Tangled In Tinsel

Once everything settled back down, it was almost as though nothing had happened. By the time dinner rolled around, her face had returned to its standard color.

The stain of embarrassment lingered like a cackling ghost levitating above her head, but it was easy to ignore. Where Luke hid Mel’s so-called gift, she didn’t care. She clutched her glass of wine as if it were trying to run away from her.

It was her fourth drink. The alcohol warmed her; the tart red liquid was a balm to her nerves. She smiled whenever Luke made eye contact.

Each was aware of the other’s feelings, and the night buzzed with an electric atmosphere that sent shivers down her spine with each thought of how it might end. But only she knew about his long harbored romantic emotions.

He didn’t know she knew yet, and it emboldened her.

They ignored the earlier drama for now, but it hung between them—an imperceptible veil of crackling anticipation she planned to tear down later. How?

She wasn’t yet sure. Every time they locked eyes, Emilia wished he would give life to the thoughts flashing across his handsome face.

He’d had a few beers, his fingers wrapped around the cold glass bottle, a new fixation she hadn’t expected, but kept staring at.

Wondering how they’d feel wrapping around her. While he’d cooked, she ran next door to grab the wine she stuffed in a cupboard weeks before, as he wouldn’t let her help.

He’d been more prepared than her; they didn’t have a turkey, but they had chicken and all the trimmings. No tension existed in her after the first two glasses of her favorite Malbec.

She was loose-limbed and quick to laugh as she savored every second of their time together. Mel’s gift hadn’t spoiled Luke’s opinion of her as far as she could tell. They’d been talking about past Christmases, flirting really.

That and the alcohol obliterated any insecurities she might have had that he’d moved on from his crush on her.

She sat cross-legged on the floor, her back to the sofa. She fidgeted with a brightly colored sheet of paper, folding it while they talked.

The power had failed after they’d eaten. Storm snoozed, belly full, by the Christmas tree. The gingerbread scented candles she had had a stockpile of flickered and draped the room with their amber glow, shadows dancing on Luke’s distracting face as she admired him.

“Did you ever take a girlfriend home for the Holidays?”

Luke shook his head. “I wasn’t that stupid.”

She snorted, gulping her wine before she said, “I only did it once. We broke up a week later.”

He cringed and said, “That bad? Ouch.”

She waved a hand in the air as she glanced at her other one resting in her lap. Ensuring she hadn’t crushed the paper she clutched before responding, “It was coming, no matter what. My family just sped it up.”

Oliver had loathed Daniel on sight. Her brother was an overprotective, sometimes vicious man when he wasn’t making it his life’s goal to torment her.

One derisive look at her lover prompted him to decry the man as a waste of good skin and a taint to the earth’s precious oxygen.

He was right, but still. He could’ve waited until they’d got inside the damn house first!

“What’re you doin’?” Luke wondered. She breathed a relieved sigh at the subject change as she finished her folding.

Making sure its wings flapped properly before holding it up for him to see.

His eyes brightened as she showed him the bright green origami dragon Oliver had taught her to make as a child and made it “fly.”

Luke had the expression of a kid witnessing something magical and she chuckled, a low throaty sound and she glowed inside, happy she had impressed him.

He came over to sit beside her on the floor and asked her to show him how she did it, and she gladly obliged.

It gave her an excuse to touch him. Guiding his hands as he followed and re-folded the creases she had made.

His pleased laugh made her heart jump in her chest and warmth bloomed behind her sternum.

The space between them closed by inches as they worked, her eyes glossing over as she memorized his joy at such a simple thing.

Her fingertips lingered atop his as he finished, stroking them along his knuckles and smirking at the shake in his hand before reaching for her wine.

He set the little dragon down and didn’t meet her eye as he admitted something she thought she’d have to force out of him.

“It’s not the same, but I like to draw now and again. It keeps my head quiet.”

Her mouth unfurled into a grin as her heart swelled and flipped, finally!

Giddiness like a stimulant lit her up inside and she almost bounced in place, desperate to hear more.

“I know, I found—” she cut herself off, glaring at the scarlet liquid sloshing in her glass like it had spilled her secret as she set it down.

Luke didn’t let the moment pass. His eyes shuttering as she resisted covering her face with her hands, and she looked everywhere except him as he said, “You found what?”

Oh, she didn’t like the ice in his voice; her back going ramrod straight as she cut him a gimlet eye.

But Luke blinked, and the shades in his eyes cracked, slivers of light returning to fracture the black.

“Emilia. Did you go through my things?”

His voice went lethally low, but it didn’t have the effect she thought he intended.

Flame ignited low in her abdomen and tendrils of it wove beneath her skin, restless energy rising to cloud her mind with smoke.

Attraction blooming like wildflowers in summer as tension built and built, both leaning in so close Luke was a black and white blur. She felt she was handling molten glass.

It was up to her to shape it and ensure it would survive the cooling.

He seemed just as affected as she. A new thing had grown while they bantered and teased each other all day. Less cautious and unsure, more confident and determined to break through whatever barrier had kept him away from her all this time.

Alcohol blurred the lines further, but she didn’t feel drunk, only warmed through. She remained at ease despite the building tension and catching sensation in her chest whenever she her mind wandered down lustful roads.

Luke inhaled sharply, eyes glued on her blushing face, and everything around them became fuzzy to a point she felt as though she were in a dream. His pupils dilated, black, devouring the rich brown as she found herself pulled toward him.

He was a magnetic force of a man, and he didn’t even know it.

“I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry,” She said, looking at her twisting hands.

The small paper dragon on the coffee table looked frayed around its edges as she bravely met his eye again.

Understanding shone bright in his expression, he said, “That’s why you ran out…” He swallowed hard. A frown so severe she was certain she’d fucked everything up when it softened. “But you came back?”

His mouth turned down at the corners, all traces of humor gone from his gaze, and she wanted nothing more than for him to smile again.

Her loose tongue just kept on talking.

“I didn’t leave because it frightened me. I just needed time to figure it out,” she explained.

She observed the stiff line of his shoulders and the muscle feathering in his jaw.

He cocked his head, his face an emotionless mask as he whispered, “Did you figure it out?”

Her mouth watered, fingers aching with the need to reach out and touch him, to reassure him she was on the same page as him. He smelled like rosemary, clean, musky skin, and a slight hint of hops from his beer. It was heaven to her overactive senses.

“I did. Have you?” She nodded, widening her eyes, and impatience reared up as silence reigned for a few stuttering heartbeats.

He appeared perplexed for a moment and she worried she’d been too subtle. Her heart pounded in her throat as she held her breath and crossed her fingers.

Hoping he wouldn’t balk and deny it once he understood. She had a powerful urge to bridge the gap between them, a recklessness that usually resulted in either mischief or surrendering to her desires.

She knew he felt it, saw it in the tremor in his hands when she invaded his personal space and the deep breaths he took whenever she was near him.

His eyes seemed attuned to her already and tracked her every move until she was out of sight, a weight that left her reeling once it was gone.

It was a thrilling, terrifying experience, and she needed to see where it would lead her.

“I believe so,” He finally uttered, setting her pulse off at a furious gallop.

The air in her lungs became a sigh as anticipation thickened so much she tasted it like smoke on her tongue as she licked her bottom lip.

He tracked the movement, mouth parting and body shuddering ever so slightly.

She resolved to see just how hot he burned. He had been tending the fire for a while, and she knew he had waited for her to catch up. She felt its heat now. It wasn’t a blaze that destroyed and made a spectacle of itself.

It was a deeply buried ground fire—one that had existed for a long time without her noticing until the earth cracked and a wisp of smoke caught her attention.

It could burn forever if they wanted. The sliver of uncertainty in his gaze told her he didn’t entirely trust that she felt the same.

She made it her mission to erase it, surging forward to seal her fate and, hopefully, theirs.

His lips were soft, a bristle of beard scratching as her hand wound into the hair at his nape. She melted into him.

He took what she offered and pressed in close, neither hearing the clatter as he set his beer down. He cradled her face in both hands.

A tide of sensation swamped her as his tongue traced the seam of her lips and she opened to allow him in.

Lust, like the sweetest poison, raced through her veins, and pulled her deeper under until she was drowning.

Clinging to him as he crushed her against him and pulled her into his lap. A deep, shuddering groan rippled through him as they tasted the other and savored every bite.

It was a messy kiss that fast turned into something so powerful and so stirring she trembled with it. She poured herself into him until there wasn’t a space in her mind for anything but him.

Her hands buried in his silken hair to hang on. His fingers roamed her back, feverish and hungry as they snuck under her thin shirt.

She arched into it, nipples peaking as desire flared and spat like a candle in a draught and addled her mind.

Luke kissed her as though afraid he’d never get the chance to again. His fingers tracing along her jaw, hooking behind the bone before it laced through her hair to pull her lips more tightly against his.

Aware that this was leading somewhere, she gave herself over to the heat, making her skin tingle and decorating it with goosebumps. She caught his bottom lip between her teeth and nipped so he’d grip her tighter, his arms tugging her nearer in as his spiky mouth scratched her sensitive skin.

Sighing into his mouth as his blunt nails dug into her hips, she almost tasted his disbelief. She chased his tongue with hers to take it away and pulled on his hair. Kissing had never felt like this.

Like she was a moth to the flame, and he held the matches. Luring her in and keeping her mesmerized as his tongue slid against hers. She fast grew slick between her legs as she wriggled against the hard length trapped between their bodies.

The bruising press of his lips only deepened her hunger for more.

Wanting it all, needing everything he could give her, and not caring if it was awkward in the aftermath.

They’d deal with it if it came. Sliding her hands down his back, she dragged her nails up and over his shoulders. Cutting them into his skin as he groaned, and the luscious sound vibrated along all her nerves.

It was an assault on her senses, his redolent scent and taste. He felt both safe and very exciting—a mixture that heightened her fledgling emotions and strengthened them until there was no doubt left in her.

He murmured her nickname like a prayer between kisses.

Her craving to touch and see all of him turned ravenous as his beard scratched her flushing face. The flick of his tongue in her mouth made her moan low in her throat.

Instantly regretting the sound when he parted from her lips and touched his forehead to hers, refusing to let her look away as they shared rasping breaths.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” He muttered, her heart growing gossamer wings at the concern in his dark eyes.

She knew he meant more than sex. The undercurrent in his words asking if she wanted all that came with him and her together. If it all went to Hell, so be it.

She wanted him. He wanted her. Their twin frantic heartbeats, the possessive grip they had on each other, and their glossed over eyes said it all.

Why complicate it more than that?

Instead of replying, she kissed him with renewed enthusiasm so he wouldn’t overthink it, and let him feel it as he maneuvered them. So she straddled him, her knees cushioned by the rug under them.

The tantalizing abrasion of his mouth only added to the cocktail of sensations building into an inferno inside her.

A rush of liquid heat pooled low in her abdomen, and she whimpered. They moved almost in question and answer to each other.

Bodies pushing and pulling and writhing. His arm wrapped around her back like an iron band and held her trapped. Her arms a necklace around his neck as he lifted her up.

He slowly climbed to his feet. Her legs automatically wrapped around his waist as he kept kissing her, and walked them to the bedroom. The heart was just a muscle that kept her alive and led her through life.

But it glowed and grew in her chest as she understood he wanted her to be comfortable. It only made her want him more.

Suddenly, the difference between lust and passion became abundantly clear.

Lust was fleeting. Effortless to walk away from.

Somehow, she knew this was different. This was something much rarer than simple sexual chemistry.

The thought didn’t scare her. She welcomed it, and it was easy for her to place herself in his hands.

Fragile trust strengthening with every hour she spent with him. She had no hesitations as he lowered her onto the mattress, breaking the seal on her mouth to urge her to shimmy up the bed.

He crawled over her, caging her in with his body.

They panted, eyes hazed and full of smoke as desire took over. She nodded as he leaned back and toyed with the hem of her shirt, arching to help him take it off.

She had planned ahead, no underwear, and she was shameless as his scalding gaze branded every inch of her honeyed skin on display.

The heated, awed glint in his obsidian eyes eliminated any insecurities she might’ve had.

Her hands itched to touch him as he pulled off his top and threw it to the floor.

Her gaze crawled over his firm chest, moon-pale skin sprinkled with dark hair like a trail down his torso, leading straight to his hard cock pressing against his jeans. She gave in as his head lowered to steal her breath before mouthing his way down her jaw and neck.

Her hands mapped the supple skin of his shoulders, noting the way he shivered when she scored her nails up his back.

He took tiny mouthfuls of her skin, sharp, nibbling teeth making her jolt and offer more of her throat to his starving mouth. A sucking bite over her fluttering pulse, stealing a whimper out of her.

Pleasure sparkled through her as he dragged his hot mouth down her chest. His tongue swirling around her nipples one after the other and repeating the action when she clutched at his head to keep him there.

Wetness welled from her, an ache opening within her core that ate at her firing nerves. Flame licked through her with every nip and tug of his teeth.

He spoke the words into her breast and they slithered like a shiver through her ribs, the catching sensation in her chest heightening.

“You’re so beautiful. I often worry I dreamed you up.”

She longed to tell him how beautiful she found him, but he kissed her until she was breathless, and resumed taunting her breasts.

Time seemed to stretch out and pause as he relented at her cry of impatience. He settled back on his haunches, helping her pull her loose pants off.

He tossed her woolen socks aside with a chuckle as she settled back down on the mattress. Her grabbing hands pulled at his jeans, a silent demand he followed and soon, he was as bare as she.

She wanted to memorize every part of him, unveiled at last and a prize there for the taking. He blanketed her body with his, and she hooked a leg around his hip, arching to feel more of his skin on hers.

All that stood between them now was hesitation and anticipation, the latter soon winning out.

There was a frenzied edge to his kiss as electricity zinged through her veins and lifted the fine hair on her arms. Delicious heat bubbling in and around them.

Sweat bejeweled her quivering body as he worked a hand between them and cupped her, making her undulate. Her breath hitched as he awkwardly drew a finger through her wetness, lifting his head to see her reactions.

Cataloging them, she thought, as he felt how much she wanted him.

He hummed, pleased at finding her scalding and wet. Then he was on her.

Mouth demanding and consuming as it possessed hers. She wound her legs around him, his hand still taunting her between them as he pushed two fingers inside her.

Her gasp stolen by him as her hips jerked. Her inner walls clenching down and the ache in her eased slightly as he moved his hand within her taut, wet cunt.

The need for more made her whine and his insistent kiss only fed it as heat flared between her thighs. Her ears filled with their hushed, tattered breathing, and her muffled moans as he inhaled them.

He only gave her enough to make her growl in frustration, the heel of his palm barely grazing her clit. She fluttered around his fingers and she rocked herself into his hand.

Trying to steal the friction he wasn’t giving her.

Before she lost herself completely, he withdrew his hand from her weeping core. Breaking the kiss, his lust blackened eyes fastened on hers and he gave her one last chance to stop this.

The question, are you still sure, like a sign flashing in his bottomless eyes despite his own need.

Her fierce nod made him curse, “Thank fucking God,” and he smiled and took control of her mouth.

Her weak legs locked tighter around him as she felt him align himself with her. His heavy cock nudging her entrance.

A thrumming under her skin as it stretched too thin over her bones made her quiver more. He slowly, inch by lovely inch, filled her. They both went still when he seated himself to the hilt. He shook above her, skin flushed all over. His jaw rippling as he held back to allow her time to acclimate to him.

She struggled to breathe around the pressure of him, filling her up and stretching her. What little air she could get in smoldered in her lungs.

A sigh as soft as a whisper escaping her throat as he inhaled deeply. His stomach was flat against hers, both unable to look away from the other. Trying to memorize every detail, as the sharp and salted scent of her arousal cloaked them both.

Both finding it hard to believe this was happening as he trembled with restraint until she softened around his hard length and he began moving.

They fit tightly together in a perfect grind, each circling thrust he made within her catching her clit. A hail of firing nerves shot through her.

The pounding beat of his heart absorbed into her own. They were so closely bound. Pleasure and attraction swelling with every slow movement as he braced his hands on either side of her head.

The bed jostled as he picked up the pace as she moaned, and a wave of her essence slipped down her inner thighs.

She dug her nails into his ass, urging him on, as emotion surged high and thickened in her throat. Heat spread behind her cheekbones.

Her heart gave a strong pang that caused her to hold him tighter to her. Coiling arousal twisted and tightened in her core and she panted into his insistent mouth as his tongue menaced hers.

The delicate beginnings of something extraordinary threaded between and stitched them together. Intangible but firm, as wit stealing lust became all-consuming.

She clenched around his cock and Luke sobbed in reaction. Hips stuttering as he broke away from her and hid his face in her neck and groaned into her hammering pulse.

The sound wove through her mind and nerves, echoing between her thighs as she tensed her inner walls around his rigid length.

She moved her legs up, heels digging into the small of his back as her greedy body demanded more.

The movement lifted her lower half and centered him deeper within her, steepening the pressure and angle. Triggering a surge of wetness from a trickle to a flood.

Luke took the hint.

The steady drag of his cock against her sensitive inner walls turned to deep darts of his hips that had him biting and licking at her lips to calm her down.

Her throaty cries, and the lewd sound of sex, a carnal refrain in her blood rush ears. Fingers clawing, back arching, and tension straining in her core as pleasure drowned her senses.

His back was a mess of crimson ribbons caused by her nails, but he didn’t mind as she scored more tracks into his damp skin. Enjoying the feel of his muscles bunching and jumping under her feverish hands.

She never imagined he would feel like this. Never dreamed that under his sweet and cold exterior lay a man who burned far hotter and felt more than he ever let on.

She was adrift, floating in the scorching ocean of his desire for her. It was endless.

Emilia hadn’t known she could burn this way. The quake in his hand as he grabbed her leg and drew it up, holding it in place as he plunged into her, told her he wasn’t faring any better.

Her breaths came in gasping whines and exhaled in rich, warbling moans. Her clinging hands and shaking legs.

His dark hair sticking to his forehead and feral eyes drinking in her every reaction. She committed all of it to memory. Suffocating pleasure overwhelmed her as she rocked her hips into his, meeting his movements and the friction against that tiny bundle of nerves sent her spiraling towards release.

It was almost too much, but she had the gall to want more.

His breathing harshened, plush lips swollen by hers as he stared into the heart of her. Her inner walls clenched around him and the starving hunger took over the tenderness in his eyes once more.

The heat pouring from him seemed to sink straight into her core. It roasted her beautifully. Her skin twinkled with firework nerves as he made her body sing for him.

She felt everything she had long thought was little more than a fairytale promoted by romance authors.

She all but melted as he latched onto her mouth, cock grinding deep and sending a glittering wash of heat down her abdomen. Her erratic hips met his thrusts as he taunted her tongue with flicks of his.

His hands slipped under her head, hooking into her braid to hold her close. She caught fire until she ached and arched as release surged close. She fluttered around his length. Both of them chased it.

A sensation akin to thousands of tiny feathers ghosted along her exposed nerves and tickled over her flushed flesh. Her legs twitching and hands desperate as her nails carved half moons into his broad shoulders.

The coiling tension pulled and pulled. She cried out and sank her teeth into his bottom lip, tugging it as he moaned.

He panted through his nose as he undid her; the air pushing against her like a caress. He pulled her apart at her fraying edges as her inner walls clenched and unclenched.

His forearms were around her head, as though framing her. The weight and warmth of him inside and on top of her was all she knew. His kiss turned wet and filthy as pressure built intolerably. The low whining in her throat increased as the catch in her chest intensified. Her face contorted as the friction of his groin against her clit quickened her racing heartbeat.

Release swirled low in her abdomen. Its fiery embers cascading through her as she hung onto his neck and rolled her hips out of time with his as she chased it.

She gave a stifled sob as the tension drew too taut, shivering inside her. Luke was unrelenting as he coaxed it to shatter. Her entire body stiffened as he pressed against her, her breathing becoming shallow, escalating until she was on the brink of breaking for him.

And she had full faith he’d pick up every piece. Her eyes flew open to find he was already watching her.

He stopped kissing her, forehead touching hers, and his rough groan dropped onto her parted, moaning lips as he moved inside her.

The reverent way he looked at her made her eyes sting. She clamped down on his thick length, inner muscles fluttering in time with her frantic pulse.

Tearing a gravelly moan from him, and it dropped into her waiting mouth as his lips sealed over hers. Her toes curled as the rumbling sound reverberated through her.

Under her hands, she sensed his strain of holding back and her blood turned molten. She deliberately tensed herself and arched into the grinding friction against her clit.

Her slippery inner walls held his cock tight as he pushed her over the edge. The tension snapping so abruptly she echoed his shocked shout as he buried himself inside her one last time.

All she knew was delirious heat shimmering in her blood and bones. The tingling, swelling pleasure making her feel as if she’d float away if he weren’t pinning her down. Her cunt flickered wildly as she welcomed the mindless bliss of her orgasm and absorbed Luke’s.

Her overactive mind held no thoughts or noise at all as it flowed through her.

Then he was kissing her again, and she clasped him to her, legs and arms holding him captive as their sweaty skin glued together.

Under the deceptively icy surface, he was a living flame. All traces of his earlier shyness had vanished the second she kissed him in the living room.

Her smile was near permanent as her hands slipped and slid over his slick back. A rush of wetness soaking them both as her body jumped and fizzed with the aftershocks, legs unwinding from him and falling uselessly to the bed. Somehow weightless and leaden all at once.

If she tried to stand up, they wouldn’t hold her.

She didn’t want to move, wanted to stay in their steamy bubble until it popped. Or at least until the snow melted.

Her hands wove through his hair and held him close as he lazily mouthed down her jaw and neck. He peppered her throat with burgundy poppies as a weighty fatigue smothered any possible awkwardness.

Both basking in the afterglow and could not stop touching each other.

It was a long while before they untangled themselves, laughing and stealing glances at each other as they cleaned themselves up in the bathroom. His cheeks stained pink as she told him he wasn’t sleeping on the couch tonight.

She expected a replay later. Many replays.

The secret confidence he’d had while buried inside her had vanished the moment they’d got out of bed.

It only endeared her to him more. A gentleman through and through as she ogled and smirked at him. He was too pretty.

Who could blame her? He promised he would endeavor to follow her orders.

And after a brief moment of wide-eyed nervousness when they woke late in the night, Luke fulfilled his promise.