Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
By this point, the stiffness was setting in and she was moving more and more slowly, so I took her home, gave her the pain meds, and told her to go take a hot shower.
I brought the tree and lights inside and stood the tree up in the stand, and that’s when I’d heard her groaning in pain. I’d gone in to see what was wrong, and she was practically crying with the effort to raise her arms above her head and wash her hair. Clearly, my services were necessary.
I wasn’t going to complain too much.
Once her hair was rinsed, I turned her around again and massaged her shoulders and arms. She moaned. “Oh, God, that’s like heaven,” she said as she rotated her head.
With her moans and small whimpers, my cock perked up to see what was going on. But I urged him down. She was in pain, and we had all the time in the world to explore each other in any and every way. Damn, I liked that thought.
I finished helping her wash and then we got out of the shower to string the lights on our sad, little tree. In truth though, when we sat back on the couch, snuggling, with a roaring fire in the fireplace, I looked at that half-bare, leaning tree, decorated with overly large, outdoor house lights, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen a more beautiful Christmas tree in my life.
I pulled Grace against me and I knew, without a doubt in my mind, that I loved her. I was in love with the woman in my arms. And the feeling of loving her was as peaceful as the snow falling gently outside the window. Maybe I had loved her for a long, long time. Maybe it didn’t matter when or how or why. Maybe love was complicated and yet the simplest thing in the whole wide world.
She snuggled into me and the words hitched in my throat. After a minute, she turned to me and looked into my eyes. “Happy Christmas Eve, Carson,” she whispered.
I smiled down at her. “Happy Christmas Eve, buttercup.”
CHAPTER 33
Grace
I woke up to the sounds of birds outside the window, rays of sunlight streaming in around the closed shades. It was Christmas! I rolled over lazily and stretched, and then snuggled into Carson’s warm back. He sighed, and I kissed the smooth skin of his shoulders, my lips lingering on his small scar, breathing him in.
“Good morning,” he said, sleep still present in his voice. What a glorious sound to wake up to.
“Hi,” I whispered. “So you don’t always get up at the butt crack of dawn, huh?”
He chuckled. “No, not always. Especially not when I have a warm, soft buttercup to snuggle with.”
He turned toward me and we snuggled for a few more minutes, our hands roaming as my insides warmed.
“How are your muscles this morning?” he asked.
“Good. Better.” I could still feel some residual stiffness, but more like I’d done a hard workout, rather than threw myself under a moving train, like I’d felt the day before.
Carson came over me and made love to me slowly and gently, moving his hips leisurely until I groaned out in frustration, and he smiled against my shoulder and finally, finally sped up.
I cried out and Carson groaned against my neck when our orgasms hit us simultaneously, goose bumps rising on his skin.
“God, I love to hear you scream,” he said, his breath hot against my ear, muffled so I could barely make out his words. He pulled out of me, rolling slightly to the side.
“I’ll try to get a hold on that,” I said with a soft laugh. It was so nice to let go though, so nice to get so completely lost in him.
He leaned up. “No way. We’ll just buy a house way out in the countryside so we won’t disturb the neighbors.”
“A house?” My eyes widened. “Really?”
He studied me. “Someday, yeah, a house. I want to come home to you, Grace. I want to have Princess and Junior with you.” He paused, his eyes filling with even more warmth, and a hint of vulnerability. “I love you,” he said softly.
I let out a small breath. I had realized I loved him the night before, sitting in front of the fire, looking at our pathetically beautiful Christmas tree, and it was confirmed for me a million times over as I stared into his hopeful expression now. “I love you too,” I said. It felt so natural, so…destined. It felt like it’d always been meant to be this way—me in his arms, whispering words of love.
The smile that took over his face was stunning and immediate. “You do?”
I nodded, my eyes filling with tears. “Yeah, I do,” I said. “I really do. And I love that you remembered Princess and Junior.”