Baby, Let It Snow: I'll Be Home for ChristmasSecond Chance Christmas

by Beverly Jenkins

  With his heart beating rapidly he pushed opened the door and there she was. His eyes went to Diana bundled comfortably in a sleeping bag laying before a roaring fire in the fireplace that took up the back wall of the cabin. A stack of wood was piled high a little distance from the fireplace and on the floor next to the stack of wood was a backpack bursting with provisions.

  His heart was torn between the need to pull her into his arms and never let her go and the desire to toss her over his lap and spank her bottom for the nightmare she’d just put him and her brother through. Both the provisions and the stack of wood indicated a level of preparedness he did not anticipate. Her being here was no accident. She had not been out and got caught by the storm. She had come here deliberately with the apparent intention of staying for a while.

  He pushed the door closed and the wind immediately blew it open again, and with such force it slammed against the wall. Diana’s eyes popped open and she sat straight up in her sleeping bag, her wide eyes looking in every direction.

  “Wha— Robert? What are you doing here?”

  Robert pushed the door closed again and pulled the only chair in the room, a small wooden rocky, over to the door and propped it beneath the handle before turning back to face her. “Looking for you.”

  Her brown eyes widened even farther and standing there looking at her pretty face Robert was struck again by how much this woman meant to him. In that moment, nothing else mattered. Not the fact that she had run off, not the ten years they’d been apart, not even the ghost of her father. All that mattered was that she was here and safe and by the grace of God he’d been given one more chance to get it right.

  She rubbed at her groggy eyes. “How’d you find me?” Just then, the howling wind shook the small shed. She frowned in confusion. “Is it snowing?”

  Robert chuckled as he pulled off his parka and laid it across the backpack so the heat from the fireplace could dry it. “Um, yeah, you could say that.”

  He sat down on the floor and began pulling off his boots. “In fact, we are in the middle of one of the worst storms to hit Michigan in oh, I don’t know…fifty years or so and apparently you were sleeping right through it.” He sat his boots beside the parka.

  “No way,” she whispered in awe. Diana shook free of her sleeping bag and went to the door. He noticed she was fully dressed in blue jeans and a black sweater. The only things missing were her shoes, which were completely dry and sitting next to the backpack. Moving the chair she opened the door and, as if in punishment for doubting, a gust of wind blew into the cabin carrying with it a sheet of snow.

  Diana quickly closed the door and replaced the chair. “How could I have not realized that?” She shook the snow off, wiping down her jeans. “When I left the house, it was snowing a little but nothing like that.”

  Robert pulled his two sweaters over his head leaving only his t-shirt. “And exactly when did you leave the house?”

  “This morning.” She avoided looking at him as she climbed back into her sleeping bag. She started to pull up the zipper but Robert reached over and stopped her hand.

  “Not yet.” He stood and began pulling off his pants. “Unlike you, I did not have the forethought to pack food or a sleeping bag. So, make room for one more in there.”

  He looked up just in time to see her eyes roaming over his body. Even though he was still wearing a t-shirt and underwear Robert could almost feel her eyes on his bare skin. There was such a wonderfully odd combination of both lust and hesitation reflected in her brown pools Robert almost smiled.

  She sighed in resignation. “Fine.” And she opened the bag wide enough for him to climb in and settle beside her, and rezipped the bag. Within moments their body heat had them both nice and toasty.

  Diana turned away from him in what he knew was an attempt to convey her displeasure in having to share her bag, but as far as Robert was concerned, this position was just fine by him.

  He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her back against him in a spooning position, pressing her body against him top to bottom. She must’ve felt his growing erection because she tried to wiggle her bottom half away from him.

  Some devilish impulse made him whisper in her ear, “Mmm…nice.”

  The wiggling stopped instantly.

  He kissed her neck. “I thought after last night you wouldn’t want me again.”

  “I don’t!”

  “Sure about that?”

  She flipped over in the bag until she was facing him and tried to put as much distance as possible between them, stretching the sleeping bag to its limit. “I appreciate you coming to look for me, but if you wanted to know I was ok, why didn’t you just call me.”

  “You left your cell phone in the office. And if you hadn’t run off like a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum you might’ve realized you didn’t have it.”

  “You have a hell of a nerve accusing me of temper tantrums! Your whole adult life has been one long temper tantrum!”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “You made— What?”

  “I said I know, and I’m sorry. I’ve been carrying around this chip on my shoulder so long I didn’t see what it was doing to me. I’m sorry.”

  She stared at him in confusion. With the wind knocked out of her sail she didn’t seem to know what to say. “Oh. Okay.”

  Robert just watched her face, trying to memorize every detail, she was so unlike the naïve girl he once knew and yet some parts of her remained. He’d loved the girl with all his heart and now realized that somehow, impossible as it was, he loved the woman even more.

  Meanwhile, Diana was looking everywhere but at him. Trying hard to avoid his eyes she finally blurted out, “How long has this storm been going on?”

  “About an hour now. According to the forecast it could last all night. They are anticipating twenty inches or more of snow.”

  “Wow, how could I not have known about that?”

  “I have a feeling that when you left the last thing on your mind was weather conditions. And I’m sorry about that, too.” He glanced over at the backpack. “How long were you planning to hide out here?”

  “I wasn’t hiding. I just needed some time to clear my head, time to think.”

  “So, you’ve been here all day. Come to any decisions?”

  She frowned warily. “About what?”

  “I assume all this head clearing and thinking time had something to do with what I said last night.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “And I also assume that all this head clearing and thinking time was to determine which meant more to you, your relationship with me or your loyalty to your family legacy.”

  “Something like that.”

  “What if I told you that you no longer had to make that choice? That I no longer want to make Bohemia a part of my chain?”

  Her eyes met his. “Really?” She frowned. “Why the sudden change?”

  “I almost lost you today. No hotel in the world is worth that.”

  Her mouth fell open in a small, perfect O. “Oh, Robert.” She closed the distance between them wrapping her arms around his waist. “I love you.”

  “And I love you, more than I ever imagined I was capable of loving anyone. I just regret all the years we’ve wasted because of my stupidity.”

  “No, it wasn’t stupidity. You had a right to be angry. What Daddy did to you was wrong. And even though I truly believe he did what he did out of love for me, still, he had no right to interfere with our lives.”

  Robert wrapped her in a tight hold and rolled over until he was covering her body. His throbbing erection pushed against her thigh, and he wanted nothing more than to completely undress them both and make love to her, but first he needed to ask her something.

  “Can you ever forgive me?”

  “For what?”

  “Everything. For coming back here with false intentions, for convincing Shawn to sell his portion of the estate to me without your knowledge, but m
ost important, for leaving in the first place. I should’ve stayed all those years ago, no matter what you said. I knew you were being lied to. I should’ve stayed and fought for you.”

  She shook her head. “No, I should’ve believed you regardless of what my father or anything else said. I loved you, and in my heart I knew you weren’t capable of that.” She reached up and touched his face. “Can you forgive me?”

  He smiled down at her. “I forgave you on Thanksgiving Day, the moment I walked through the front door and laid eyes on you.” Gently, he placed kisses along her jawline.

  “Um…Robert?”

  “Hmm?” His attention was focused on the soft spot just below her left earlobe.

  “About the inn.”

  He leaned back just enough to see her face. “Yes?”

  “Can you just sell Shawn’s portion back to me and I’ll keep it in trust for him until he gets out of the military? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not foolish enough to believe Shawn will ever want to run the winery, but I would like it to be there for my future nieces and nephews.”

  “Consider it done.” Robert returned the smile and reaching down he lifted her thigh over his hip. “Have I ever told you how perfectly your body fits mine?”

  Reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck she whispered against his lips, “Maybe once or twice.”

  As he stared into her brown eyes Robert was once again reminded of how close he’d come to missing out on this. And amazingly enough, he realized that sharing a sleeping bag on the floor of a run-down old shed in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years was the only place he wanted to be in the world.

  Gently he placed his lips against hers and took her mouth in a soft kiss, followed by a series of gentler kisses, feather-light touches against her mouth, her cheek, her throat just soaking up the taste of her, the softness of her skin, her sweet smell.

  It had been almost ten years since he’d held this particular woman in his arms and in all those years never had another woman felt so good in his arms, so right to his touch. It was Diana, it had always been Diana and regardless of what tomorrow brought, it would always be Diana. He knew that now and was grateful for the knowledge.

  Diana squirmed beneath his body, trying to feel more of him. Her small hands came over his shoulders, one arm wrapped around his head as she held him in place for her kiss. But there was nothing gentle in her kiss, it was hungry and demanding as her warm tongue pushed his lips apart.

  Robert felt desire shoot through his whole being in response to hers. She was literally heating up. Even through her clothes he could feel the fire building in her. It was reaching for him and he had every intention of meeting her in the middle.

  Leaning to one side, Robert unsnapped her jeans and pulling back the flip he slipped his hand inside her underwear. What he felt there caused him to go rock hard. “You’re so wet,” he whispered against her neck.

  “All I have to do is look at you.” Her mouth returned to his in that same hungry way and Robert instinctively rolled over on top of her again, even as his hand caught between them tried to pull down her jeans.

  Robert was getting frustrated. Obviously, he thought, trying to make love in a cocoon sounded like more fun than it was. “Hang on.”

  He lifted his body long enough to unzip the sleeping bag enough to squirm out of it. He quickly moved across the room and grabbing one of the wood logs tossed it into the fireplace. Returning to Diana he pulled the zipper down the rest of the way and spread the sleeping bag completely open.

  Diana lay in the middle, her legs propped open invitingly, and to Robert she looked like an offering from the gods laying there. With a smile that conveyed every thought he was having at that moment, he quickly undressed her and then sat back on his heels and undressed himself. After that he just sat there looking at her in the dim light of the glowing fire.

  “You are so beautiful.” He ran his thumb over one hardening nipple. “When I decided to come back here I tried so hard to not think about you. I tried to tell myself that you didn’t matter to my plans, that whatever was between us then or now had nothing to do with what I planned to do. But I think that I was lying to myself.”

  Diana’s breathing was labored as she tried to ignore what he was doing to her breast and concentrate on his words. “It’s okay. That’s the past. All that matters is what we do after today.”

  There was so much to say, so much he wanted to tell her but it would have to wait. He laid down beside her, just letting his eyes roam over every inch of her chocolate-brown skin, taking in every sloping curve and valley of her body. A thought occurred to him, and he reached for his pants and pulling a condom from his wallet quickly donned it.

  Despite his absolute certainty that this woman would be the mother of his children until he’d informed her of that decision he could not risk putting her in a bad situation.

  He returned to her side, as his hand went to her hip, letting his fingers float across her silky skin. Just imagining years and years of lying with her like this was enough to melt him from the inside out. How could he have lived without her all these years?

  Robert watched his hand play at her side, slowly sliding back and forth over the contour of her hip, down her thigh, up to her spine and around to her flat stomach only to float down and around her bottom and start the process again.

  He hid his smile as Diana’s breathing became heavier. Finally she blurted, “Are you going to make love to me or just touch me all night?”

  He laughed. “I thought you liked it when I touched you.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  He let his hand float over her stomach and down, down, dangerously close to the center of her womanhood, twisting in the hairs that covered her but no farther. He wanted her to be as desperate for him as he was for her. And despite his control he was indeed desperate for her.

  Her legs fell open enticingly and Robert almost lost it. His eyes went to the damp hair so close to his fingers. She was so wet and ready, how easy it would be to simply cover her body and slip inside her. But he also wanted it to last, and if he did that he knew how quickly it would be over. Almost instantly.

  He leaned forward and swiped his tongue over a hard nipple, and the brown tip puckered even more. He licked again, and then again until finally taking the whole bud in his mouth, Diana’s sharp gasp was almost too much to bear.

  She was reaching the point of desperation, but Robert wanted more, he wanted to make love to her all night and this was only the beginning. He felt her arm between them and looked down to see she was pleasuring herself.

  “No.” He pulled her hand away, lifting it over her head. “That’s mine. You don’t touch it unless I tell you to.”

  Diana whimpered in frustration. “Then do it! Please Robert, please…?. I need… I need…”

  “I know what you need.” Sliding his body down hers, he lifted first one then the other leg over his shoulder and settled between her thighs. He used his fingers to pull back the wet folds of skin, and she finally cried out in anguish as his tongue touched the most sensitive place on her body.

  Instinctively, her hands wrapped around his head to hold him there as her whole being convulsed in orgasmic spasms. “Yes! Oh, Robert, yes, right there.”

  Unable to wait a second longer, Robert came over her body and slid his penis into her deepest depths, again lifting her thigh over his hip to go even deeper to the very center of her being.

  Even as she continued to ride the wave of sensation to the very end, Robert pushed himself inside her snug opening, harder and harder, ramming against her and before long he could feel his seed pouring forth. Wrapping Diana in a tight hold, Robert held on to her as the tremors coursed through his body and as if she held his very survival within hers.

  Chapter 12

  A while later, Robert lay awake staring up at the ceiling of the shed thinking about the day and all that had transpired. “So, exactly what was your game plan anyway?”

  Diana rolled
over on her side pulling her side of the sleeping bag up to cover her. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you obviously brought food and planned to stay here awhile. Or was this just a pit stop on the way to someplace else?” He frowned and turned to face her. “What exactly was the plan? Stay out here and hope I would eventually leave?”

  “Beyond grabbing some stuff out of the fridge and my sleeping bag there was no plan. I just knew I did not want to be in the house when you got up. I didn’t want to face you but I really didn’t have anywhere to go, either. So, I thought of this place and here I am.”

  “Well, I tell you what, next time you get mad at me and want to take off, check the weather reports first, okay?”

  She smiled. “Will do.” A thoughtful expression came over her face. “How did you know where to find me anyway?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. You car was still in the car port so we were pretty sure wherever you went, you went on foot. And I just thought if you were caught in the storm away from the house and winery this would be the next best place to hold up.”

  “We?”

  “Yes, once it was discovered that you were gone everybody’s been looking for you. I told Shawn I would check here. Speaking of which…” He sat up and reached for his jacket. Dragging it off the backpack he reached in the pocket and pulled out his cell phone, never noticing the box that fell out with it.

  He called Shawn. “Hey man, she’s okay.”

  Diana picked up the box and held it, planning to give it back once he completed his conversation.

  “Yeah, she’s here at the shed. Look, instead of trying to head back in the snow we’re just going to wait it out here. But don’t worry, it’s nice and warm in here and we have plenty of wood for the fire.”

  Diana ran her finger over the top of the box and felt the velvet covering. Velvet covering? She glanced down and was surprised to see it was a ring box.

  “We have a sleeping bag. Yeah, and some food, too, right?” He glanced over at Diana and for the first time realized she was holding the box. “Diana, how much food did you bring?”