Page 246 of Screwged for Christmas

She lifted her head from his shoulder. “I love you, Damon Savage.”

“And I love you.”

She sighed. “I could stay right here forever.”

“Glad to hear you say that.” Damon ran the length of his nose along the crook of her neck and she melted into his arms.

“I don’t ever want to be alone again.”

“Never for both of us. Come here—I have something for you.”

He pulled her to sit up with him and wrapped them both in a warm blanket. “There might not be a Christmas tree,” he started.

“Don’t worry about. I’m used to it.”

“Those are words that will never be spoken again as long as I live.”

She smiled and turned in his arms to press a kiss to his cheek. “I happen to think you’re the best Christmas present.” She nudged him with her elbow.

He rose and went over to where he tossed aside his pants and took out something, but she couldn’t see what. He sat back down beside her and gathered her hand in his.

“For the most part I’ve lived a good life. One filled with family and friends. I’ve loved and I’ve lost. I’ve traveled and seen horrors while on the job I care nothing to relive, but one thing in life has always kept me sane. I knew I had a home to come back to.”

Three tiny keys dangled from his hand as he held it up and tears threatened to blur everything, but she wrangled back some control and managed not to look like a sappy crybaby. “When I was on the phone and Reaper showed up, it was not to Drake but it was with my sister. I was thanking her for getting these for me.” He pressed the set of newly minted keys into her hands and closed her fingers around the cool metal. “Ivy Kennedy, wherever fate takes you in this world you will always have a home. With me, with the family, and maybe one day with our own little family. The bakery, the bar, and our homes upstairs are never locked to you.”

Home.

Ivy huddled deeper into the blanket and let the word settle in her mind. It held so much power yet meant nothing without the man beside her.

She had so many things she wanted to say so many things to share. “Thank you. I don’t know what to say.” It was safer that way and let her emotions do the talking.

“There’s nothing to say, angel, but I do have one more thing.”

“Oh?” She sat up, a little eager. What other surprise could he possibly have?

“While a set of keys are nice and convenient for, you know, unlocking doors, there’s one more thing you hold the key to.”

Her brows pinched. “Really? What are you up to, Damon Savage?”

“This.”

Firelight glinted off the edges of a golden key. An intricate weaving pattern molded into a large heart graced the top with tiny diamonds and sapphires of the bottom half.

She turned around as he clipped the golden necklace around her neck. “And now you hold the key to my heart.”

She threw her hands around his neck and smothered him in kisses. Not because of the jewelry but the impossibly sweet words that filled the splintered cracks of her heart and helped seal away the ugly past that controlled her for far too long.

“I love you, Damon Savage.” She softly shook her head, peering down the length of her nose at him. “Who knew such a burly grizzly bear of a man could be such a teddy bear.”

“Don’t you ever breathe a word of that to my brothers. They’ll never let me live it down.”

“Lips are sealed forever.” She stood and let the fleece blanket drop around her feet. “Since I didn’t get you anything for Christmas I think I should see to it that you get another kind of present.”

“Angel, I have you. It’s all I could ask for.”

“Shh, baby, and take me one more time by the fireplace.”

“You never have to ask.”

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