Page 76 of Bite Your Tongue

“Hey, my sexy little elf,” I yell out. I reminisce about the slutty outfit she wore to bed last night—a see-through elf costume with crotchless panties—thinking about how good she looked while sucking my dick. My cock instantly twitches, and my mouth waters.

She looked good riding my face in it too.

“Yeah?” she calls back, walking down the hallway toward me. “And I told you, my name is Jingle Tits, and I refuse to be called anything else today because I’m in the holiday spirit.”

“Oh, right. Right.” I nod, smirking. “Hey, can you put your jacket on and help me with a spot on the roof?”

She stares at me, narrowing her eyes. “You wantmeto help with the snow?” She taps her chin. “You do realize that manuallabor is not my thing.” She shrugs. “Can I just give you another naughty blowie instead? That sounds like less work.”

The last thing I want is for her to get suspicious of me. I want her to be blown away that I’m proposing because she deserves that.

“That sounds good and all, Jingle Tits, but my back’s been sore the past few days,” I lie. “It’s just this small section on the roof that has a lot of heavy snow on it. If it sits there, it’s not good for the house. It’ll take … maybe five minutes.”

“Fine,” she huffs. “But if I do this, you have to take a bubble bath with me.”

“Deal,” I say, finding it comical that she’s acting like me having my hands on her tits, sudsing them up, while she sits between my legs in our bathtub is punishment.

I open the closet door and grab her snow pants. Ideally, I wish it were twenty degrees warmer out today and not snowing, but at least I can make sure she’s warm when I pop the question.

When she plops herself down on the bench, I crouch down, pulling her snow pants on one leg at a time. I stare up at her, admiring the way her cheeks are a little red from the house being warm. Her hair is down in natural, frizzy waves, which is my favorite way for her to wear her hair. She might not have an ounce of makeup on, but that’s when she looks the prettiest, in my opinion. She’s just her right now, and I love it.

I slide her boots on, and she giggles.

“You’re really trying to butter me up before I do this heavy snow lifting, huh?”

“Figured I should pull out all the stops after you gave me that present last night,” I utter, pulling the bottom of the snow pants over the boots.

A satisfied smile tugs at her plump pink lips. “Good. Glad you liked the role-playing. Tonight, I’ll be Mrs. Claus, and you’re going to be Santa.”

My movements stop, and I stare up at her, not knowing if she’s serious or not.

She leans forward, a playful expression on her face. “I even got you a suit, big guy.”

And just like that, my dick is hard.

She stands up, looking at me before pressing a kiss on my chin. “All right, bitch, give me my hat. I’ve got snow to shovel.”

The last thing I should be is shocked when it comes to Ryder and the lengths he’ll go to surprise me. However, when I walk outside, fully decked out in snow gear and ready to help shovel the roof, I’m speechless when I’m met with a horse-drawn sleigh, much like the one from South Carolina—only this time, there’s actual snow flowing from the sky and settling on the ground.

I tear my eyes from the two gorgeous horses and look up at him. “For real?”

“It’s tradition, right?” he murmurs sweetly, pressing a kiss on my temple. “You should know that even I don’t fuck with the snow on our roof, babe.” He chuckles, taking my mittened hand in his gloved palm. “What do you say? Care to go for one cold-ass ride?”

“It’s not that bad out,” I tease him, knowing he’s probably shivering.

He didn’t grow up here, and I’m not sure he’ll ever get used to our winters either.

I let him lead me up the stairs, where there’s a small covering over the bench seat, along with a thermos, two cups, and a blanket. It really is just like a year ago today, but on that night … it was supposed to be all pretend.

“Away we go,” Ryder whispers a few minutes later when we’re heading down our driveway.

He puts his arm around me and tucks me into his side before draping the blanket over our laps. I inhale sharply, closing my eyes and nuzzling closer simply because Ryder’s scent alone has become a great comfort to me.

I’ve dated a lot of men, but I was never comfortable enough to be my real, true self in front of any of them. With him, I’m stripped down to my authentic self, and he doesn’t run away. Instead, he makes me feel wanted every single second we’re together. I know our love is still fairly new and there will be hard times ahead, but this is the type of love I never even imagined existed. For so much of my life, different guys—or … boys really—made me feel like I wasn’t the girl anyone would ever want to marry. So much so that I actually believed it and started being okay with just being everyone’s late-night call when they didn’t want to be alone. I’ve never felt that way with Ryder. Instead, little by little, he’s silencing all the insecurities that live deep within my soul, always trying to scream out their opinion and remind me of what they think is the truth.

We make our way onto the street, snow falling as the horses carry us along. It’s like something out of a picture that you’d see hanging up on a wall. Portland is damn near silent, nothing but the sound of the horses’ feet clicking and the faint noise of the sleigh bells.

“Merry Christmas, baby,” I whisper, peeking up at him. “Thank you for planning this. It’s magical.”

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