Page 38 of Wilde & Shore

“If it makes you happy, then I love every tacky ass design you put together.”

“Even the tree?” I grinned and kept my eyes on Wilde while his moved past me and locked on the tree, that crooked smile surfacing in a matter of seconds.

“It’sinteresting.”

“That’s not my fault. Who the hell decorates a tree with horses, cowboy hats, and lassos?”

The decorations were all ranch themed, made of etched glass and brass, very beautiful and surely expensive but stillranchthemed. There wasn’t much I could do with that.

“My mother and don’t you dare ever tell her you don’t like her decorations.”

I grinned, gently tugging at his lower lip with my teeth. “I wouldn’t.”

“Good because she would be devastated. And don’t you dare ever tell her that you put the kid tree ornaments on with her custom-made and antique ones.”

I glanced over my shoulder, focusing on the horribly designed, kid-crafted Christmas themed items that were placed alongside crystal horses, glass bulbs, and brass cowboy hats. “I think it adds character.”

Most of the kid-created ornaments had chunks of glue, macaroni falling off, crayon designs where they were colored outside the lines and aged photos of Wilde and his brother Garrett. Crafts they both made as kids and brought home to their parents.

He told stories about them as I pulled each from the box and added them to the tree and also explained how it was tradition to have a kid tree, even though he and his brother were now, thirty-six and twenty-four. Adel Reeves refused to let anyone ruin her tree. Each year her sons got their own to do what they pleased. When they were too old and didn’t care about decorating. She took on the labor of dragging out old crafts and doing it herself.

“It addssomething, I don’t know what though.”

I rolled my eyes. “We only had one tree so I had to compromise. I would think your mother would appreciate the gesture.”

Wilde moved his hands up my back, pulling me into his chest, placing his mouth on mine. “She would appreciate the gesture but still hate that her ornaments were slumming it with our grade school creations.”

“Then don’t tell her.”

“You sure you don’t want me to send a picture.” He smiled and kissed the curve of my jaw then my neck.

“Nope, hard pass. I might need to win her over before I ruin our relationship byruiningher holiday themes.”

Wilde chuckled. “She’ll live. I think she’ll be more focused on me having someone to fuck up her perfect tree than she will be about the fact that you did it.”

“That doesn’t give me hope.”

“You’ll have to trust me on that. What does Christmas look like for your family?”

I exhaled a sigh at the thought of missing Christmas with my family. No matter how stressful my life had been because I felt pressured to be whattheywanted me to be, I still missed my sister and parents. I missed everything about spending the holiday with them. His hands softly moved up and down my back, bringing my focus back to him.

“Christmas takes on an entire life with my family. Imagine Ms. Mel’s B&B on steroids. I’m talking decoration overload, ugly sweaters, matching pajamas, jingle bell karaoke, and the twenty-five days of Christmas bake off.”

“Damn, it’s like that.”

“Very much like that.” I smiled, nodding. “You would hate every second of Christmas at my parents’ house.”

“A twenty-five days of Christmas bake off sounds like something I can work with.” He smiled, moving a hand to the back of my neck bringing my mouth down to his. After a few soft pecks he searched my face. “You should call them. Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve and I’m sure they’re missing you just as much as you’re missing them.”

“I will. Tomorrow. Tonight, I have other plans.”

“Am I a part of those plans?”

“Youare the plans.”

I lifted off his lap and, after my feet were planted on the floor, I slowly lowered and kept my eyes on Wilde while I worked my fingers beneath the band of his shorts, lifting them enough to get a visual of his dick. He was already hard when I wrapped my hands around the base and my eyes never left his while I flicked my tongue over him. When the warmth of my mouth completely consumed the head, he groaned and his eyes narrowed to slits. I dropped mine and grinned.

You might want to saddle up, Cowboy. I’m about to provide a Christmas memory that you damn sure won’t want to share with your mother.

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