California Dreamin'

I bring my arms to his broad, giant-like shoulders and clutch them. “No, I just turned around to hug you because it was so cold but you were gone.”

He brings his face close to me, his hair grazing my forehead. I go up on my tiptoes, hoping that his beard will scrape against my cheeks too.

“I’m sorry,” he says, his warm breaths wafting over my lips. “But I got you this.”

He offers me something, a rose, and I’m so surprised that a laugh bursts out of me.

Willow and Fallon call us beauty and the beast, and I completely believe that. Especially right now, when he has a rose in his large hand that he’s offering to me with half a smile.

Where did he even have it? How come I didn’t notice?

Probably because I never notice anything when he’s around.

I take the flower. “Where did you get a rose in winter?”

He shrugs, his big shoulders and chest shifting against me. “They had one somewhere.”

Ducking my head, I smell it. “Thank you.”

He brings his hand forward and rubs his thumb on my cheek, swirling the pad of it in my heated blush. “You still blush like a rose.”

His voice, low and almost purring, makes me get up on his feet. “Because my beast is still so romantic.”

“Yeah, I don’t know about that. I can be pretty mean,” he says, smirking slightly, his hands now in my sort-of blonde hair, making a loose fist.

“You can be. But I like that.”

Keeping hold of my hair with one hand, he fists my nightgown and the fluffy robe that I’m wearing over it with the other and pulls me toward him.

Our bodies crash against each other and so does the rose and he growls, “Is there a reason why I’m not alone with my wife right now, in my own fucking cabin?”

“Because we’re here,” I answer him, my arms secure and tight around his neck, playing with his rich, soft hair and the rose he gave me trapped somewhere between our bodies. “Because we have friends and they invited us to their home for Christmas for a party.”

“I don’t like parties,” he growls again, a thick frown between his brows.

I know.

If he had his way, we’d stay in the cabin in the middle of the woods forever, cut off from the world. The world that once tried to tear us apart but our love conquered all.

I wish that too. That we stayed in our cabin forever.

But we can’t.

We have Rosie and she goes to a really good school in Denver that she likes. I have my own job, working at that same school’s library.

And my husband has his own business.

He has a flower shop and a nursery. It started as a small venture out of his cabin where he grew roses, but now it has expanded. He has people working for him and he supplies roses for major functions and events around Denver.

“I know you don’t like parties. But,” I whisper, “you’re alone with your wife now.”

His eyes change again and so do his features. His large, muscular body goes all tight and his fingers become urgent and needy.

“Not alone enough for what I want to do to her,” he says in a low voice.

I sink my fingers in his beard then. “And what is it that you want to do to her?”

He smirks – a tiny, wicked smirk. “Feed her lollipops.”

My body jerks. It actually jerks and moves like it’s caught in a spasm.

God, lollipops.

So I have a thing for lollipop. I love them. I always have and he loves to feed them to me. Feed them to my mouth, to my pussy, which flutters at the thought.

“You’re so bad,” I whisper, shaking my head, blushing.

“And you’re so easy.”

“Shut up.” I duck my head and rest my cheek against his chest, hugging him.

He chuckles in response and rubs his jaw in my hair.

I close my eyes, burrowing myself in his warmth. “So why can’t you sleep?”

“I don’t like this place.”

I hum. “You know, we still have a couple of days before we make it to the cabin. Are you going to stay awake the whole time?”

After Willow, we’re going to visit Graham’s son, Brian, and his wife in the city.

When I say that the world was against us being together, that also includes his son, Brian. He used to be my best friend back in high school and he had a little crush on me. So the idea of me and his dad was not something he was a fan of.

But he came around and now we’re a family.

It might be awkward for some but it works for us. Plus Rosie loves her big brother and his family, and they love her back. He has two adorable kids with a wonderful girl he met in college. And so, we’ll leave Rosie to visit with him for a few days while we go to the cabin for some alone time.