shocked expression flashed quickly over her features. She quickly schooled them and plastered a stage smile on her face. “Are you going to dip me, too?”

  Ty laughed. “I don’t know about you,” he tapped her nose, “but that would be kind of like incest to me since I feel like you’re my little sister.”

  Reba chuckled good-naturedly, “Oh, good! I was getting worried there for a moment.”

  Ty kissed Reba’s cheek, and then returned to the closet to get his own jacket. He glanced at me and gave me a slight nod toward Reba. My stomach dropped to my knees, and I was about to shuffle forward toward her when Reba spun away.

  “Okay, well, you guys have a great night. I’ll see you all later.” She bolted out the door before I could even think to say anything, and, dumbstruck, I watched her disappear into the darkness.

  “Well, that was smooth,” Ty commented quietly.

  “Oh, my god!” Britt smacked my shoulder. “You just had the perfect chance to kiss her and you blew it. Why the hell do you think I put the damn mistletoe there in the first place?”

  I stared at the two of them, going back and forth for a second. “What the hell is wrong with me? What the hell is wrong with you two? Obviously, you two see something that is not there. Reba is not the least bit interested in me, and I’m not interested in her either.”

  Britt gave me a look that said she saw right through my bullshit while Ty laughed and shook his head as he replied, “Once you admit it to yourself, it will be a lot easier to accept.”

  “There is nothing to accept.”

  “You’re an idiot, Wall,” Ty declared.

  Britt sighed. “Hey, Ty, before you leave, can you help me with one more thing?”

  He tossed his coat on the side chair. “Sure, I’ll see you tomorrow, Wall.” The two of them disappeared down the hall, and I tilted my head back and stared at the stupid mistletoe above my head. What an idiot I was. I had blown it. I should have done exactly what Ty had done with Britt. I should have sauntered right up to Reba, wrapped my arms around her, and kissed her with everything inside of me. Instead, I’d frozen like a kid with stage fright on opening night. What...an…idiot.

  I walked out the front door and closed it behind me. As I reached the curve in the sidewalk to the driveway, a muffled sniffle reached me, and I froze mid-step. Every nerve came alive as I went on alert. My eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, and I could barely make out Reba standing beside her Jeep.

  “Did your car not start?” I asked her.

  “Do you not like me—or something?” she asked bluntly.

  “Excuse me?”

  She took two steps closer and shook her hair back from her face as she swiped at her cheek. “Do you not like me?”

  “Are you crying?” I asked, flabbergasted at the prospect. Was it possible she was standing in the driveway crying because she thought that I didn’t like her? With what alternate universe had I collided?

  “No, I’m not crying!” she snapped. “Answer the damn question, Wallie. Do you not like me?”

  “Of course, I like you,” I answered, completely bewildered by her question.

  “Then why do you act like you don’t when you’re around me?” She tossed her arms in the air. “You barely speak to me. If you see me look your way, you turn away so fast, I’m surprised you don’t have whiplash! You never touch me,” she shook her head dramatically, “and god forbid you have to kiss me under the mistletoe!” She bellowed, “Oh, my god! No—that would probably destroy you!”

  I took four steps to reach her, startling her so much that she began to backpedal. Before I knew it, she was backed against the cold metal of her vehicle, and I was an inch from plastering my body against hers. “Do you know why I don’t talk to you, Reba? Why I don’t touch you? Why I didn’t kiss you inside just now?”

  The whites of her eyes glowed in the darkness and I could imagine the green of her eyes. She shook her head just the slightest amount as she stared at me, her nose an inch away.

  “I don’t talk to you because you suck every coherent word out of my mouth. When you’re around, I can’t think straight. Words don’t make sense. I don’t touch you because I’m afraid that once I start, I might never be able to stop, and I didn’t kiss you back there,” I jerked a thumb over my shoulder as I paused and leaned just the tiniest bit closer, “because when the day comes that I do kiss you, I’m not just going to kiss you, I’m going to consume you. I’m going to become part of you, and you’re going to become part of me, and standing there under mistletoe in someone else’s foyer is not where that’s going to happen.”

  Her breath stuttered and rushed over my lips on a heated whoosh as she released it. I lifted my hand but allowed only one fingertip to touch her cheekbone and glide effortlessly to her full lips.

  “And I will never do anything to jeopardize your job or mine, so until you no longer dance at the club or I no longer work for Monroe, nothing will happen between us.”

  I traced my finger over her bottom lip and stood spellbound as it parted. I was so tempted to push my finger inside to feel the heat of her mouth, the softness of her tongue, but I didn’t. I removed my touch from her altogether and stepped
back a few inches.

  “Don’t for one second think that I don’t want you. Don’t you shed one tear or worry that beautiful head for one moment. When the time comes, be ready, Ms. Reba, because there will be no doubt that I will be ready for you.”

  I turned and walked away, leaving her staring after me and feeling damned proud that I hadn’t started something in the driveway that I wouldn’t have been able to finish there.

  I wasn’t sure where those words had come from, but once they were spoken, I was pretty damned certain that they were one hundred percent true. Our time would come, there were some things that needed to happen, but no matter what, I was going to have that woman in my life, in my bed, and tucked nicely into my heart.

  Chapter Five

  Reba

  What…the…Hell—

  Wallie’s wide shoulders disappeared into the darkness. His black leather jacket helped obscure him in the shadows as he made his way down the street to his truck.

  I was still standing in the same exact position, still leaning against the side of my car, still barely able to breathe as I tried to recall what he had said to me. He climbed into his truck, the engine roared to life, the lights came on, and then he drove down the street. A few moments later, Ty rounded the corner and startled when he saw me.

  “Reba? Are you alright?”

  I turned to him, moving more than my eyes for the first time, finally breaking free of the invisible hold that Wallie had put over me, and stood up straight. “He wants to consume me.”

  Ty paused in front of me. “Excuse me?”

  “He said he wants to consume me.”

  “Who wants to consume you?” Ty took hold of my shoulders. “Reba, did someone hurt you?” Ty looked around the area, pulling me closer to his body as he searched for a threat, but I shook my head.

  “No, Wallie said he wanted to consume me.”

  Ty gave me an odd look. “Wallie?”

  I sighed, realizing how stupid I sounded. “Never mind, I’m tired. I just need to go home. I probably imagined the whole thing.”

  “Do you want me to drive you? Maybe you had too much to drink.”

  “Or not enough,” I mumbled.

  “How much did you have?” he asked as he put his hand over mine on the door handle.

  I rolled my eyes. “Ty, I had two beers when I got here this afternoon, and one glass of wine with dinner two hours ago. I’m fine to drive.”

  “Okay, you’re sure?”

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  He opened my car door and held it open for me so I could enter.

  “So you were out here when Wallie left?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did he say anything to you?”

  I groaned. “You know? Sometimes I feel like I’m back in high school with you guys.”

  He looked offended. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing, never mind.” I went to close the door.

  “Are you sure you’re alright, Reba?”

  I began to laugh. “Ty, I’m really not sure what I am right now. Wallie just said something to me—at least, I think he said it to me—and it turned my world upside down. Now I’m not sure what to think, so I’m going to go home, climb in bed, and dwell on it for a little while.”

  “But you’re alright? He didn’t hurt you?”

  I smiled at Ty. “If there is one thing that I do know, it’s that Wallie would never do anything to physically hurt me, ever.”

  He gave an abrupt nod and stepped away so I could pull my door closed. I backed out of the driveway and then turned to pull out of the neighborhood. I was almost to the exit when I saw Wallie standing in the middle of the road, his pickup truck parked on the side, the door open, and the interior light spilling over his chest. I pulled to a stop a few feet in front of him.

  He approached the driver’s window, and I lowered it. Neither of us said anything.

  “I changed my mind,” he finally said huskily.

  “What?”

  “I don’t want to wait.”

  My stomach quivered as my nerves instantly took over. Would he rip open my door, pull me out, and kiss me right here in the middle of the street, or would he lean into the car and kiss me through the window? Did I have fresh breath? Would it look strange if I stuffed a mint in my mouth right now? Did I even have any mints in my console?

  Headlights flashed in my side mirror and blinded me for a moment and I remembered that Ty was leaving. “That’s going to be Ty,” I said.

  “I’ll deal with him.” When Ty stopped beside us, Wallie walked over to the passenger window and spoke with him for a moment. I took advantage of the time to stare at Wallie’s backside and memorized the way the jeans he wore accentuated his buttocks perfectly, something that I had already admired all afternoon and evening, but it looked different in the dark. A minute later, Wallie tapped twice on the roof of Ty’s sporty car, and Ty waved to me as he drove away.

  Wallie turned his attention back to me. “I told him I was apologizing to you for earlier.”

  I nodded but didn’t really care what he’d just told Ty. I wanted to get back to our earlier conversation. “So what was it that you didn’t want to wait for?”

  “You and me.”

  “What about us?” I asked softly.

  “I know, and you know, that we shouldn’t do this, but I think that we both want it. If you say no, I won’t ask again. I won’t ever put you in that position again. In fact, I won’t even ask you. I’m just going to tell you that I’m going to get in my truck and drive straight to my house, and if, for some reason, you were interested in following me there, and maybe coming in, I wouldn’t say no.”

  My heart jackhammered in my chest, but I gave him the briefest of nods, and he turned back to his truck. He pulled to the stop sign and put his blinker on to turn right. If I were to go home, I would turn left. He turned right, and I pulled to the sign and looked left, then looked right, then left again.

  I should go home. I needed this job. If I lost this job because I got caught sleeping with one of the guards, what the heck would I do to pay back the college loans? I looked to the right. He was driving slowly, but his taillights were receding.

  I looked back to the left. If I went left, I would never know if what I felt for him was anything more than just sexual attraction. I knew that I was definitely sexually attracted to him, but I really felt there was something else under the surface.

  I looked to the right. He had his left turn signal on way down the road. “What are you going to do, Reba? What are you going to do?” I asked myself out loud. “Be safe, or take a chance?”

  Just as his truck began to turn left, I made my decision and spun my wheel, pulling my Jeep onto the road and hitting the gas.

  When I got to the road where he’d turned left, I found his truck pulled over on the side of the road. As soon as I turned left, he pulled back onto the lane. My hands could barely grip the steering wheel.

  “What am I doing? What am I doing?” I repeated to myself as I caught up to him.

  My toes tingled and I dug around in my console until I found two breath mints and shoved them into my mouth. I peered into my rearview mirror and realized that I probably looked a mess, but it was too late now.

  Wallie took a few more turns, but it was only a few miles before he pulled into a neighborhood with single family homes. I wished that it was daylight so I could see them, but I did enjoy the few holiday light arrangements that I saw along the way. Wallie pulled into the driveway of a two-story house after making two more turns, and I parked beside him.

  Before I got out, I took a moment to try and calm my racing heart. I could leave. I could back out of the driveway and pretend I was never here. I knew that Wallie would understand. He would get it, I knew he would.

  “You want this, Reba,” I said to myself softly and, boy, did I ever want it. I grabbed my purse and pushed open my door. When I walked around Wallie’s truck, I found him approaching the steps to his f
ront porch. The light wasn’t on, and I was both glad and disappointed. It was hard to tell much about the house other than it was a two-story and appeared to have stone on the front of it, but, in the darkness, Wallie couldn’t see how nervous I was, or vice versa.

  I paused a few feet behind him. He unlocked the door but didn’t open it. He turned to me. “If you leave now, nothing will change, Reba. We can keep things the way they are, and it will be fine, but I guarantee that if you step through this door, things are going to change, so make sure you’re ready for that.”

  “What’s going to change, Wallie?”

  “You, me—us.” His voice was so deep that chills raced down my spine.

  “There will be an us?”

  I felt the heat of his stare even with the two feet between us. “The moment you step through that door, Reba, there is only an us.”

  I wasn’t sure if that was the hottest thing I had ever heard or the scariest, but I did know that there was no way I was going to walk away now.

  I stepped toward him, but instead of stopping in front of him, I skirted him, opened the door, and crossed the threshold, stopping in the center of the foyer. The house alarm began to beep a warning that I didn’t care to heed, and a moment later, the door closed, then five keys were depressed on an alarm pad before the beeping stopped. A muffled sound filled my ears that sounded a lot like his leather jacket hitting the floor. A second later, his hands were on my shoulders and he was turning me. I was pulling my arms from my jacket as he was yanking it from my shoulders. My purse spilled at my feet, my heavy down coat with it, and then Wallie had me off the floor.

  I squealed in surprise as he lifted me and pushed my back against the smooth wall. I instinctively wrapped my legs around him, locking my feet at the small of his back, bringing his very hard erection into contact with my very sensitive female parts.

  His lips were a breath away, his nose rubbing against mine, as he stared into my eyes. “You have no idea how many times I dreamed of this. How many times I envisioned having you in my arms, in my bed.”