“I’ll follow you anywhere, babe, so lead the way.”
Mac, who led the horse drawn sleigh through the snow covered forest, seemed oblivious to his two charges under the blanket in the back of the sleigh. Emma knew he’d started to lose his hearing, but had never known him to keep out of anyone’s business. He loved to gossip as much as the women in town. No one knew his age, but her mom and dad remember him as being old when they were children. If she had to guess, she’d say he was somewhere in his eighties…maybe even in his nineties.
The sleigh ride had been Mac’s business for as long as she could remember, and it wouldn’t be the same without him sitting up front.
The gentle rocking of the sleigh would have lulled her to sleep if her face hadn’t frozen. Logan held her in his arms while the thick sheepskin blanket kept their lower halves warm.
“Are you happy, Logan?” Emma asked, and lifted her head from his chest.
Logan met her gaze and traced along her forehead with a finger. “Before you, I was stuck in the same old,
same old. Then you wrote a letter to a soldier, a stranger, and my life started to mean more to me. I knew that back in the States someone cared about me, and really, wanted to talk to me, to hear what I had to say...so yes, I am happy, and that’s because you make me happy.” He leaned closer and gave her the sweetest kiss. “Don’t ever doubt me.” He kissed her again. He pulled away slightly and stared down at her. “I have a slight confession to make, though.”
Emma sat straighter and curled into him. “What?”
Logan cupped her face, and let his thumb trace along her lips. “I didn’t think far enough ahead about getting you a Christmas gift. I’m sorry…”
“Don’t.” She sealed her lips to his to keep him quiet. “I don’t have anything here for you, either. I’ve just been living in the moment. I did send you a care package a few weeks ago when I was in Boston, though.”
“I do have something for you that you may want to keep.”
“I’ll keep anything you want to give me.” She snuggled down into the blanket with Logan. “I love you, so anything you give me will be treasured.”
“I love you, too…which is why I was wondering if you’ll come with me to visit Matthew’s wife, Claire, and their daughter after Christmas.”
His words caused her heart to feel heavy with sadness. A reminder of what her mother had done. She had never been one for forgiving quickly, and with how badly they’d both hurt, she wasn’t ready to say ‘I forgive you’ to her mom.
“I’ll come with you. Will we be able to drive or will we have to fly?”
“It depends as to whether we’ll be heading back to my base or here afterwards.” Logan played with the strands of hair that escaped her fleece hat.
“Well, I think we need to load up the backseat of your truck with my essential possessions and head out after Christmas. We might get a chance to find somewhere to lease before you have to report in.”
Logan stayed silent, but Emma felt him gulp a few times and his heart beat wildly. “You silence me, Emma. You really do.”
She chuckled softly against him. “I’m so happy. In fact, I’m bursting with happiness and no matter how Christmas dinner with my family goes tomorrow, I’m happy and can’t wait to start my life with you because you’re never getting away from me now.”
“I’ve no wish to get away from you.”
Emma smiled into his chest as she snuggled closer. It was crazy how quickly everything was happening, but if he’d sent her a letter asking her to run away with him, she would have eighteen months ago. She was truly happy with Logan and she could see their future. She was excited to find them somewhere to live.
When she woke up a week ago, she’d had no clue that her life would be changing for the better.
Chapter 22
Waking up in bed with Emma on Christmas morning filled Logan with so much love for her that his chest ached. He had the woman he loved in his arms and he didn’t want to move. He didn’t want to share her with her family over Christmas dinner. He wanted it to just be the two of them. But that wasn’t how the day would play out, regardless of how selfish a bastard he was. But who would blame him after the evening spent getting hot and sweaty with the sexy woman. He was bound to become possessive over her.
Last night, he’d stripped her naked but left her thigh highs and boots on before he’d taken her up against the door. He’d been so worked up that he hadn’t even taken his own clothes off, and just opened his pants and shoved home. Such finesse, he grinned to himself. They’d both come quickly and it had taken the initial edge off. But he couldn’t get enough of her, and they made love four more times before they’d finally fallen into deep slumber wrapped up in each other.
The room smelled of sex, which caused a bigger grin to spread over his face as his hand caressed up from Emma’s leg, over her hip, and up to the curve of her breast. He loved her flesh and as he gently pushed her over onto her back, he sighed at the sight of both large globes. Her dark nipples were already hard as his mouth dipped to sample and taste with long drags of his tongue.
His sexy woman arched and moaned, her eyes still closed while she stretched and shoved a nipple deeper into his mouth. He cherished her body, and as his fingers caressed over her mound, he slipped his fingers between her thighs into her wetness. She was so wet and swollen that his dick jerked against her thigh.
“Mmm...keep going,” she said when he paused. She trembled under him. Her fingers trailed from his neck, over his shoulder and down his arm to cover his hand that massaged her swollen nub.
Logan let her hand and fingers replace his, and nearly came when she touched herself. His breath caught at the back of his throat and he couldn’t control the pounding of his blood as it roared through his body.
She always looked sweet and innocent, but there was nothing sweet and innocent about her right now while she strung herself higher.