Page 28 of One Christmas Eve
“I bet I could make you like it.”
He was silent for a few seconds, and then he lifted his head to look at her. “Um, you know that stuff can give you tiny little paper cuts, right?”
“Just what do you think I’m going todowith that tinsel?”
When he laughed so hard he made both of their bodies shake, she laughed along with him, and she had to admit she was feeling pretty festive, too. There were worse ways to spend a day than hanging out with a naked man with a sense of humor.
Preston had to circle the block twice before he found a place to park thanks to the town taking advantage of the slow month to do maintenance. There were trucks and cones everywhere. As he parallel parked the BMW in one of the few open spots, he thought of the photos of the town he’d pulled up on the internet while researching locations. Come summer he was going to have to leave extra time to get to the office because not only was finding a parking spot going to become an extreme sport—which he’d regularly played in Boston—but the number of tourists on foot and the number of crosswalks would mean a lot of low-speed stop and go.
As it was, he had a bit of a walk to his office, in the direction that took him past the Cedar Street Books window.
In the week since Abe’s party, Zoe had spent three nights at his place and two nights ago, she’d jumped out of bed to find her phone and write herself a note about the upcoming window display. Fortunately for his ego, they hadn’t been making love at the time. But he couldn’t wait to see what she and Carly had come up with.
Some kind of sheer white fabric draped on rods thwarted him, though. And the chalkboard easel had been set between the drapes and the glass.New display coming today! Keep checking back!At the bottom was their Instagram address, presumably for the people who didn’t have offices next door and therefore the opportunity to check the window in person several times a day.
She was still working on it, and he could make out her silhouette through the sheers. He stepped closer to the glass. He knew it was her and not Carly because Carly was taller and didn’t have all the lush curves Zoe did.
As if she could sense that she was being watched, her head lifted and her sexy silhouette grew larger until her face poked out from between two panels. She grinned when he craned his neck as if trying to see the window in progress behind her.
“Let me peek,” he mouthed, and she shook her head before blowing him a kiss and disappearing back behind the curtain.
He was whistling a Christmas tune as he unlocked his door and as it closed behind him, he caught himself and stopped moving for a few seconds to let the moment sink in.
I’m so happy.
It wasn’t the kind of self-awareness he was usually struck by, so he soaked it in.
Word of mouth had new inquiries coming in all the time. He’d never make what he could have made in Boston, but he’d make a nice living in a far less stressful environment. The house he was renting suited him, especially with its current festive decorating scheme, and in a year or so, he’d start looking at buying a home. His parents were happy and well.
And Zoe. Having her in his life elevated a happy, satisfying existence to a bold and colorful life full of joy and really great sex. He had a gorgeous, sexy, funny woman and she loved books.
He chuckled, almost unable to believe this was actually his life, before bending over to collect the mail that had been shoved through the mail slot in the door. The mail carrier who handled the downtown area didn’t waste time in the mornings and more often than not, Preston’s mail arrived before he did.
One of the padded envelopes was unmarked, though, and he set the other mail on his desk to look it over. Sealed, but nothing written on the envelope itself. Not even his name, so it hadn’t come through the mail.
But it felt like a small paperback book, and he smiled as he unsealed the package and pulled it out.
There was only one sticky note in the book this time, and he already knew he’d be too impatient to read the entire book because of the words printed on the sticky note in small black letters.
This is why.
Three words, but they marked the key to unlocking Zoe’s secrets—the thing her ex-husband had shamed her for. Her catalyst for divorcing him and moving here and opening a bookstore with her cousin, which had brought her into Preston’s life. Her ex-husband’s loss was definitely his gain, and the happy glow he’d been basking in intensified.
The cover was pretty, but didn’t give any clues as to what he’d find between the covers. A pretty blond woman in a red sweater with her arms wrapped around the neck of a dark-haired man in a white business shirt. They looked like they were about to kiss, but there was no hint some act of sexual perversion would take place.
After glancing around his office—which was stupid because he already knew he was alone—he loosened the knot in his tie a little and used his thumb to flip through the pages of the book until he got to the one she’d marked.
Leaning back in his chair, he read two and a half very explicit pages of a man performing oral sex on the woman Preston guessed, based on the genre of the book, would be living happily ever after with him. And, based on the graphic description of the man’s tongue skills,veryhappily ever after.
He found another written-on sticky note at the conclusion of the heroine’s orgasm, which was unusual for Zoe. She usually only used them as flags.
“Don’t be disgusting” actually meant “don’t be vulgar” because I’d talked about sex outside of the bedroom, not because I’m into anything especially kinky. Sorry to disappoint. :)
His first thoughts were confusion, followed by anger.Thisis all Zoe asked for? And her ex had shamed her for it? He didn’t know her ex, but Preston was willing to bet he hadn’t found oral sex disgusting or vulgar when he was on the receiving end. He must have shown a few decent qualities for a woman as smart as Zoe to marry him, but behind closed doors, he’d obviously been a selfish asshole.
But he shoved those thoughts aside—her ex didn’t deserve the time in his head—and focused instead on Zoe.
Their first time together, when she’d helped him decorate his house, he’d been about to work his way down her body when he’d felt her tense. Not a lot, but he’d noticed. The last woman he’d been in a serious relationship with had been very uncomfortable with oral sex, so he’d thought maybe Zoe was, too. And then she’d told him she wanted him inside of her and he’d been only too happy to oblige. And since that night, when they were together, he’d just gone on the assumption she wasn’t into it.
