Page 159 of Felonies are Forever

“Shit.” There’s panic in her voice. “He’s coming down Charleston Avenue, asking if I need anything from the store. Said he’ll stop if I do, otherwise he’ll be here in five minutes. The guys all decided to stay together at the closest guy’s house. Oh God.”

“It’s fine.” I run my hand down her hair. “I’ll talk to him. I’ll explain this isn’t just some guy groping his daughter. This is serious. He’s going to have to get used to it.”

“No! He will be furious. You know how he is. It’s Christmas, Cole. I don’t want to lose him. I already lost one father… I can’t…” Tears fill her eyes and my heart clenches in my chest. “I can’t do this right now.”

“I promise you baby, it will be okay. Just tell him you’re here, that I’m still here with you, and you’ll see him in a few minutes. Let’s get you dressed though, some things a father does not need to see.”

Her eyes widen in a question, then she calms, looking down at her phone as her fingers move on the screen. A minute later she looks up at me, pinching her lips together in a wry smile.

“What?”

She turns the phone around, and I read the words on the screen. My head tells me one thing but my heart and my cock tell me another.

“I don’t like you lying.” I manage as she brings her lips to my neck and starts kissing me. After that, my mind goes blank. My will evaporates as she runs her tongue around my ear and reaches out to take one of my hands, pressing it between her legs. I let out a long, painful groan, and know I can’t resist. “We better get dressed then. I can see now, you’re going to be the death of me, Candy Cane.”

SIX

Six

Holly

Cole is still holdingmy hand as we pull down his long driveway.

“Wow. You go all out.”

The white twinkling lights on the pine trees that line the drive are stunning, and I see the house in the distance, also decorated and twinkling as the snow starts to fall. I can scarcely believe just how many lights there must be out here.

“I love Christmas. I love it even more now that I get to spend it with you.” He squeezes my hand. “Even though you were a naughty girl with what you did back there, with your text to your dad. Don’t think I’ve forgotten.”

I shrug as the car slows around the circular drive, and I take in the magnificence of Cole’s house. My dad mentioned when he was having it built a few years ago, but nothing prepared me for the reality. It’s sort of a Frank Lloyd Wright style sprawlingranch, with warm wood and an elegant balance between modern and traditional.

There’s an enormous Christmas tree in the front window, with colored lights and sparkling decorations, and a truly comfortable, happy feeling starts in my chest and radiates outward.

This is what I’ve always imagined Christmas to be.

It has always been the holiday I romanticized. Over the years, it’s had its ups and downs, but I never quite got the ideal holiday I’ve played over and over in my mind. But looking at Cole’s house now, there’s a flash of Christmas morning. The two of us, both wrapped in robes, mugs of coffee in our hands as we pass each other all the special gifts we’ve gathered and made. It’s the perfect scene, and I’m still imagining it when he stops the car and pulls my hand to his lips, kissing my knuckles bringing my attention back to him.

My tummy flutters, still not believing the object of my dreams all these years is here with me now, and if what I think is about to happen happens, it will be the best Christmas present ever.

“Holly.” His voice is sterner. “I get that you didn’t want to deal with this tonight with your Dad, but lying is not the way to handle things. Telling him your mom needed you and I dropped you there just makes it harder when it comes time to tell him the truth. He might take it badly when we tell him the deal between us, but it’s harder to rebuild trust after lying. So, from here on out, no lies, okay? I’ll protect you. I’ll take care of you. You have to trust me.”

I nod and he nods back.

“Okay, that’s settled and in the past. We have a future to get to.”

He shoots me that masculine, dazzling smile, and gets out of the car, coming around to open my door.

As I take his hand, the cool night makes me shiver even as heat is gathering between my legs. I still feel the aftereffects of his mouth there, and the magic it created. Just thinking of it has me on the edge of another orgasm and I have to tighten my inner muscles to stave off the little yelp that gathers in my throat.

He lowers a hand to the center of my back and I feel the possessiveness in his touch. No one is around but it feels like he’s protecting me from any danger that could be lurking. We walk together up the few steps to the massive wooden front door where he punches a code into the lock and it clicks open, then his hand moves to mine and he pulls me inside, closing the door with a thick hard thunk behind me.

Inside, he takes my coat and my purse and sets them on a side table in the foyer. There’s warm, understated hardwood and modern art on display everywhere, but the house is full on Christmas, and Cole watches as I turn left and right, taking in every decoration, every scrap of tinsel and every light.

“I never had Christmas growing up,” he says as he takes my hand again. He leads me through a great room with soaring ceilings and a wall of windows that overlook a sprawling backyard, twinkling with lights on every tree. “I don’t know if your father ever told you about anything about me?”

“A little. Just that you guys met on a job when you were just starting out.”

“Yeah, I was just out of prison. I didn’t make great choices when I was younger. Robbed a liquor store to try to pay the rent for my mother, who drank most of her monthly government check. Anyway, I did six months and vowed when I got out things would be different. While I was inside, they put me on this construction rehabilitation program. I took out my anger with the hammer instead of my fists. A few years after I got out, I was working on this apartment complex they were building and your dad was there too. From there, it’s history. We became friends,started Remington with a few thousand we scraped together and now here we are. A decade later and I don’t have to worry about the rent getting paid.”

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