Unwrapped

“Are you grateful to him too?” he asked quietly.

“Of course,” she snapped. “But I don’t love him. I only love you, you dolt.”

Again he didn’t speak. But he smiled, so slow and wide that it teased out her own smile in response. “I believe you.”

“As you should.”

“I do.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “And I love you too.”

Before she had a chance to whoop and holler her joy, he drew back and gripped her upper arms. His face was even more serious than before. “Will you start ripping off the days of my calendar again?”

“You noticed I stopped?”

“Of course I did. I had no clue which day was which anymore.”

Laughing, she wrapped her arms around his waist. He was so warm and sturdy and God, he made her feel safe. And happy. So very happy. “I didn’t want the days to pass so I stopped tearing the pages off. Every one that went by I knew we were closer to being finished.”

“We won’t ever be finished.” He ran his hand down the length of her hair. “In fact, I think we should take this upstairs.”

“With my mom in the living room?”

He only grinned. “The TV’s on loud. Besides, she’s already seen my equipment. Why not hear it at work making you moan too?”

“Ugh! Your sense of humor is seriously disgusting.” She laughed as he dragged her toward the doorway.

At the foot of the stairs, she stopped him with an impish smile. “Wait. I have one more question.”

“What’s that?”

She leaned close to his ear and spoke in a whisper. “What did Cole name my…pussy?” There, she’d said it. And she hadn’t even burst into hysterical giggles.

But Des didn’t notice her inner triumph, because he was too busy laughing. “Sorry. He never told me.” With a wink, he chucked her chin. “Guess you’ll have to ask him first thing on Monday when he gets back.”

“Maybe I’ll just name your penises instead. Secret names that I’ll only share with Van.” As soon as she mentioned her friend’s name, she frowned. “What are we going to tell her?”

“The truth. We’re a couple and that won’t change anything at work.” His expression softened and her knees literally went weak. “No more hiding, baby.”

She fought not to do a booty dance but it was pretty much a lost cause. She added in one of her improvised carols as she jumped from stair to stair.

When he made a grab for her, she squealed and ran faster with him hot on her heels. They had a ton of celebrating left to do.

This year, Christmas frigging rocked.

Epilogue

“You need to tell me what to do.”

Wendy sighed and toyed with the strand of leaves strung up around the front of her desk. “How am I supposed to tell you what to do about your love life? You do whatever you want, we both know that.”

“Yeah, but your freaking love life makes me sick.”

Wendy grinned at Van. Hers was pretty awesome, she couldn’t deny that. “That’s not a very nice thing to say when you’re asking me for advice.”

“It’s a total compliment, I swear.” Van eased a hip on the edge of Wendy’s desk and blinked entreatingly. “You’re basically a romance expert now. So I’m coming to you to beg for assistance.”

“You’re not asking for romance assistance. You want me to tell you how to bag Cole. And I can’t.”

“Why not?” Van pouted and twisted the chunky sapphire ring on her thumb. “You don’t want me to be happy?”