I groan inwardly. Of course I had to bring up something about his dad after the crappy day he’s had.
But Locke smiles at me like I’ve given him a gift. “Christmas was my dad’s favorite holiday.”
My chest loosens. “It was?”
“God, yeah.” His face lights as he talks, love and nostalgia tinging his words. “He saw all sorts of people get destroyed by war and stuff, but for him, Christmas was sacred. The time to give back. In the weeks leading up to it, we spent every weekend wrapping gifts and supplies to donate to needy families. And then on Christmas Eve we’d dress up like elves to deliver packages to local families.”
This man is so, so good. I’ve always known it, but now the knowledge is part of the fabric of him, like his dark hair and his warm eyes. My heart lurches recklessly, and on the spot, I fall in love with Locke a little more. It might be dangerous, but how could I not?
“I want to see pictures,” I say. My breath comes out in a cold puff of air, backlit by the Christmas tree lights so it looks like fog. “Locke as an elf.”
“Nope.” He shakes his head with a grin. “No.”
“You forget, Lachlan Mills, that you invited me to Christmas. I bet Grandma Betty would be more than happy to bring out the photo albums for me again.”
“You’d turn Grandma Betty against me?”
“I’d work with her for our mutual gain.”
He laughs. “It’s no wonder my family likes you so much.”
They do? He’s been talking about me with them?
“My dad would have liked you, too. You know, he gave me my love of travel, but he also showed me by example how to take care of people. How to love them.” Locke’s voice goes quiet and strained. “I think I’m just more pissed that he didn’t tell me before he died. Because I have all these questions now, and I can’t ask them.”
I nod, and my heart aches for him. “I never met your dad, so I can’t speak for him. But one thing I know is that family isn’t just blood.” I think of my own family members who love me but don’t understand me half as well as people like Molly and Eden and Locke do. “Family is who you love, and the people who love you for exactly who you are.”
Locke tugs me close and wraps me in a hug. His heat radiates through my body and warms my chest, even with the winter coats separating our skin. “I know,” he sighs. “I wouldn’t have cared, not long term. I just would have liked the chance to talk to him. Maybe I just miss him.” He drops a gentle kiss onto my lips that makes my stomach dip, and then he rests his forehead on mine. “Thank you.”
I know Locke means for listening, for being here. But I need to lighten the mood or I’m going to tell him exactly how much he means to me, how much he feels like my family, too. “Don’t thank me yet,” I say. I sweep an arm over the lot. “We still need to pick a tree and then get the sucker home.”
My words have the intended effect.
Locke steps back and flexes his muscles. “I heard I have brute strength and sexy arms.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I poke his bicep with a smile. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“My mouth tastes like pine needles.” I can’t see his head, but Locke’s voice floats up from between the boughs of the Douglas fir tree he’s spent the last fifteen minutes trying to screw into an old-fashioned Christmas tree stand.
“If it didn’t, you wouldn’t be doing it right.”
He steps out from under the tree and runs a hand over his hair, loosening a shower of pine needles onto his wood floor. “You want to cut the netting or should I?”
“I mean, I’d love to, but I think after all the hard work you did to carry the tree, you deserve the honor.”
“About that.”
I grin at him. “No complaining. All that heart-pounding exertion does a body good.”
“Mmm.” His gaze darkens, and a wicked smile dances across his face. “I prefer another form of heart-pounding exertion.”
“Pushups?”
He drags me toward him by the hips, and I fall against his chest with a squeal of laughter. “If that’s what you want to call it, babe.”
God, why does that word make my heart do such stupid things?
Locke buries his hands in my hair and our eyes lock and my pulse quickens because he’s going to kiss me again. I still haven’t gotten over the fact that we get to do that now. That we crossed this line and I didn’t ruin everything.
“Was it a good idea?” I ask.
“Very good.”
I smile as Locke slants his mouth over mine, and my body surrenders with pleasure, swaying closer to his radiant warmth. He kisses me like it’s the only thing in the world he’s concentrating on, a singular focus that leaves me breathless and aching, my clit throbbing for him.
Locke walks me backward until my shoulder blades bump the brick wall by his fireplace, never moving his mouth from mine. The rough surface clutches at the fine wool of my sweater and tugs threads loose, but I don’t care if my outfit gets ruined. Locke could rip my clothes to tatters and I’d still crawl to him naked.
I wrap my arms around Locke and let him and the wall hold me up as my body melts under his ravaging touch. He explores every inch of my lips with his, from corner to corner, sucking on my lower lip, tracing the bow with the tip of his tongue. Kissing me until the room spins and everything is just sensation and
