Page 20 of All I Want

Chapter 5

“Grab all theornaments you can find,” Alex said as he finished wrapping the multi-colored lights around the tree.

“I definitely don’t have enough to cover this thing,” Maggie muttered, gesturing to the modest six-foot tree he’d convinced her to buy.

“You love it. Now grab those ornaments.”

She returned a few minutes later with a small storage bin. Yep. They’d have to deal with the crowds and go shopping in the morning.

He pulled out the fluffy red and gold garland of his youth and laughed. “Keeping it old school, huh, Mags.”

“Shut up, that garland is a classic,” she said.

He grabbed the top box, carefully removing the generic red and green ball ornaments and walked around the tree to place them on the branches.

She opened the next box filled with homemade ornaments.

“Damn. I think I still have a burn mark from the beads we ironed for those,” he said when she pulled out a few snowflake ornaments.

She laughed. “Yeah, my mom told you to wait and she would iron them, but you were too impatient.”

“I was a kid. Patience wasn’t my thing.”

“You don’t say?”

They walked around the tree with their ornament boxes, filling up the branches as best they could with the limited supply. Every time he bumped into her, he nibbled her earlobe or grabbed a quick kiss, her gasps and giggles spiking his need for her.

“I don’t remember you being this clumsy,” she said as he wrapped his arm around her waist after crashing into her again.

“No clue what you are talking about,” he said, stealing another kiss that left her gasping. His breathing was getting a little rough, too. At least they just had one more box, and then they could move on to other things. Preferably in her bedroom. Or on the couch. Or under the tree.

He wasn’t picky.

“Last box,” he said, popping the top open. His heart clenched when he saw what was inside.

“You kept them.” His voice was soft, almost in awe.

“Umm. Oh. Well, yeah, I didn’t want to get rid of them,” she said, nibbling on her lower lip.

He pulled each ornament out carefully. From the ages of sixteen to twenty-one, they’d gone to the same mall kiosk and picked out a personalized ornament of a holiday couple, from snowpeople to polar bears to frogs, and had the year and their names written on it. The kiosk owner always remembered them. Maggie had said that one day when they were older, she wanted a tree filled with Maggie and Alex ornaments. The six ornaments had been carefully wrapped, and he hated that there weren’t more. This year would’ve been the eleventh one.

He set down the polar bear ornament—it’d been the last one they’d picked out—and pulled her into his lap on the couch, kissing away the tear that had fallen down her cheek.

“I missed you so much, Alex,” she said, shifting in his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“I’m done missing you,” he said, pressing a soft kiss to her lips and swallowing her sigh as she sank into his chest.

Her hands clenched in his hair, and all the sadness and pain from their years apart faded away, replaced with a blinding need to have her. He gripped her hips and stood.

She gasped against his mouth, tightening her legs around his waist.

“I need you, Maggie, and I hope to hell it’s mutual,” he grumbled.

“So damn mutual,” she whispered back. “Now get a move on,” she said, then kissed the hell out of him as he strode down the hallway.

He pressed her against the wall just outside of her bedroom and she shifted her body against him. He couldn’t stop the fuck that tumbled from his lips.

Her laugh was husky with desire. “That’s the idea.”

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