Shackled: A Stepbrother Romance Novel (14 page)

I clutched the blanket to my chest and sat up as I nervously asked, “Where are you going?”

He stopped and smiled. “Making sure the house is locked up. I’ll be right back.”

Right. Because this was
our
house now. No more parents to lock up the doors and windows and make sure we were safe before bed.

Now I had Jonathan to keep me safe. The thought made me smile and I laid back down, pulling a corner of the comforter to the side for him to slide beneath when he got back.

When he finally returned, he shoved the boxers back to the floor and slid into bed, offering me a sip of water which I happily accepted. His palm curled protectively around the back of my neck as I lifted my head for the glass and our eyes met while I swallowed the drink, something about the simple gesture and the weight of his gaze telling me that he really would keep me safe.

“Thank you,” I said as he pulled the glass away.

“I feel like I should be thanking you, angel.”

“What for?”

“For making this the best Christmas I’ve ever had. I think it might be my new favorite holiday.”

I laughed. “What about Halloween?”

“I
do
love Halloween,” he said thoughtfully, then broke out into a grin. “I’m going to buy you so many sexy costumes.”

“Am I going to be wearing these costumes in public?”

He growled and it was really all the answer I needed. But he still jerked me against his chest and darkly said, “You better not.”

“Just for you, then. I promise,” I assured him, ending my sentence by craning my neck to place a sweet kiss on his lips.

Of course, he gripped my neck and turned my sweet kiss into something so passionate that the arousal I thought was sated skyrocketed right back up to full blast. When I twisted my body to press myself fully in his embrace, I felt the evidence of his own lust pressing against my stomach.

When we broke apart, he whispered, “Sexy costumes or not, I still think Christmas is going to be my favorite from now on.”

“It’s
my
favorite. Always has been.”

“I know, angel.”

I smirked as I pushed at his shoulder and rolled him onto his back, quickly straddling his waist once he was in the position I wanted him in.

“Let’s make
sure
that this is your favorite holiday from now on.”

He folded his hands behind his head and glanced down at his cock as it twitched against his abs. With a wild grin, he looked up at me and said, “Ready when you are.”

A
h
, Christmas. My favorite day of the year.

Outside, the ground was blanketed with snow and it looked like a winter wonderland. Inside, the entire house smelled like turkey and I could vaguely hear Christmas music playing from the television in the living room, but it was too muffled by the door to make out which song it was.

Not that I gave a shit which song it was.

I clenched my teeth together to stifle a groan and tangled my hand in Fiona’s hair to guide her back down.

“
Fuck.
Do that again, baby.”

She let out a noise that must have been a chuckle before her eyes came up to lock on mine as she slid her sweet lips further down my length and sucked hard. I swore I saw stars every time she did this, but this time, it might have been caused by the strands of flashing Christmas lights she had insisted on hanging up in our bedroom.

I complained about it at first, but quickly changed my tune when Fiona pointed out that they would make great sex lighting. As soon as I realized she was right, I went out and bought her an entire basket full of more colorful strands to string around the house, making sure to note that she should hang them in any room she wanted me to fuck her in.

Which turned out to be all of them, save for the bathroom.
‘For safety purposes,’
she had assured me before sweetly asking to join her for a shower.

That had been a
really
good day.

Not as good as this one, though. Fiona was all decked out in holiday gear—a Santa mini dress and those fucking knee socks she got last year—and had insisted on giving me the oral part of her present this morning, before our parents came over for Christmas dinner-lunch. She had playfully shoved me against the door and dropped to her knees, which was all it took to get me to stand at attention.

Her eyes stayed locked with mine as she bobbed her head up and down, making an encouraging sound when I allowed my hips to gently thrust forward into her mouth.

As the heat built at the base of my spine, I couldn’t continue to control myself. One look at her eyes told me she was just waiting for me to snap, and that only made my reaction more severe. I gripped her hair and pulled her back, holding her chin with my other hand as I roughly fucked her mouth.

It was too much. The noises she made, the way she looked up at me, begging with her eyes to give her what she wanted—
fuck
.

“Fiona,” I gasped, my steady rhythm faltering. She moved quickly to pick up the slack, detangling my hand from her hair so she could deep-throat my cock. “Oh
FUCK!
”

The world went white as I roared my release, and I relaxed back against the door when my muscles went slack as the ripples of pleasure slowly faded. She waited until my cock stopped leaking before pulling off, tightening her lips near the head just enough to make me shudder.

After she popped off with an obscene noise, she grinned up at me, entirely too proud of herself for my liking.

“Come here, girl,” I said, beckoning her to stand with my fingers as I mentally willed the feeling to return to my legs.

Fiona stood, but when I reached out for her, she bit her lip and took two steps back. I tilted my head to the side and raised an eyebrow, wondering what game she was playing.

“I want my gift,” she said as she backed to the bed and plopped on the side, spreading her knees and giving me a good view of the fact that she wasn’t wearing any panties beneath her sexy little Santa dress.

“Fucking hell, are you trying to kill me?”

She frowned. “No dying. Not until I get my gift.”

“Oh, I’ll give you a gift,” I lowly said as I pushed myself away from the door and moved towards her. “But not the kind you’re thinking of.”

“The only gift I need looks like it’s about ready for me,” she playfully said, raising an eyebrow at my half-hard dick. “Or can you not go for two rounds anymore?”

“Don’t mock me, woman,” I growled in warning, bracing my arms on either side of her and leaning over to press a kiss to the tip of her nose. As I did it, I gently ground my lower body against hers, smiling at her soft moan. “But this gift will have to wait.”

She whimpered in protest when I pulled away. “But
why?
”

I chuckled as I pulled my jeans and boxers back up and zipped the fly. “Because you’re getting a
real
gift first.”

That put a damper on her mood. She sat up and fixed me with an angry look as she stalked over to me, shaking her head in denial.

“We had an agreement. You said it yourself—money is tight and we need to—”

“Shhh,” I quieted her with a single finger over her lips. “I know what I said.”

I also knew that Fiona didn’t know that I had been taking out a small amount of every single paycheck I got since last Christmas and putting it into a savings account specifically for this present. I hadn’t been holding enough to make things difficult for us—we got by just fine—but we had been in agreement for a few months not to buy each other silly things we didn’t need and add the extra strain to our budget.

But this wasn’t a silly thing and as far as I was concerned, it definitely fell into the category of a need.

“Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

She pouted as I left the room and headed down to the garage. I rushed to my toolbox and quickly unlocked it, making a mental note to see if I could fix the fucking heating in here before next winter. When I found Fiona’s gift, I slammed the box shut and relocked it before rushing back into the house.

At least the cold had completely killed my erection. This wasn’t something I envisioned doing with a raging hard-on.

I took off in a jog back to the bedroom, but stopped abruptly when I saw Fiona standing in the living room with a hip popped out and her arms folded over her chest as she glared at me.

She’s definitely pissed. Wonderful.

“Baby, listen—”

“No,
you
listen,” she cut in, pointing a finger at me. “You and I made a promise not to keep secrets and we
also
promised not to buy each other presents this year. Do you have any idea how it feels to hear that you went back on that while I have nothing to give you in return? I feel like a shitty girlfriend, Jonathan! It’s not—Is that what I think it is?”

Her eyes had shifted to the box in my hand and I lifted it up so she could see it better, watching as her eyes widened. I grinned and shrugged, “I don’t know. What do you think it is?”

Her mouth opened and closed numerous times and her hand dropped, all the anger draining out of her expression and instead replaced with shock. I hesitantly stepped closer and closer until I was directly in front of her, cupping her chin and dragging it upwards until her eyes were locked with mine instead of the box.

“Angel, I’ve been saving a little bit from every check since last Christmas for this. I know I promised no secrets, but this is the one secret a man
should
keep from his girl. I wanted it to be a surprise.”

Her ability to speak seemed to return and she lowly mumbled, “It’s definitely a surprise.”

“So are we okay?”

She nodded her head slowly and I released her chin, smiling when her wide eyes immediately darted back down to the jewelry box.

“Can I see it?”

I smirked. “Baby, you can see it any time you want, but I don’t think it’d be appropriate right now.”

The smack on the chest was deserved, but worth it. She rolled her eyes and bounced up and down on her feet for a moment, clapping her hands together in excitement. I smiled at her reaction—happy to know that regardless of whatever bullshit I said, I was pretty sure I knew what her answer was going to be.

As if her thoughts were on the exact same page, she abruptly stopped bouncing and frowned.

“Wait. Did I ruin this? Did I just fuck up my proposal?
Oh my god
—Can we rewind? I’ll go back to the room and you can do whatever it was you were going to do.”

She started to move away and I reached out for her hand, giving her a fond look as I shook my head.

“You and I both know that I’m not any good with pre-planned speeches, so I was really just going to wing it. Now come here.”

She obliged without protest, beaming up at me after I pulled her close to my chest and cupped her cheek with my free hand.

“I love you, angel. You know that.”

“I know,” she confirmed with a nod. “I love you, too.”

“I fucked up once before, but I’ll never do anything to risk losing you again. Do you know that?”

She nodded again and I took a brief moment to lean down and place a gentle kiss to her lips before taking the metaphorical leap and dropping down to one knee.

“Then will you be my wife?”

“Yes!”

After I slid the ring on her finger and pulled her into a tight hug, I realized that this was the only time I had ever been happy to see her cry.

Because this time, her tears meant that I had done something right.

As I tightened my grip around her, I silently vowed to do whatever it took to keep her by my side forever.

And if I ever did something to fuck it up again, I still had the shackles in the bottom drawer of my toolbox.

Always good to have a fallback.