Her Surprise Christmas Noel: Four women, one pact: find a date for Christmas (Christmas Kisses Book 2)

by Kenna Shaw Reed

  “Why aren’t you spending Christmas with your family?” I asked out of the blue.

  “Why are you?”

  “Because dad’s been sick.”

  “Bullshit. Why are you going?”

  “I told you—”

  “Bullshit. Why are you going home for Christmas, Stephanie?”

  The shock of him remembering my real name opened up my truth, “Because I love them and miss them so much that thinking about all the years, I’ve missed because of my stupid pride hurts. A lot.”

  “I don’t.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not spending Christmas with my father because he’ll expect the woman he’s with to think about trading him in for his younger and richer son.”

  “She wouldn’t?”

  “They’ve tried. Dad doesn’t do relationships but he sure as hell doesn’t want his girlfriends to be checking out his son as their next opportunity and his latest girlfriend is a complication I don’t need.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t have any words of wisdom. “What about your mother?”

  “Mummy dearest is happily married, again, and won’t want to be reminded of her age by admitting to an adult son.”

  “Oh.”

  “JoJo,” he sighed, stretching out the full length of our bed, his toes almost hanging over the end. “I’m happy to take you to your family for Christmas. I wish it was a happy holiday for me, but I’ve spent my life learning to accept my family is great at business and lousy at whatever a family is supposed to be.”

  “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For making my Christmas come true. You could have left me in Sydney or at the airport. Thank you.”

  “Get some sleep.”

  “What about my hundred dollars?”

  “Sweetheart, you are almost dead to the world. Get some sleep and show me your bag tomorrow.”

  Sleep would be good, but I wanted to show Noel a lot more than the contents of my bag.

  Like, what I had on underneath my pajamas.

  Noel

  I held my position for three hundred seconds before shifting again.

  Yes, I could try and blame a strange bed, or not wanting to brush up and disturb the carefully positioned pillows between me and JoJo.

  I could even blame not wanting to roll over and accidentally reach out for her. Out of longing, not habit.

  Last time I’d wanted to spend a whole night with a woman, well it seemed almost sacrilege to try and remember the woman’s name with JoJo next to me, finding it equally impossible to sleep.

  Talk about an insane day. For the first time since the lead up to my sixteenth birthday, I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol two days before Christmas. A record. Stone, cold, sober.

  Happy and incredibly, painfully, horny. But sober.

  How the hell was I supposed to sleep next to a gorgeous woman. Those white pajamas hadn’t hidden her body. If anything, the tiny shorts showed off her inner thighs, and I was sure she hadn’t realized the red presents on her white buttoned top were positioned exactly where I remembered her nipples to be.

  Trying to get comfortable became impossible without moving but I didn’t want to keep disturbing her. But how on earth could I safely drive all day tomorrow without sleep?

  “Can’t sleep?” A soft voice from the other side of the world, or at least our pillow wall.

  “What about you?” Allowing my response to be my answer.

  “I can’t believe you agreed to all of this.”

  “Did I have a choice?”

  “You always have a choice.”

  “If I’d left you there, I’d be awake right now telling some random barman what a jerk I’d been and wishing I had your number to make sure you arrived safely.”

  “I’m safe.”

  “Not if I don’t get any sleep tonight.”

  “Why can’t you sleep?”

  “Why can’t you?” I hoped she wouldn’t blame the pain. Each wince tore at my guilty conscious.

  “Oh. Same.” Not the response I expected, but I couldn’t exactly tell her what was on my mind. Hey, JoJo, I think the only way I’m gonna sleep tonight is if I can be inside you.

  “We’d be saving lives if we just—” I could at least start the sentence and see where it landed me.

  “What?” Confused but not insulted, I could take her response as a win, or back away gracefully.

  “Talk?” Okay, my erection was never going to forgive me for chickening out. What man ever wanted to talk to a sexy woman in bed?

  “I can’t hear you with these stupid pillows.” I sat up to see her trying to pull the pillows out of the way.

  “Let me.” Tossing them aside, I demolished our carefully crafted wall in seconds. Wanting to link my legs around hers, except for the bloody moon boot in the way. Damn, I was going to approach the enemy and hope like crazy she didn’t shoot me down. “If I’m going to pretend to be your boyfriend, I should at least know how you like to be kissed.”

  “Depends.” Her smiling face turned to me, allowing her beautiful eyes to bounce moonbeams.

  “On?”

  “My mood and how much time we have.”

  “We’ve got all night.”

  “Then I don’t want a rush job.”

  I didn’t wait for a second invitation. Careful not to bump her shoulder or leg, I tried to climb over to her good side. Not my finest hour in the graceful seduction stakes, but it became one of those non-funny romantic comedies when the hero proves to be anything but.

  “What are you doing?” While JoJo clutched at her side laughing, I blushed and felt like getting a dozen ex-girlfriends on speed dial to give JoJo references to erase her judging me on tonight. “Clumsy isn’t sexy.”

  “You said you didn’t want a rush job; I figured a workman puts effort into planning.”

  “You’re planning how to kiss me?”

  “Okay, I’ll start again.” Except this time, her good leg trapped me as I tried to climb. Fine. Instead of collapsing down, I mentally thanked all the hours in the gym that allowed me to hold a plank firm despite the wobbly mattress.

  “I’m planning how to do a lot more than kiss you.”

  “Talk is cheap.” Yet another challenge I couldn’t resist.

  Holding the plank firm, trusting my arms not to give way, I bent my elbows low enough to find her lips. The lightest touch before I backed, lifting until I was out of reach.

  It started off teasing JoJo. Until it became testing my own self-control. Small, delicate kisses. Each one filling my body with oxygen, willing me to do it again.

  And again.

  And again.

  “Damn you, either kiss me properly or give me back my wall.”

  “Are you asking me to rush my work?”

  “No, but I’m begging you not to take all night.”

  JoJo

  Oh, my starry nights!

  Noel Roberts knew how to love.

  After our comical beginning, which I appreciated for erasing the awkwardness of our situation, he took control.

  I might have been able to ignore him in the car, or even as we ate dinner side by side. But I couldn’t mistake or ignore the man holding himself erect over me. Teasing me, holding his body out of reach, and denying me his kisses until I wanted to scream. Seriously, I was so long out of practice that I almost wished for an instruction manual, mainly because I wasn’t confident that my broken and bruised body was up for the challenge.

  His head bending in for our first kiss, my lips welcomed him like an old and familiar friend. I swear my heart stopped for full minutes as his tongue found mine and explored what became his.

  My body became his at first touch! With each kiss, I craved another. And another. Until I wanted everything and more.

  We’d stopped bitching, complaining, and fighting. In this bed, we were perfectly in tune. At least for one night.

  “JoJo,” he moaned, gently falling to my left side. Avoiding my injured shoulder an
d leg. “We don’t have to.”

  “Oh, I think we do.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “Because—” I trailed off. Words failing me as much as sleep. “Because all we did today was argue.”

  “You don’t strike me as someone who sleeps with everyone they fight with.”

  “I don’t. I can’t remember fighting with anyone as much as I have with you.”

  “Fight by day and make love by night? I think we can sell that to your parents.” I didn’t have to feel his touch through my moon boot to be aroused. He’d found another way to tease me. Making me want him in ways I couldn’t remember ever wanting a man.

  “Noel,” I teased. “If you want to do more than kiss me, how about you stop talking about my parents.”

  “Oh, if they could see their little girl now!”

  Noel’s fingers switched focus, tracing their way up my good leg, tantalizing circles, slowly creeping as my breath quickened and my hand was brushed away from returning the favor.

  “My turn.” He stated, not a question and not asking for a reply.

  “What if I want to.”

  “Do we really need to fight about everything?” His chuckle ending in another kiss.

  “Did you kiss me just to shut me up?” I asked, breathlessly.

  “It obviously didn’t work.” By now, his fingers were so close, playing with the edge of my shorts and instead of feeling for Noel, I struggled with my elastic waistband. “At least let me help.”

  Pinning my body to the bed, Noel’s hands made light work of my shirt buttons and shorts, while his mouth denied me the opportunity to talk. Not that I wanted to. I felt him, grinding against my hips. Not needing to unleash him, not when he’d already found my spot and it was only a matter of time.

  “Do you have any—” I broke away to ask. Not wanting to say the word, but I hadn’t needed to carry them in over a year.

  “An emergency supply.” Noel moaned, reaching for his wallet. “Are you?”

  “Am I what?” Now that we’d almost found a pattern of banter, I would have been disappointed if he stopped.

  “An emergency.”

  “Well, let’s see—I intended to pick up a random hitch-hiker on my way here tonight. Tie him up and convince him to come home and pretend to be my boyfriend.”

  “You don’t look like a girl who knows how to use ties.”

  “I haven’t had to learn one-handed. Give me time.”

  By now, Noel returned to our bed, shorts shed and fully sheathed.

  “JoJo?”

  “Yes, Noel.” I made sure to pronounce it as in the song lyrics.

  “Making you come first is my emergency.”

  “Then shut up and make me.”

  He did. Oh, did he!

  Not that I could be much help, other than gripping his hips with my one good leg and matching him kiss for kiss. He unleashed moans that I knew we’d have to apologize for if we ran into our neighbors in the morning—at one point someone thumped the wall in time with our bed just to prove we had an invisible audience.

  I didn’t care.

  Noel filled me.

  In his arms, I was beautiful and sexy. Without flaws or career demons or even coherent thoughts.

  “I’m close,” I gasped, in case he wanted to join me, again.

  “Not yet.” I almost cried when he withdrew until his lips found my nipples and I saw stars. Trying to pin him back in place, needing him to be as one with me as I wanted to be with him. Our day of banter and barbs could only end one way.

  “Now!” He edged me, fingers working until I honestly thought my heart would explode.

  “You, too!” I gasped. Wanting and needing to please him.

  “Ladies first.” His mouth found mine again and in the split second before my climax, I opened my eyes to his.

  We were one.

  Fight or flight?

  Why couldn’t we do both?

  23 December

  Noel

  The summer heat already filled the hotel room with the rising sun when I stifled a stretch on waking. Missing the drone and the cool breeze wafting across our bed from the old air conditioner. Oh, that’s right. I turned it off around three am because the sound was disturbing JoJo.

  From not knowing she existed to being ready to swelter in the dry heat rather than let the noise annoy the woman who’d taken my heart by storm.

  Carefully, I took stock of my body wrapped around JoJo’s good side. Yes, we’d started out with me on her right, but I’d offered to swap sides when she was finally ready for sleep.

  My big toe caressed her good leg and even in her half sleep she pressed further into me. Yeah, we swapped sides after what started off as blowing the cobwebs out of my system with sex, to an all body-and-soul night of making love.

  I couldn’t go back to what had been my side after feeling her tighten around me. I refused to allow her injuries to become a barrier between us. She didn’t question when I made her comfortable, slightly to the right of the bed’s middle, surrounding her foot in pillows and another under her right shoulder for support. None left for my head, but it didn’t matter.

  This time yesterday, I didn’t know Stephanie JoJo Methven existed. My single, short-term goal had been to have no memories of this or any other Christmas. One day after meeting JoJo and nothing mattered but her.

  Face-to-face and I wanted to reach over and brush the stray blonde curls from her face. Somehow get her to take the pain meds before she woke up with her body remembering yesterday’s accident.

  Never had I wanted to protect, cherish, and hold another person as much as I wanted with JoJo.

  Silently, my hand rested on the small space of sheet between us and as if she’d been waiting, her fingers found mine and wriggled their way into my palm.

  Last night had been many things, but not a mistake.

  “Good morning, fake boyfriend.”

  “I think we can drop the fake.” I barely got out the words before kissing her forehead and working down to her lips. No early morning bad breath. Just the vanilla scent from her shampoo. “There was nothing fake about you, or us, last night.”

  Not that I was about to tell JoJo about my history of consensual one-night stands, but she wasn’t one of them. Last night was not a one-time thing. At least, not for me.

  “Really?” Her cheeky banter couldn’t wait until after coffee. “How could you be sure I wasn’t faking?”

  “Oh, you!”

  I punished her insolence with tickles and kisses until she pulled me to where I belonged. On top of her, my legs between hers and the decision not to bother with clothes after making love last night rewarded with swift and easy access.

  “Say it.”

  My fingers were evil in their exploration, but my ego demanded she retract her mock accusation.

  “Noel, don’t stop.”

  “Say it.”

  “Please, don’t stop.”

  I couldn’t believe she could be ready again so soon, feeling her tighten as I worked faster and urged, “Say it.”

  “Ohhh,” she cried before a pained, “Noooooo.”

  My finger retracted, hovering out of reach. Flicking her a taste of what she was missing in between kisses. “Say it.” I breathe into her mouth. “Say it.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Say it.”

  “Nothing about you or us is fake, now finish the job,” she cried. “Please.”

  What was I supposed to do? After all, she asked nicely.

  “Did you enjoy your stay?” The same, staid receptionist from yesterday asked as JoJo handed over the door key. Yes, an old-fashioned door key rather than the swipe cards I had expected as norm.

  “Thanks, it was very ‘real’.” JoJo smiled and it was only then I saw how she had palmed her credit card with the key.

  “Let me fix up the room.” The bags were easier to drop than my wallet was to extract from the pocket of my stupid Christmas board shorts. I needed to get new clothe
s and fast.

  “No problem, they have my card on record from the booking.”

  “I insist. You paid for the petrol.”

  “It’s my road trip to my family. I can pay.”

  “Why should you have to when I’m happy to pay for the room.”

  Damn, she could be infuriatingly stubborn. The receptionist waited, looking for us to stop bickering like children. Despite myself, the more JoJo insisted, the greater my need to win the argument.

  Not because I wanted to beat JoJo, but because I’d compromised the shit out of my last relationship. Walking away with not even a shred of self-respect or recognition that my car, unit, job, or clothes were of my choice. They’d all been chosen for me or at the instruction of my ex. I’d promised myself no relationship would ever again be worth compromising—which was when I became a stubborn bastard. Single and stubborn.

  Until last night.

  “Noel, admit it.” JoJo replaced her frustrated tone with sickly sweet. I was about to thank her for losing gracefully when she added. “You wouldn’t have chosen this place for our stop over. You would have kept driving for another couple of hours and picked a five-star room rather than budget. Right?”

  At least by now she’d seen past my shabby clothes and realized I could afford to pay my own way. An understatement, but a start. “What’s your point?”

  “When you pick the room, you can pay for it. My choice, my credit card.”

  Beautiful, smart, sassy, bitch.

  “Then, thank you for last night.”

  She could take it any way she wanted.

  While JoJo ordered our breakfast, I made good on my promise to find clothes. Not my usual type of stores, but at least they were open and stocked a selection of staples. Canvas black shorts, a couple of pairs of lighter fabric monochromes and half a dozen casual shirts. On my way to the checkout I saw a notebook with an embossed Dreams come true.

  On impulse, not only did I buy her the notebook for Christmas, but also grabbed enough cash-out to pay her back for this trip. Small thanks for how being with her had turned my life around and made me realize life didn’t have to suck.