43. Chapter 43
Chapter 43
Matt
R iley was on my couch in nothing but an oversized hoodie and a pair of thermal socks she stole from me with a Christmas blanket spread over her lap. It was taking all my self-control not to strip everything off her and throw her back in my bed. We had taken the best nap of my life after we had sex. I had woken up with her head on my chest and her naked body wrapped around mine. Then her stomach growled and she admitted she’d been so nervous all day she had barely eaten anything. I stirred the pot of beef and sweet potato stew on the stove top wishing it would warm up faster. The stew was from a batch we made and froze a couple weeks ago, and I had pulled it straight from the freezer after our nap.
I was too far away from her.
Riley’s arms wrapped around my waist from behind. It’s like she had sensed how much I needed her touching me again. “We still need to decide what we’re doing for Christmas,” she said. She pressed a kiss against the bare skin of my shoulder.
“Well, based on today’s new developments I’m going to say it sounds like we’ll be splitting the day between my family and yours. Any certain time we need to be at your parents’ house?” I turned around in her arms until I could pull her against me. She’s always fit against me perfectly, but now was even better without the wall she had been holding up between us.
“Jenna’s family always celebrates on Christmas Eve so we all usually just get to my parents’ house sometime in the morning and stay all day. We open gifts once everyone is there and have brunch. Then we settle in to watch Polar Express while we build gingerbread houses.”
Her family kept things simple compared to my family. There were less of them than us but I was willing to bet it would be just as loud. Riley focused a lot on the negative memories she had from growing up, sometimes it made me dislike her parents for all the ways they planted the seeds that would later grow into her insecurities and doubts around relationships. Then she would tell me about how things were now, how much her parents had grown, and I couldn’t wait to meet them.
I smiled and twisted one of her curls around my finger. “I think I love your family already.”
Her eyes focused on my finger and her whole body blushed. “They’re going to love you,” she said.
I tilted her face up to kiss her. Our lips were swollen and a little chapped from the amount of kissing that had happened over the past few hours, but I couldn’t get enough of her mouth on mine. The passionate way she kissed me back told me the feeling was mutual.
“What about your family?” She pulled away from me to open the cabinet. Her in my kitchen – our kitchen - doing something as simple as pulling bowls out of the cabinet was perfect. She was perfect.
“It’s an all-day affair too. Everyone sort of comes and goes. My two older sisters split the day between us and their in-laws, so they usually show up around dinner time. Shelby and I get there around lunch and stay until after dinner. Oliver and his siblings will probably swing by whenever they can. My mom likes to do a huge spread, so we usually help with all the cooking while we sing along to Christmas music. Then we do presents and games if we can all focus long enough.” I laughed. We never got through the stage of explaining the instructions for games before everything devolved into utter chaos. Everyone shouting over each other to re-explain parts or ask questions while the kids interrupted for help opening toys.
Riley bit her bottom lip and tried to process how we could juggle the two. “So, we’ll start with my family?” she asked. “We still have a couple of days. Maybe I can ask them if we can start a little earlier. I don’t know if we’ll be able to leave in time to get to your parents by noon but maybe close to that? I don’t want to keep you away from helping your mom.”
I caught her mouth with mine again and smiled against her lips. “That sounds perfect. What if I tell my parents we’ll be there around two? We won’t have to rush with your family, but we’ll still have time to help my mom.” I pulled her tighter against me and deepened the kiss. The stew started to bubble at the same time her stomach growled again.
She pulled away laughing. “I’m sorry I freaked out the other day. I really am excited about getting to spend Christmas with you.”
I moved the pot off the stove eye with one hand while the other arm stayed wrapped around Riley’s waist. I spun her so her back was pressed against the counter top. “At least we got our first fight out of the way.” I lifted her left hand and kissed her ring finger. It was still bare for now, but I was going to change that as soon as possible. “Now, there are other things we need to discuss.”
Not only did she say she wants me forever, but she also said she wanted that forever to start soon. I could propose whenever and however I wanted. I didn’t have big plans, and hadn't let myself get that far ahead of things, even if I did let myself get far enough ahead to have a ring already. The how or when didn’t feel important, just that she said yes.
She was going to say yes.
She looked at her finger, watched as my thumb swiped over the spot where the ring would sit. “Introducing you to my family as my boyfriend doesn’t feel like enough,” she said. Her eyes lifted to mine, hesitation flashing across them. “Is it too soon for us to be more than that?”
I shook my head. “I don’t care if it’s too soon or not.” She could have said all this in June after our first date and it wouldn’t have been too soon. I knew it then, and every day since I knew even more that she’s the one. We could get married tomorrow, skip the engagement altogether, and it wouldn’t feel like soon enough. “Were you serious that I could propose any time after today? We can wait if you want. I'm okay with just being together right now knowing that you want to marry me in the future.”
“Whenever you want to and however you want to. My only request is a simple ring, nothing expensive. Or, you don’t even have to get a ring. I’m going to say yes, no matter what.”
My hands drifted to her thighs, edging up the hem of the hoodie until I gripped the bare skin of her soft hips. “You’re getting a ring,” I told her. I pictured the dainty white gold ring with a small solitaire diamond that I had hidden in my nightstand. I needed to find a better hiding spot. “It’s going to look so perfect on you.”
Her eyes studied mine as her mouth formed a soft O. “You said you were ready to propose earlier. Do you already have a ring?” She didn’t even try to sound surprised that I might already have a ring for her.
“I’m not answering that question. You can talk to your sister about that.” Emery had started sending me links for rings in September. The night of our first kiss while Riley had been in the shower all I could think about was the future with her. Up until that moment I had refused to look at any of the links Emery sent. That ring was the second one. Seeing it had felt like a piece clicking into place, so I ordered it right then. Riley walked out of the bathroom right as I finished checkout, no idea how close to catching me in the act she had been.
Riley cupped my cheek, and I leaned against her hand. “Have you and my sister been conspiring?” she asked.
Her hand moved from my cheek up to rake her fingers through my hair. Her touch was pure bliss. My hands tightened on her hips. I could lift her onto the counter and take her right here. Push this hoodie up and sink into her. Riley licked her lips. I forced myself to pull my hands away from her, reaching behind her for the bowls.
“You need to eat,” I told her. I filled the bowls with soup and motioned for her to go back to the couch. She leaned back, her elbows resting on the counter behind her.
“Do you remember the first day of school, when you came over to cook.” She paused and waited for me to nod. “After I put the flowers on the table, you grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward you.”
I groaned and looked up at the ceiling. “You still want to know what I was thinking.”
Riley nodded.
“I was thinking about how I want to bring you home flowers every day for the rest of my life.” I sat the bowls down on the stove top. “I was picturing you in a kitchen that was ours.” I moved to pin her against the counter, hands resting next to her elbows to cage her in. “I also was thinking about bending you over that table and pushing up your dress.” I planted a kiss on the corner of her mouth. The dress she had been wearing that day was the same silhouette as most of the ones she wore – fitted up top and then flared at the waist and hips. All I could think about was how soft she was under the flare of that fabric, how she would feel under my hands.
“I like the sound of that.” She pressed her hips against mine. She couldn’t get enough of me either. Fuck, it was so sexy when she told me what she wanted. Not too long ago she’d been nervous about letting me see her in a swimsuit. Now she was in my – our – kitchen begging to be bent over and fucked from behind. I slid one hand under the hoodie.
“Do you remember when we went swimming at that waterfall?” she asked.
I brushed my thumb over the bouquet of flowers on her ribs. I’ll never forget that day. “I wanted to break all our rules that day.”
“Me too.”
She planted kisses to the trail of music notes at the top of my arm and followed them over my shoulder. “I dreamed about doing this that night.”
My thumb moved higher, brushing against the soft skin on the underside of her breast. “I almost lost my mind when you told me you were self-conscious. Then you took that tank top off and I think my brain short circuited.”
“I was so scared to let you see me.”
“Are you still scared?” I bunched the fabric of the hoodie up in my hands and started to pull it up.
She shook her head and lifted her arms. “I seem to recall getting frustrated because you were taking too long to take my clothes off earlier.” She had. I wanted to take my time, unwrap her like a present, but she was so damn impatient.
I pulled the hoodie over her head and tossed it toward the couch. “New rule. When you’re here, no clothes allowed.”
“I’ll think about it.”
She squealed as I threw her over my shoulder. “No negotiations on this one, it’s a rule.” I dropped her onto the couch.
She hooked a finger into the waistband of my pajama bottoms and popped it against my hip. “Only one of us is breaking that rule.”
“I wouldn’t have to if I could trust you to stop getting distracted.” I dodged her hands reaching out for me and stepped back toward the counter for our soup. “Dinner first. I’ll bend you over something later.”
Her nose wrinkled. “It’s so weird seeing this side of you,” she said.
“What side is that, sweetheart?”
“You being all bossy. You’re normally so sweet and stuff.” I wanted to point out that the Riley I was used to would never be spread out naked on my couch and not even bothering to cover up. “I don’t hate it,” she added with a shy smile.