Winter Kisses Read online

  He opens his desk an inch and pulls out a small gold packet.

  “What’s this?” For a second my heart lurches because somewhere in the distal part of my mind I thought it might be a ring. I can’t even imagine relaying this story to our friends and relatives. So how did he propose, they’d ask, and I’d reply, with a boner and a smile! Why, every part of his body was anxious to have me! I relax when I see it’s just a condom. “Is there rain in the forecast?” I’m not sure how we started calling them raincoats, but I like that we did. I like that we have an entire intimate world that only we’re a part of.

  “Oh, honey, it’s going to pour.” Ryder pulls me in by the back of the neck. He comes at me with hungry, anxious kisses. I wrap my legs around his waist as he lays his full weight over me for a moment. He props up on his elbows and traces out my lips with his tongue. His hand glides down to my thigh before he slips a finger deep inside me, and I moan with approval.

  “Ryder.” I reach down and guide him to that special place that’s been burning to have him ever since that night so long ago. It’s been a whole year of no action, well, not by a real live human at least. I’m pretty sure sex toys don’t count. In fact, if you want to get technical, I’m pretty sure I’ve renewed my virgin standing. “Hey, you know what I just thought of?”

  “Mmm?” He tears open the foil packet with his teeth.

  “I’m sort of a virgin again. So you know what that means right?”

  His dimples flex in amusement. “That I’m an even luckier bastard than I suspected?”

  “And that I’m going to bleed out all over your desk,” I tease. When Ryder and I first had sex I was, what I like to call, extra virgin. My dorm sheets looked like a massacre just took place, and Ryder was more than a little panicked when we were through. I may or may not have led him to believe he punctured my uterus, and, even though it’s impossible to do so, I really had him going.

  He pushes a dull laugh into my ear. “No blood please—now, blood curdling screams that’s another story.”

  “You do like me vocal, don’t you?” I bring the tip of him into me, and he sucks in a quick breath through his teeth as if he touched a flame.

  “You okay?”

  “You feel so fucking fantastic.” He lets out a groan as if he were in pain. “Trust me, I’d love to bury myself in you without anything on—that’s pretty big on my bucket list—lots of naked-penis sex.”

  My chest bubbles with a laugh. I brush my finger over his brow. Ryder has the most amazing eyebrows, thick and dark like the wings of a majestic bird in flight.

  “God, you’re hot.” I bite down over a smile. “But you know that, don’t you?”

  He leans up and pulls the raincoat out of its tiny foil home, and I pluck it from him and pitch it over my shoulder.

  “What did you do that for?” He looks vexingly perplexed, and it only makes me want him more.

  I pull him in by the shirt until he’s tucked in close.

  “I want you in me, sans the raincoat,” I whisper. “Right now it’s all about your big naked penis. It’s my gift to you.”

  He laughs into my mouth before swiping his tongue over mine.

  “I think we should put off the family for another few years. But, lucky for you, I’m pretty well stocked.” He reaches into his drawer and produces another one.

  “Are you manufacturing them in your desk?” I tease as I snatch it from him and pitch it over my shoulder like I did the last one.

  “Laney.” He stretches up over me and searches the floor for the glorified water balloons. “We need those.”

  “No we don’t.” I take a breath. “Last year”—a lump the size of a Christmas ornament lodges in my throat—“I went on the pill. I trust you, Ryder. You’re the only man I ever want to be with, and I haven’t even thought about another person this last year except for you.”

  “Laney.” He brushes the hair from my face sweetly. “I haven’t thought of, or looked at, another person for the past twelve months.”

  “Are you trying to one-up me?”

  His chest vibrates with a dull laugh. “No, but I want to make the point I’m all yours, and I’m clean.”

  “No acid rain?” Despite the crude and disturbing imagery it’s really a lovely thought.

  “Nope.” He lands a careful kiss over my lips. “You can bottle it and drink it if you wanted.”

  “Okay, that was gross.” I swat him over the arm. The only thing I want to bottle is his love for me. “How did we go from I’m ho, ho, ho happy to see you, to bloody desk tops and bottled sperm?”

  “I think that’s what makes us, us.” His dimples flex, no smile. Ryder always knows the right answer.

  “You know what else makes us, us?” I gently press him in by the small of his back. “You, deep inside me.”

  Ryder

  I should really get a couch in here.

  Laney writhes beneath me ready and willing to help me take the plunge of a lifetime, and all the while I feel bad for having her beautiful body sprawled out over my desk. It’s got be cold—hell, it’s covered with a sheet of glass so I know it is, and her back must be killing her, but Laney has never been one to complain.

  She gurgles out a dark laugh and pulls me in by the tie. “Are you ready, cowboy?”

  My lips twitch with a brief smile. Twice she’s called me that. I might have to go out and get us a matching pair of boots and some spurs just to keep her in line. I lash my tongue over her neck while making my way to her sweet, perfect ear and whisper, “A big storm’s coming from my region. Are you ready?”

  Laney lets out a groan as I work my fingers over her perfect tits. Her nipples harden beneath me, and I pinch her bra down until she springs right out of it.

  “I was sort of hoping a big earthquake would strike my neck of the woods soon,” she whispers into my mouth.

  “That’s funny, I was just about to arrange for multiple tremors. You’d better brace yourself, I hear the big one’s coming.”

  “Maybe you should hold me down and keep me safe?” She bats her lashes at me. “You know, pin me beneath you—that way I won’t roll off the desk and hurt myself.” Laney reaches down and circles the tip of my dick over her heated slick, and I let out a fierce groan that wrenches from deep inside me. I’ve fantasized about Laney Sawyer for years, and not one time did any of those fantasies involve a piece of latex dividing her body from mine. This is it, the real deal. I’m going to feel Laney’s body from the inside for the very first time.

  “It’s okay”—she whispers directly into my ear, and a fire rips up my spine—“I want you to.”

  That’s all the green light I need. My body plunges into hers, slow and careful.

  “Oh shit,” I give it as a heated charge right over her lips. “You’re so fucking tight,” I pant. She wasn’t kidding. She’s a bona fide virgin again, and it’s a slice of Heaven.

  I can feel her. My eyes spring wide as I take in the slick sensation that I’ve been deprived of hundreds of times before. Her body conforms to mine like an oven-heated glove, and my dick straightens like a pool stick.

  “You feel incredible.” She rubs her lips over my ears in a heated rush as I give a pronounced thrust into her.

  “You feel incredible.” I sweep kisses over her features, quick and pressured. “You’re the best damn gift. I’m glad you’re in my life. This is Christmas right here.” I land my lips over her forehead a moment before plunging into her the way I want. “You’re going to come for me.” I reach down and find her with my finger, easing my movements in order to create small circles over that tender part of her.

  Laney lets out a groan that has the ability to rattle the windows.

  “Ryder.”

  I lift her tit into my mouth and suck down hard until she’s clawing at my back. I launch an assault on her poor body that has her panting, and moaning, and creating those cute noises with her vocal cords that make me certifiably insane.

  “Shit.” I’m right there, and I
don’t think I can hold it for another second. I work my fingers over her fast and furious and land a soft pinch over her folds until Laney loses it, and so do I.

  I come for weeks, for years, pouring out all of my desire for the only woman I love, right into her beautiful body.

  Her heart knocks against my chest like it’s begging to be let in, and I give a little smile right over her lips.

  “I love you,” she pants into my ear.

  “I love you, too, Laney.”

  Laney holds me down by the back of my neck and lounges her tongue in my mouth like it’s setting up shop, ready to take up residence for years.

  A dull clapping noise comes from the north end of the desk, and Laney and I both look over at the same time.

  An orange light blinks on and off and, “Holy fuck.” I slap at it until the damn intercom shuts off. It flies off the desk, and I pull at the wires until it loosens from the plug.

  Crap.

  Laney touches her hand over her mouth. “You think they heard?”

  “Every damn thing.” I hold back the laugh already brewing in my chest. “At least they were polite enough to applaud our efforts.”

  “Not bad for our first live performance.” Laney bites down over my lower lip.

  “First and last.” I dot each of her lids with a kiss. “I like the idea of it being a private show.”

  “Personal invite only.” She runs her hands over my bare ass and gives a squeeze.

  I gaze down at her, admiring the glow that’s rising to her cheeks. “Did you pack your bags?”

  She nods with her lips pressed tight. “We can put them in your trunk before the show, that way we can go straight to your place after your mom’s.”

  My stomach grinds for a moment. “That’s a great plan.” Not so much the part about going to my mother’s. I’m not too sold on the idea she’ll mind her P’s and Q’s. My mother isn’t one to go down quietly. If she’s got a beef with someone she pretty much likes to hold onto it, and God knows she has a beef with Laney over just about everything.

  Last Christmas Eve comes to mind, and I’m quick to push it away. Going back to that night is like stepping in front of an oncoming train, time and time again, and expecting different results. It doesn’t do any good. But I know Laney and I should go there at least one more time just to make sure we’ve sealed that door shut tight. Damn Meg—and my mother—for everything that went down.

  I rub my eyes for a moment as I lie next to Laney on the unforgivably cold, hard desk.

  “Aww,” she coos, kissing the side of my face with a tenderness I don’t remember ever seeing from her before. “Do you need a little nap?” She wraps her arm over my waist, and I cinch her in close.

  “You know what I need?” I bury a kiss in her neck. She’s adjusted her bra back into position, and her skin glows from under the red lace. Her Santa hat is still firmly in place, and she looks adorable as hell. “I need a couch in here so we can do this all the fucking time.”

  She bubbles out a laugh.

  “You’re lewd and crude, you know that? And I wholeheartedly agree about the couch. In fact, we should shop for it together—test it out, right there on the showroom.”

  “Sounds like a repeat performance might be necessary.”

  “We can practice later tonight.”

  “Every night,” I counter.

  “Every single night.” Her lips fall over mine. Laney and I love each other with our mouths fused together until the sun goes down.

  This is shaping up to be the best damn Christmas ever.

  Later that night, Laney shines on stage. Her performance is stunning, as is Laney, herself. Once it’s through, I jump to my feet and clap the loudest and longest. The stage may be filled with the entire ensemble, but I can’t take my eyes off the girl who stole my heart. Her hair is ratted out, her dress is torn and disheveled, and she’s covered with soot from head to toe, but, God almighty, Laney Sawyer outshines every person in this room.

  Afterwards, I wait outside the theater with a bouquet of two-dozen bright red roses. My trunk is already locked and loaded with her things, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of winter break with her in my penthouse—with me—right where she belongs. And, if I get my way, she’ll be a permanent resident.

  “Hey!” She squeals as she treks over in her killer high heels, her down to there and up to here little black dress. Her hair is smoothed out in perfect waves, and there’s not a trace of soot over her porcelain features.

  “These are for you.” I hold out the flowers as she jumps into my arms.

  “They’re beautiful.”

  I lean back and take her in. “Wow.” It’s the only word that can accurately describe how sublime she looks right now.

  “Wow, yourself.” She pulls me in by the collar. “Have I ever told you how much I love you in a suit?”

  A lazy smile slopes up my cheek. “Have I ever told you how much I love you naked in my bed?”

  “Mmm,” she purrs into me with kiss. “By the way, as much as I do love you in a monkey suit, I love your naked penis a whole lot better. That felt incredible this afternoon.”

  “That did feel incredible.” I pull her in and grind my hips over hers so she gets the full effect of the attention my lower half so desperately wants to give her. “And is the naked penis a thing now?”

  “Hell yes.” A tiny dimple goes off in her cheek. I swear, Laney gets cuter by the minute. “I think it’s always been a thing. Your thing.” She reaches down and rubs her hand over me. “And now it’s sort of my thing, too.”

  I narrow my gaze into hers while bringing my hands up to her nipples and rubbing my thumbs over them. “I like sharing things with you.”

  “What’s mine is yours.” She laughs into her kiss. “Let’s get to your parent’s house so we can wrap this night up. I’m already looking forward to the big finish starring the Big N.P.” She gives my crotch a gentle squeeze.

  I huff a laugh. “I won’t lie, my ego likes that you put the word ‘big’ in front of N.P.” Laney’s dirty mouth coupled with her wit and charm are what drew me to her in the first place.

  “Nice touch right?”

  “It’s all you.”

  She bubbles with a laugh. “I’m always looking for a classy move to impress you.” Laney gives a playful wink because I happen to know she thinks the word “classy” is a joke.

  “I like the sound of that.” I pull her in by the waist as we make our way through the parking lot. “The Big N.P. can’t wait to hook up with your Red River Valley.”

  “Eww and no to the not-so-cute moniker.” She swats me over the arm with her flowers. “How about the Door of Life?”

  “Too formal.”

  “Grandest Canyon?”

  “I think we’ve safely determined you’re more of a tight little ravine kind of a girl.” I plant a kiss over her forehead. “How about, Slice of Heaven?”

  “Aww. I love that.” She tightens her grip around my waist.

  “Just a few more hours, and I’ll be in paradise.”

  “Me too, Ryder.” She leans her head on my shoulder, and the roses crush between us. “I’m always in paradise with you.”

  My mother has a habit of going all out for the holidays. She puts most public displays to shame with her extensive and thorough ninja decorating skills. Of course, she didn’t lift a finger to actually deck the halls. She has a small army of staffers who live to grace the house with miles of garland, lights, enough trees to qualify it as the Capwell forest, and, of course, a thousand little knickknacks anywhere and everywhere you’d think to look in the event you forgot it was Christmas. Green, red, silver, and gold—it’s all here, present and accounted for, along with miles and miles of garland.

  We bypass the oversized nativity on the lawn, with the manger still empty, waiting for the little king to make his debut tomorrow at midnight.

  “You ready?” I nod at the cut glass doors. Even from this vantage point we can see a room full of people, the l
aughter of the crowd echoes right through the walls.

  “I’m more than ready,” she assures, pulling me forward as if she were looking to get this over with, and, truth be told, I couldn’t blame her because so am I. The next stop after this is Heaven, and I can’t wait to plunge inside those pearly gates.

  I pull her in for one last embrace before we descend the gates of, for a lack of a better word, hell.

  “Let’s do it.” I don’t bother knocking, we just head on in, and the sound of holiday music and laughter goes up several octaves. The scent of fresh cut pine and cinnamon infiltrate the air, and the hint of something delicious and far more packed with protein is layered just beneath that—prime rib. “You want to grab a bite?” I’m already pulling her toward the buffet.

  “I’m not that hungry.” She looks around at the crowd, and you can practically see the nerves jumping in her eyes. Figures. Laney can perform to a crowd of thousands, and yet the thought of being in a room with my mother has her crawling out of her skin. “Maybe we should say hi to your mom first?”

  “You always were the smart one.”

  “Says the one who runs a multi-billion dollar company.” She gives my hand a squeeze.

  “Not quite, but someday.” It’s true. I’ve been grinding the gears down at the farm since middle school, and I know damn well how to make Capwell Inc. run like a fuel-efficient machine. In addition to that, I’ve bought and traded enough stocks and assets over this last year alone to create a nice financial cushion for Laney and me. A smile tugs at my lips at the thought of a future with Laney. I’m already living the dream.

  We spot my mother over by the fireplace with a group of investors. I recognize them from a meeting the other day. Dad is still in Japan, but he’ll be home tomorrow night, so Mom is flying solo this evening. She looks calm, cool, and collected. She has her fingers coiled around a glass of wine and a wide painted smile stretching across her face. It looks like a good time to catch her.

  The group she’s with shares a laugh before disbanding, and we come up on her quick before she’s pulled away by the crowd.