Page 71 of Knot what I want for Christmas
“Hollie, we’ll build it exactly how you want it,” Clay offers. “You can have all the pink bathrooms and all the bookcases your heart desires.”
She shakes her head in disbelief. “This is crazy,” she says. “You’re crazy.”
It is crazy – and not like us at all. Especially Clay and Nash. They’re rational, sensible, realistic. Sure, Clay’s known Hollie a long time, but me and Nash haven’t. We don’t know if there are things that would irritate us about each other, those little niggles that would build up in time and drive us all nuts. We don’t know if the Omega from Rockview would find Silver Creek too cold, too vast, too empty. We don’t know whether we’d get bored with each other, whether we’d run out of things to say, whether the sex, the attraction, the heat would all fade away.
And it is crazy. And maybe I’m crazy. But I just don’t think any of that matters. I don’t think any of that will happen. I have a feeling about Hollie Bright. I’ve had it since I laid eyes on the little Omega and inhaled her scent. Maybe this is one of those Christmas miracles – the ones you read about in Christmas stories. Finding ‘The One’. The Omega you were meant to be with. Maybe I knew that at the moment her honey scent tickled my nose and every single cell in my body took note, as if something special had entered the room.
I pull the blankets up around us and we snuggle together in the warmth as Clay goes to make us hot drinks and winter snacks. Soon he joins us in the bed too, and we talk together in whispers, staring up at the large skylight above us buried under several feet of snow and blocking out the sky.
And yet, I’m sure by now, it’s dark outside.
Soon it will be Christmas Day.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Hollie
I was expecting this Christmas Eve to be my worst. It’s now lining up to be my best by a long stretch. Better than that Christmas Eve I woke up convinced I’d caught sight of Santa rustling around in my stocking. Better than the Christmas Eve I woke up in the middle of night, unwrapped all my presents, and found Princess Celestial with her sparkly wings and rainbow-colored mane sitting in my stocking. Better than the Christmas Eve I kissed my high school crush under the mistletoe.
Because this Christmas Eve I have more orgasms in one night than I’ve had in the entirety of my life up until this point. More orgasms in one Christmas Eve than I’ve had in my 30 years on this planet. And not just any orgasms. Not piffling, crappy, little pathetic ones. Mind-blowing, earth-shattering, universe-defying orgasms. I should be destroyed, exhausted, and probably unable to walk. Instead, I’m lying on a bed in a snowy cabin surrounded by the three hottest alphas on the planet; my blood buzzing, my skin tingling, and a seriously big smile spread across my face.
It may only be the early hours of Christmas Day, but we’ve already exchanged gifts with one another over and over again. I’ve sucked their cocks, they’ve eaten my pussy, they’ve fucked me and licked me and fingered me and had me every way I think is possible.
And then there are the words they said to me last night, asking me to stay, to be theirs forever. We’ve talked about it some more and I don’t know if I’ve completely lost my mind, if the grief and everything else that has happened has warped all my common sense, but I’m seriously tempted. First things first, though, we’re going to start with dating. Long-distance dating.
If I think I’m going to enjoy this moment and make it stretch all the way into Christmas, though, then I’m given a rude awakening by the blast of a 5 a.m. alarm.
“What the heck?” I say, nearly tumbling straight out of the bed.
“Time to get up, sweetheart,” Tucker says, as the three of them leap out of bed elegantly, not even attempting to snooze their alarm or draw the blankets over their heads.
“But it’s so early.”
“It’s morning,” Clay says.
“And Christmas Day,” I point out.
“Happy Christmas, Hollie,” he says, helping to pull me up and right me on my feet, pressing a kiss to the crown of my head.
“Can’t we snuggle?”
“The cattle need checking on,” he tells me, “and the horses. And we left Dolly and Kenny overnight. I need to check on them too.”
“It’s so early,” I continue to protest, but they ignore me, and soon I’m wrapped up in all my winter layers again, a plate of freshly cooked eggs shoved underneath my nose. I attempt to sulk about the situation, but it’s hard when I’m being fed by alphas, cuddled by alphas, snuggled by alphas, and kissed byalphas. And soon I’m outside. It’s still dark, the morning winter sun only just crawling toward the horizon. But it must have stopped snowing hours ago. Everything is still and silent and perfect outside, the snow fresh and crisp and undisturbed. I have the very big desire to go stomping through it or to drop down onto my back and make snow angels, but Tucker has me back on Storm and soon we ride toward the big house as the sun’s rays creep across the untouched snow.
They drop me off with instructions to check on Dolly and Kenny and promising they’ll be back after they’ve checked on the cattle and horses. I make a half-hearted attempt to argue that I want to come with them again, but after I nearly froze to death yesterday, I’m pretty glad when they refuse to let me join them.
Dolly and Kenny are extremely pleased to see me, although both sniff at me for an incredibly long amount of time.
“Okay, guys,” I say to them as I shake out food into Dolly’s bowl and slice up carrots for Kenny. “So you worked out what happened. Just don’t go blabbing to Annie. Not yet, anyway.”
Because there’s just one big flaw in this potentially happy-ever-after plan, and it isn’t Ted the goldfish.
Annie.
She said the idea of me and her brother together was gross. It definitely goes against some of the fundamental rules of Girl Code. You shouldn’t look at your best friend’s brother. You definitely shouldn’t kiss him. And there’s no way you should end up in his bed along with his packmates. But it’s a bit too late for regrets now.
I spend the next little while tidying up downstairs and – as if thinking about my best friend conjures her from thin air – my cell phone starts to ring, when I glance at the screen I find my best friend is calling.
