“I know,” I smile, looking deep into his eyes. “It’s one of the reasons I love you as much as I do,” I add.
Christian grabs my hips and lifts me so I am sitting on the edge of the counter. He removes my leggings and underwear and throws them into the washing basket.
“Let’s get cleaned up and into bed. I’ve missed having you in my arms the last three nights.”
Christian makes short work of cleaning me and spending a few minutes helping me get into some sleepwear and under the covers.
Promising to return quickly, he gets himself washed and stripped down to his boxers before climbing into bed beside me.
“Come here, Sweetheart.” Curling up on my side, I rest my head on his firm, tattooed chest as he wraps an arm around my shoulders.
“Will you be working away again soon?” I ask as I start tracing his tattoos with my fingertips whilst he plays with my hair, which I have released from the ponytail.
“I don’t know, Sweetheart. There is so much going on at the moment.”
I lean up so I can look into his tired eyes.
“Anything I can help with?” I would do anything to take some pressure off him if it meant he would be home more. Christian reaches up and tucks some hair behind my ear whilst I see the slightest smile on his face in the dark.
“No, Sweetheart, and I don’t want you worrying about anything. Everything is fine; it’s just a busy period. Things will settle down soon,” he whispers before encouraging me to lie back down. “Get some sleep; you’ve had a long day.”
Lying back down, I close my eyes as sleep takes me.
“Just remember you aren’t alone; I can and want to help you in any way I can, Daddy,” I whisper as he kisses the top of my head.
“You already do in so many ways. I really can’t wait to make you my wife.”
“I’m already your wife. We don’t need a piece of paper to show we belong together,” I whisper, smiling as I drift off to sleep, confident that my big, strong man knows how much he means to me and that I would do anything to help him.
ChapterEight
CHRISTIAN
It’s been two days since I got home, and I don’t feel like we have stopped.
It’s seven Christmas morning, and we have all been busy trying to ensure this will be the best Christmas our girl has ever had.
“I can’t believe she’s still asleep.”
I turn to see Jason walking from his room. I smile, looking through Jasmine’s open door, where she is asleep in bed.
“I was sure she would sneak into someone's room during the night,” I chuckle. We are waiting for Maximus and Sean to join us as planned before waking her up. This will be our first Christmas all together in one house.
Before she moved in, we only spent Boxing Day with Jasmine and always at her place. The four of us went around for breakfast with presents for our girl, spoiling her as much as we could get away with. It wasn’t easy as she didn’t like us spending a lot of money on her, but she has slowly come around and accepted we want to spend money on her; it makes us happy to give her anything she may need or want. We tried every year to get her to come to ours for Christmas, but she always had an excuse not to.
Jasmine finally admitted a few months ago that she hasn’t celebrated Christmas since her dad left. Even when our father was still married to her mother, Jasmine would say she was spending Christmas with them or with friends, and we failed to pick up on the lies; like so many she told us, to hide how alone she really was. So this year, we are making it up to her and giving her the Christmas she deserves, including making her sleep alone in her own room. We wanted to ensure we could get everything ready without her seeing anything.
“Do you think we will need to wake the twins up?” Jason asks, smirking.
“No, we’ve been up for a while,” Sean announces as he appears, walking up the stairs behind us.
“Where have you been?” Jason asks. The twins hate getting up early; even when they know it’s essential, they will still drag their feet and try to stay in bed as long as possible. It’s always been the same. Usually, we don’t see them before midday at Christmas.
“You know I said it felt like something was missing last night when putting the gifts under the tree?” Sean asks as we both nod. “Turns out all of Jasmine’s were there, but I forgot my gifts to you three. I spent the last hour wrapping them and putting them with the others,” he grins as Jason and I try not to laugh out loud.
“So, where’s Maximus?” I ask, looking around. “Did he forget to put something out as well?”
Sean shrugs as he looks around.