Page 77 of Wintertime Love (Holiday 2)

I nod my head eagerly. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go pick up your mother and your sister. Selina must be missing you.”

I bundle up my son in his jacket and we make our way down the beautifully lit street. I wave at the neighbors who’re putting finishing touches on their Christmas decorations and turn down offers for eggnog.

It’s been five years since I walked into the bar that fateful night and met the fierce, stubborn woman that I would end up being my wife. And I haven’t regretted a single moment of these past five years. Clara is hot headed and fiercely protective of me and her family. When I first met her, she was a prickly little thing with sharp claws that could make a man bleed,. But the more she swiped me with them, the more I wanted to tame her, to own her. Her claws have sheathed over the years and yet, when I really want to provoke her, she takes them out to give me a warning swipe.

My dangerous little kitten.

I never thought I’d find the love of my life hidden away in a small town like this or that she would make me fall head over heels in love with her.

After losing my parents, I was taken away from my home town to live under the guardianship of a woman who despised my mother. A woman who didn’t want to see me because I was a reminder of what she’d lost. Life had made me hard and cold. I’d been living a meaningless existence with only one goal and that was to rebuild the family fortune. One meeting with Clara had me revealing parts of myself that I had buried for years.

Her wary presence drew out my playful nature, willing me to see what she was hiding underneath her hard armor. I found that she was the kind of woman who had ambition and a sharply protective nature. And I wanted her. When watched her interacting with people, the way she smiled at them, I wanted that for myself.

And I got it.

Being married has changed both of us. I’ve become more stable and found the close knitted kind of community life that I seem to thrive in and Clara has become softer and even lovelier.

I’m still a Duke. I hold that title, to pass it down to my son when he comes of age. But the relationship between me and my grandmother has truly mended with the birth of my two children. The prospect of two great grandchildren who adore her has her doting on them, incessantly and it’s not a strange occurrence to find her being a frequent visitor to Wicca Springs. We take the kids to the estate in the summers for a few weeks every year but the rest of the time, my grandmother keeps visiting us.

She prefers staying with Vee and Helen. She gets along great with the two of them and she’s been strangely accepting of my wary wife. She no longer holds the Christmas ball that has been a tradition of our family for generations, instead choosing to spend Christmas here with us. It can be a little awkward because she likes giving the children over the top gifts which have to be returned because they’re too much. Clara insists on raising them simply, without over the top grandeur and I agree with this.

Money and ambition, can all come later.

With Eric in my arms, I enter the house, and the smell of freshly baked goods reaches my nose. I release the boy who makes a beeline into the kitchen, shouting, “Gramma!”

I glimpse my two year old daughter curled up on the couch, dozing off and I decide to go check on her first before announcing my presence.

Selina has Clara’s brown eyes and my dark hair while Eric is the opposite mesh of both. She has the same birthmark on her wrist as Clara, Vee and Helen do. While my wife likes to scoff at it, I like to think that my baby girl has a little bit of magic in her.

I smile tenderly at the child sleeping so peacefully on the couch, knowing that the minute she wakes up, she’s going to transform into a little demon.

“Finn?”

Clara’s surprised voice reaches my ears and I straighten up to see her descending the stairs.

“What are you doing here?” she asks.

I stride over to her and grab her by the waist, pulling her to me. “I missed my wife.”

She raises a doubtful brow. “Really? So this has nothing to do with the fact that Aunt Vee is making gingerbread men?”

I put a hurt expression on my face. “Darlin’, how can you think that? I came for you.”

She slaps me on top of my head, lightly, a smirk on her lips. “Liar.” Then she wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me on the tip of my nose. “Do you really have to go your office after New Year’s?”

My Clara can be so demanding with her affections and so adorable when she looks at me in that wistful way. I fall a little bit more in love with her every day. “It’s just for a day. And I’ll be back so quickly that you won’t even notice it.”

My words don’t assure her and she sighs. “I hate it when you go.”

I laugh, delighted. “And you say I’m a pain in the ass.”

She bites the lobe of my ear. “You are a pain in the ass.”

My eyes darken, and my voice is thick with desire. “Careful, Darlin’.”

She trembles in my hold.

The gaze that I meet is wanton and vulnerable and if we were home, I’d have whisked her into our room, stripped off her jeans and taken her there and then.

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