Page 84 of Deck the Fire Halls

He nodded, smiling shyly, his cheeks pink. “And... I don’t even remember what I was doing.”

I chuckled. “Nice to know your brain goes offline too, after having your brains blown.”

He snorted. “I’m sure there’s been research done on the correlation to intense pleasure effects on the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus.”

I laughed at that. “And the frontal lobe. Or wherever the ability to form words comes from. At least in complete sentences because you leave me unable to do anything other than blink and breathe.”

Rob smiled as he heated the frying pan, and we made our breakfast of eggs and toast and fresh coffeein a companionable silence. Moving around each other in his kitchen so naturally. Not for one second did it feel awkward or forced.

It was the most natural thing in the world.

We ate at his small dining table by the front window, looking out to the quiet street. Snow on the ground, on roofs, trees made it all so serene.

I could get used to this. So easily. So damn easily could I get used to waking up with Rob, making a lazy breakfast, eating next to each other.

The blow jobs were a bonus. But the comfort, the contentment of sharing this with him, was what made my heart so happy.

My phone beeped in his bedroom and I remembered I told my mother I’d call her. “Ugh, better get that,” I said, disappearing into his room. I took my phone off the charger and saw the text was from my mom. I saw the wordsnothing urgentin the first line and decided it’d just be easier to get it over with.

I hit Call and went back to the dining table. Rob was still sitting there in his sexy-as-hell robe, his legs crossed, reading a news article on his phone.

Mom answered on the second ring. “Oh hello, love,” she said. “I didn’t wake you, did I? I never know which week of shift work you’re up to.”

“No, it’s fine, Mom. How is everything?”

Rob looked up then, smiling at me.

“Oh, everything up here is fine. I was just calling to see how you were. You keeping well, love? Taking care of yourself, I hope.”

I smiled at Rob and rubbed my foot on his when Ireplied. “Oh, I’m keeping very well. Taking very good care of myself, Mom.”

He grinned, ducking his face, but then he took our plates and cups and let me finish my phone call. By the time I said goodbye and promised I’d call her for Christmas, Rob came back with two fresh cups of coffee.

I slid my phone onto the table. “Oh, thank you.”

He sat down, eyes smiling behind his coffee cup. “Everything well back home? And your great aunt’s third cousin twice removed niece’s newborn doing okay?”

I chuckled. “Everything’s fine. She just wanted to check that I was taking care of myself.”

“I heard.”

I had to rein my smile in a bit. “I gave her the PG-rated version of just how well I’m being taken care of.”

Rob’s smile and the way his cheeks flushed pink was the sexiest damn thing I’d ever seen. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. It was almost funny to me now that I’d never once thought of a man older than me as sexy when this man was everything—every single thing—I could ever want in a partner.

I needed to change the topic or at least stop looking at him so I didn’t do something stupid like tell him I was falling in love with him.

Because I was sure that’d bring it all to a screeching halt. I just had to enjoy it for what it was, for where it was up to. I didn’t want to rush anything, didn’t want to miss a minute of this path we were on.

“Do you have plans for today?” I asked before sipping my coffee.

“I told Gunter I’d stop in. I have an idea I want to put tohim. I don’t know if it’s feasible, or even possible. But it can’t hurt to throw some ideas around.”

“What idea is that?”

He made a face. “Well, small towns are hard for teenagers, right? It’s a great place to grow up, don’t get me wrong, but there are limited opportunities for experience. Most of these kids will be moving after school, to the bigger cities for work or college, and so I was thinking, wouldn’t it be good if we could provide hands-on experience to help them find work? Barista, waiting tables, food service, that kind of thing. The kinds of jobs city kids have on almost every block, or huge malls. Hartbridge doesn’t have that. But there’s no reason why we couldn’t foster that experience for these kids so they can walk into a coffee shop or retail store and say they have some experience. Hell, even office work, reception skills, classes on how to do budgets and fill in tenant lease agreements, but also on how to manage responsible social media practices because prospective employers look at that now. It’s hard out there these days. Different from how it was when we were that age—” He grimaced at me. “Sorry. WhenIwas that age.”

I chuckled as I stood up, took his face in both hands, and smacked a kiss on his lips. Hearing how passionate he was about helping kids and making this community a better place made me happy. “I think that’s an amazing idea.”

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