Page 37 of Snow Harm, No Foul

IVY

Niko hasn’t stopped staringat my ass since he forced his Christmas sweater over my head and gave it a smack, telling me to finish up the lights.

I’m beyond horny, my hormones all out of whack. It sure doesn’t help that we went from him having his finger inside of me to tears dripping down my cheeks in a moment of insecurity. It all happened so quickly, but even as he keeps me busy with fluffing the branches of the artificial Christmas tree, I can’t ignore the ache in my core.

Each shift of my thighs and brush of my nipples beneath his shirt ignites another blaze of desire that has me growing wetter. My lack of panties means I’ve made my thighs slick, another reminder of how badly I want Niko to just fuck me already.

“Multicoloured or white lights?” I ask in an attempt to distract myself.

The tree is taller than me, but he can easily touch the top. I’m like a small child in comparison to him, and I’m not all that happy about him being the only one to decorate the top part of the tree. Especially not since he loves to stick the ornaments in bunches instead of spreading them out. But it’s his bar, not mine, so if he wants a cluttered tree . . .

“You know what? Can you actually take those three red ornaments and spread them out a bit?” I blurt out, pointing at the cluttered section.

Niko blinks down at me in confusion, his hands drifting up to where the hooks of the ornaments are hung.

“These?”

“Yes. The biggest rule when it comes to decorating the tree is that you spread out the ornaments. It makes it look fuller. Did you not do that with your tree at home, either?”

“I didn’t set up a tree at home.”

Pain slashes through my chest. “What? Why not?”

He simply shrugs and shifts the first ornament over to another branch. “Didn’t feel the need to.”

“Niko,” I whisper, palming his wide chest.

“I’m more like Scrooge than I thought,” he grunts.

My frown is so intense the muscles above my brows start to burn. “No. You’re not. Because I’m going to change all of that. From this year on, we’re going to put up a massive tree in your living room and spend hours decorating it with all sorts of ornaments and tinsel. Multicoloured lights, too. My first question was redundant. I’ve always thought plain white lights were lame.”

My exhales rip out of me as I huff. Niko watches me but doesn’t speak. I splay my fingers out from where they’re pressed to his chest, and his heartbeat thrashes against my palm. He’s so calm on the outside, but I know that if I got the chance to slip inside his head, I’d learn that he’s anything but.

“Is that okay with you?” I ask, pushing and refusing to let this go without something more from him. “If you don’t say anything, I’m going to assume that you don’t want me to do that?—”

“Anythin’ you want or need is okay with me, angel. I’ll set up thirty trees if it’ll make you happy.”

I squeal as he wraps me in his arms and lifts me off my feet. My eyes are already closing in preparation for his kiss when I feel the first puff of warm breath on my mouth and beat him to it.

Rough, strong, yet somehow gentle, his lips lead mine into a slow embrace. I’ve never felt so protected and cared for with only a kiss before. But with Niko, even a single look from him is able to incite those feelings. He’s so solid, somehow creating a solid foundation of love and care no one has been able to provide me before.

Maybe that’s why I make my next move. I’m blasted with an incredible sense of thankfulness that drives me to want to give him something in return for his affection. That and my inability to keep my hands off him.

It’s easy to slip from his arms when he isn’t expecting me to. The fall to my knees is quick, and I’m so turned on that the pain from the slam doesn’t register. With a coy smile, I pull his shirt over my head and drop it beside me.

“What are you doin’, Ivy?” he asks, his tone rougher than normal.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m going to suck your cock.”

I hold his stare while unbuttoning his jeans and stroking the length of him through them. He’s huge, even without being fully hard, and that’s more than enough to make me drip down my thigh.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.”

His eyes smoulder, the warm brown heating to a liquid. “Then get to it, angel.”

The pet name has quickly become one of my favourite things in the entire world. There’s something about the way he says it . . . almost like a prayer, that just does me in.

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