Page 29 of Knot what I want for Christmas
I shake my head. “There was also that time–”
“Okay, Okay,” she says. “I surrender.” She closes her eyes. “Do your worst.”
But the problem is, with her eyes closed like that, she looks even more kissable. Everything in my body is urging me to do it. Most of all, it’s her scent urging me; there’s all these little signals in it that are activating my Alpha hindbrain, telling me toKiss the Omega, kiss the Omega, kiss the Omega.
That can’t be right. There’s no way Hollie Bright wants me to kiss her. There’s no way she wantsan Alphato kiss her. That can’t be what her scent is signaling.
So it’s going to have to be the snow instead.
Except, I’m not so sure I can bring myself to do that.
Reluctantly – because I’m a creep –I roll myself up off the Omega.
Her eyes snap open, and she looks up at me with curiosity.
When I’m standing up, I drop the snowball to the floor and offer her my hand, meaning to pull her up onto her feet. Shelifts her hand, but before I get a chance to take it, I’m ambushed by two pack mates and a little sister. They come at me from all directions, smothering snow in my face, in my hair, and once again down my shirt, and then somehow all of us are wrestling in the snow.
And I try not to think about how much I’d like to be wrestling with the Omega in my bed.
The wrestling continues for 10 minutes until we realize that my mom is yelling at us. We all stop, glancing up from the ground to find her standing by the snowman that Hollie and Annie were building. She’s looking mighty unimpressed.
“What is this monstrosity?” she asks.
“Annie built it,” I say.
“Annie Jackson,” my mom says, “I thought we educated you better than that.”
She snaps out the carrot and the two walnuts from the middle of the snowman’s belly, lowering it half a foot, and rearranging them.
“There,” she says, “that’s much more anatomically correct. Seems you need to go back to school.”
We all laugh. And then my mom is saying, “we’re leaving for the tree in 20 minutes, so anyone who needs to change clothes, visit the bathroom, or grab equipment – go now. We’re not waiting for you.”
“Tree?” Hollie asks as she climbs up onto her feet and brushes snow from her body. An action I’d happily do for her.
“Yep,” Annie says, “it’s a Jackson tradition. The day before Christmas Eve we head out to the Christmas tree nursery, choose one we like, and bring it in.”
“Christmas tree nursery?” Hollie asks.
“Yeah,” I explain. “We grow a few Christmas trees here on the ranch. Not very many, just enough for the locals.”
“And enough to ensure we have a good choice of the best for ourselves,” Annie says. “Come on.”
She beckons to her friend, and then they’re skipping off to the house. I climb slowly back onto my feet as my pack mates do the same.
“You looked very comfortable,” Tucker says, landing his hand on my shoulder with a big grin.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I say.
“I think you do,” he says, his grin widening further. “Landing on top of the Omega like that. I’d have paid a lot of money to swap places with you.”
“It was an accident,” I explain. “She could have been hurt.”
“She looked very comfortable from where I was standing too,” Tucker says.
I glance at him, wondering if he’s saying that to wind me up or if it’s really true. But Nash is nodding in agreement.
“Her scent seemed to suggest she liked it as well.”
