Love for the Holidays (five book Christmas bundle)

by Noelle Adams

  He didn’t wait for a response, but he didn’t rush either. His other hand curled against her jaw, and she saw his lips part, his eyelids drop, his nose tilt away, and as his breath touched her mouth, everything slipped out of focus and it was all warm and muzzy and delicious.

  Lips on lips. Lips parting, then tongues dancing, teeth nipping, then after breaking apart for ragged breaths, they crashed together again, hungry and needy.

  “Open your present,” she whispered, pressing her hips up and into his erection.

  “Can I open you first?”

  “It’s related, trust me.”

  Kyle eased back enough to twist and grab the bag. “It’s heavy for a sex toy.”

  She giggled. She didn’t giggle, ever. Except, apparently, when around Kyle. Or maybe it was Wardham, although she didn’t remember being this…whatever this was on previous trips. It was fun being this different Laney. He reached into the bag and pulled out the four-pack. “Red Bull?”

  “You used to love the stuff.”

  “When we had to pull all-nighters, studying. I haven’t drunk it in years.”

  “It reminded me of you.” Laney angled toward him, stealing a quick kiss. “Keep going.”

  “Okay. Thank you, for the Red Bull. Maybe I’ll go on a road trip in the summer.”

  Come to Chicago. Her heart thumped. That was lunacy. This was a bit of fun to get Kyle out of her system. She didn’t want to start anything up again. She’d sworn as much to her sister and mother, and she’d been telling the truth. Her stomach twisted, and she swallowed hard.

  He pulled out the second gift. “Peanut butter?”

  “For Buddy. There’s a related—”

  A black and white streak shot across the room as Kyle held up the hollow purple ball.

  “It’ll keep him occupied while we use the last gift,” she whispered, suddenly nervous.

  He gave her a curious look and slid the tin out of the bag. “Altoids?”

  She grinned. Fake it till you make it. “You bet. Leave the Red Bull here and follow me.”

  She swirled past him, letting her fingers trail across his lower abdomen as she stepped toward the living area. Her coat hit the floor, followed by her top, and she turned in the middle of the room, wearing yoga pants and a black bra. Kyle paced toward her, heat rolling off him. As he reached her, she sank to her knees and parted her lips. “May I have a mint, sir?”

  Kyle groaned and opened the package. She stuck her tongue out to accept the candy he offered, drawing it into her mouth. He held onto it for a minute, feeling the warmth of her mouth around his fingers, then he slipped them out and swiped her lower lip with the pad of his thumb. “Your mouth looks so damn good glistening wet like that.”

  Laney smirked and fluttered her eyelashes. “You say the nicest things,” she murmured, tugging at his belt buckle. She was eager to have him in her mouth, a curious fact that she didn’t want to explore right at that moment. Or ever. She breathed in and out, steadying her nerves.

  Kyle groaned as Laney slipped her hand into his open jeans and wrapped her cool fingers around his straining cock. His ass flexed on its own when she slid her hand up and down the shaft, and he barely kept his hips from thrusting into her face. He had loved her mouth on him the other day, and wanted more. He stroked her hair, resisting the urge to wrap his fist around her ponytail. “I can’t wait to be inside you,” he said with a growl.

  She shook her head. “This isn’t a prelude to anything. I saw that tin and all I could think of was making you finish in my mouth.”

  He twitched against her hand. That was the only part of him that wasn’t speechless.

  “I’ve never done that with anyone, you know.”

  That low confession tore him to pieces. For all her bravado, Laney was still that same sweet girl he used to know, and he wasn’t sure they were doing the right thing, in this moment or in general. Worse than that was he didn’t care enough to stop. Her pink lips parted in anticipation and he stroked her cheek, first with his fingers, then more firmly with his thumb, encouraging her to open. Her eyes widened for a second, and he worried he was being too crude, but then they sparked with wicked delight, and she darted her tongue out and around the head of his shaft.

  She didn’t take him into her mouth right away, and while he couldn’t contain the odd groan or cock twitch, he let her set the pace. This was her gift, and he appreciated any variation she might offer. She licked, breathed, and nuzzled his sex. She wasn’t teasing or playing a game. She was exploring his body, figuring out exactly what he liked. It was a level of intimacy he’d only ever had with her, and as he stared down at this amazing, one-of-a-kind woman, he feared he might never find it again.

  She pushed his hands into her hair, encouraging him to show her what pace he wanted as she took more of his length into her mouth, and any worry was pushed out of his brain as she swirled her magic minty tongue along his shaft. It was hot and cold at the same time, and he couldn’t stop his hips from jerking forward. His eyes rolled back in his head and he gave himself over to the soft, rocking sensations. The coordination of hand and mouth was tentative at first, then bolder. She wobbled her head back and forth, in an alternating pattern to her soft hand sliding around the base of him. Jesus. Her carnal rhythm was hitting all of his buttons, particularly one big button on the underside of his swollen knob—which, goddamn it, her tongue just swirled over. He jerked his hips and she hummed her pride around his cock. He pried his eyes open and gazed down at her. Shit, she looks so fucking pleased with herself. As she should.

  “I’m close, sweet—uhhhhhh—so close…”

  She maintained a steady rhythm, her cheeks hollowing ever so slightly as she worked him toward his release. He was afraid his knees might buckle, but she shook her head when he tapped her shoulder. She wanted this, and heaven help him, so did he, even if it felled him.

  “Fuuuu—uhhhh—Laney. Oh. Here it comes. Fuck!” He exploded in her mouth, and all around her, his body crumpling forward, and oh yeah, there went his knees. She eased him to the floor in front of her and he wove his fingers into her hair, burying her face in his heaving chest. He was dazed, overwhelmed in the aftermath of a spectacular blow job. He should probably tell her just how good it was, although his physical reaction pretty much gave that away. “Wow. I knew I liked your mouth, but…wow.”

  She climbed into his lap, careful to avoid pressing on his well-used center. She glowed with satisfaction. “That was fun.”

  “Yeah?”

  She nodded.

  “Give me a minute, and I’m going to return the favour.”

  “Oh, no. You don’t have—”

  “Okay, first of all? I want to. Want. To. More than you can know.”

  A notched eyebrow made him laugh. “Okay, maybe you know. Making you come undone…” he mouthed the side of her neck, “…watching you climax…” he moved to the pulse point at the base of her neck as she shivered, “…licking you into unconsciousness—”

  “Hey, what?” Laney pulled herself up tall, as tall as she could get while sitting on a half-naked man. “That sounds more traumatizing than hot.”

  “Crap, and I was on a roll. Pass me an Altoid and I’ll put my tongue to better use.” He waggled his eyebrow at her and she laughed, but then he growled and she leapt for the tin.

  Nine

  Laney rolled to her feet and grabbed her yoga pants. “That was spectacular. We’re going to have to do that again before I head back to Chicago.”

  She turned away from Kyle as he pushed himself up off the floor, busying herself with getting dressed and straightening her ponytail. She hated the nasty tug in her gut that told her she wanted more than one more time, hoped he might take that road trip next summer, because she’d never get enough of him. She hated that she hadn’t seen it coming. It wasn’t love, but it was addictive, and that was too dangerous to be let loose. She was just establishing boundaries, for both their sakes.

  “Boxing Day? When are you leaving? I
’m busy tomorrow but yeah, I want to do that again.” He pulled her back against his chest and covered her abdomen with his big warm hands. “Maybe at the same time. And then I want to bury myself inside you.”

  She shivered at the image, wanting Kyle on top of her right there. “No fair, I have to go.” Was it rude to suggest sneaking away from their families on Christmas Day for a hookup? Probably. Definitely. Get a grip, Laney, you can go two more days without sex with Kyle. Good practice for the rest of your life. “Yes, Boxing Day. I’ll come over. I think Evie’s taking the kids to Dale’s place for the day. And then … I’m probably leaving the day after that.” It was a little white lie, she wasn’t planning on leaving until the 30th, but things could change.

  Kyle squeezed and she could feel him press his face into her hair. “Then let’s make our last time together a good one.”

  When two days had gone by without hearing from Laney after her first visit to his house, Kyle had convinced himself that she just wanted to sleep with him once for closure. The possibility of not tasting her again pained him, but he needed to accept what she was willing to offer on her terms. But now she’d stopped by again. On Christmas Eve. He couldn’t help but hope that meant something. Because he wanted more. A lot more. The sex was off-the-charts, and if she’d be open to it, hell yes he’d drive to Chicago for a booty call. Probably more than once. He wasn’t stupid enough to think Laney would ever open her heart to him again, but he’d tried searching for love elsewhere and failed miserably. And broken yet another heart in the process. He was done hoping he might find his everything in another person, but he’d stumbled into something spectacular with Laney again. Something would have to be enough, and if he had anything to say about it, Boxing Day wouldn’t be the last time they were together.

  His ringing cell phone snapped his attention back to the moment at hand. He glanced down the low reclaimed wood coffee table beside him and saw his niece’s photo on the call display.

  “Do you need to get that? I can let myself out.” She was fully dressed again, a lingering warmth in her cheeks the only evidence that they had just devoured each other.

  Kyle shook his head. “It’s my brother, I’ll call him once you go. Probably just wants me to pick stuff up on my way to my parents’ farm.”

  “If you stop at the grocery store, be prepared for the third degree by Karen Miller.”

  “Oh god, I’m sorry. Did you see her this morning? She’s a gossip.”

  She shrugged. “I think she’s trying to be a good friend to you. I’ll be honest, I prefer the anonymity of the big city, but it can’t be said that people don’t care here. I also got asked if I’d seen you by a few people at the coffee shop.”

  Kyle grabbed her coat off the floor and held it out for her. “Again, I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t see what you have to be sorry about. It’s the nature of small towns.”

  “It’s more than that,” Kyle shifted back on his heels. “My break up with Crystal was pretty public.”

  She turned, her lips pursed.

  “She, uh…she had the idea that I was still hung up on you.”

  “And everyone in town knows this?”

  He nodded, two awkward little jerks of the head, his gaze drifting over her shoulder.

  Laney zipped her coat up and moved closer to the fridge, looking at the family photo taken at his parents’ farm. Crystal was partially covered by more recent candids of his niece and nephew. She peeled back one of the pictures to get a better look. His arm was wrapped around Crystal’s waist and she was leaning into his side.

  “You look like a serious couple here.”

  “We were. We lived together for a year.”

  “What happened?”

  “We broke up.”

  “Why?”

  Kyle didn’t want to answer that question.

  She turned, leveling a far too insightful gaze at him. “When did you break up exactly?”

  “Two years ago.”

  “At Christmas?”

  “In November.”

  “Around my dad’s funeral.”

  His heart was pounding in his chest. This wasn’t how this conversation was supposed to go. “Yes, but…”

  “What happened?”

  “I’m not hung up on you. I promise you that. There’s a part of me that will always love the Laney I used to date, and I obviously like the Laney that you’ve become, but I’m not confused about what’s possible and what’s not.”

  “What happened?” She didn’t look mad, but she was guarded in a way he hadn’t seen since she’d first come over the other day. Giggling, teasing Laney had left the building.

  He took a deep breath. “I got drunk after I saw you. I don’t really do that anymore. I had a few wild years after you left, and then I put that behind me. So Crystal had never seen me blitzed. She didn’t like it. And I was rambling on about how I should have seized the opportunity to talk to you, tell you that I forgave you for leaving—”

  “Excuse me?” She flared with anger and he reached out to calm her.

  “—which I realize now is ridiculous and all on me, I promise. But I was rambling, and then we were fighting. We never fought. We had a simple, easy life together, and then in one big bang it was over. I don’t even remember exactly what was said, but I slept on the couch and the next day she boxed up everything I owned and kicked me out.”

  “This is all just … too weird. And why am I involved exactly?”

  “You’re the golden girl of Wardham, didn’t you know that? The fancy doctor.” He grinned, hoping that she’d take his teasing as an olive branch. “The town took that opportunity to rehash how I broke your heart. I got a bit defensive at first, I admit, but then I realized they were right.”

  “I had no idea. My mom…my sister…they didn’t say anything. I would have thought everyone would have forgotten about me.”

  He took a chance and stepped forward to pull her against his chest. “Impossible to forget you, Laney.” He kissed her head. “Now, you have to go before your mother figures out what we’ve been doing. Please tell me that you’re still coming over on Boxing Day.”

  She took her time responding. She squeezed her lips together and opened the front door. Backlit by sunlight, all he could see was wisps of blond hair and a face in shadow. Kyle felt an unexpected pressure in his chest. He should have come clean fully the other day, instead of letting his dick take over.

  “This would be a lot for anyone to deal with,” she said in a quick breath. “Luckily I think emotions are overrated. And you’re fantastic in the sack, so yeah, you’ll see me again.”

  And with that she was gone. Kyle thought he heard a little giggle as the door clicked shut, but it was probably wishful thinking.

  The farmhouse was empty when Laney returned, a small miracle for which she would be eternally thankful. Evie had propped a note next to the kettle, explaining that she had taken the boys sledding, and they’d be home at noon. She glanced at the clock and decided to put some soup on for lunch, a gesture that was much appreciated when two frosty little boys bustled in twenty minutes later.

  “Isn’t Mom with you?”

  Evie shook her head. “She popped over to Ted’s with some cookies. I thought she’d be back by now.”

  Laney notched one eyebrow at her sister, who rolled her eyes. “What? It’s possible. It’s been two years. I’m not saying they’re in love, but she’s a beautiful woman with lots of life still to live.”

  “Bite your tongue, Laney. Besides, I think there were a bunch of them meeting over there.”

  “Them?”

  “There’s an informal group of older single people, they play bridge and gossip.”

  “Hot stuff.”

  Evie laughed. “Don’t make fun, we’re not far off from that ourselves.”

  It was Laney’s turn to roll her eyes now, and without thinking, she said, “I can think of a number of better things to do with a willing and able man.”

  Evie s
hot her sons a quick glance, but they were absorbed in debate about the best Transformer. “Do any of them at Kyle’s place today?”

  “Evie!” She felt the heat flood up her chest and spread across her face. So much for not caring if she was caught. “Uhhhh. I stopped there. To talk.”

  “Is that why you just turned purple? It’s not the best look for you, you’re too fair to pull it off.” Evie leapt out of swiping range as Laney lunged at her. “It’s okay, little sister, rumour has it that you’re a trained medical professional, I’m sure whatever you did was entirely clinical.”

  She groaned and buried her face in her hands. “Don’t tell Mom. Please. It’s…I don’t know. It’s a fling, it’s something we just need to get out of our systems. I’m not deluding myself into thinking it’s anything else.”

  Evie waved in the air, abandoning the conversation. “Okay, mum’s the word. I think you’re playing with fire, but maybe you need to get burned.”

  Claire returned from across the road shortly after lunch, carrying a tin of all butter shortbread courtesy of one of the bridge players, which Laney happily dug into while thumbing her nose at her sister.

  “You two are worse than Connor and Max, seriously. Now, what should we do this afternoon? Puzzles? Charades? Monopoly?”

  The boys started hopping in excitement at the last option, so Claire and Laney joined them in a rousing competition of real estate development while Evie busied herself in the kitchen, popping in occasionally to capture some of the tenser moments on video. By four o’clock, it was obvious that Connor was going to slowly bleed them all dry with his hotel resort complex on Boardwalk and Park Place, and before Max threw a low-blood sugar induced hissy fit about losing, Claire suggested that they call it a game and get cleaned up for dinner.

  Max immediately protested having to put on fancy clothes, a campaign Connor could support with ease, so while the boys pled their case to the unswaying judges of holiday decorum, their mother and grandmother, Laney snuck away to grab the first shower. Scrubbed clean, she considered the two holiday outfits laid out on her bed: a dark green jersey dress with long sleeves and a cowl neck, and black pants and a sparkly red top. She had planned to wear the red top for Christmas morning, to go with an elf hat that she picked up, but the growing darkness prompted her to grab the pants. The hat would go just as nicely with the dress, and she would be less likely to be asked to sit on the floor and play with the boys in the morning when they are absorbed in their new toys.