Love for the Holidays (five book Christmas bundle)

by Noelle Adams

  They moved as one, slow at first, then with more urgency as they climbed toward release. He felt her climax build, felt her flutter around him, and it hastened his own need. He reached between them to tease her clit, and she responded by crying out his name. That did it. His name spilling from her lips and he slammed home, hoping to hell he’d gotten her there.

  As the dull roar faded, he realized two things. One, Laney was boneless and blissed out on top of him. Good. And two, he was still hard. He flexed his cock inside her, and she gasped.

  “Again?”

  He nodded and rolled again, pinning her beneath him, alternating tender kisses and hard thrusts. He covered her entire body with his, filling her up with passion and fire, promising companionship, adventure, understanding, support and adoration.

  Seventeen

  As soon as she heard the knock at the door, Laney realized she’d forgotten to make an important phone call.

  “Are you expecting someone?” Kyle asked from the bedroom. She bit her lip and pulled on a robe. “Laney? Do you want me to get the door?”

  She stepped into view and winced. “There’s something that I forgot to mention.”

  He laid Ty’s tuxedo jacket on the bed, crossed his arms and raised one eyebrow. “Oh?”

  She licked her lips. This wasn’t that big a deal. “That—” the knock sounded again “—is my date for the evening.”

  Without a word, Kyle turned and stalked to the front door. Laney hurried after him, admiring his long legs and tight ass in his black suit pants. Not the time, Calhoun. Even though she knew he didn’t have anything to be jealous over, this was crappy timing. Kyle grabbed the handle and swung the door open just as Rick raised his hand to knock for a third time.

  “About time, Laney, leaving a cripple—Oh!” The two men sized each other up. One half-dressed and in her home. The other…“Hi. Rick Masters. I, uh, thought I was taking Laney to the gala tonight.”

  She bobbed her head around Kyle’s shoulder. “Hey Rick. I’m sorry, I should have called. This is Kyle.”

  “Her boyfriend.” For good measure, her boyfriend flexed his broad shoulders and she pushed back the instinct to roll her eyes. “I’ll be escorting Laney tonight. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

  He wasn’t actually sorry, but it wasn’t this shmuck’s fault that plans had changed. Shit happens. Kyle made room for Laney to step forward to stand even with him. As much as he wanted to close the door and get back to watching her dress, this was her guest to deal with. He harnessed his inner caveman and deferred to her with a nod. She shot him a quick look that told him it was all a bit belated and he shrugged. Again, shit happens.

  “Rick, would you mind heading on without me? We’ll see you there, I’m sure.” Laney smiled sweetly, and the guy on crutches nodded. “I’m sorry about this, I should have called. It just slipped my mind.”

  “Of course.” He shot a quick glance at Kyle, then opened his mouth as if he was going to ask a question. Thinking better of it, he nodded again and turned to the elevator.

  Laney turned and glided to her bedroom faster than Kyle would have thought possible. He made sure the front door closed firmly before following.

  “You want to tell me what that was all about?” He filled the ensuite bathroom doorway, his stance wide, his arms crossed again. She glanced at him for a moment before she resumed applying her makeup in the mirror. “When did you make this date with that guy?”

  “Settle down. It’s not what you think. We’re colleagues, and Rick has escorted me to many of these events. He knew that tonight was just sharing a car.”

  “So you haven’t had sex with him?”

  Laney’s cheeks flushed pink, but the way her nostrils flared told him it wasn’t out of embarrassment. “We weren’t going to have sex tonight, and that’s what should matter to you.” She took a deep breath. “We used to…have a casual understanding. It ended before I went home for Christmas.”

  His turn for nostril flaring. He couldn’t help it.

  She sighed and softened her tone. “It was never like what we have.”

  Kyle pursed his lips. That wasn’t what he had wanted to hear, but she was right. The past didn’t matter. He took a deep breath and apologized for being a lunkhead. She flashed a ready smile and he relaxed against the door frame. She put the finishing touches on her face and turned toward him. She glowed. The professional hair and makeup she’d had done earlier were nice, but this was his Laney. Her hair was down, shiny golden waves spilling over her shoulders, and her makeup just accented her natural colouring.

  “You are the most beautiful woman in the world,” he said huskily, and her wide eyes and parted lips told him his earlier alpha male display was forgiven. Or at least forgotten. “Can I help you get into your dress?”

  “Will it actually make it on?” she teased, moving toward her closet. A pale pink satin gown hung on the closet door, but she dropped her robe and stepped past it, searching inside.

  Kyle sucked in a breath at the glimpse of her long bare legs topped by barely there nude-coloured lace boy shorts. “Maybe not.”

  “I was going to wear that pink dress, but now I’m thinking this one might be more appropriate.” Laney drifted into view, holding a mass of red tulle to her chest. “It doesn’t have a hood, but…”

  Kyle stepped back, not trusting himself to be within touching range. He cleared his throat and gestured for her to put it on. She turned her back to him, and his eyes devoured her heart shaped ass as it bobbed around in front of him. She smoothed out the tulle, and finding the center of the dress, stepped in. Once she had the bodice up and around her chest, she looked over her shoulder.

  “Mr. Wolf, do you think you could zip me up?”

  “Only if you come closer, little one.” His cock strained at the fly of his tuxedo pants, and he thought about telling her to put on the pink dress instead. He wouldn’t make it through the night playing nice. She backed up, her eyes locked on his, and he reached forward. He grasped the zipper tag between his thumb and middle finger, letting his index finger blaze a trail up her spine as he inched the dress together, covering her delectable spine at a painfully slow pace.

  After doing up the hook and eye just under her shoulder blades, he slid his hands to her hips and turned her around. She looked like an ethereal fairy, her skirt made up of a number of layers of floaty red tulle, her snug bodice covered in the same material. “We’d better go before I bite you.”

  Her eyes flared bright at the suggestion, and he pulled her into the cradle of his hips. His chest was hot with excitement, like he just might rip his suit open and discover he was Superman. Laney did that to him, made him feel invincible. A quick glance at his watch reminded him that the love of his life had an important public event to get to, and he guided them to the door. She stepped into black pumps, grabbed her wrap and handbag, and they were off.

  Tension zinged between them all night. The gala was in a modern event facility in the West Loop, and the glass and white decor was enhanced by a curtain of white lights along the far wall and large black and white photographs of staff and patients from the hospital hanging on the wall like precious art. Everyone that Kyle met raved about Laney’s dedication to her patients and her willingness to support the fundraising efforts. He learned about the extraordinary costs that families face when they have a child in the hospital for an extended period of time, and he understood why Laney couldn’t leave this community behind. He had accepted that as a fact before, but now it truly made sense.

  Shortly before midnight he left her in deep discussion with a donor and went in search of something with which to toast the new year. Waiters were circulating with trays of champagne flutes, but they were being snapped up quickly. He managed to snag two glasses on the far side of the room and turned to find Laney again.

  “So, you’re her…boyfriend.” Rick swung into view.

  Kyle nodded, and took a sip of champagne.

  “I didn’t think Laney did boyfrie
nds.”

  Kyle didn’t owe this guy any explanations, and he didn’t want to say anything that she might object to, but he couldn’t help but want to clearly stake his claim. “It’s a recent philosophical change, I believe.”

  “How’d you meet?”

  “We went to elementary school together.” He had first noticed Laney, really noticed her, at a school-wide cross country run when she was in grade six and he was in grade seven. She’d kicked his ass, and he felt the first pangs of pre-teen lust as her long blond ponytail waved back and forth in front of him as she pulled away toward the finish line. He could still remember that she had been wearing a yellow t-shirt and tight black running shorts. She became a part of his life that day, imprinted on him so he was always aware of her presence. On the schoolyard. At the beach. At bush bonfires. As she got older, he wound tight at the thought of her hooking up with someone else, but something held him back. He loved her from afar for ten years before she kissed him. And he had been so damn nervous, his palms sweaty, legs shaking. Fear. He had been riddled with fear, even once they started dating. Fear is what made him push her away at the end of that summer. It kept him from happiness for another twelve years. He had been searching for someone to fit into his life. He felt like an asshole for not realizing until he was thirty-four that his life was wherever Laney needed to be. “I’m moving to Chicago in the summer.”

  “Tonight was a big success.”

  “Mmmm.” She leaned into Kyle’s chest and closed her eyes. It was a short cab ride to her condo, but she wouldn’t last that long. “I’m so sleepy.”

  “Then head to Grandma’s house,” he whispered. “You can crawl into the bed there, I’m sure it’s safe.”

  She shivered against him. Her eyes didn’t open, but her hand sought out his erection and palmed it leisurely. His fingers circled her bare shoulder under her wrap. The anticipation had been building all night. She had considered dragging him into one of the conference rooms on the upper level of the event space that she had seen at a planning meeting, but the professional Laney had won that battle. Getting caught having sex by a colleague, or worse, a donor, would have ruined the night.

  But now they were alone.

  “My, what big hands you have,” she whispered.

  “That’s not my hand,” he muttered, gripping her shoulder.

  She giggled. “And what big teeth you have.”

  “The better to bite you with, my dear.”

  “Better be a promise,” she breathed, pressing closer.

  He leaned in as if to kiss her, then ducked his head lower, running his mouth down her neck, nipping all the hot spots.

  “Come closer, little one.” His mouth was higher again, at her ear, and then it was his tongue that she felt, just the tip, tracing the outside edge of her cartilage.

  She closed the last few gaps between their bodies, plastering herself against him just in time for the cab to come to a stop in front of her building. Kyle pulled cash out of his pocket and shoved her out the door.

  “Hey!” She protested, but she too felt the urgency. His arm was a steel band around her waist as he propelled her onto the elevator, where he made short work of finding her underwear and ripping them out from under her dress.

  “Mr. Wolf,” she panted. “I don’t think that my grandmother would approve.”

  He growled and slid two fingers inside her, the palm of his hand rocking back and forth over her clit. She lifted one leg, wrapping it around his rock hard thigh, giving him deeper access.

  “You’ve got fifteen seconds to come on my hand, sweetheart,” he muttered. His erection was pressed into the soft skin at the top of her standing leg, a few centimeters from her hot, wet core, and with each crooked pass of his fingertips over her g-spot, she could feel him swell a bit more.

  “I want you inside me,” she moaned, her hips swaying to pull their cores together.

  He pressed her harder against the elevator wall, and slid his fingers out of her pussy. One finger trailed a lazy circle around her clit, and she felt the clenching start before he spoke again.

  “Come for me,” he said, his voice low and tight. “Let me feel you coat my hand.”

  He swirled around her clit once more, and as the elevator doors opened, she spasmed hard, her entire body jerking against him, and as her thighs slid together, trapping his hand, he got the flood of wetness he wanted.

  The reality of what they’d just done crashed around her as she took her first uncomfortable step toward her front door.

  Kyle slid his arm around her, rubbing circles on her side. “You okay?”

  “We just…in the elevator. What if someone else got on?”

  He pressed her up against her front door. “No one did. If they had, I’d have dropped your leg and it would have looked like we were just kissing. It’s New Year’s Eve, it’s allowed.”

  “Oh my god. I think there are security cameras. Oh god.” She sank back against the wall.

  Kyle chuckled and eased her forward toward the kitchen. “Come on, Little Red Riding Hood. Let’s get you a glass of water.”

  Laney humphed and stomped ahead of him. “It’s not funny. You aren’t actually the Big Bad Wolf. You’re the level-headed one, what were you thinking?”

  He washed his hands, then poured her a glass of water. She was parched, and her heart was still pounding. And he stood there, calm, and still clearly turned on.

  “I was thinking that it would be fun to finger you in the elevator.” He pulled her against him, and unzipped her dress. “Since I overheard the security guards talking about how the video camera system is being upgraded next week, I knew there’s no recording happening over the holiday.”

  Relief washed over her. “You…you…you are in fact the Big Bad Wolf.”

  He smiled, clearly pleased with himself. “I try. And it was good, yes?”

  She swallowed hard and nodded.

  “Good. Then what were you saying about things being big?”

  She raised her arms, letting her dress fall to the floor. “I don’t remember, but I can tell that you aren’t my grandmother.”

  Laney turned and ran for the bedroom. Kyle got tangled up in the puffy ball of tulle at his feet for a second, and by the time he got there, she was sliding backward onto the bed. He stripped off his jacket.

  “Say it.”

  “My, what long arms you have,” she whispered.

  He unbuttoned his shirt. “The better to hold you with.”

  “And, uhm. What big eyes you have.”

  “The better to see you with.” He dropped his cufflinks on the side table. “Spread your legs for me.”

  She complied, licking her lips. “And Mr. Wolf, what strong legs you have.”

  He stepped out of his shoes and socks, then lost his pants. “The better to chase you with.”

  She paused, and his cock flexed, urging her to finish the game. Her eyes moved back to his face and her lips parted. He shed his boxer briefs and climbed between her legs.

  “Oh, yes,” she panted. “What a big…”

  He reached between them and spread her moisture with the tip of his erection. “Say it.”

  “What a big cock you have, Mr. Wolf.” She whispered the words so faintly he almost didn’t hear them.

  He sank into her a few inches, then pulled out, causing her to whimper, but then he was deeper again, and on the third press, in to the hilt. He lay his full weight on top of her for a moment, and pressed his mouth to her ear. “The better to make love to you, Laney.”

  Eighteen

  “What are you going to do while I’m at work today?”

  Kyle watched Laney pull on black dress pants and a pale blue sweater. It was almost spring according to the calendar, but Chicago was in the midst of being walloped with one last blast of winter. One benefit of staying at Laney’s condo for the week—no driveway to shovel. “Shopping, then meeting that teacher I told you about for coffee.”

  She glanced at him, then her watch. They d
idn’t have time to get into this argument again. He thought that she’d be happy he was looking for jobs. He thought wrong. Skepticism rippled across her face, and he resisted the urge to curse.

  She seemed content with the routine they had fallen into since Christmas. They were each making the drive once a month, so they had every other weekend together, as well as nightly conversations and more inappropriate text messages than he’d ever imagined possible. It was good, but it could be so much better. And when they weren’t together…maybe Laney was busy enough not to miss him, but all that he had enjoyed before now paled in comparison to the 48 hours he got with her every fortnight. Even the January crush of report card prep hadn’t filled the void. And on the weekends she visited him, he hated having to share her with her family, which made him an asshole. He couldn’t get enough of her, and there was only one solution to that problem. He had to move to Chicago, sooner than later.

  Convincing Laney was proving a challenge. He appreciated that she didn’t want to rush him, but damn it, why did it feel like she still doubted he was in this relationship one hundred percent?

  He stalked out of the bedroom instead of voicing that question. The answer was obvious, and she had to get to work. Asking it would just lead to a fight that he could script himself anyway. He’d proven his selfishness a long time ago, and a few road trips wouldn’t change that. Until he actually made the move to Chicago, she would keep a small part of herself locked up in case he broke her heart.

  He yanked the tin of coffee and a filter out of the cupboard and jerked the carafe out of the coffee maker hard enough to move the machine a few inches toward the sink. The rush of cold water at the sink almost disguised Laney’s approach, but he felt her warmth a second before she pressed her body full against his back and wrapped her arms around his waist. Her mere touch calmed him. Their relationship was still new, for all of their history, and if this was their only speed bump they were doing okay. Real life was bound to be messy. They were going to disagree about life decisions.