After the Christmas Party(43)
“No uncles or aunts or cousins?”
If there were she’d never met or heard of any of them. She shook her head.
“Oh, princess, that’s terrible. Come here.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close, much as a parent would a child.
Trinity couldn’t say her lack of family was terrible, just her reality, but Riley’s arms around her felt good so she wasn’t going to argue with him. Instead, she snuggled against him and rested her cheek against the hard plane of his chest, soaking in his strength.
“I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay.” How could he have known? How could anyone have known when she kept all her emotions bottled up inside her? Even now she wondered if she’d made a mistake, letting him know so much. “Does it matter?”
He pulled back to stare down at her. “Of course it matters. Family is one’s support system and you’ve had to face life without that.”
Her mother had been her only family and, honestly, she hadn’t been supportive, at least, not that Trinity could recall. More that Trinity had been an unexpected nuisance that had come along and interrupted her buzz.
“Not all families are supportive.”
“True, and there are times mine drive me crazy, but I wouldn’t trade them for the world.” He kissed the top of her head. “Well, you’ll see what I mean after you meet them tomorrow.”
With that, a renewed dread of meeting his family, of having to endure a Christmas dinner and be smacked in the face with what all she didn’t have in her life hit her. A renewed fear of what this Christmas Day would bring because, seriously, Christmas was never good for her. “You’re really going to make me go?”
“You know I am. You gave me your word.”
She nodded. She’d expected no less. “What should I wear?”
“Clothes. If you don’t, my mother will be highly upset with me,” he said with a deadpan expression that was unlike him.
“Okay, smartypants, what kind of clothes? A dress or just something casual?”
He grinned and she realized he’d once again purposely tried to distract her. “Casual. There’s a lot of us, and I do mean a lot, and we’re very informal. Just dress in whatever you’re going to be most comfortable in.”
“Okay.” She leaned her head against him, drawing on his strength yet again and hoping she didn’t disappoint him. “Thank you, Riley.”
“For teaching you to wrap presents?”
“That, too, but I meant for just being here with me, period.”
“With you is where I want to be. I was a bit lost without you tonight. I’ve gotten quite accustomed to eating dinner with you and hanging out afterwards. Being without you left me at a loose end and I didn’t like it.”
“I feel the same.”
He tilted her chin to where she had to face him. “You do?”
With everything else she’d already told him, what was one more admission? “I think about you from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep and all the time in between.”
Okay, so maybe that had been a big admission.
“And your dreams? Am I there, too?” He spoke so close to her mouth that she could feel the warm moisture in his breath.
Her own breath caught, held, and blew out in an excited little burst of anticipation of his lips touching hers. He was going to kiss her. She knew he was. She wanted him to. Needed him to.
“Oh, yes, Riley, you are in my dreams.” She lowered her lids then met his gaze head on, not trying to hide what she knew was in her eyes. “You and mountains of mistletoe.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THINKING HIMSELF THE luckiest man alive, Riley accepted the invitation she’d just tossed out. He wanted to kiss her more than he wanted his next breath.
Her lips were hot and met his with a hunger that surprised him.
A hunger that matched his own.
His hands were in her hair.
Her hands were in his hair.
Threading through the locks, pulling him to her, grasping tightly as if she never wanted to let go.
His mouth left the lushness of her lips to travel down her throat, to sup at the graceful arch of her neck. She smelled of heaven, she tasted even sweeter.
Her hands had gone to his waist, were running over his lower back, pulling him towards her with an urgency that had his head spinning.
He groaned. He wanted her more than he’d thought it possible to want someone. He wanted her to the point his body ached with need, but more than that his mind craved her. Craved knowing what she looked like with pleasure on her face, craved knowing how she sounded when she experienced full and total release, craved the knowledge that he’d put that look on her face, made that sound escape her perfect plump lips.