Chapter 24 Holly
HOLLY
After all the commotion, they enjoyed a wonderful, low-key family evening.
After a quiet, early dinner, they watched Christmas movies (punctuated by an occasional SQUEAKA from under the couch), ran the train for Kaden, and oohed and ahhed at the tree.
Eventually Noelle took a drooping Kaden upstairs to bed, and Holly made a decision.
“I think I want to spend the night in the Mistletoe house with you,” she told Jace softly. “Would you be all right with that?”
He laced his fingers through hers. He wasn’t wearing his gloves at all anymore. No one had commented on it, or even noticed, as far as Holly could tell.
“I’d love that,” he said quietly.
Noelle came down, grinning. “Holly, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but my son has stolen your dog as well as his toys.”
“Is that where he went?” She had become so used to the constant squeaking that she’d stopped noticing it for the most part.
Bacon theft aside, Cupcake and Kaden seemed to be getting along beautifully; Cupcake had learned very quickly that Kaden was a source of both treats and pets.
“No, that’s fine. In fact, it saves me from having to decide where to put him.
I think Jace and I are going up to the Christmas village for the night. We’ll see you in the morning.”
She wasn’t sure if she expected resistance, or even an unwanted amount of attention about it. But Noelle just said, “Good night then, see you in the morning!” and her dad smiled at her.
They walked up the hill through softly falling snow, hand in hand.
The lights of the Christmas cottages gleamed through the drifting snowflakes.
Picture perfect weather, Holly thought; even in her best childhood Christmases, she’d rarely seen one that provided such ideal, white Christmas conditions.
“How’s the Georgia boy dealing with the snow?” she asked, leaning against Jace’s shoulder.
“I think I could get used to this,” he said, leaning back. “At least if it’s not all year around.”
“I can promise you it’ll melt. Probably sooner than we want.” She thought about the usual slush and mess of spring, then pushed the thought away.
For now, the weather was as perfect as a holiday card, and being in their own space felt wonderfully domestic. The decor was pleasantly festive without being overwhelming. Holly made them cocoa from a powdered mix. Jace brought in wood for a fire, and found Holly reading the sign on the wall.
“Good grief, Dad,” she sighed, reaching out to run a thumb underneath the final rule. “I can’t believe this is still up.”
DO NOT DATE THE COLONEL’S DAUGHTERS.
“Well, I manage to follow all the other rules,” Jace remarked, laying out wood in the fireplace. “That one’s a toughie, though.” He flashed her a quick grin.
Holly grinned back. “It made a lot more sense when the house was full of teenage girls and the cottages were full of twenty-something young soldiers. Dad made it pretty clear that bothering us was grounds for immediate eviction. As far as I can remember, they were all perfect gentlemen anyway.”
“A grouchy, overprotective bear dad will have that effect. Hey, have you done this before? I don’t have that much experience building a fire.”
“Really?” Holly teased, crouching beside him. “There’s something Jace Wheeler can’t fix?”
“It’s more like I’m not sure that I’ve fixed it well.”
Between the two of them, they soon had the fire crackling merrily. “Why does this place have a furnace and a fireplace?” Jace asked as they sipped cocoa, snuggled together in front of the glow of the flames.
“Because starting the fire is a hassle, and sometimes you just want to push a button for heat. But the fireplace is nice for ambiance.”
Jace looked around the little house. “It’s not actually as tiny as I thought when I first got in here. It’s honestly really cozy.”
“Homy,” Holly murmured.
“Yeah.” He hesitated, then said softly, “I’ve never really had a home before.”
Holly drew him in for a kiss. Kissing turned into enthusiastic necking, and they ended up sprawling on the pillows, kissing and groping frantically.
“You know there’s a bed upstairs,” Holly gasped, breaking the kiss.
She climbed up to the loft ahead of Jace, already looking forward to the bed. She had forgotten about the garlands of mistletoe hanging everywhere, but she approved. She approved a lot less of the Santa doll on the nightstand, which she turned to face the wall.
“Really?” Jace said as he appeared over the top of the ladder. “I thought you didn’t mind beady doll eyes watching us have sex.”
“I mind Santa watching us have sex. I really don’t want to be judged on whether I’m being naughty or nice right now.”
“Glad I didn’t opt for the Kringle house, then.”
Jace tackled her, and they fell laughing on the bed.
“I vote for naughty, by the way,” he said, in between nibbling on her neck. “The good kind of naughty.”
Holly pulled his shirt open, baring his chest. “You call this being naughty? This is still too nice.”
“Oh really,” Jace said, and he rolled her over as she squealed in delight. “How about this?”
He pulled down her jeans, and tugged the waistband of her underwear, dragging it down to her knees.
Holly gasped incoherently as he pressed against her doggy-style, not quite entering her yet, but teasing around her entrance, while he fingered her lightly and electric sparks tingled through her hips.
He leaned over her, his chest hair rough against her back, and by the time he pushed in, she was wet and ready for him.
She rose quickly to climax, but Jace seemed to be holding back. As she began to relax a little, his thrusting slowed and she reached back to grab at him. “Don’t stop!”
“I’m not, but ...” His breath tickled the back of her neck. “How do you feel about biting during sex?”
She thought about the hickey in the mirror, and a wave of tingling coursed through her. “I am very much in favor of it.”
With that, his fervor increased, and Holly felt herself building to another climax. When she crashed over the edge, he did too, and she was dimly aware of a sharp spark in her shoulder that seemed to unite them in a mutual orgasm that went on and on and on.
When she finally came down, they were lying curled up together. There was a faint pulsing ache between her legs, and a similar feeling right at the base of her neck. She raised a hand to feel it.
“You were bleeding for a minute,” Jace said. He rubbed a fingertip across it, and she shivered with a pleasurable rush that she felt all the way down to her hips. “You aren’t now. Are you sure you’re okay with it?”
“I don’t want to do it every time.” She didn’t think she could handle it every time, for one thing.
“I don’t think I want to either.” He hesitated. “I think this is ... special. Like it’s cementing a bond between us.”
That was what it had felt like to her, too. “Shifter things,” she murmured.
They cuddled together sleepily while the fire died downstairs and snow sifted down outside the windows.
Holly was drifting in and out of a light drowse when a sudden thought occurred to her.
She rolled over and sat up. Jace made a sleepy, protesting noise as she leaned over the side of the bed to find her jeans, and consequently her phone.
“That’s what I thought,” she said, flopping back with the phone. “It’s after midnight. Ten minutes after midnight, to be precise. That means it’s Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” Jace murmured sleepily. He pushed up on an elbow to kiss her.
Holly slipped a hand under the covers to caress his side. “Do you want your present now or in the morning?”
“Mmm,” he hummed against her mouth. “Didn’t you just give me my present?”
“Not that.” She gave him a playful little push against the pillows.
“I have something for you. I was thinking maybe it would be easier for me to give it to you now than with the whole family there. Don’t feel bad that you don’t have anything for me; this is really nothing, seriously, I just didn’t want you to not have anything—”
“But I do have something for you.” Jace sat up in the snow-filtered near-dark, gazing at her with infinite softness. “And it’s here in the cabin. You’re right, let’s exchange gifts now.”
“You ... got me something?” Holly’s insides instantly melted. “I didn’t expect—I mean, I wasn’t implying there’s an obligation—When did you get me something? We were together both times we were in town.”
“Come and find out.”
They both slid out of bed. Holly wrapped herself in a blanket and awkwardly climbed down to the ground floor one-handed. Jace followed her a minute later, wearing nothing but his pants.
He’d left a lamp on; now he turned on a couple more, and turned up the heat.
Outside the windows, snow was still falling.
Holly retrieved her coat from the hanger by the door, then sat in front of the heater on the floor with the coat in her lap.
Meanwhile, Jace rummaged under some cushions piled behind a chair.
“Who goes first?” he asked, turning around with his hands held behind his back.
“You’d better give me mine,” Holly suggested, finding herself slightly nervous. What in the world did he have there? Had Dad given him something to give her? “Mine’s safely hidden in my coat, but it doesn’t look like yours is going to stay secret very long.”
“In that case, close your eyes and hold out your hands.”
Holly obediently closed her eyes and raised her hands. She giggled. “What on Earth is it? I don’t even have a guess.”
“Feel.”
Something soft settled into her hands. Holly squeezed it gently.
She felt folds of fabric, with some kind of core that was firm but not completely hard.
“I still don’t have any idea what this—oh!
” Her groping fingers had just found a hard section loosely connected to the main part, and suddenly she realized she was holding a doll’s china hand. “This is a doll. One of my dolls?”
“Open your eyes.”
Holly did. And then her eyes flew even wider.