Page 41 of Wounded Christmas Wolf
It was everything he’d ever wanted.
It was too good to be true.
Things like this didn’t happen to guys like him.
He was going to have his heart ripped out of his chest when all of this inevitably fell apart, and he didn’t know if he could bear it.
And yet, his wolf was strangely content with all of this. It was hard to put his finger on exactly what was different, just that he had a general sense of his primitive, instinctive shifter side simply beingthere, not controlling him or bursting out of him in unexpected ways, but moving with him. Right now it wanted him to be here, to follow Holly, to simply be near her, wherever she went.
It abruptly occurred to him that her ex might be here in town somewhere, and he quickened his step, closing up with her as they went into the candy shop.
Inside, he was promptly lost in a sensory glory of richchocolate smells, jewel-colored candy boxes, truffles in cases with their perfectly round tops dusted with salt, sprinkled with coconut, or lightly dotted with raspberries. Jace wasn’t really a dessert guy, in general, but Holly was right, this place was a chocolate wonderland.
“Why, little Holly Porter, I can’t believe it!” exclaimed the plump older woman behind the counter, and Holly gave Jace a rueful grin. “How old are you now?”
“I’m thirty-one, Miss Simmons,” Holly said politely.
Miss Simmons leaned forward. “What’s this I hear about you kissing some fellow at the Christmas clothing swap in the community center? Is this the fellow here?” She winked. “Very nice.”
Holly turned bright pink. “Never mind that. Could we have two sipping chocolates, please?”
As Miss Simmons went into the back, Holly whispered, “Remember when I told you everyone in this town knows everything? See what I mean?”
“But they’re not wrong,” Jace whispered back.
Holly turned pinker. “Well ... no.”
“You’re lucky there’s no mistletoe in here.”
“Stop,” she whispered, poking him, as Miss Simmons returned with two tiny cups.
Jace eyed his uncertainly when Holly passed it to him. “That’s just one swallow, isn’t it?”
“Try it before you say that.” She closed her eyes, raised it to her lips, and took a small sip with an orgasmic expression.
Jace tried the same.Oh. It wasn’t hot cocoa, it was more like straight up melted chocolate. No wonder you didn’t need much. He could only imagine what an entire cup of this would be like. But in small sips, lingering on the tongue, decadently rich and not too sweet, it was amazing.
“I need to buy something for Carol,” Holly explained. “My sister who’s a nurse. We do a family gift swap every year, likea secret Santa except it’s not so secret. Each of us buys a present for one of the others. I’ve got Carol this year.”
She picked out a box of chocolates and watched as the storekeeper wrapped it up in colorful ribbons. “Carol adores the fruit truffles from this shop, and she says she misses them where she is now,” she explained to Jace.
“Where is she?”
“Washington, D.C. She works at the veteran’s hospital there.”
“That’s a long way.”
“Yeah, it really feels like it sometimes,” Holly said. “Carol and I used to be especially close. We’re the two oldest, and the other girls were just ‘the little ones’ for the longest time. Carol and I used to share a bedroom when we were younger and living in on-base housing. We’d stay up late giggling and talking ...”
She trailed off and shook her head, accepting the pretty shopping bag—black with pink letters—that the chocolatier handed her, containing her purchase.
“Aren’t you still close?” Jace asked quietly. He didn’t know what having real siblings might have been like. The closest he had come to it was the two other shifter kids he’d known at the group home, and he had long since lost touch with them.
“I don’t know. She’s different now.”
“Will she be coming home for Christmas?”
“Probably not,” Holly said. “She usually takes the holiday and weekend shifts, since she’s single, with no family living close. That’s Carol, always carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.”
