The Christmas Letter (Davidson Center, Colorado Book 1)

by April Zyon

  She looked down at herself, bit her lower lip, and then nodded, “Yep, I should be ready.” She would have to take a very fast shower, shave, and hopefully be ready. If not, he would just have to wait for her in the living room or something while she finished getting ready. “I will see you in half hour. Now I have to go so that I can get ready.” She didn’t wait for him to say goodbye. Instead she just quickly hung up the phone so that she could jump out of her bed and get ready for a date with the hottest man in town.

  ****

  After dropping Molly off at her friend’s house, Dante had to drive around town several times. He was as antsy as he had been in high school when he was going to take out his first date. No, antsier if that was even possible. It was crazy just how much he wanted Noelle in his life and how out of his social norm he was going since talking to her and ditching Sara. He didn’t understand this attraction to this woman, but he didn’t care because he liked it, a great deal. He was simply going with the flow of life for the first time, and he was enjoying himself. He was delighting in the fact that he was so attracted to someone for the first time in so long.

  As he drove along, he decided that instead of just wasting time and wasting gas, he would stop at one of the little stores along the one of the side roads and try to simply kill some time before he was to meet Noelle. He didn’t think she would appreciate him walking into her place before the half hour was up.

  He stepped up onto the step of a store called Mystical Things and More. “Huh, looks interesting.” He had seen more than his fair share of shit while in the sandbox. Dante had met people who had truly been gifted and some who had been the best con-artists he had ever met in his life. He wondered which of the two this shop owner was going to be.

  “Hello there,” the old woman said from behind the counter. She was a strange duck, with bright pink hair, shockingly pink actually, and her makeup was done to perfection. If he didn’t know better, he would think the woman had some sort of expert who had applied her makeup for her.

  “Hello,” he said and shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.

  “Oh honey, your aura is all in flux right now.” The woman stood and pulled out two stones from under her counter. She placed them before him. “Keep these with you. In fact”—she pulled out two small keychains and threaded them through the holes that had been drilled into the rocks. Once she had them fixed up for him, she passed the chain keychains to him she beamed and gripped his hand tightly. “You are questioning things, but you shouldn’t. You know what you are feeling, but you think things are going too fast. Don’t. Sometimes people are tossed into our paths for a reason.”

  “How would you know something like that?” he asked with a frown. Now he was really watching this woman because this just simply didn’t make sense at all. How would this woman know anything at all about his personal life?

  “I see it in your aura, hero.” She grinned and then winked at him. “I know what you did. It’s a good thing, taking in your niece like you did. You need to also keep the spirit of hope alive for her too. That’s what the woman you are thinking about is doing as well. She’s working on half of the equation with helping remind little Molly about Santa Claus, but you need to get your head on straight because if you don’t, then the other half will fall through and Molly won’t believe.” The woman winked at him as she spoke and then leaned back in her ergonomic chair and watched him.

  Dante had no idea what the woman was talking about. It had to be the letter that she was talking about, but there was no way that this woman, this complete and total stranger would know anything about Molly’s letter when he didn’t even know what the girl had written in her letter. “I have no idea what you are talking about. Noelle bought Molly a baby that she wanted for Christmas. Evidently, she reads and responds to letters that kids send to Santa. How she wound up with Molly’s is beyond me.”

  “Fate works in wild ways, hero,” the woman said with a smile. “She gets what she wants, and it looks to me like Christmas magic wants to open your eyes.”

  “I don’t believe in Christmas magic,” Dante replied with a laugh. He shook his head and tapped his fingers on the glass of the counter. “There is no such thing. If Christmas magic did exist, then there wouldn’t be so much horror and heartache in the world. There wouldn’t be so much killing in the world, and there wouldn’t be kids in the streets trying to make it day by day. There is just so much that wouldn’t be. Don’t you understand that?”

  “I understand a lot of things, young man, a lot more than you do.” She tapped her perfectly manicured nail on the top right beside where he had tapped his fingers. “Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith, and I have a feeling you are one of those men who will have to take a leap. Don’t let a good thing go before you have a chance to realize just how special it is.” She looked at what appeared to him to be a Rolex, which shocked him, “Don’t you have a date?”

  Well hell, that surprised him even more. “You are one scary woman,” he told her with a laugh and walked out the door, tossing a wink over her shoulder.

  When he got into his SUV, he was still shaking his head at the things that the woman had said to him. He had no idea what had just happened, but something profound had happened, and it had shifted something inside of him. The woman had hit far too many buttons inside of him much like one of the wandering men of the desert who had told him and his team that if they didn’t move in five minutes, they would all die. They moved simply because they had all been spooked and figured that the man was working against the US, but he wasn’t. He was a seer, they later found out. The man had saved their asses more than once, but they never included him in any of their reports. Oddly enough Dante and his men had protected the old man, and he felt that same need to protect the old woman he had just left as well, as well as the same confusion.

  Chapter Seven

  When Dante pulled up at her place, Noelle had already done the fastest shower, shave, shampoo, and makeup in the history of forever. She had been shocked by his call, but more than that, she had been surprised by her desire to want to go with him. The visceral reaction to want to do anything that this man said was like a gut-punch to her. She was at the door before Dante even knocked. She was that in tune with this man. Yes, she had known him years ago, but she had known the boy, not the man.

  He was leaning against the doorframe and simply smirked that devastating smile at her when she opened the door, that smile that had her panties wet in an instant. “So, Molly is spending the night with a friend and your first thought was taking me on a date?” She leaned against the door and watched him as he watched her. He had the gaze of a predator. She knew what he had done in his past. Noelle wasn’t stupid and had looked up Dante and appreciated what he had done so she realized he had killed in his life, sadly.

  “It’s been all I could think about since yesterday. I don’t know why, but the moment I touched you all I wanted to do was see how I could touch you more. I’ve been trying to think up reasons and ways to figure out how to get close to you so that I could see if your skin was really that soft, to smell you again, to see if you were really just as fucking perfect as you seem to be.”

  Noelle chewed on her lower lip and then did something she never did. She went with her gut. Stepping back, she gestured for him to come in. “Why don’t we order in? Since Molly isn’t expecting you home, why not have dinner in?” She was so going to hell, but she didn’t care. If this was going to be a once in a lifetime thing, she was going to take advantage of it. If Dante Davidson was going to visit her only this one time, she was hopefully going to have him spend the night, if she were lucky.

  She could tell by the look on his face that he was shocked by her suggestion, but she didn’t waver and neither did he. Instead, he stepped into her home, closing the door behind him and throwing the lock as he did so. “So, what do you want to order in for dinner?” he asked as he reached out and touched her hair. She had no idea why he did that, but the man did that a lot
. He was frequently reaching out and touching her, and she liked it.

  She leaned into his touch and closed her eyes. “Well, there is Chinese or pizza. Personally, I say pizza because it’s good hot or cold.”

  “A woman after my own heart.” Dante was now stepping closer to her. Before she knew what was happening, he brushed his thumb under her chin and tilted her face up. Once she was positioned, she assumed, where he wanted her, he leaned in and kissed her.

  Holy shit, can the man kiss! was the only thing that she could think. Placing her hands on his chest, she let them run up his pecs and then surround his neck. Noelle leaned into him and on her tiptoes so that she could get as close to him as she possibly could. She was all about seizing the moment, and in this instant, Dante was kissing her as if she were the last woman on the planet and the only woman alive, and she wasn’t about to let go of those feelings that he brought forth in her.

  When his hands moved down her back and cupped her ass, she moaned. Christ, the man, was as hard as a rock all over but he seemed to melt her like butter with just a touch. Everything about this man called to her. She didn’t understand it at all, but she didn’t take the time to analyze it either. Instead, Noelle just went with the instincts and relished the fact that he was right here in her living room doing the things to her that he was doing.

  ****

  When he had come to Noelle’s home, he hadn’t intended on seducing her. He actually had planned on making her dinner and wooing her slowly. He wanted to take his time and get to know her, but when she invited him in, he wasn’t about to let that go to waste. She looked too delicious, and he damn well wanted her. Hell, if he was entirely honest with himself, he had wanted her from the moment he had seen her when he was jogging several mornings ago, and she was drinking and watching him. That need only intensified when she finally got over watching and stalking him and told him why she had been doing so.

  Noelle looked so sexy in the short skirt and halter that she took his breath away for a moment. She was wearing tights with the skirt, but it only made her look sexier. And her hair. He fucking loved Noelle’s hair. She had beautiful, long, straight midnight-black hair that was as silky and shiny as the night and he wanted to touch it every single time he saw her and did, often. But her eyes, fuck, she had gorgeous eyes. They were so open, huge and so blue that he swore they were a violet in color. She swept him in with her eyes. Noelle was petite and had curves for days, just like he loved women, not the way that the modern society depicted women should be, but the way that he liked women to be. She was soft where a woman should be soft and right now he had his hands full of her luscious ass and his mouth covering her beautiful mouth. Life was fucking perfect.

  When Dante pulled back, he looked down at her flushed face. He was proud as a cock on a walk and grinned. “If we keep this up, I won’t be going home, and you know that, don’t you? I want you, Noelle. I won’t lie about that. It seems that I need you more with every time that I see you, and now that I’ve tasted you and touched you, that need has tripled in its intensity. It’s not something that I understand, but I’m tired of trying to understand anything. I purely want. Please tell me that you want as well?”

  For a second he thought she was going to tell him to get out. He would have deserved that after the way that he had manhandled her. Then she licked her luscious lower lip and looked up at him. He could see it then, the need that matched his, the fire in her eyes that said she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Fuck, she was going to be the death of him.

  “Don’t leave,” was all that she whispered before reaching up and pulling him down to kiss him again. God damn, that woman had his number, and she knew just what to do with it!

  Dante didn’t waste a moment of time either. He put his hands under her ass and lifted her from the ground. She wrapped her short legs around his lean waist and held on for dear life while he walked toward what he assumed was the hall. Pulling back from her slightly, he looked down at her. “Bedroom.” That was the only word he could utter at that moment because this woman had his blood rushing to his cock and the only thing he could think about was getting inside of her.

  She pointed down the hall and to the left, “End, left,” she said as she nipped his ear greedily. God, he loved that she was as into this as he was. “But I think I might be too heavy to carry.”

  “Not on your life, gorgeous.” He squeezed her ass in his hands and then leaned in to nip her neck lightly. “I’m not letting you go now that I have you in my arms. I’m keeping you here where I want you until morning, at least.”

  “You have to get Molly tomorrow.”

  “Will worry about her then, for now, it’s just the two of us, consenting adults.” Dante tossed her onto the queen-size bed and smiled down at Noelle. He licked his lips as he looked at her. “Speaking of consenting, I need to know now if there is anything that is off limits.” He undid his belt and held it in his hands. “Because I am a bit of a control freak. I need to know that you are able to accept what I’m about to do to you.”

  “What do you mean by control freak?” She didn’t look scared, thank fuck, she looked interested actually.

  “I want to dominate you in every single possible way in the bedroom. I want to tie you up. I want to have you at my mercy when we are in the bedroom or anytime that I have you naked and alone. I’m not an easy man, but I am one that will always put your pleasure before mine as long as you submit to me. Will you?”

  He watched the thoughts flutter across her face and then saw the decision before she spoke it. She began to tug up her shirt as she finally whispered, “Yes, yes I will accept anything you are going to give me. I will submit to you, freely. I’ve never given those words to anyone in my life,” she admitted to him. She looked up at him with those wide-eyed innocent eyes and made him feel like a fucking superhero. God damn, how did she do that?

  He reached out and cupped her cheek. Rubbing his thumb over her cheek, he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers. “I won’t do anything without telling you first. Everything I do, you will know first. For tonight, our first night, I want you naked and at my mercy.” He held up the belt in his hands and smiled down at her. “Will you let me tie your hands together? They can be in front of your body so that you don’t hurt yourself, but one day, very soon, I’m going to tie you up with silk ropes on a Saint Andrews Cross and take you in every way imaginable and some that you can’t even begin to imagine.”

  Noelle whimpered. Fuck, that sound had his cock jumping, but he smiled. When she held out her hands to him, he shook his head and said, “Take off your clothes first, baby. I want you completely naked, and then I’m going to bind your hands.”

  Noelle didn’t waste any time, and in seconds she was totally naked to his gaze, and she was fucking perfect, right down to the little dragonfly on her upper right collarbone. “Now that is sexy as hell,” he told her as he approached her and traced the pink and purple dragonfly that seemed to be done in some sort of watercolor painting. It was stunning, a real work of art that he would go over with his tongue later. For now, he wanted her hands bound so that he could do to her everything he wanted to.

  He watched her eyes as he wrapped the belt around her wrists and then tightened it. “Is it too tight?”

  She shook her head which wasn’t going to cut it. He needed her to actually speak to him if this was going to work for them. “I need you to talk to me. When I ask you a direct question, I need a direct answer.”

  She chewed her lower lip and smiled. “Yes, Sir. I understand. No, they don’t hurt. I’m perfectly comfortable,” she assured him.

  Oh hell, either she was naturally submissive, or she read a lot of filthy novels. “Better, much better.” He leaned in and kissed her again as a reward for being so good.

  Chapter Eight

  She stood naked before him and typically she would be embarrassed about her body, but the way that he was looking at her took away all of the shame she would usually feel about her body. The
smoldering look that he was giving her made her feel like a goddess, and then the kisses. Holy mother of God, the kisses made her body melt. She felt the liquid from her pussy running down her legs and had to bite her lower lip when he picked her up and placed her in the very center of her bed after he had peeled the covers from the top of it.

  Everything this man did was in sharp contrast to the man she thought he was, everything. She wanted more from him, with him, but she knew it would likely be only this one time and she was certainly going to savor every second of it. She wasn’t going to hesitate for a moment to lose anything she could have with him. She wanted it all. She wanted his every dominating and dirty desire, desperately.

  “Open your legs for me, Noelle,” Dante demanded.

  She did as he asked her without even the slightest of hesitations. Why would she hesitate when all she wanted to do was get closer to him? She lifted her hands that were bound above her head and watched him and that hungry look on his face. She couldn’t stop from smiling.

  “You are so wet and ready for me, aren’t you, Noelle?” Dante had this hungry and needful look on his face, one that had her wanting him even more. No man had ever looked at her like that before. Not even the one lover she had before Dante in high school had looked at her like that.

  She nodded and then remembered his rule, but it was just a moment too late. His predatory smile told her that much. He turned her over onto her stomach and swatted her naked ass twice. Dante then rubbed the sting away. It hadn’t hurt, if anything, it had felt incredible. If this had been his idea of punishment, she was going to see herself being very bad, very often.

  “Remember, when I ask you a direct question, you answer with your voice.”

  “Yes, Sir,” she replied this time as he rolled her back onto her back. She looked up at him and once more placed her hands over her head and gripped the bottom of the headboard. Biting her lower lip, she watched him as he discarded his clothes with care. She smiled as he folded them neatly, even his socks. Who did that? He was nothing but smooth power and efficiency and she wondered if he ever lost that control, wondered what it would be like to be on the receiving end of that loss of control. She bet it would be spectacular.