No more living on the wrong side of the window, Maddie. You promised. Remember?
“Hawke,” I said, still listening to the steady thump of his heart. “I know it’s crazy, but… Okay, I’m just going to put it out there. Here it is: I don’t want to say goodbye.”
“Yeah, well.” Hawke sighed, warm breath stirring my hair. “Maybe I don’t want to say goodbye either.” He pulled me tighter against the solid wall of his chest, locking me in his embrace. “Maybe I want to keep you here for lunch. And then drive you to your parents’ place later. And then pick you up after dinner and bring you back here and keep you a little longer. Alotlonger. Maybe that’s what I want.”
My heart skipped into a frantic beat, my nerves buzzing, skin flush with new warmth.
“Maybe that’s what I want, too,” I said. “But maybe… maybe I don’t want you to just drive me to my parents’ place. Maybe… maybe I want you to come in and have dinner with us. Maybe I want you to meet my family, which iscompletelynuts because yes, I know, we only just met each other last night and you don’t do families and—”
“Maddie?” He hooked a finger under my chin and grinned down at me, the sight nearly stopping my heart. “Twenty-four hours ago, I didn’t do Christmas, either. Yet here I stand wearing a goddamn Santa hat and getting all weepy over some pine branches on my kitchen table. So hell, maybe I do families now, too. Maybe I do families because it’s important to you, and it would mean getting to spend a few more hours with you I otherwise wouldn’t get. Maybe I do families now because maybe, just maybe, it feels like you’remyfamily.”
“Hawke,” I breathed, emotion tightening my throat. “I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll stay. Say you’ll help me figure out what comes next.”
“But…” My voice trembled, everything inside me buzzing and hot. “But how?”
Hawke pulled me in close again and pressed his lips to the top of my head. I fit there in his arms so snugly, so perfectly, it was as if that spot was made just for me. Like he’d been waiting all these years for me to show up and take my place.
“Dunno,” he said. “But that’s the thing—twenty-four hours ago? Ididknow. I knewexactlywhat my life was all about. I knew how every damn day would start. How every night would end. Then out of fuckingnowhere, this hot, redheaded little elf shows up on my doorstep on Christmas Eve and gives my entire world a spin. Nothing makes sense anymore, and I don’t need it to. All I need is you, Maddie. All I need is for you to tell me you feel it, too. That you’re willing to give us a real shot. And if you’re not, if I’m way off base here? Then I need you to look me in the eye, say gingerbread, and put me out of my misery.”
I pulled back to meet his gaze, searching his eyes for the slightest hint that this was all just a ruse, just another naughty-wolf tease.
But all I found in those flint-gray eyes was sincerity. Vulnerability. A truth that reached right inside my chest and lit up my heart.
It took me a minute to catch my breath. To get my mouth to form words. Then, finally, with a grin that stretched from ear to ear, I said, “The only way I’m ever saying the G-word again is if we’re making cookies. I’m in, Hawke.”
“Yeah?” A smile, soft and shy. Relieved.
“Yeah.”
That was all he needed to hear.
Hawke crushed his lips against mine, claiming me in a possessive kiss that left no room for interpretation. I moaned into his mouth, my legs going weak as he threaded his fingers into my hair.
When he finally pulled back, he was laughing, a sound that reverberated through his entire body. “Damn, woman. You left me hanging for so long, I wasn’t sure I was still breathing.” Cupping my face in his big, strong hands, he said, “I don’t give a fuck how crazy it sounds or how far apart we live. I told you this last night, and I meant it. You’remine, Cupcake. Non-negotiable.”
“It’s that simple, then?”
“Simple, complicated, impossible. Doesn’t matter. It’s the way it’s gonna be. But Maddie?” His gaze turned feral, sending a spark of desire straight to my core. He backed me up against the wall and kissed the corner of my mouth, slowly making his way across my jaw to my ear as his hands wandered down my arms, my hips, finally dipping under my dress. “That architect roommate of yours? He’s gottago.”
“What?” I laughed. “You’ve got nothing to worry about there—hisA-game sucks. Derrick has never once made me Alfredo sauce.”
“And now he never will, because he’s leaving. What a fucking tragedy.”
I didn’t argue. I didn’t care. Right now, all I cared about was Hawke’s mouth on my neck, his rough, demanding fingers slipping inside my panties, stroking me until my legs trembled.
“Hawke Stevens,” I panted, quickly losing my ability to form words. “You’re so… oh my God, you’re sonaughty.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.” He pushed his fingers in deeper, thrusting in and out, slowly massaging my clit with his thumb. Heat gathered between my thighs, pulsing outward until everything in me felt hot and slippery. “Just wait until I get you naked again.”
“Why wait?” I hooked a finger into one of the stockings, sliding it down my thigh.
“Ah,nope.” Hawke grabbed my wrist and tugged the stocking right back up again. “Not happening.”
“But I was—”
“Sorry.” He flashed a wicked smile that sent another electric jolt to my core. “The candy-cane tights stay on today, Cupcake. You just close your eyes and let me worry about the rest.”
