Page 50 of Sweet Silver Bells
She didn’t, only closing her mouth after she pulled away, while he watched a twitch appear in her cheek. Her eyes opened, and a magical sparkle suddenly appeared, an almost childlike joy as her eyes moistened.
“It tastes like Christmas,” she said, before backing up and turning away from him, bending down to the pots, petting the poinsettia leaves.
“What's wrong?” Hunter asked, worry filling him as he saw the slump in her shoulders, the slight hanging of her head, the sudden silence that hadn’t existed between them even once that day.
Instead of answering, she swooped back around, tossing her frizzy hair that somehow made her more beautiful, more of what he would have guessed a forest goddess would look like. It was as if she had been drawn, a character version of herself that only existed in the minds of people who were far more talented than him.
She is real. Sarah, she is real. This is real.
Olivia was back at his side, her mouth open again, waiting for Hunter’s offering of more Danish. She wasn’t going to tell him, whatever it was. She didn’t trust him with whatever that was, at least not yet.
“I’m here for you,” he promised, offering her another bite of the Danish. She chewed slowly, a look of relief softening her features, as if the sugar flooding her veins for the first time in far too long brought her back to life. When her eyes opened again, they held something different—something new.
“More,” she demanded, the softness in her tone gone, replaced only by demand, need, and want.
Hunter would not refuse her and instead picked up a new Danish from the box, holding it up to her mouth. She opened her mouth, taking half the Danish into her mouth before biting down on the blue and red berries with powdered sugar. Hunter's cock stiffened, and he forced himself to swallow, his eyes flicking to the ceiling out of respect.
If she doesn’t trust me, I can change that. I can earn it.
But it wasn’t trust she needed—not right then.
Maybe she just wanted to hide.
Or maybe she wanted to be there with him.
She placed her hand on his wrist and raised his hand to his own mouth as he took a bite.
“More,” she said through those eyelashes.
Fuck me.
He obliged. “It’s the last one.”
“You eat,” she said. Hunter opened his mouth, and as he did, Olivia grabbed his shirt and pulled his face down to hers as she bit the other end of the Danish. Sweetness exploded in Hunter’s mouth, crumbled flaky dough falling between them, white cream filling dribbling down Olivia’s chin as she still held his shirt down, as she did not indicate that she would let go.
Olivia chewed and swallowed, licking her lips, and extending her neck up to Hunter’s, her eyes staring into his. His whole body relaxed, wanting to fall into her, this odd comfort, this warmth that he found in the little woman with a magical voice. She seemed to know what she wanted; and maybe what she wanted was him.
She kissed you. You kissed her back.
And he was all hers, even though he wouldn’t be wrong to question his sanity or if he should run, if he should have taken her to the police station and said he found this missing person.If his mom did truly join a church, there had to be some kind of program to set Olivia up with so she wouldn’t be alone.
No, she wouldn’t be alone because you wouldn’t let her be.
Hunter pulled back, panting. “Olivia.” Even her name on his lips sent his body into a spiral—tense, needy, wondering what other parts of her body smelled like, tasted like.
But Olivia wasn’t accepting his words, his hesitation, and instead brought her mouth to his again, silencing him. Their lips danced once more, and her hips moved forward into his while her hands found their way into his hair, massaging his scalp and the back of his neck.
She let him out of his willing hostage situation and looked down at the bulge in his pants, smiling proudly at her work.
“You’ve never had a man.” He raised an eyebrow at his question.
“That is something that seems easy to change,” she said, and let her head roll back around, her hair swaying off of her shoulders as her hips grinded against him, presenting her chest, her neck to him.
Control, Hunter. Have fucking control.
If Sarah couldn’t be here, if he went feral for a woman for the first time since she had passed away, he would do it right, he would do it honorably. This was not a rebound. Olivia would not be an outlet for his grief.
Hunter grabbed her hips and kissed up her jawline tenderly, bringing the escalation of their heat back down to a gentle simmer. She moaned, the softest little sound that made him, for the first time, want to bite into someone’s throat, claim them for him and only him.
