Chapter 26
[Saint]
Ilove the quaintness of Hideaway Harbor.
How everyone knows everyone else. How they care for one another.
And I especially love their traditions, like the traveling calendar that counts down the days until Christmas.
However, as I draw closer and closer to my end date with Lumi, I’ve come to almost resent that wandering countdown.
And I feel gutted when I approach the post office, carrying a coffee for Lumi before I head to Rusty’s Wrecks, and see Miriam from the Almanac, the town’s newspaper, setting up the wooden easel in front of the post office.
Miriam is an older woman, short and jolly, with curly gray hair, and she’s the one responsible for the rotating countdown, taking it from business to business each day.
She could easily pass as a traditional-looking Mrs. Claus to some.
“Saint,” she calls out to me. “Would you like to do the honors?”
The honor being ripping off a date on the calendar to continue the countdown toward Christmas. The giant calendar is almost poster board size with perforation at the top of each page, allowing for a dramatic rip—as Lumi imitated a few weeks ago—of one more date from the month.
“Sure.” As I step closer to the calendar, I’m almost knocked over by a surprising and unexpected heavy weight just below my knees.
Before I stumble off the sidewalk, I catch my footing while trying to balance two to-go coffee cups.
I glance down to find a giant Saint Bernard who has wedged himself between me and the easel.
He plops down right in front of the wooden triangle, practically on my feet, and rocking the easel for a second before Miriam steadies it.
“Skippy,” she groans, while her voice is full of tender affection for the town dog that I’ve seen here and there over the past few weeks but never up close. Like he is in this moment, barring me from reaching the calendar and tugging off another day.
“Uhm,” I hesitate, reconsidering Miriam’s invitation. “Maybe Lumi should do the honor.” She’s the postmistress, and the calendar is set up outside the post office. Maybe that’s what Skippy is trying to tell me. I’m not from here and shouldn’t have the privilege to touch the calendar.
“Good idea.” Miriam cheerfully enters the post office while I wait on the sidewalk, glaring down at the dog who gives me a look with those large, sad eyes.
“Why are you in my way again?” I grumble, dismissing the niggling idea that this dog might be purposely meddling with my life.
When Lumi steps outside, she smiles widely at my presence.
“For me?” She tips a brow at the Love at First Sip cup in my hand while rubbing her hands up and down her arms. She’s only wearing a turtleneck sweater and jeans.
“Of course.” I hand over a paper cup. “And where is your coat?” I wrap my arm around her shoulders and tuck her into my side, glancing down at the large dog between my feet and the wooden easel.
“Oh, I’m only going to be out here for a minute,” Lumi says, wrapping her hands around the to-go cup in her hands and hunching her shoulders against the cold.
“Okay, Skippy, move along,” Miriam gently chides, but the dog doesn’t budge. He continues to look at me, like he’s trying to tell me something.
Get lost, he says. Or maybe he wants me to stay put.
I can’t, I glare back at him, like I know dog mental telepathy.
Eventually, Miriam instructs Lumi to just stretch over Skippy and rip off another date.
December 19 stares at me.
Six more days until the big day—Christmas.
Which means only five more days until an even bigger day for me—Christmas Eve.
With a heavy heart, I turn away from the calendar and press a kiss to the side of Lumi’s head.
Time has gone too fast.
Skippy meets my gaze, as if he sympathizes with me. I could curse my current position being all his fault, yet I don’t blame the dog one bit.
My heart is the culprit, falling for the beautiful woman beside me.
In fact, I might actually owe the giant beast my gratitude for pausing my travels. With another glance at the calendar, I wonder if the dog can also stop time.
With his eyes still on me, I swear he arches a brow. Like he tried to prevent that calendar date from being ripped, but us humans just don’t get it.
When I glance at Lumi, she offers me a soft smile. One that doesn’t reach her eyes. Like she’s read my mind about time as well.
“I need to get to Rusty’s,” I state, my voice ringing almost too loudly.
The specialty tire for my car finally arrived. It was the last piece to restore on my green girl, but with all the activities over the weekend, I didn’t go into the repair shop like I should have. Like I could hold off time a little longer.
Instead, I snuggled my woman and made out with her on the couch between festivities.
Yesterday, we even took a long nap with Lumi tucked into my chest. We cuddled on her couch, eating popcorn and drinking warm treats, until the chill of the race wore off and the warmth of her fireplace filled the room.
“Yeah, I’ll see you later,” Lumi says, bursting the memory bubble. I have so many moments already collected, like a sack full of letters. Each stamped with a heart.
“Later.” The word nearly chokes me as I step closer to Lumi and press a quick kiss to her cheek. “Get inside, snowheart. Before you freeze.”
If only I could freeze time.
Jack Frost, where are you when I need you, man?
At night, Lumi and I have sex like there won’t be a tomorrow.
With her on her hands and knees in the middle of her bed, I slam into her, wrapping her hair around my fist and the other around her waist, until I pull her upright. Her back to my chest. I sit back on my calves, positioning Lumi over my lap. Her legs spread wide. Her hands on her thighs.
“You wanted to tell Santa what you’d like for Christmas,” I growl near her ear. “Tell me all your naughty thoughts, dirty girl.”
Lumi’s breath hitches but she rides me faster, harder, pulling me deeper into her as her backside brushes my abs and her channel swallows my cock.
“Speak,” I demand, needing to hear her words. I’ve already touched her, licked, and now I’m taking from her whatever she’ll give me.
“You,” she cries out. “I only want you.”
“Beneath your Christmas tree,” I grunt, a smile crossing my lips as we’ve already been there.
“Anywhere. With you.” She stammers as she rocks faster with the aid of my hands on her hips, lifting and lowering her as she reverse-cowgirls me.
“That’s my girl.” I scrape my teeth across her shoulder. “My good girl.”
I reach around her, dipping my hand between her spread thighs, easily finding the sacred spot that drives her wild. Not that she isn’t already out of control over me, and I’m loving every second of it.
With my fingers against that trigger point, I can feel every ripple and ridge as I enter her over and over again.
“Fuck,” I grunt as skin slaps against skin, and I fill her. “You feel like heaven, baby.”
She’s perfect in every way. From her smile to her tears. Her kindness to kisses. Her body and soul and heart.
I want it all. That’s my Christmas wish, only . . . I don’t get wishes.
Instead, I take what I can get, unwrapping this precious woman on my lap.
Stealing her orgasms, like pulling the bow off a package.
Then clutching her to me as she clenches around me like the hesitant tape holding gift wrap.
But at the first cry from her lips and the stillness of her movements, the pretty wrapping comes free, exposing a much-desired gift.
Lumi is my gift.
She is everything I never knew I wanted.
“So good,” I hum to her neck as she comes undone around me.
Then I’m pressing her off me and flipping her to her back, pushing her knees to her shoulders and opening her in a new way. I watch as I dip into her warm center, the place swollen and pretty pink and still dripping for me.
“Again,” I command, wanting another round, another gift. More time. More of this.
Clinging to her shins, keeping her legs up and open, I easily hammer into her, admiring the way we fit. Watching how I disappear inside her, connecting us, linking us, wrapping us together.
“Ask me for anything,” I demand. Tell me to never leave you. An impossible request, and yet I’d try to make it happen. I’d put everything into us, if she asked.
“Make me come,” she hums, sticking only to the present moment. The edge I’ve built for both of us.
“Yes,” I grunt. “Yes.”
As she’s already sensitive, she easily unravels again, and I slam into her, allowing her body to pull from mine, drawing me deep into her depths as I unwind as well.
A ball of yarn spooling out until I’m nothing more than loose thread in a heap.
I collapse over Lumi, then fall to the side, keeping her attached to me. With her leg under one hip, I pull her other leg over my opposite hip and cradle her ass in my hands. On our sides, we remain pinned together with Lumi’s arms around my neck, clinging to me like she never wants to let go.
And I don’t want to release her either.
But I must.