“Jesus, I can’t get enough of you.”
“No talking tonight, Rafe.” He grips my hair and pulls me to his mouth, devouring me as I slam home, making sure to nail his prostate and pull a deep groan from him.
I’m close. Every stroke sends me higher and higher toward euphoria as I try my best to keep quiet. I know he’s doing the same as we move together in my bed. When I reach between us for his cock, wrapping my hand around him and stroking, it doesn’t take long before we’re both coming, his mouth swallowing my moans and vice versa.
After I dispose of the condom, we lie in the bed, looking up at the ceiling, both of us fully naked and sated.
“Stay.” The word comes out of my mouth before I can stop it, but I don’t regret it.
“What?”
I turn to my side, looking at him. “Stay. Stay the night.”
He turns so we’re facing each other. “Rafe, that’s crazy. You know I can’t. What about Hailey?”
“We’ll tell her you got here really early. You can watch her open her presents. It’ll be great. She’ll love it.”
He sits up, a horrified expression on his face. One I didn’t expect. “Are you serious?”
Shit. What did I do wrong? “What’s wrong with that?” I sit up, looking at him and searching my brain for what’s going on.
He cocks his head to the side, looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Rafe . . . That’s . . .” I watch his throat as he swallows, he looks down at the mattress. “That seems like a coupley thing to do.”
Oh. Duh. I smile now. “Nolan, no. It’s a friend thing. I promise.”
His eyes meet mine, but he doesn’t look relieved. “Watching your kid open her presents?”
“Yeah. Aunt Jo will be there too. It’ll be great. We’re going over to your mom’s for dinner anyway. Hailey will love it.”
“I don’t know.” There’s that unexplained sadness again, and I hate it. I move closer to him, gripping his face in my hands.
“I do. I want this. If you don’t, I understand. But I promise it’ll be okay.”
His eyes search mine, and then he leans forward, kissing me softly. I smile against his lips, feeling relief as I kiss him back. “What if Hailey wakes up in the middle of the night?” he whispers against my lips.
“The door is locked. We’ll set an alarm. It’ll be fine. I promise.”
His forehead rubs against mine as he nods his agreement, and then kisses me again before we fall back onto the bed, getting wrapped up in the kiss.
Best Christmas Eve Ever.
* * *
“Morning,” Rafe whispers in my ear, and I groan softly, not ready to be awake. I’m also not ready to face the fact that I let him talk me into staying the night for the first time ever. And on Christmas Eve.
What the hell was I thinking?
I open my eyes and am immediately met with the sight of the most beautiful man in the world, his dark hair all over the place and his blue eyes shining with excitement. His tattooed arm is draped across my waist, and his torso is bare. “Morning.”
His full lips pull up into a grin. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Rafe.” My heart squeezes with the simple greeting because it feels so damn normal. It’s everything I could want and everything I don’t really have.
“Hailey will be up any minute.”
I sit up, stretching and letting the blankets pool at my waist, which gets his attention. Those blue orbs drift over my body in a sinful way I know I can’t resist if I don’t get moving. “Then I better get dressed.”
“That’s a damn shame.”
Then let’s do the whole boyfriend thing so we don’t have to hide.
I think it, but I don’t dare say it. I don’t even think it could be possible anyway. I could still lose my job if anyone found out, even if Rafe wasn’t totally against being in a relationship.
I stand up, getting dressed, and then Rafe sneaks me into the kitchen. We grab coffee and wait for Hailey to wake up as we sit in the living room. It’s not long before we hear Jo laughing and then Hailey’s giggle and they come down the hallway.
Rafe looks at his daughter, an amused tilt of his head. “Did you wake Aunt Jo?”
Hailey doesn’t look the least bit guilty. “Yes!” She looks at the tree, before squealing and running over to it. “Santa came!” She looks over at me and then Rafe. “Nolan’s here!”
I laugh as she runs to me, wrapping her little arms around my shoulders as she crashes into me. “Hey, kiddo.”
“What are you doing here? Did you come for Christmas?”
I hate lying to her, even if it’s not a total lie. I smile and brush my hand over her unruly curls. “Yeah. You guys are going to my mom’s later, so I thought I’d stop by.”
Jo gives me a knowing smile as she settles on the couch, but of course, she doesn’t out us. She really does remind me a lot of my mother, and I’m happy Rafe had at least one kind person in his life. Hailey is done with me, already back at the tree. Her eyes are wide as she takes in all the presents. “Wow.”
“You gonna open them, kiddo?” Rafe is grinning bigger than I’ve ever seen him, and I know it’s his sole purpose in life to make this tiny human happy. He’s definitely succeeded.
Hailey tears into her presents, an excited squeal leaving her little mouth every time she opens something new. When she gets to the last present and unwraps it, revealing the Barbie Dream House she’s wanted badly and that Rafe worked so hard to get for her, she totally loses it, screaming and bouncing up and down.
“I knew Santa would bring it!”
I catch Rafe’s eyes, and we both smile at each other before we’re roped into using scissors to free all Hailey’s new toys from their bindings, including the science kit and the new Barbies I gave her.
I know Rafe said this is no big deal, but this moment feels intimate as hell, the sensation hitting me hard in the chest. I yearn for this to be real, and I kind of hate myself for it.
I escape to the kitchen, making an excuse to look around for something to make for breakfast. When I hear another person enter the kitchen moments later, I expect it to be Rafe, but it’s Jo with her kind smile. “You’re not trying to take my job, are you?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, but I don’t mind helping either.”
That earns me an even bigger smile as she gathers things from the cupboard, and I quickly find out we’re making waffles. “You’re good for him.”
I can’t meet her eyes. “We’re friends.”
She begins putting ingredients together in a mixing bowl. “No. You’re not.” She hands me a spoon. “And I’m not like the rest of his family. You don’t have to hide it from me.”
I take the spoon and meet her eyes, offering a weak smile. “I know that, but really, we’re friends.”
She waves me off. “Mix that, will you?” I nod and obey quickly before she speaks again and says, “He tried to feed that to me too, but I wasn’t born yesterday, even if I refuse to tell you when I was actually born.”