It takes mere seconds for the explosion to happen. My greedy, sensitive girl screams my name as her climax takes control of her body. I don’t stop but instead keep her in the land of bliss and stars. Her sweet cream drenches my fingers, running down my hand. She shakes and shutters, but her hips thrust forward, wanting more.
But before she can come again, I pull back, wanting to feel her milking my cock this time.
“Don’t stop,” she groans in protest, but I’m already in motion, and my briefs are down around my ankles. She peers up at me and frowns.
“Baby girl, do I need a condom?”
“What?”
“I’m clean, got my all-clear last month,” I explain, watching her half-hooded gaze in wonder. She’s in a sex-clouded haze. Not surprising. As hard as she came on my fingers, it’s a wonder she can talk at all. “Do I need a condom?”
“No, I’m on the pill,” she whispers, understanding what I’m asking, despite the haze. She reaches out for me, dragging me up her body, to settle over her. She drags her fingers nails along the muscles of my back. “Are you going to fuck me senseless now?”
“My greedy girl has a smart mouth,” I chuckle before placing my lips against hers. She kisses me back.
“Travis,” she moans, breaking the kiss. Her hand snakes its way in between our bodies to grasp my cock. I gasp, feeling my balls pull in tight as her small hand wraps around it. Her thumb runs across the tip before gripping me, and I see stars. “I want to taste you, too.”
“Soon, baby girl,” I groan, and she begins to stroke. My hand shoots down to stop her, while I fight the urge to come all over her hand. That’s not how I want to find my release. “Next time,” I promise with a whisper, taking her lips again. She doesn’t argue, but something tells me she wouldn’t even if I hadn’t captured her lips with mine.
“Please, Travis, I need you,” she groans when my thumb finds her bud and presses against it. She lifts her hips, trying to create friction. I smile inwardly, loving the way she’s desperate for me. “Stop teasing me.”
Shifting above her, I grasp my throbbing cock and position myself at her entrance. Worried I might hurt her, I push forward little by little, but I’m not moving fast enough for her, because her hips surge forward and she grasps my ass, pulling me down. My cock fills her, and I bite back a groan as her warmth envelopes me like a vice.
“Fuck, baby girl,” I choke, as she uses her muscles to hold me in place. I freeze, letting her shift underneath me to accommodate my size. I slowly pull back, not wanting to hurt her, but again she thrusts up and pulls me down.
“If you don’t give me what I know we both want, I’m going to push you over and take it,” she growls, her liquid blue eyes narrow on me. I look down at her with a grin, her sass causing me to swell even larger inside her.
“My greedy girl doesn’t want slow and gentle, then she’ll get it hard and fast,” I reply, thrusting into her and bottoming out. Her face transforms blissfully as she loses herself in the sensation. My pace quickens, and her pussy sucks me in harder with each stroke.
Her pussy is like a fucking dream, one I never want to end, but it doesn’t take long to feel that familiar tingle in my balls. The feeling that tells me I’m not going to last much longer. I reach between us, once again finding her center, and press into it. She grinds against me.
“Travis,” she moans as the added pressure does the trick and sends her over the edge.
I gasp as she convulses around me, her sweet pussy pulsating, milking my cock, urging me to follow. Surging forward, I grind into her, pumping harder. The sting of my balls slapping against the bottom of her ass intensifies the moment when it happens, sending me flying high over the edge. I pump once more before groaning out my release, burying my face in her neck.
My body tingles from head to toe as the high mellows and I’m able to focus on her. Lifting my head from her neck, I plant a soft kiss on her lips, and she smirks up at me.
“Senseless accomplished,” she giggles, wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling me in for another kiss.
Shifting off her, I pull her against me, feeling satisfaction seep into my bones. My cock throbs, growing hard again, as she curls her curvy body into mine. I already know I’m never going to get enough of this woman.
The soft sound of her snoring fills the room and I find myself slowly drifting off beside her, vowing to ravish her again after a few moments of rest.
Travis
I wake to the bed shifting beside me. I roll and reach for her, catching her around the waist before she can leave the bed.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I ask before planting a wet kiss on her bare shoulder. Liv sighs and relaxes into me.
“I should get back before Hannah wakes,” she murmurs, and I stiffen behind her. She’s leaving already, long before the sun has begun to rise.
My mind begins to go in different directions, but I tap it down, refusing to allow myself to doubt what’s transpired between us.
But the truth is, I don’t know what to expect, and after everything we’ve been through, the last thing I want is to let her leave my bed. I swallow hard, feeling the asshole in me wanting this to be nothing more than a one-night stand, but the man inside of me knows it’s the start of something more.
“How long is your ex going to be in town?” I ask, trying to figure out how to broach the subject.
“Until tomorrow. He needs to get back to work. I didn’t know he was coming, but he’s been missing Hannah,” she explains.
“He good to her?”
“When it comes to Hannah, it’s the one thing he always got right. He’s a natural at the dad thing.”
“Good, she deserves that.” I nod. “She’s a good kid.”
“Yeah, even on the days she’s seven going on sixteen.” She sighs with a smile on her lips. I shift on the bed, pulling her into my lap, where she settles. Our hands find some way to touch one another, caressing and rubbing, like they’ve done it for years.
The room grows silent, but it doesn’t take long for the elephant in the room to finally rear its ugly head.
“Travis…” Her voice comes out nervous and shaky. “About last night…”
“Yeah,” I say softly and find her hand to lace our fingers together. I’m not ready to let go. She tightens her hold on me, and I relax.
“I’ve never felt anything like that before.”
“Electric.” I nod.
“I was married for eight years, but even before Parker, there was never anyone who made me feel the way you do. It’s not just the sex either—”
“It’s all of it,” I interject, knowing the feeling she’s describing all too well. I’ve lived the life of a bachelor, but she’s the only woman to ever affect me this way. “It’s the same for me.”
“What does it mean?” she asks, twisting in my arms to look me in the eyes.
“I don’t know.” I shrug. All I can think about is how perfect she looks first thing in the morning with sex hair and crystal-blue eyes. “But I’d like to find out.”
“It’s more than sex.” She nods.
“What do you want, Liv?” I ask knowing what I want, and that’s to wake up every morning with her in my arms like this.
Mine!
Shit, where did that come from?
It’s true, though. From the moment I laid eyes on her, she has been mine. Only I wasn’t ready to admit it until now.
“I don’t know.” She shrugs, and I feel the sting of her words but try to remain calm. She’s recently divorced. Maybe she needs time. “But I’d be a fool if I said I didn’t want to explore it with you. Can we go slow?”
“We can do that,” I agree, feeling a surge of happiness bloom in my chest, but knowing full well I’m not going to go slow. She’s mine, and the sooner she learns to accept it, the sooner we can start our lives together.
“Are you sure? I’m a single mom, Trav, and I come with a whole lot of crazy.”
“One of the thi
ngs I like best about you is that you’re a single mother.” I pull her in tighter and nuzzle her neck, brushing my lips against the soft skin. “I was raised by a single mother. All I wanted for her is to find someone who’d love her the way she deserved. Sadly, she never got over my father.”
“I’m sorry. Some loves are hard to give up.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I swallow, thinking about the emptiness I know I’d feel if Liv walked away from me. It’s difficult for me to imagine my mother feeling that way about my father. After all, he nearly broke her. “He split Christmas Eve. Didn’t say good-bye. Took whatever money we had, said he was going to buy me a gift or two, but never came back. She took it hard, blamed herself.”
“How old were you?”
“I was five.”
“Betty said terrible things happened to your family around the holidays,” she explains. “Is that when it started for you?”
“Yeah. What did Betty tell you exactly?”
“About your grandfather, and the Christmas you broke you’re your arm. She didn’t get personal, but it was enough for me to understand why you’re a grinch.” I cringe at the name, even though it describes me perfectly. “Unfortunately, it’s my favorite time of the year.”
I hear the concern in her voice and the question in her statement. Can it work between us, given we’re on two separate ends of the spectrum? She doesn’t celebrate simply for her daughter, and I’ve seen the flair she chooses to celebrate the holiday with. It comes down to me and whether I can live with a holiday that carries a lot of hurt for me.
“I walked in on my ex-wife with another man. In our bed, on Christmas Eve, four years ago,” I start, feeling the need to share in my chest. I’ve haven’t talked to anyone about what happened, but she makes me want to live in the now instead of holding on to the past. “I worked at a law firm in Atlanta, and like any ambitious young man, was trying to make partner. Caroline, my ex-wife, knew my career came first, and she knew I didn’t like celebrating Christmas, so it was no surprise to her when I told her I’d be working through the holiday. She never complained, but I wanted to do something special. I planned a romantic getaway, a surprise. Turns out we both got a surprise that night.”
“Fuck,” she swears and turns in my arms. “Is that what brought you here?”
“Betty needed the help, and I needed a fresh start.” I nod. “Law was my mother’s idea, but it never felt right to me. Put me under the hood of a car, and it’s like I’m home.”
“I walked in on Parker with someone else. His assistant, Carter. I thought it might break me, but it actually freed me.” She takes a breath, and I can’t help feeling kindred to her. We were both living a life not meant for us, but it brought us here, to this moment. “This town is our fresh start, too.”
When I look in her eyes, all the hurt and the pain disappear. All the fears and the anger I felt fade away until there is nothing left but her and me. The way it should have been that first day.
“Liv, nothing good comes out of the holidays for me.” My voice feels foreign in my throat as the realization of something good happening hits me in the chest, warming me even more. “But that was before you moved in next door.”
“Sounds like someone might believe in Christmas miracles.”
I lean down, touching my forehead to hers. “I’m starting to.”
“So, slow and steady,” she murmurs, her lips seeking mine out.
“Slow and steady,” I agree, but not before adding. “A fresh start.”
She smiles, opening her mouth to me, deepening the kiss.
And together, we make a silent vow to make every Christmas as good as this one.
The Christmas something good finally happened.
The Christmas she moved in next door.
Travis
Two years later
Christmas miracles come in all shapes and sizes. They come to us when we least expect them, but when they do happen, it’s hard to deny them.
Two years ago, Liv and Hannah moved in next door, creating the first Christmas miracle I’d experienced in thirty-two years. They taught me what it means to love, and to hope. They did it in the strangest way, but for me it was the only way.
But they weren’t the only miracle that came from our first Christmas together. Six weeks after Liv and I finally stopped fighting the attraction, we found out she was pregnant with our son, Nicholas.
There couldn’t be any clearer of a sign. We were meant to be.
Things never went slow between the two of us, not that either of us complained. We had a lot to prepare for when it came to the baby, and I was forthcoming about my feelings for her soon after our little discovery.
She challenged me. She enflamed me. She went toe to toe with me over many things, and held her own like no other. She was everything I ever wanted in a partner. She still is.
I was madly in love with Olivia Wilder.
We married at the six-month mark of her pregnancy. Nothing big. A small courthouse ceremony, and then dinner with the people we cared about most.
Hannah stood next to us beaming with happiness. To her, getting another dad and a baby brother was the best late Christmas gift she could ever receive.
Hannah was my biggest champion through it all. The morning after her father left, I showed for pancakes, and Hannah teased me mercilessly about Christmas cookies. And Christmas morning when I opened my gift from her, I fell in love with the little seven-year-old girl I now call daughter.
In the box, brightly decorated with the cheesiest paper on the planet, was a framed picture of her and me sitting at the breakfast table only days before. Liv must’ve snapped the picture when I wasn’t paying attention. The wooden frame was decorated with various holiday bauble, but it was the words written across it that caught my heart.
The Miracle He Needed Most…
The words couldn’t have been any truer. Because when it comes down to it, Hannah is the reason anything happened. If she hadn’t brought those cookies, the war of Christmas—which is what we lovingly refer to that year as—wouldn’t have started, and maybe I wouldn’t be here today, pulling into the driveway of the little blue house, coming home to the family I can’t live without.
“Daaaaaaddy,” Nicky greets from his high chair when I open the door. He’s covered in banana, his favorite fruit, with a big toothless grin across his face.
I’ve spent the day under the hood of a car, but coming home to a house filled with noise is the part of my day I look forward to most. I plop down in the chair next to my beautiful son and glance over at Liv and Hannah, who are busy piping and decorating a countertop covered with Christmas cookies.
“What’s up, little man?” I ask Nicky. He pushes a little fat fist out at me, holding a chunk of banana.
“Nanananananana,” he squeals, kicking his feet.
“Did Mommy give you a banana?” I ask, using the baby voice Liv chastises me for. He shoves the banana in his mouth and reaches for another piece.
“Hi, Daddy,” Hannah greets me from her spot next to Liv at the kitchen island. She took to calling me Dad after Parker took her aside one afternoon, explaining how lucky some little girls get to have not one dad, not two dads, but three dads, when he and Carter decided to make everything official. They married a month after Liv and I did and visit often to spend time with Hannah.
“Hi, cupcake, how was school?” I ask while wiping smashed banana out of Nicky’s hair.
“Good, I got an A on my spelling test,” she brags excitedly, and I smile proudly.
“That’s my girl,” I exclaim, rising from my seat and crossing the room to place a kiss on her head. She’s covered in flower and sugar. “How’s my other girl doing?”
Liv comes around the counter, her swollen belly also covered in flour and sugar. She lifts on her tiptoes and plants a gentle kiss on my lips, and a hand rubs across her belly.
“Ready for this little one to make her debut.” She smiles. I place a hand on her belly, feeling our unb
orn daughter, Holly, move underneath my touch.
I close my eyes and take a breath. Opening them, I look at the little family I call my own and realize that life couldn’t be any sweeter, because miracles happen.
Mine just came to me during a season I’d lost hope in. Now it happens to be the best time of year.
Because of them.
My family.
My Christmas miracles.
The End.
Acknowledgements
As always, I want to thank my family first and foremost. B, C, and R, I love you to the moon and back. Thank you for always believing in me and supporting this need to tell stories. I don’t know what I would do without you in my life.
To my mom for seriously plotting this book with me. It brought back a lot of memories. Thank you for always encouraging me to be true to myself and my dream!
To Mayra for believing in me. You are the best friend a girl can ask for. Thank you for encouraging me and setting me straight when I lose my way on this writer’s journey. Most importantly, thank you for being you. You inspire me daily!
To my Scrooged girls, I loved getting to know you and seeing your stories come to life. I hope to one day meet each of one and hug your necks. I wish you love and lots of readers.
To Julia Goda and CP Smith, you make my words pretty. Thank you for being patient and understanding, especially when I need to push a date. You are amazing friends and writers. I don’t think I will ever stop fangirling you!
To my Lost Girls, thank you for your support and great ideas. I feel like I have a room full of friends who just get me!
Finally, thank you to my readers, whom without, my books would not be read. You are amazing. I wouldn’t be able to do this without you!
Get lost in love,
Tracie
About the Author
Surviving on caffeine most days, Tracie Douglas lives in Southern California with her husband, two children, two dogs, and one really fat cat. She spends her days chasing children and fur babies, all while maintaining the illusion of sanity.
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