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“Are you sure?” she asked, squeezing his hand. Hope leaked into her voice. “I’m new at this whole love thing. I might mess it up.”
The look he gave her made her want to melt. “Darling, you’re already so much better at it than you realize. And I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I love you.”
She leaned forward, claiming his lips with her own. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap. Her fingers wove through his blond hair, heat blazing in her cheeks. She wanted to inhale him, to remember forever the way he tasted of mint and chocolate. Electricity
raced across her skin as he trailed kisses down her jawline to the base of her neck. Finally, he placed one, last kiss on her lips. She groaned in frustration when he pulled away, wanting more of him.
“Don’t let me take you from your dreams. If you want Paris, go to Paris,” he said breathlessly. His eyes searched her face. “But if you want to stay in California and help me run my restaurant, then the offer is yours. Either way you’ll have my heart, and we’ll make this work.”
Before the words were even out of his mouth, she knew what she wanted to do. She’d known it all along.
“I’m staying,” she said, a smile lighting up her lips. It was as if the clouds had rolled back and the sky had cleared. This was what she’d wanted all along, but she’d been too blinded by her own insecurities to notice. “But I’m going to finish school first. And then, we’ll see if you can afford me for that little restaurant of yours.”
He threw his head back and laughed. When he was done, he took her hand in his and gently kissed each one of her fingertips with a sensual slowness, until a fire burned once again in her gut.
“What I said before, I was wrong.” He gave her a smoldering smile, his eyes blazing with heat.
She tilted her head in confusion. “You’ll have to be more specific.”
Pushing himself off the ground, he helped her up and pulled her close. “Yesterday wasn’t the happiest I’ve ever been. Right now is. I can’t imagine anything being better than this.”
Rachel laid her head on his chest, savoring the warmth flowing through her. So this was what it felt like to be fully loved by a man who held nothing back. It was an intoxicating feeling. He was right.
She couldn’t imagine anything better than this.
Chapter Seventeen
“Don’t forget the hot cocoa, woman,” Ned called after his wife as she shuffled into the kitchen. She waved a dismissive hand over her shoulder and he chuckled, his gaze growing soft.
Logan watched his father’s dreamy face, determined to never miss those small moments between his parents. The quiet and steady love between them was inspiring. He knew what a miracle it was to find your perfect match.
And she was sitting right beside him.
He gazed down at the beautiful woman sitting in the crook of his arm, her long, brown hair draped over her shoulders, a sleepy smile on her face. They shared a patchwork quilt that kept them warm and toasty in the cold Colorado Christmas Eve night. Her hand rested innocently on his thigh, driving him mad with the desire to cover her in kisses. But this was not the time.
A hearty fire roared on the hearth of his parents’ giant stone fireplace while snow fell just outside the massive windows, blanketing the lake in a crystalline winter scene that would remain untouched until the first woodland creatures ventured out in the morning.
A pine tree towered above them in one corner of the log home, Christmas ornaments and cheery colored lights draped across its fur pine branches. It filled the home with the fresh scent of pine, mixed with cinnamon and chocolate. Shiny wrapping paper lay scattered over the floor, along with discarded wire ribbons of every color, and soft holiday music played in the background. No one complained about being snowed in that Christmas Eve. It was perfect just the way it was.
“I still can’t believe you,” Emily said from the recliner, where she sat draped across Michael’s lap, a white envelope in her hands. Logan had invited them to his family’s Christmas, making this already perfect evening all the better. She hit Michael playfully on the shoulder and laughed. “Is this really for me?”
“Darling, when I pay for two front row tickets to Mary Prescott’s live filming event, you’d better bet it’s not for me,” he said with a grin, grabbing her hand to place a kiss on her palm. A shiny new wedding band winked from her ring finger. “And I’ve got to say, I didn’t expect them to cost as much as my BMW. You’re lucky I love you.”
She smiled and cupped his chin, pulling him into a kiss. Rachel looked up at Logan, her eyes flashing with amusement. The newly married couple had been doing that all weekend. It was hard to get a word in when they got that goofy look in their eyes. It was as if the whole world dissolved around them when they began to kiss.
Logan knew that feeling all too well.
“So, what’s in the plans for you this next year?” Nancy asked, coming back into the living room with a tray of steaming hot chocolate mugs that she placed carefully on the coffee table. Her soft smile landed on Rachel. “Any chance of going back to work at Madison Park?”
Rachel’s face lit up and she helped herself to a mug, settling back against Logan’s side. “Not yet. I just got accepted into an MBA fast-track program. I’ll get my undergrad and my master’s degree in only a couple years. I’m loving school right now.”
As Nancy cheered, Michael broke away from his kiss with Emily to give his sister a shocked look. “Really?”
She laughed and bit her lower lip. “Is it really so shocking? Your baby sister is getting her life together.”
“No, not surprising at all,” he answered, a frown forming on his chiseled jaw. “You’re a Knight. We’re born to succeed.”
Logan chuckled and wrapped his arm tighter around her. He would’ve liked to know how it felt for five seconds to have that kind of unaltered confidence. Maybe if he had been born like Michael, his stomach wouldn’t currently be doing flips inside his abdomen, anticipating the last tiny little wrapped box hidden in the bows of the tree.
