Chapter 11
Noel
For a second, I forget to breathe.
She’s in my arms—small, warm, trembling—but not from fear.
Her lips are still parted from the kiss she just started, and my world has gone very, very still.
Every rule I’ve ever lived by, every line I’ve drawn between duty and desire, starts to blur.
I should step back.
I know that.
I should put space between us, call this what it is—an emotional reaction after a long, dangerous day.
But when she tilts her face up to me, eyes wide and shining in the firelight, that resolve disintegrates.
Because I want her.
Too much.
Too fast.
Too completely.
She fits against me like she was made to be there—soft curves pressed to hard muscle, her breath warm against my throat.
She smells like cinnamon and something sweetly floral, the scent I’ve been fighting since the moment she swung her purse at me in that parking lot.
“Tell me to stop,” I manage, the words rough against her hair.
Her fingers curl into my shirt.
“I don’t want you to stop.”
That’s all it takes.
I kiss her again—deeper this time, slower, letting myself sink into the taste of her, the sound she makes when my hand finds the small of her back.
Every bit of distance I’ve kept between us burns away in the space of a breath.
It’s not just want. It’s need.
It’s years of silence cracking open in me.
Her hands slide up, fingers tracing the line of my jaw, and when she whispers my name, it undoes me completely.
“Tinsel,” I breathe against her mouth, the word almost a prayer. “You don’t know what you’re doing to me.”
She looks up at me, her voice steady even as her pulse jumps beneath my fingertips.
“Maybe I do.”
That smile—soft, brave, just a little uncertain—wrecks me.
So I stop thinking.
I stop trying to be the man who always follows the rules.
I let myself hold her the way I’ve wanted to since the first moment I saw her—carefully at first, like she’s something precious, then tighter, because I already know letting her go will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
The fire pops, a log shifting, throwing sparks across the room.
Outside, snow is falling harder now, muffling the world in silence.
She presses closer, and I can feel her heartbeat against my chest—fast, wild, matching my own.
For once, I don’t fight it.
If this is wrong, if it’s reckless, I’ll deal with it later.
Right now, she’s here—soft and real and looking at me like I’m something worth believing in.
And I can’t say no to that.
Not tonight.
Not when everything in me says she was the one miracle I stopped believing could ever be mine.
So I don’t.
I bend my head and kiss her again, deeper this time—hungry, claiming, lost.
Holly moans softly, her body arching closer until every breath between us turns molten.
“Too many clothes,” I murmur against her mouth, voice rough and low.
She nods, breaking the kiss just long enough to bite her lip and tug her shirt over her head.
The firelight turns her skin to gold, and she looks up at me with eyes full of want and something even more dangerous—trust.
For a second, all I can do is stare.
She’s so damn beautiful, it hurts.
“Holly,” I whisper, her name a prayer, a warning, and a promise all at once.
She reaches for me, and the rest of the world falls away.
My control, my rules, my carefully built walls—gone. There’s only her warmth, her breath, and the knowledge that for once, I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.
The storm outside deepens, snow piling against the windows, but in here, it’s nothing but fire.
“You’re so goddamn sweet,” I murmur between licks, nibbles, and sweet, deep throated kisses.
“Noel, need you,” she whimpers, biting her lip, those big, beautiful silver eyes of hers are sparkling with desire and mischief as she gazes up at me.
She is so goddamn gorgeous.
Her hair is a little wild now, the clip long since forgotten and she’s standing there in a tiny little tank top, no bra and those goddamn leggings with the fabric bunched right over her hot little pussy.
Fuck’s sake, I want to press my face right there.
I wanna bury myself between her creamy thick legs and feast on her.
“Good idea,” I murmur.
“What’s a good idea?” she asks, then she squeaks because I kneel in front of her, my hands on her waistband.
“Last chance to say no,” I tell her.
But she doesn’t. She nods instead—thank fuck.
Then, I’m moving. I grip her leggings, I drag them down, and groan at the sight of her curvy and bare.
My cock is so fucking hard beneath my jeans, it’s a wonder I’m even conscious, surely there is no oxygenated blood reaching my brain or any other part of me.
“Come here,” I growl and hoist one of her legs up over my shoulder.
She’s wearing the cutest fucking panties. Red cotton with ho ho ho scribbled across the front.
My gaze tracks lower, down her shapely legs, all the way to her ankle socks with little snowmen dancing across them.
I grin before my gaze returns to her sweet, warm center. Her panties are dark right there, and I almost groan imagining how wet she is for me.
I don’t wait. I can’t. I tug the cotton to the side, and then there’s no more time for jokes or giggles.
This is serious business. And I mean serious.
“Look at this pretty pink pussy you’ve been hiding from me all day,” I growl then nuzzle her lips with my mouth.
“Oh God,” she moans, her hands digging into my hair.
One taste and I know I’m already addicted. I can’t help myself, I have to feel her all over, so I shove my tongue inside her tight heat and use my free hand to rub circles over her clit.
Holly loses it. She rocks her hips, rubbing her sweet cunt all over my face. And I am so here for it.
My right arm is circled around her waist, my fingers digging into her hip, and fuck, I want more of her. I want her to sit on my face. To fucking drown me in her essence.
“Oh fuck. Noel, I’m gonna come!”
Damn.
She’s so perfect. So unbelievable hot.
I’ll get her to sit on my face later. Right now, I just wanna make her come.
“Go ahead, Tinsel. Show me what you got. Come for me,” I growl, unzipping my pants and freeing my cock.
Her pupils are blown as she watches me, trust and something else shining in her silver irises, then I shove my tongue back inside her pussy and she shatters all around me.
My cock pulses, and holy fuck, I come with her.
All over my goddamn living room floor.
And I don’t give a single shit because that was the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced.