Page 11 of Christmas Craving
I turned in my seat to give Arthur some scritches. “Did you miss me, baby? Aww, I missed you too.”
Arthur rubbed against me happily. When I looked back at Celia she was giving me a strange look.
“What?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
I needed to work on some of my VA projects, so after depositing the Christmas tree and ornaments inside Celia’s condo, I headed back to Amy’s place for a while. My temporary neighbor had promised to make dinner, so while I was working I baked up a batch of Tollhouse cookies for dessert. They weren’t fancy, but they were good.
As I took Arthur for a quick walk before dinner, I wondered if Celia and I were going to have sex tonight. I couldn’t say why I put the brakes on things last night, but if I had to guess it was because she’d somehow defaulted to making things seem almost transactional or something. I hoped that wasn’t going to happen again. Celia clearly had some kind of trauma in her past, but I’d seen for myself that she was able to relax and have fun. I just needed to figure out how to keep her in that space.
As for the BDSM thing, I wasn’t freaked out about trying new things in the bedroom. With my paltry level of experience, most things would be new to me anyway. I’d never been restrained or spanked, but I’d wondered how it would feel when I saw it in a movie or read about it in a book.
No, I definitely wouldn’t mind exploring with Celia. But I didn’t want her to be checked out. I didn’t want her to adopt that neutral, emotionless face and voice. I wanted hertherewith me, if that made sense. I just wasn’t sure whether she could do it.
I also wasn’t sure why it was so important to me. After all, this would just be sex. A holiday fling. Except it already felt like more.
My hand flew up to my mouth as the words came into my mind. Oh my God, what was wrong with me? Was I catching feelings for a woman I just met?
Although if I was being totally honest, I’d have to admit that I fell in love with her the minute I laid eyes on her. It made no sense, but there it was. I just needed to be careful that I didn’t do something stupid, like profess my love and beg Celia to stay with me forever.
Promptly at six o’clock, Arthur and I knocked on Celia’s door. Well, I knocked, the dog just sat there panting excitedly. He’d become fond of her already, I could tell.
Celia opened the door wearing the same clothes she’d been wearing this morning before I made her change to go to the park with Arthur. I wondered if she owned any jeans or yoga pants.
“Hey.”
She gave me a quick hug, then patted Arthur on the head. “Come on in. Dinner’s almost ready.”
I expected her to make something fancy, like coq a vin or lobster, but to my surprise she’d made pasta.
“This is my grandmother’s sauce,” she told me, pouring it over the spaghetti noodles. “Her mother used to make it in the Old Country and Grandma taught us.”
“You’re Italian?” I asked in surprise. With her blonde hair and pale skin she looked Nordic more than anything.
“Only one fourth,” she said. “I’m mostly Swedish.”
Ah, that made sense.
“I’m a mutt,” I told her. “I’ve always thought I should do a DNA test to see what I find out about my lineage, but I couldn’t justify spending the money.”
“Don’t call yourself a mutt,” she said fiercely. “You’re beautiful.”
I looked at Celia, surprised by her intensity. I was tempted to laugh off her words but decided not to. I wasn’t ugly or anything, but I definitely had that ‘girl next door’ vibe going on so I hadn’t gotten a lot of compliments about my looks.
“Thank you.”
“Good girl,” she murmured approvingly.
And damned if that didn’t turn me on. Who knew I had a praise kink? Based on the way Celia was watching me, I was pretty sure she’d picked up on my reaction, although she didn’t comment on it.
Desperate to lighten the mood, I gave her one of my sunniest smiles.
“After we eat this delicious meal we are going to put on the Charlie Brown Christmas special and decorate that adorable little tree of yours.”
After that, we’d see what happened.
Celia
