He cut me off with a finger to my lips. “Then let’s go back to my place. Quickly.”
We slipped and slid back to his place, scared the life out of Boots when the door slammed open, locked it fast, and ended up in Bailey’s bedroom. Clothes flew everywhere, and it didn’t take long for me to be deep inside him, as he rode me, in his lemon-yellow corset, his head tipped back and his hair loose about his shoulders. I was entranced, my breath stolen by the promise of a bright and shiny future.
He was my everything.
He bent down to kiss me, and I lifted my knees, slanting him just so, and he groaned low in his throat.
“There, right… there…”
I placed my hands on his waist and caressed the soft silk, pulled at the lace, circled his cock, and helped him over the edge, his cum painting my chest, and his desperate kiss everything I needed.
“I love you,” I managed to say as he collapsed against me.
“I love you,” he said back between short breaths.
“I’ve always loved you,” I added, and he smiled into a kiss.
“Ditto.”
Epilogue
BAILEY
One year later
Having a birthday on Christmas Eve was both a blessing and a curse.
I loved that everything was decorated, and special, and that everyone was excited for Christmas, but it sometimes sucked when my birthday got lost in the last-minute rush of things that needed to be done.
This year was different because Kai was determined to make sure my birthday was the most special day of my entire life.
It started early, which was both exciting and exhausting, given we’d been up most of the night making love, and then hugging and kissing, and just holding each other close as we reflected on the past twelve months together. He’d started the year not knowing what he was doing next, but he’d researched a few charity options, and investigated local hockey for kids, and it was only a matter of time before he combined charity, hockey, and kids, and made a new path for himself. He was now the proud owner of the local rink, newly renovated, three miles outside of town, close to the ski resort. His name was enough to get things started, and the ‘Wishing Tree Diamonds’ Hockey School was working for him, and us. He was happy, busy, spreading his love of hockey far and wide, and I didn’t know how it was possible, but I fell more in love with him with every day that passed.
He’d planned the whole of my birthday—lots of secret family chats that I pretended not to know were happening—and first up was skating on the Wishing Tree pond before it opened to the tourists.
The ice was still marked from last night, but covered in a thin layer of snow, and watching Kai skate circles around me was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. I held my own, but he got the most fun from skating with me in his arms, lifting me as if I weighed nothing and then kissing me as he lazily worked his way from one end of the pond to the other. He was so natural on skates, as if they were an extension of him, and despite my reluctance to get on the ice when it was crowded, this, alone in the early morning was perfect.
It got noisier when my brothers, Mom, Dad, and the kids all joined us, but we laughed and skated in the falling snow, with cold noses and red faces, and there was so much happiness and love I was overwhelmed.
The boys had made me a poster for my new workshop in the attic—it was a montage of Kai on the ice—they knew I’d love it, and I did. They were among the first kids to sign up to the hockey school, along with Alice, who joined up when she found out the team color was purple, and now gave her brother and cousin a run—or skate—for their money. Seemed like Kai was the best uncle ever for the purple, and I gave him that.
Alice and Emma gifted me hand-painted ornaments, which I would treasure, and from Kai I got some soft silk-lined gloves, which on opening the parcel, only contained one glove of the pair.
“Because I’ll always be there to keep your other hand warm,” he explained as he pulled out, then re-pocketed the second one, with an added wink.
The rest of the day was busy with Christmas Eve visits, carols in the square and then when darkness fell, we headed to our place—the entire family—and decorated a tree that we’d rescued from the tree sellers the day before. It was kind of sad-looking, but it’s what we did last year—our first Christmas when everything was last minute—and it was a tradition that I would happily continue forever. When all of us were done decorating and we turned the lights on, the sad broken tree was a showpiece that everyone was in awe of. Brooke sat out for some of it; Willow, their baby girl had just turned eleven months and was fretful. Until Super-Uncle-Bailey came to the rescue with the aid of a sparkling crystal star that Kai had commissioned from the same artist who’d done the bears.
When everyone had left, it was nearly midnight, and bundled up in coats, Kai and I headed back into town, taking a slow walk around town with no real destination in mind.
“I’m not ready for today to end,” Kai said.
“Me neither.”
He sighed. “I just want to stay forever in the snow and cold and all the beautiful lights, just like we’re in a snow globe.”
“That’s very poetic.” I smiled up at him.
We stopped to look at decorations, laughed at stupid shared jokes, and kissed for the longest time in the shadows by the church nativity, hugging each other.
I’d never felt so much peace as we carried on through the silent center of town, passing the old clock and ending up by the park entrance. Snow fell all around us, soft, fat flakes of perfection, and my heart hurt with how flawless this was. We followed the path around the park, my hand warm in his, and then he veered off the main path and headed to the Wishing Tree.
“We should make a wish,” he said and released my hand, going to a crouch near the supply of cards and ribbon. He dropped a couple of dollars into the honesty box, and then handed me a card and one of the many donated pens.
“What will you wish for?” he asked.
“I pretty much have everything I want,” I whispered and stared at the blank card, mesmerized by the empty space, and wondering what to write. I had the love I’d always desired, with the man I’d always wanted. A man who understood me, who showed me what it was like to be loved. The man who held me so tight and told me he loved me repeatedly.
“I know what I’m going to wish for,” he said from behind me, and I turned to face him, thrown when he wasn’t standing, but had taken a knee and was holding up a ring that he’d watched me make only last week. He’d demanded he be involved, helping to set the final stones, and telling me it was created with love. He told me he’d sold it to a man who was so hopelessly in love that seeing the ring made him cry, and that the man had to have it.
I’d been sad that it sold—thinking maybe that on New Year’s Eve I could propose to Kai with it, but now I was struck dumb as I realized what was happening. He’d been talking about himself?
“You’ll get wet,” I said, as if that was the important thing in this moment.
“Bailey Haynes, this has been a lifetime coming, and I’ve loved you forever, so please, will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?”
And the answer was easy as I tugged him to stand and kissed him soundly.