Total pages in book: 6
Estimated words: 6007 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 30(@200wpm)___ 24(@250wpm)___ 20(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 6007 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 30(@200wpm)___ 24(@250wpm)___ 20(@300wpm)
Andrei started pulling hundreds out of his pocket, and the door slammed behind them.
“Yeah,” I laughed. “I think they got it totally under control.”
Sergio stared out the window and winced as the shovel flew toward Chase. “Yeah, completely calm.”
“Almost serene.” I nodded.
“Yup.” He picked me up in his arms. “Now, let’s go do the opposite of that.”
“Shovel throwing?”
“Calm.” He winked. “I want to taste you. All of you. Now.”
“I might taste like snow, sweat, tears, and worry.”
“I might kiss it all away; you should just let me.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay.” He pressed a kiss to my neck. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Sergio
Val had always been my rock, even when she didn’t realize it, even when she annoyed the hell out of me when I first met her. She’d been so young, and I’d felt like I’d aged across lifetimes. I’d been so lost in my own grief that it took someone like her kissing me and telling me to get it together to snap me out of it, and even then, I was pissed off because she wasn’t intimidated by me at all, she challenged me, she kissed me first.
That movie theater was both the best and worst decision of my life, the best because it changed me, the worst because I’ve only ever been that afraid once, and that was in the field we planted the trees.
I grabbed her hand and walked her toward the stairs; the laughter from the rest of the family started to fade. All I had was her hand.
It was all I needed.
How many times had I mourned going down those stairs, only to go back up those same stairs holding my wife’s hand?
The plan I’d had so long ago wasn’t the same.
It was different.
Then again, Andi had been different, just like Val. Both molded me into the man I was today, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
She squeezed my hand tight. “I missed you.”
I stopped walking up the stairs and pulled her against me. “I wasn’t gone long.”
Her smile was slightly sad. “It wasn’t the time you were gone, Sergio. It was that I was loaning you to someone else for a while. I wasn’t jealous. Okay, maybe a little bit, but I genuinely missed you and your touch, your hand.”
“Do you realize…” I asked. “…how big my love is for you?”
“Bigger than the stars?” She laughed and started to walk away, tugging me with her.
I pulled her back. “Bigger.” I kissed the back of her head and held her against me. “So much bigger.”
She relaxed against me; her hair smelled like coconuts and almonds. I inhaled and hugged her even tighter.
Val turned in my arms and pressed a kiss to my neck. It was rare in this business to actually relax for one minute, let alone longer than that, but she always had this way of making me feel like I could exist just in the space between us.
“Hey.” She reached for my jeans, tugged at the button, and undid it. “I need you.”
I laughed. “Eager?”
“I want an early Christmas present.”
“And my dick is your present?”
“Absolutely.” She grinned and easily pushed me toward the bedroom. I was shoved onto the bed—eagerly. I kicked off my jeans in the same way, and when her dark hair fell against my thighs, and her lips descended toward my cock—I looked down and laughed. “You know you used to get embarrassed when—“
“Shhhh.” She pressed a finger to my lips and then lowered her mouth.
With a curse, I lifted my hips as she sucked me dry, nearly choking herself in the process. “You’re too good at this.”
She pulled back and winked. “I know. I just figured that this was a day to celebrate.”
“Christmas?”
“Life.” She pulled off her top, then her bra, and lowered her body onto mine. “Life, Sergio.”
“I love you,” I whispered, tears in my eyes that I didn’t want to shed because I would never want Val to think that it was because I missed Andi—even though I did—my heart had space for two.
And I knew in my soul Val knew that as well.
“Hey.” Val leaned down; my fingers tugged at her leggings, pulling the rest of her clothes off. “It’s okay to miss her too.”
“I know.”
“I know.” She repeated back. “And my heart will always have space for you.”
“Mine too.”
“Good.” Val pressed another soft kiss to my mouth and whispered, “Now, let’s celebrate.”
“However will we do that?” I joked.
She impaled herself on me.
“Shit.” I coughed out. “So violent.”
“So good.” She laughed. “Now let me love you.”
“Done.” I took a deep breath as she rid me slowly. “Done. For you. Always done.”
“Two twirls.”
“Two twirls,” I repeated as I always did every Christmas, not as a reminder of Andi, but as a reminder of life, of living, of loving.
Of us.
Because every Christmas should include—not one but two twirls.