Page 9 of Naughty & Nice
Chapter Five
Oliver
Snow falls from the gray skies as twinkling lights glow all around.
Icy winds whip through the night and sends a shudder through me. It’s late now, way too late for me to head back to Harmony Hollow in this weather. On my way here I couldn’t wait to turn back—even though I was desperate to get away.
Now that I’m here I’m in no hurry to leave. Josie has everything to do with my sudden desire to hang out here in North Pole. Over dinner we talked about a design job at a hotel down the road she’s been working on. She seemed excited about it, talking loudly as she detailed it to me.
As we lingered over our coffee and dessert, I asked to see it. It’s the only reason we’re heading that way now, this late at night, after a bottle of wine and a trip down memory lane. It has nothing to do with the many things she said about us tonight. About our past and what she seems to hope is some kind of future.
“It is so beautiful here,” she breathes her words out in icy puffs.
My eyes focus on her instead of the little village with all its holiday glory. Tonight, she laughed long and loud, touched me whenever she had a reason to—sometimes when she had none at all—and smiled at me bright and bold. A beaming smile that I claimed as mine a lifetime ago.
My feelings have changed so swiftly tonight, my head should be spinning. I’ve wondered if I could still want her after how she ended things. One look at her and I had my answer. I want her as badly as I ever did. Worse.
Now I know what it’s like to have her and lose her.
“It is beautiful,” I say back, reaching out to brush some snow off her skin.
After five years or five minutes it takes just a touch to spark heat between us like I've never felt with anyone but her. During dinner I barely kept my hands off her. I wanted to take her hand, lay mine at her thigh, or tangle my fingers in her silky waves.
I managed not to only because I know once I touch her, I won’t be able to stop. It took just one kiss five years ago to start my insatiable need for her. I can’t be sure I can recover if I open myself up to that need once again. A need so out of control that it felt like going through detox when we ended.
Out in the twinkling lights of the snowy night, I can no longer help myself. I reach out to touch her, and it’s like we stepped back five years. I hold her and she holds me and for a moment it is so perfect I decided we never had to let go.
“I miss you,” she whispers now, head bowed, tears trickling down her cheeks.
My chest tightens as her words carry in the darkness, just above the endless loop of Christmas carols. We’re a few blocks from the hotel we’re headed to and a thousand excuses to book a room with her have played on their own loop in my head. Until she says those words. Once again, I’m back five years ago, watching her walk away after I offered her everything I had.
“I miss you too, sunshine,” we slow our walk towards the hotel until we’re almost stopped, “Missed you for five fucking years. Missed you the minute you left me and every single minute since. You wrecked me,” my words come out strangled and I realize I am fighting my own tears.
Nothing could have prepared me for tonight. For seeing her again after all this time and still feeling what I feel. I could never have expected to want her just like I did the last time I saw her. Or to feel like no time has passed since we were together last despite a thousand moments going by us both.
“Missed you every minute too. Every single one, Oliver,” she stops before we reach the hotel.
I turn back to her, startled by the longing on her face. Her beautiful face is lit up by the golds, reds, and greens coloring the street. I take a few steps towards her, aching to hold her again, to ease her pain. I don’t get the chance before she makes the move, coming to press her body against mine, her face nestled into my neck.
“You mentioned torturing yourself. I smell you,” she hums as she breathes deep and a shudder of want ripples through me, “on my sheets and my skin because I have a bottle of the teakwood I bought you. I could have thrown it out and I should have to stop feeding my addiction. I cut off our supply to this, to what I make you feel and what you make me feel.”
Her pillowy lips are at my skin, her teeth coming out to nip at my neck and I growl. My fingers grasp her shoulders so I can push her away. Only I don’t do that at all. I draw her closer instead, so close I can’t feel the cold air or the snow melting on our skin. I can only feel her as her sweet softness fits to my hardness.
“Why did you do it?” I ask her when we both start to breathe right again.
I am not talking about keeping a bottle of cologne. I am not even talking about staying away for five years. Some of it I can understand, those things easier than most. What I cannot and never could understand is why she threw away what we had.
“Not tonight,” she pleads as she leans away, her tear-filled eyes peering up at me.
“If not now, when? I begged you to tell me five years ago. I won’t beg again,” I insist harshly, starting to push her away from me.
“I will beg if I need to,” her voice echoes above the whistling winds and the holiday sounds all around us.
With my heart thundering in my chest and my pulse skittering, I frame her face in my shaking hands.Christ, she is so beautiful. Her face has haunted my dreams for so long. Dreams don’t come close to her perfection.
Really, it’s her imperfections that I love. Chipped tooth in her crooked smile. A scar through her left eyebrow. Her freckles that pop in when she gets some sun—or when I let her drink too much and she got hot for me. Right now, I see them dusting the tip of her nose as her cheeks flush.
Dipping my head, I brush my lips over them, unable to help myself. Her hands clutch at my chest and she lets out the sweetest, sexiest little sound. My cock jerks in my slacks, eager to find his way home again. Her mouth smells of the wine we shared, and I lower my mouth to finally take a taste.
