Page 45 of The Christmas Cookie Crush

His smile is a thing of beauty—small and warm and just for me. When he kisses me, it’s gentle, perfect, healing. We stay like that for long moments, our breaths mingling, and his sweetness, his presence, his steadiness heals something inside me that I didn’t even realize was still bruised.

When he pulls back, he laces his fingers through mine. “Ready?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Austin

If I hadany doubts about the wisdom of getting a hotel room for Nora and me to spend time alone, they’re thoroughly erased now.

This is clearly what we need. We’ve been building a connection, but this is what we need to cement it and deepen it. She needs me to show up for her like this so she fully trusts that I’m serious. About all of this—her, us, now, the future. Everything.

It might be premature to make solid plans for the future, but I want what we have to last. I want more than just a couple of weeks while she’s here on break. I want to start something that has a chance of becoming more.

After my conversation with my grandparents yesterday, I’m feeling more secure about my own future. And that makes me feel better about wanting to plan for the future with Nora.

Of course, I’ll wait until after Christmas, when things will be calmer and her going back to school is closer, when we’ve hadmore time to grow something and planning our next steps is a logical thing to do. Right now, we’re still in the one-day-at-a-time stage. Planning what to do tomorrow or the next day is about as far ahead as we’ve discussed.

Knowing what my future holds helps me feel more settled, though. Which makes it easier to exist in the current state of uncertainty with Nora.

When everything is one big question mark, it’s more difficult to know which way to turn. With something to hold onto, to keep me grounded, I feel more confident in my decisions.

Maybe I can provide that for Nora too. I know she feels unmoored—or very soon to be unmoored, at least. If I could let her know that she can at least hold onto me, maybe that will help her with her decision making as well.

But all those worries are for another time. Because tonight, I have Nora all to myself for the first time ever.

I’m jittery with anticipation and arousal, my dick half-hard in my pants at merely the thought of getting her alone. Of getting unfettered access to her skin. The memory of making out with her in my car has been enough to fuel my fantasies the last couple of nights, resulting in some extremely thorough showers yesterday and today.

Thankfully, check-in goes smoothly without even needing to wait. And then we’re in our room.

I hold open the door for Nora, and she wanders inside, trailing a hand over the standard hotel bedspread then moving to the window and peeking through. “We have a stunning view of the parking lot.”

Chuckling, I set our bags down at the foot of the bed. “I didn’t plan on spending a lot of time looking out the window.”

She turns, her hands clasped behind her, blinking at me with a faux-innocent expression on her face. “Really? What did you plan on spending a lot of time doing then?”

With a laugh, I cross the room and reach for her.

Her smile turns mischievous, and she lets me pull her close, sighing when I cover her mouth with mine.

I tug her hat from her head, tossing it aside, wanting to run my hands through her hair.

She unzips my coat in one quick tug, then slides her hands inside, and I suddenly want to rip off all our clothes, even while wanting to drag this out to make it last as long as possible.

Still. At the very least, we can take our coats off.

I shed mine, my mouth never leaving hers, then reach between us to undo the belt on her coat and push it off her shoulders. She helps, letting it drop to the ground behind her, then wraps her arms around my neck. My arms go around her torso, pressing her body against mine as tightly as I can.

We fit together so perfectly, especially when she’s wearing those heeled boots. It puts her at the perfect height so I only have to bend my head a little to kiss her, the length of her body flush with mine.

I’m fully hard now, and when I press my dick against her belly, she kisses me harder, her tongue teasing at my lips.

I take her cue and deepen the kiss, my tongue tangling with hers. She slides one hand down my shoulder, then down between ourbodies. It takes me a second to realize what she’s doing at first, until her hand glances over my dick. I grunt involuntarily, my hips flexing, needing more.

She drags the back of her fingers up my inner thigh, once again grazing my dick, and I do my best to press into her touch, but it’s gone again too soon. After the third time, I realize she’s teasing me, only offering light, grazing touches, and I’m torn between doing the same thing back to her or gripping her ass and grinding against her to show her what I really want.

When she does it again, though, my instincts take over. My hands slide inside the back of her pants, encountering bare skin that makes me groan into her mouth as I grip the round globes of her ass and squeeze, pulling her belly tight against mine.

She gasps, and I take advantage of the slight break in the kiss to suck her lower lip into my mouth and bite down. When she moans, I squeeze her ass once more, rocking into her again before taking a step back.

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