Mistletoe & Kisses (14 page)

Chapter Two

Danielle

TANNER’S ATTEMPT TO reassure me did a lot to relieve some of the tension I was feeling. I was still worried, but I was going to trust him. It was hard for me. The last time I “met the parents” I was in high school. It was new territory for me and as an adult, it was much scarier than I remember.

The recurring nightmare that they would convince him I wasn’t the right match for him continued to plague my sleep. After all we’d been through, I couldn’t lose him. The fear may have been completely irrational, but that didn’t stop the feelings.

Tanner’s reassurances went a long way to calming my fears. The nerves probably wouldn’t go away until after the holidays, but he always knew exactly what to say and how to say it. The diner had also been the perfect choice for lunch. It was a place of comfort for us. A place where we could talk about anything.

“Are you ready?” he asked, putting money on the table to cover our bill.

“Yep.”

Tanner held out his hand to help me from my seat, and the moment I was out of the booth and on my feet, he used the hand he was holding to drag me into his embrace. Placing a brief kiss to my lips, he looked into my eyes. It was hard not to get lost in the love radiating from their ocean blue depths.

“I love you. You are my world, and nothing will ever change that.”

Melting into his arms, I kissed him again, quickly getting lost in the moment. There would never be a day that I would tire of hearing those words from him. Tanner pulled back, chuckling.

“Forget where we are?” he whispered.

My eyes darted around and went wide when they saw the inside of the diner, where I had practically attacked him. The heat flamed my face and I felt frozen in place. Taking my hand, Tanner began leading me out to the car when he realized I wasn’t moving.

He was still laughing as he drove us home.

“Well, at least I figured out one way to stop you stressing.”

That he did. Now that we were out of the diner and view of the public, my only thought was getting him into the bedroom when we got back to the apartment.

Except, at the end of the street, he threw me for a loop when he went in the opposite direction of our apartment.

“Where are we going?”

He peeked at me from the corner of his eye. “I thought we could go pick up our Christmas tree and spend the rest of the afternoon decorating it.”

“I had other things on my mind.” Laying my hand on his leg and gliding up his thigh, I hinted at exactly what I wanted.

He captured my hand to stop its progress. “Oh, we can definitely do that when we get home, but for now, I’m keeping you out of the apartment.

Taking a deep, calming breath, I moved my hand out from under his and placed it back in my lap. As much as I wanted to jump into Tanner’s lap at that moment, I knew we would have time for that later. Getting out of the apartment was what I needed, and the thought of decorating our first tree together had me willing to wait for our other fun.

The tree farm wasn’t far from the diner, and once Tanner finished chasing me through the trees, threatening to tackle me to the ground and tickle me, we were able to find a beautiful tree we both liked.

I’d always had a real tree, even growing up. Luckily Tanner had too. The thought of buying a fake one to put up didn’t sound all that appealing to me. There was just something about the smell of pine at this time of year.

When we got home, Tanner took his time bringing the tree in, giving me the chance to get everything cleared out of the way. All set up in the corner, it looked beautiful.

“Let me grab the box of ornaments from the spare room,” I said, walking down the hall.

“Okay.”

When I came back into the living room, he was standing in front of the tree. Quietly, I set the box down on the coffee table and wrapped my arms around him from behind. His hand covered mine as he let out a deep contented sigh.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Just how wonderful this Christmas is going to be, spending it with you and our families.”

“Of course it’s going to be wonderful.” I still was afraid of something going wrong, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “Why are you looking at the tree like you haven’t seen one before?”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of my own.”

I moved around to stand in front of him. “You mean you and Greg didn’t have one in your apartment? Not even a small table-top tree?”

He shook his head and laughed. “No, we’re guys. That would make us seem too girly.”

I rolled my eyes at him and he wrapped his arms around me, placing his chin on the top of my head. “Plus, there’s not a whole lot of room in those apartments.”

On that he was right. They were very simple, small places.

Something about the feel of Tanner’s arms wrapped around me, surrounded by all the Christmas decorations, gave me a sense of peace. Leaning up on my toes, I pressed a brief kiss to his lips.

“Let’s get this tree decorated. You get the lights,” I said, laughing and handing him the first tangled strand.

Who knew that Tanner was the master at untangling lights. By the time I’d finished one, he’d finished four of them, and had them wrapped around the tree, lit up. Even without the ornaments, the reflection of the lights in the room was beautiful.

“How did you do that so fast?”

He walked over to me with an extra set of lights. “I’m good with my hands,” he said, lifting his brows, daring me to deny it.

Which I wouldn’t. I’d learned that Tanner was, in fact, very good with his hands. As quickly as my mind had conjured the thought of him using his hands to set my body on fire, he had the lights wrapped around me, pinning my arms to my side, lowering me to the ground.

“Now, what’s all this about I get to do the lights?”

His body was hovering over mine. I could feel his heat radiating over every inch of me. The burning desire I had earlier came back with a vengeance. All I wanted was Tanner. That’s when his lips touched right behind my ear, making me shiver with the contact.

“Please,” I begged.

But his lips never made it to mine. Instead, they continued their journey down my neck, tasting every inch, my skin feeling like it was on fire. The clothes I was wearing had to go. But with my hands trapped by the lights, there was nothing I could do.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered against the curve of my shoulder.

His hands joined in the exploration of his lips, lightly grazing down over my jean-covered legs, and up the inside of my thigh. There I was, on the living room floor, wrapped in a set of Christmas lights, squirming as Tanner did everything in his power to drive me crazy without removing a stitch of clothing. By the time his lips returned to mine, I was ready to promise anything as long as he touched me in every place I needed him to.

The taste and feel of his soft lips as they caressed mine made my head swim. His tongue slid across my lip and into my mouth the moment I parted my lips. The kiss was wildly erotic, especially when he ground his hips into mine. The desire to touch him was almost becoming too much when I felt the button pop on my jeans. Through it all Tanner never lifted his lips from mine as he trailed his fingers lightly across the top of panties, back and forth, back and forth, never going any lower. Turning my head to the side, I broke the connection of our lips. He wasn’t giving up that easily, and began to kiss along the base of my jaw.

“Tanner, please touch me.”

“Oh, but I’m having so much fun teasing you. Especially since you like giving me all of the hard jobs,” he smirked.

The hard erection against my skin told me that, even with his teasing words, he was torturing himself just as much as me. Using it to my advantage, I ground my hips upward, rubbing against him until he threw his head back and groaned.

“I’ll do anything.”

Swooping down, he captured my lips in an all too brief kiss, before moving to his knees and lifting me into his arms.

“Well then, maybe I should take my present to the bedroom and unwrap it early?”

“I like the sound of that.”

We reached the bedroom and Tanner slowly lowered me to the ground, kneeling down in front of me and removing my shoes one at a time, before grazing his hands up my legs. Taking hold of both my jeans and panties, he pulled them down my legs. Since my arms were still bound by the lights, he helped me to carefully step out of them. Those baby blues looked up at me from under his lashes, a mischievous smile on his face, and the sight of his tongue slipping out to wet his lower lip did so many indescribable things to my body, there wasn’t a thing I could do. At least until that tongue slid through me, circling around my clit.

“Oh God.”

I wasn’t sure whether to tell him to stop or keep going. Sex with Tanner was always amazing, but this was something different altogether. Since Tanner had total control over my body, it brought me to the peak faster than ever before. My legs were trembling, my body burning up as I went crashing over the edge. Stars danced before my eyes as I struggled to stay on my feet. Tanner’s strong arms wrapped around me, holding me up as the breath sawed in and out of my lungs, and when I was finally able to stand on my own two legs, he bent down to whisper in my ear, “I think it’s time I unwrapped my present now.”

Taking one end of the lights, he slowly pulled the cord from my body, freeing my arms to wrap around his body. The first thing I did was to grab the hem of his shirt and lift it over his head, wanting the feel of his warm skin on mine. He bent his head, freeing me of my shirt, before his lips once again reconnected with mine. Lost in the passion of the kiss, I hadn’t realized he’d backed us up to the bed until I felt the cool sheets on my back as he lay me down. There was no time wasted as his lips moved down my body, stopping to take one hard nipple into his mouth, pleasure coursing through me, making me arch my back of the bed.

There was still one problem though.

“You’re still wearing too much clothing,” I said, pulling at the button of his pants.

“Well, we can’t have that, now can we?” He stood up and removed the rest of what he was wearing and came back to cover his body with mine.

All of my nerve endings were electrified to his touch. When the palm of his hand skimmed across my breast, I pushed my hips into him, feeling his erection as it slid past my core, telling him exactly what I wanted.

“Impatient, aren’t we?” he teased.

I did it again. “Very.”

“I wouldn’t want to disappoint the best present I’ve gotten in years.”

He slid his fingers down between my legs, using one finger to test me before he slipped it out and pressed his tip into me. Each powerful thrust of his body pushed me higher and higher, and my whimpers mixed with the grunts and groans from Tanner filled the room. Our bodies moved as one, taking and giving pleasure until Tanner’s body exploded, taking me to the highest peaks of pleasure along with him.

Doing his best not to crush me he moved to his side, taking me with him.

“I love you more than life itself,” he whispered as his lips lightly touched my forehead.

“I love you too.”

We lay there in silence for a few moments, letting out bodies settle until, eventually, he pulled out of me and rolled onto his back. Using his shoulder as a pillow was my favorite place to rest.

“Crap,” Tanner said a few minutes later.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking up into his eyes.

“We never finished decorating the tree.”

“Oh well. That’s what Sundays are for.”

His eyes opened wider than a saucer. “What? My neat freak of a fiancée is going to leave the mess in the living room until
tomorrow?
”

“You wore me out. I don’t have any energy left to deal with it right now.”

“If I’d known that tying you up with Christmas lights would wear you out enough to calm you down, I’d have done it a week ago.”

I smacked him on the chest at the same time I yawned.

Tanner kissed me on the top of my head. “Sleep, love. We’ll deal with it in the morning.”

“I like that idea.” I let my eyes slide closed and soon enough I’d drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The next morning we finished decorating the tree and got everything else ready for Tanner’s parents to arrive. Their plane was landing on Tuesday night, giving us both the chance to get off work, and me two more days to worry. Those two days flew by faster than I ever thought possible. It seemed like I blinked and suddenly work was done and Tanner was on his way to the airport.

There was only a week until Christmas and my nerves were at breaking point. Tanner went to collect his parents right after coming home to change, leaving me at the house to get dinner ready. He’d wanted me to go with him, but I figured it would be better if I had time to freak out by myself. They were staying with us for the week. I couldn’t ask them to stay at a hotel. At that moment, though, I was starting to think I’d lost my mind when I suggested it in the first place. Given the pacing I’d done since Tanner had walked out the door, I was surprised there wasn’t a hole in the rug .