Leo in Lace (Double-Booked for the Holidays)

Chapter 1

Briar

“Ready to see our home away from home for the next two weeks?”

“Does it have coffee?” Maverick muttered, shades keeping the glint and glare from the sun out of his eyes.

The only problem with that was that it kept me from seeing the expression in them, which I hated.

His eyes were a ghostly pale shade of blue with an almost haunting glow when light hit them, especially moonlight.

Staring into them has been one of my favorite pastimes since we were children.

They just reminded me so much of the glass suncatchers and dangly crystal plant hangers my mother hung all over the house that I couldn’t help myself; they just drew me in.

“It will after we carry our supplies in,” I said.

“Told you we should have stopped at the coffee shop with the emoji beans all over it.”

“Did you not see how packed the parking lot was?”

“That’s how you know the coffee’s good,” Maverick grumbled.

“I’d suggest cutting down, but I’ve seen you decaffeinated, and it’s not pleasant.”

“Dear Mr. Twenty-Four Energy Drinks, two for each day we’re at the cabin, you don’t get to comment on my caffeine consumption when I’ve seen you threaten to fire someone for saying good morning to you.”

“It was Taylor, and it was not a good morning.”

“Okay, fair, but now he makes himself scarce whenever you’re in the building and holds all his questions for me.”

“Which is probably why he still has a job.”

“Also fair. His last assignment went surprisingly well, though,” Maverick muttered, still making no move to get out of the SUV, despite me having cut off the engine once I’d parked it behind the cabin I’d rented for us.

We needed this getaway, desperately, but he looked melded to the seat, slunk down and slouched against the door, gazing at the shimmering, pristine snow that lay between us and an evergreen paradise.

“How could it not when all he had to do was dress up like a gingerbread man and pass out cookie samples?” I asked, reaching to run my hand up his arm and feel the warmth radiating off him.

He always ran hot, rarely wore a hoodie, never bothered with a coat, and constantly complained whenever someone jacked up the heat in our shop.

Because we ran a bakery that specialized in cookies for every season and event, there really was no reason for heat with the ovens always going, though some of our front-of-house people occasionally fiddled with it.

He always turned it back down again and snapped at the offender to step into the kitchen if they needed to warm up.

Then he’d stomp off to the office and change into one of the pairs of shorts he kept in there, unless he was already wearing them.

Then it was outdoors and into the cold, short-sleeved, bare-armed, and loving every minute of it.

I loved the cold too, but damn, he was obsessed with it, one of many reasons I’d chosen the Winter Wonderland Wilderness Lodge for our little getaway.

That and the cell reception was crap, which meant our family couldn’t bug the hell out of us with guilt trips and protests about the way we’d chosen to spend our holiday.

Always with the guilt trips.

“And take pictures with the kids,” he reminded me. “The parents really loved that. Everyone complimented him on what an adorable gingerbread man he was. He was beaming when he came in. He really ate up all the praise they gave him.”

“He does have the adorable factor going for him,” I conceded, leaning into Maverick’s space to nudge him a little. “Come on. The sooner we get everything put away, the sooner we can roll around in the snow.”

Grunting, he glanced over at me, no real heat in his tone when he reached for the door. “I feel like all I’ve heard from you this morning was hurry, hurry, hurry.”

“Because someone was being a sleepy slug. I told you not to stay up so late.”

“It wasn’t my intention; I just got distracted working on flavor profiles for spring.”

“It’s barely winter.”

“It’s always too short.”

“You’re one of the few people I know who complains about five months of snow being too short for him.”

“Meh, humans will never get the beauty of a frozen world; I’m convinced of that.”

“Humans don’t have fur they can shift into whenever the mood suits them.”

“Sucks to be them,” he huffed before finally getting out and walking around to the back of the truck. “How about we divide and conquer?”

“How so?”

“We carry the first batch in together, then you start getting things put away and the coffee brewing, while I finish unloading the SUV. Once it’s empty, I’ll jump in and help finish getting everything situated so we can go roll in the snow.”

“Works for me,” I said, as he picked up the tote containing our staples and carried it in.

I’d inquired about the style of coffee maker in each cabin after reading on the website that they were provided.

The rather cheerful receptionist had explained that they were the single-use pod kind, which was what Maverick and I both had in our apartments.

At the bakery, we had an old-school coffee pot that was constantly being refilled several times a day, but that was only because many of our employees were caffeine fiends like us.

I filled the well so it could heat while I unloaded our cooler of meat into the freezer, heavy on the beef and fish.

I heard him come in twice before his coffee was ready, light on the sugar, a bit heavy on the cream.

Yes, I knew how he took it; we’d practically grown up together and opened the bakery of our dreams just as soon as we’d scraped up enough cash.

My folks were still pissed that I hadn’t gone to college; his were still furious that he didn’t work harder at finding his mate.

As far as we were concerned, we were mates, despite never receiving the mating marks we craved.

It was yet another thing our parents had come to disapprove of about our relationship, but we were well past the age when they had any sort of say in how we lived our lives.

I got so lost in arranging everything in the cupboards that I jumped when he wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled the back of my neck.

“The bedroom is set up,” he remarked. “Clothes put away, toiletries deposited in the bathroom, fuzzy blanket spread out over the bed, and boots in the shoe tray by the front door, not that I expect us to need them. Now I intend to savor this.”

With a light nip to the side of my neck, he turned me loose and reached for his coffee, sighing as he leaned up against the counter and took the first sip.

“I’ve just about got everything settled in here,” I told him. “I left some cod in the fridge for dinner tonight. I was thinking maybe we’d have lemon rice and asparagus with it.”

“With those little pearl onions tossed in?” Maverick asked.

“Absolutely.”

“Nice! I’ll sear us up a couple steaks tomorrow night then with those garlic parmesan potatoes you love and cheesy cauliflower.”

“You are the only one I know who makes cauliflower in a way where I can actually eat it.”

“Which is why I’m always happy to make it for you,” he practically purred before taking another sip of his coffee. “Man, this is liquid bliss.”

“And hopefully well worth the wait,” I said.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he remarked, shooting me a side-eye that I knew meant that he was not quite ready to forgive me for bypassing the coffee shop yet.

“You’ll get over it,” I said as I closed the cabinet door, satisfied that everything was organized in a way that would let us find what we wanted when we wanted it.

Despite being on vacation, we’d brought a box filled with flour, sugar, flavorings, and fillings, since we were constantly experimenting with different flavors to add to the bakery’s offerings.

He favored the more exotic combinations, like fluffy key lime cookies, sweet vanilla-glaze drizzled mango, and mango-lime macadamia nut.

His coconut macaroons were to die for, but when he’d started mixing raspberries in, it sent the whole flavor profile catapulting over the moon.

“Ready to get naked and go run?” he asked as I turned away from the cabinet to survey the rest of the kitchen, which boasted a huge bay window and a padded bench beneath it that complemented the table and matching bench that were pressed up against it.

The view, framed by brownish-red curtains covered with festive fall leaves, was positively stunning.

Rather than answering with words, I peeled my t-shirt off over my head and smirked as my hands drifted to the fastening on my jeans.

Seeing him cast his t-shirt to the side and get it hooked on the chandelier made me chuckle, but when he dropped to his knees to crawl across the kitchen floor so he could undo my jeans with his teeth, I just stood there breathless.

Even in skin, he moved with the grace of the cat he was, that we both were—snow leopards, to be exact.

Not the biggest of cats, but if you asked me, we had the most stunning fur patterns out of all of them.

My cock twitched, already beginning to rise to the occasion when he unzipped me with his teeth, then reached up, nails morphing to claws as he hooked my jeans and dragged them down over my hips, lightly grazing my skin as he peeled them off me.

That look in his eyes when he gazed up at me, heated, wicked, shimmering blue, left me sucking in a breath as he nuzzled my sack and rubbed his cheek over my rapidly rising cock.

Goddess, he was stunning this way, low, rumbly purrs humming from his throat as I reached for the soft ponytail holder that held his hair back and gently tugged it free.

A curtain of white-blond hair tumbled forward, streaked through with gold and brown, warm when I stroked my hand over it, drawing a deeper, more contented purr from him.

That pink tongue of his flicked out, lapping over the head of my cock, teasing, tormenting me in that way he knew I positively loved.

He never rushed, even when I petted and tried to coax him.

He just nuzzled and licked, rubbed his cheek and hair against my aching dick, and mouthed the head of my cock from time to time, purring around my flesh and sending that vibration straight to my balls.

Groaning, I tilted my head back, fisted his hair in my hands, and moaned when he finally took more of me into his mouth.

No matter how many times he did this, it always felt like being touched by this warm, cosmic energy that sent all the thoughts spinning from my head and turned my knees to jelly.

The wet, slurping sounds he made were as erotic as the groans, hums, and sighs that tickled my cock and ramped up the intensity of every light caress up my thighs, his thumbs occasionally brushing across my sack as he toyed with me.

Gah! Growling, I clutched his hair tighter, always careful not to pull too hard, but damn, he had a soft, talented, sensitive mouth that soon sent me soaring.

I swear, every time he made me come was like an out-of-body experience.

Time froze, light dimmed, and there was nothing but the soft suckling of his lips and tongue as he milked the cum from me until I hissed and eased my hips back, withdrawing my soft cock from his mouth as I doubled over and pressed my forehead to the top of his head.

His hands gripped my thighs tighter, his body sturdy as I glided my hands over his shoulders to rest on the small of his back.

That was all that kept me from falling over and collapsing on the kitchen floor.

“How do you expect me to run after that?” I groaned, struggling to catch my breath as I sank to my knees, gliding a hand up his cheek and tilting his head up so I could kiss him and taste the essence of my releases on his tongue.

“Slowly,” he murmured with a teasing wink.

Then the fucker shifted, leapt from his jeans, and bounded over to the backdoor, only to realize that he hadn’t thought things through completely and was unable to open the polished brass knob with his paws.

Chuckling, I watched him bat at it and even try to open it with his teeth before sitting on his haunches and shooting me a forlorn look, ears and whiskers drooping.

“Uh-huh. Someone tried to be a naughty kitty, and now look what’s happened,” I cooed.

“Murph!”

“I guess I should go ahead and open the door for you since you were so sinfully sweet to me a moment ago,” I said as I shambled across the floor on shaky legs, gaze never leaving those brilliant blue eyes of his. “But you really should plan your escape better next time.”

“Murrrrrr.” He rumbled, shooting through the gap as soon as the door was open wide enough for him to fit through.

I followed, stepping naked onto the porch to pull the door shut behind me.

He was already rolling on his back in the snow, paws waving in the air like an overgrown kitten, blissfully basking in the sunrays that slashed across his belly, when I shifted to join him.

With our vacation already off to one hell of a start, I flopped down in the snow beside him, eager to see how the next two weeks turned out while simultaneously wishing they would drag on forever.