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She reached up, smoothing away the frown that had worked its way onto his beautiful face and he leaned into her touch. She said nothing, just kept stroking his forehead. She couldn’t get enough of touching him, exploring him.
“I used to love Christmas when I was a kid. I knew it was about family and without a dad around that made it just me and Mom. She would steal the lights from the front lawns of the houses in rich neighborhoods, obviously not legal but she figured they wouldn’t miss them. She always said, because they put them outside they must not want them so we were doing them a favor.” He chuckled at the memory and she watched the way his cheeks reached up towards his eyes before dropping again. The lines deepening around his mouth. Again she didn’t say anything, just continued stroking his forehead.
“It was just the two of us. She would do what she could, sometimes there was no dinner and sometimes dinner was just vegetables and no meat. There were never presents but I didn’t need any, I just needed her.”
He didn’t continue but she could feel there was more. She got the impression he was sharing something that he hadn’t told anyone before and knew it would take him a moment to find the words.
“Then when I was away at college, I was too busy working to make it back for Christmas. I was so focused on earning enough money to send her that I ended up never being around. And then when I was older, we were both building this empire and itnever occurred to us to stop and celebrate. We were in different states, different countries sometimes and whenever I realized it was Christmas, it was usually too late.”
Having met his mother, Rebelle found it hard to picture her as this carefree, young woman with a child. The woman who built an empire, that she could easily see, and it made her sad for the version of his mom that Will had lost. “What about now that she’s married? You have step siblings?”
He snorted, opening one eye and pinning her with his green stare. “You met Kyle, right?”
She nodded and his eye closed, his hold tightened around her. “Kyle’s sister isn’t much better, damn socialites.”
“Ava seemed nice,” Rebelle said.
“Yeah, she is. I don’t know how she ended up stuck with Kyle though. Anyway, that’s the story. Christmas is a time for family but we’ve not been one for a long time.”
“I’m sorry, I know what it’s like to be let down by family,” Rebelle spoke softly.
He took hold of her hand and patted his chest. She rested her cheek against it, swirling her fingers over the roses he’d inked into the skin while he stroked her hair. “Tell me about it?”
Rebelle rarely shared any part of herself, but she trusted Will. They had formed a connection that was unexpected but was beginning to mean a lot to her. If she would open herself up to anyone it would be him.
“My mom died when we were kids. My dad didn’t cope, he was already a gambler and once mom died, he turned into a drunken gambler.”
“We?”
“Me and my sister.”
He paused his movements, fingers entwined in her hair. “You have a sister?”
“Yeah, a twin.”
He scoffed. “There’s two of you? Damn. Wait, is she as surly as you?”
She made a move to get up and he laughed, holding her tighter so she couldn’t get away. “I’m kidding, I’m just shocked you have a twin sister. Where is she?”
Rebelle settled against him again, secretly pleased she had longer with him and that wonderful drag of his fingers through her hair. “I have no idea. She left when we were sixteen. I liked to tell myself that she would come back for me, but she never did. Never wrote or visited, I haven’t seen her since. Then Marcus came to town, he’d been blackmailing my father and I think that’s how he convinced my dad to let us marry: Marcus would clear the debts, and his payment was me.” Will’s grip tightened in her hair at her words. “It’s okay, relax. I’m fine now, everything is fine.”
He tsked. “It should be me soothing you, not the other way around.”
“I like soothing you. Soothing you soothes me.”
He pressed a kiss to her head and rolled them over, kissing her cheeks, her lips, her neck before burying his face in her chest.
She closed her eyes, sinking her fingers into his flesh, reminding herself that he was real. He wouldn’t be here much longer, and she was beginning to worry what she would do without him. The errant thought broke her out of the bubble they were in, and she tapped his bicep, wriggling free.
“Anyway, depressing conversation over. Animals need feeding and I need a shower.”
As she walked away, her arm slid through his grip. “Do you want me to join you? Help you get those hard-to-reach places?”
She turned back to him and shook her head at his waggling eyebrows. “There’s only room for one in that shower.”
“Challenge accepted!” he shouted and vaulted out of the bed, chasing her into the shower.
She giggled as he pulled his shirt over her head and he sealed their mouths together. Licking into her, their tongues colliding as tingles danced along her skin. He backed her into the tiny stall, knocking his head on the top of the shower.
