“Okay fine, at least stay for breakfast?”
He pauses, contemplating her request for a second before shaking his head and standing. “I’ll take a plate up to my office. I promise the rest of the week I’m all yours.”
I am planning on that.
…
“Rockin’ around the Christmas tree, have a happy holiday.”
Chloe O'Connell is in her element, dancing merrily and singing jolly just as the song playing on the cabin's surround sound says. I can’t help smiling at the sheer look of happiness in her eyes as she hangs ornament after ornament, tinsel garland after tinsel garland, making this tree look like something you’d find in the middle of Rockefeller Center or the Plaza Hotel. My contribution, spiking our hot cocoa of course. My favorite thing about Christmas, peppermint schnapps.
“It’s coming together so perfectly,” she shrieks, picking up another string of colored LED lights.
“It sure is something,” I mutter from my spot on the sectional. I gave up right around the tenth bauble and fifth strand of garland. Figured I’m put to better use drinking the incredible hot cocoa. Chloe wasn’t kidding, this shit is fucking magical.
“There, it’s perfect,” she says, placing the last ornament at her reach. “Now we just need Zane to add the last garland to the top, the angel, and it’s the best Christmas tree you’ll ever see.”
“Given it’s the only Christmas tree I’ve ever decorated, I’d say it’s already pretty great,” I joke, raising my mug up to her in a toast.
“Oh Avery, when you say things like that it truly breaks my heart.” She comes to sit beside me, resting her head on my lap.
“Come on Chlo,” I mutter, running my fingers tenderly through her hair, “Don’t cry on me now. Just because I didn’t have these perfect Christmases doesn’t mean they were missed. I honestly never even cared for them. It’s kind of hard when you don’t really know what you’re missing out on. But I’m totally fine with it,” I add, bringing the cup of hot cocoa to my lips. “A few more cups if these and my shitty childhood is made up for.”
“I told you, Zane is freaking magical,” she utters proudly, jokingly brushing off her shoulders.
“Yeah and pretty hot too,” I blurt out, too little too late.
“Avery!” she shrieks, looking around the room to make sure Zane isn’t nearby.
“Shit.” I laugh to myself, “Must be the schnapps. Come on though you have to admit he’s a damn sexy bastard. It’s no wonder you were so heartbroken when your momma dumped him.” I raise a brow, challenging her to deny it.
She doesn’t.
“Oh I was happy for him, my mom never knew how to value him, but it did suck not having him around.” Her expression turns solemn for a moment, but she’s quick to brush it off.
“Yeah I’m sure it sucked,” I mock, her cheeks reddening at my crass pun.
“Avery!”
I set the cup down beside me, leaning forward to meet her. “Oh quit Avery-ing me. Zane is a total smoke show, and you my dear need to hit that.”
“Oh god, Avery. He’s my stepfather,” she whispers like he’s standing in the room with us. I lean in closer, inhaling the deliciously sweet smell of her vanilla and cherry blossom body spray. I’m taken back for a moment, a strange shock of heat flowing through me as I feel her tense beside me.
“Key word, step,” I whisper into her ear. “He’s nothing of yours. Is it a bit twisted? Sure. Slightly taboo? Perhaps. So fucking hot? Fuck yeah!”
“Shh, he’s going to hear you,” she whispers into my neck. Realizing this is getting dangerously comfortable for me, I sit back.
“Good, let him. Then he’d know you want him to fuck the holly jolly out of you.”
Chloe covers her face with both hands, “I honestly can’t believe you’re my friend sometimes,” she says, looking at me through the spaces between her fingers.
“I don’t hear you denying it.” As suspected, her cheeks flush a brighter crimson, almost matching the color of my hair.
Now it’s her who leans back, her head falling against the back cushion of the couch. “It doesn’t matter what I want or don’t want. Zane sees me as this naive little girl he helped raise. He’d never look at me any other way.”
I knew it, and suddenly the wheels in my mind start turning, looking for a way to make my best friend's dreams come true. “On the contrary my little virgin, there is nothing more appealing to a grown man, than an innocent virgin pussy. Granted you’re of legal age of course.”
“I wouldn’t even know what to do to get him to see me in any other way. I’m practically walking around naked in these pajamas and he’s rubbing all over you.” Her voice drops, and she lowers her head, staring at her legs as she fiddles her fingers nervously.
“My sweet girl,” I mutter, tucking a loose strand of hair over her ear, “You don’t need to flaunt it all for him, you just need to learn how to tempt him, tease him, the ultimate art of seduction, and you’re in luck.”
She looks up at me with wide, hopeful eyes. “Why is that?”
“Because you have a best friend who’s going to teach you how.”
Chapter 4
CHLOE
So I may have fibbed. A little bit. Not a lot… just a little white Christmas lie. I intended to get Avery to spend the holiday at the cabin from the beginning. I couldn’t bear the thought of not being with the both of them this year. It would have been the worst fucking Christmas if either of them were missing.
Zane and Avery both hold such a deep place in my heart, deeper than either of them knows. Ugh. I am creating my own recipe for disaster, trapped in a snare of my own doing, between my ex-stepdad, who is pretty much the perfect man and makes me melt whenever he is around, and my best friend. Avery is equal parts gorgeous and sass, and I swear it's almost intoxicating being in her presence sometimes.
Not to mention my best friend also happens to be ridiculously in tune to me. Most of the time Avery knows just how to deal with my rampant mood swings before I even get them. When I’m sad, happy, moody, she's always there with a shoulder to lean on, a smile in my direction, or a honey bun in hand anticipating my hangry ass. She was able to feel my attraction to Zane within hours of being here with us. Best of all, she cares enough to teach me the art of seduction, her words not mine. I find it incredible how easily she’s able to attune to my every emotion or thought effortlessly, but it’s my biggest secret she’s been completely oblivious to.
Of course I find Zane insanely hot, but he’s not the only one that makes me feel butterflies in every inch of my body. Avery has been in my life for years and almost immediately I felt that connection to her. I knew I liked her from the moment we met but I didn't realize my feelings had grown until last summer. We spent the entire break together, like an extended sleepover. It was magical, all the movies, snacks, and bonding. We spent that first week after classes ended in a little bubble of bliss. That next week I got the worst cold of my life, I mean I was like a walking zombie, dead to the point Avery was just feeding me cold meds while I slept off my fever. Avery had been around long enough to know that cold meds always fucked with my sleep.