Healed (8 page)

“I think that it’s a nice sweater, and if you like it and think we should get it then I’m going to trust your judgment.”

Her chest was still rising and falling as she tried to get her body under control. “Okay.”

After a few deep breaths, the smile returned to her face and she bumped her shoulder into my side. “You did that on purpose.”

“Maybe I did, and if you’re really good, maybe I’ll continue my journey later,” I said with a wink.

She gave a brief giggle, trying to cover up the tremor that ran through her body at my words. After that we continued to make our way through the mall, double-checking that we had everything we needed for the holidays. This year would be the start of a new tradition for us.

“Are you sure you’re still okay with visiting one of our families on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas Day?” I asked as we made our way out the door of the mall and toward the parking lot. It was so freaking cold that the minute I stepped out of the door and the warmth of the mall, I had to pull my coat tighter around me to keep in the heat, but it wasn’t easy with all of the bags I had in my hands. Otherwise, I would have pulled Emily close to me to help keep her warm too. Apparently, Christmas with Emily’s parents was no small affair.

“Yeah, as long as we’re still going to switch back and forth from year to year.”

“Of course we are.”

Last year we’d decided to spend the holidays with our own families. We hadn’t been dating all that long and we hadn’t known things were going to progress so quickly between us. But we’d missed each other and didn’t want to spend the holidays apart again.

“Okay. Good.”

We finally made it to my truck and placed all of the bags in the back. Jumping in the front seat, I turned the heat on high, wanting to get it as warm as possible. Emily was already sitting in the seat with her gloves off and her hands in front of the heaters.

I looked over at her. It still amazed me that this beautiful woman sitting next me was going to spend the rest of her life with me. “What time are we meeting Caleb and Angie?”

We were headed to the alehouse, which was less than ten minutes away.

“Around seven.”

It was quarter to seven.

Reaching over, I laced my fingers with hers. It felt good to have the feel of her skin against mine. I used the grip I had on her hand to tug her toward me until our faces were less than an inch apart. “We still have time,” I whispered against her lips. “I could warm you up a little bit before we need to be there.”

“Mmm . . . are you saying that you want to pick up where we left off in the store?”

“Maybe.”

Letting my lips glide across her cheek and down her neck, I took in the taste of her skin. Even with how cold it was outside, her body was warm, and the way she leaned into my touch drove me crazy as I moved my lips back to hers and took the kiss I’d wanted so badly in the store. The strawberry lip balm she used, when mixed with her, was a taste like no other, and when she slid her tongue across my bottom lip . . . it exhausted all the control I had.

Every time my mouth touched her it was like falling. Falling into a piece of oblivion that I never wanted to leave. My hands fisted in her hair, while my pants started to feel too tight. Now, instead of a room full of strangers, it was the idea of our waiting friends that had me pulling away from her.

“God, what you do to me,” I whispered through deep panting breaths.

“I’d like to do a whole lot more to you.” Her delicate little hand slid down my thigh and over the crotch of my pants.

“Em,” I said in warning. My body was already keyed up. We didn’t need to make it any worse. When her hand continued to stroke my dick through my pants, I grabbed her wrist to stop the movement. She giggled.

Ahh.

“That was payback for earlier wasn’t it?”

“Yep.” She made a popping sound with the
p
.

Shaking my head, I took a deep breath and tried to think of something, besides the absolute lust in my system, that would help me calm down. Once I had gotten myself under control—or at least as controlled as I could be with the smell of vanilla and jasmine from Emily’s perfume in the car —I started the car and backed out of the space.

The ride to the restaurant was quiet. I was still trying to get myself completely under control, not wanting to walk into the restaurant with a freaking boner. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Emily dancing along to the music on the radio. When she let go, it was a sight to see. She wasn’t worried or keyed up, she just
was,
and it made me smile.

Pulling into the parking lot, I saw Caleb’s car already there. With the weather the way it was they had already gone inside to wait for us. Surprisingly enough there was no snow on the ground yet. Then again, it was most likely too cold for it to even fall. The minute I turned off the car, we both jumped out and practically ran to the building, neither one of us a fan of the freezing temperatures.

Inside was nice and warm. Caleb and Angie were already seated, waiting for us with drinks in their hands.

“Hey,” Caleb said, pushing the extra shot of whiskey and a bottle of beef in front of him to me. “Thought you might need these.”

“You have no idea.” Picking up the whiskey I took the shot, letting the alcohol warm me from the inside out.

“I bet. I hate the mall anytime of the year, but Christmas time? That shit’s just crazy.”

Nodding in agreement, I looked over at Emily and Angie, who were engaging in one of their rapid-fire conversations, so fast that only the two of them could understand.

“We would have ordered you a drink, Em, but we weren’t sure what you wanted,” Angie said.

Even I never knew what to order Emily from the bar. Her choices changed from night to night—if we were out long enough, hour to hour. She pulled out the drinks menu to study it for a moment. Caleb turned back toward me.

“How did your meeting go at the firm?”

“Man, that is where I want to be when we’re done with all of this. They were great. Clear about their expectations, and made me feel more than welcome.” I took another sip of my drink. “To be honest, I didn’t even expect to meet with the partners when I first called. I figured they’d pass me off to some high level manager. What about you? Did you talk to anyone at your office?”

“Yeah and I’m pretty excited. They we’re great, although, I have to say I’m a little jealous that you got the best firm. But, shit, it never felt like we’d get to this point.”

“Tell me about it,” I said, before taking a long swig of my beer.

People always said that your college years would be over before you knew it. The only thing I could guess was that the people who said that had never been to college, or that it only felt like that after the fact because, to me, it seemed to take forever.

“What are you guys doing for Christmas?” Emily asked, turning the drinks menu over in her hand.

“We’re leaving the day after tomorrow to spend the week at Caleb’s parents’ house,” Angie answered.

“I bet your parents are excited about that.”

For a long time, Caleb had refused to go home when school was on break. I wasn’t sure of the whole story, but I knew it had to do with something that happened his senior year of high school. Then one night, about two years ago, all hell broke loose at his place and Angie, Caleb, and Josh all ended up in the hospital.

Angie took a quick sip of her drink. “What did you guys decide to do?”

For Angie and Caleb it hadn’t been a hard decision. She didn’t really have any family, and had spent most of her holidays with Emily’s parents before her and Caleb started dating.

Before I had a chance to answer the waitress arrived at our table to take our order and Emily looked up, the drink menu still in her hand. “I’ll have a Captain and Coke, but come back to me, I’m still deciding what I want to eat.”

Laughing, I shook my head at her and gave the waitress my order. There was no one out there like Emily and I loved every moment with her. After I finished everyone else placed their orders in turn. When the waitress finally had all of our choices, she left to put all of our orders in with the kitchen.

Turning to Angie, I answered her question from before. “Since my sister can’t make it to my parents’ house until the twenty-fifth, we’re going to go see Emily’s parents on Christmas Eve, and mine on Christmas Day.”

That’s when I felt Emily’s hand slide along my thigh, the feel of it bringing back memories from the car. I spent the next few minutes thanking God there was a table in front of us, all the while trying to keep my mind focused on the conversation, instead of the warm hand only inches from my dick.

With a look of pure innocence, Emily continued the conversation like nothing was different. “Then next year we’ll do it the other way around.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Angie agreed with a smile. She looked over at me. “You’re going to love Christmas with the Halliday’s. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. They take the day to a whole new level.”

Emily’s hand inched a little closer. I bit back a moan and tried to talk. “That’s what I’m told.”

Football. Homework. Grades.
I was trying to think of anything that might distract me from the feel of Emily’s hand. Discreetly, I pulled one of mine off the table and covered hers to stop its progress. Now that her hand was trapped firmly beneath mine, I could concentrate again. “If the shopping we’ve done so far is any indication, I can only imagine.”

Honestly, I was pretty thrilled to get to spend part of the holiday with Emily’s family as well this year. It made our engagement so much more real.

Emily smiled. “You have no idea.”

When a phone chimed, Caleb reached into his pocket. Whatever he was checking didn’t stop him from participating in the conversation. “I’m just happy to have the next two weeks off.”

Angie nodded her head and covered Caleb’s phone with her hand, removing it from his grasp. “I think we all need a break.”

Hell, I was surprised he’d even looked at it, much less continued to play on it, knowing how Angie feels about phones in restaurants. We’d all gotten in trouble once or twice—even Emily.

Angie couldn’t have been more right. With all of the things that happened with Lauren at the end of last year, and then jumping back into a stress-filled semester, I think a break from the chaos was exactly what we needed.

“It sucks that you guys have to start so much earlier than we do,” Emily said.

“Maybe, but I think part of me would rather go back earlier than worry about writing this thesis,” Angie complained.

Caleb shook his head. “You know, there isn’t a bone in my body that would want to do that, much less stay an extra year like this one has to,” he said, gesturing at Angie with his thumb.

My nose turned up. “For the love of God, why would you stay another year?”

Emily giggled a bit, a sound that went straight through me. It always did because you could tell she was relaxed when she did it. “Because she wants to be a teacher, so she has to go back and take the classes to get her license.”

“Oh, man, that sucks. No wonder you’re doing a summer wedding.”

“Exactly. Then we can still go on our honeymoon before classes start again in the fall.”

The thought of having to do another year made me want to twitch, and I was especially glad Emily didn’t have another year. After the stress at the end of last year, I didn’t know if she’d have it in her. I guess her wanting to be a researcher for a historical society or a museum wasn’t such a bad thing after all. When she’d first told me what she wanted to do, I was afraid she’d be bored, but she simply said, ‘If I get bored, I’ll go work for a politician. Their lives are never boring.”

It wasn’t long before the waitress brought our food out and the conversation turned from school and life to the delicious meals sitting in front of us. The night went on like that, with us eventually moving to the bar, and after the stress of the last few months, it was nice to just hang out with friends.

The next few days went by in a flurry of activity, just like they always did leading up to a holiday. It felt like all we did was wrap presents and make cookies. Apparently, the one thing Emily loved to do this time of the year was bake. It was a damn good thing I spent enough time in the gym.

Emily still had me running errands the day before Christmas Eve. From store to store I went, picking up little things here and there for the next day. When I finally pulled into the parking lot I was exhausted, annoyed by all of the crowds everywhere I went. Trudging to the door with my hands full, all I could think about was relaxing on the couch with a beer.

The apartment was quiet when I opened the door, which was odd because Emily should have been there.

“Em? Em? Where are you?”

The lights in the kitchen were on but she wasn’t in there.

Weird.

I dropped the bags on the floor next to the couch, figuring I was safe. She’d have somewhere to put it all anyway.

“I’m down in the bedroom.”

Her voice sounded strange, but she was probably getting changed. Slowly, I walked down the hall, ready to collapse on the bed. However, the sight that greeted me when I walked through the bedroom doors had me instantly awake and hard as a rock.