He glanced at Lindsey. She smiled up at him. “Your dad took me to that restaurant for a Reveillon dinner and asked me to marry him the Christmas after we met.”
The boys knew their parents had met around Christmas time and they loved the story of the Running of the Santas. Of course, Lindsey and Matt left out the “skimpy” and “shots of peppermint schnapps” parts of the story, but they told them about how fun the race had been and how they’d sat in the park and talked for hours and how they knew that same night they were going to fall in love.
But up until now the boys had either been too young, or Matt hadn’t been home, to go to a family Reveillon dinner.
This year that changed.
“And I’ve invited your grandma and grandpa to dinner with us,” Matt said of his parents. He’d called his mom that morning and after she got past her own “I can’t believe you’re home!” and a few tears, she’d happily agreed to dinner.
Of course, she’d also launched into a list of things she wanted to do and places she wanted to take them all while Matt was home. He hadn’t had the heart to tell her his time was extremely limited and there was no way he would be at Aunt Kristin’s for brunch or at Mike and Anne’s for New Year’s Eve.
He was going to focus on making some great memories now and then deal with the bad news and goodbyes…later.
“They’ll probably go with us to look at the lights and then we’re going to go home and watch a movie on the couch with popcorn and hot chocolate.”
“We can make snowmen bathtubs!” Liam said.
“Yay!” Aidan exclaimed.
“Okay.” He didn’t know what that meant, but he was up for anything that excited the boys right now. “And then,” Matt added with a big grin. “You’re going to get your Christmas present from me tomorrow.”
Damn, he’d have to remember to text Kyle.
“Tomorrow?” Liam said, clearly in awe over the entire thing.
Exactly as Matt wanted them to be.
“Yep,” he said. “This is something that just cannot wait until Christmas.” Which was true, even if Matt wasn’t leaving. He’d planned to give the boys the gift this weekend anyway.
“Okay,” Liam breathed.
“Yay!” Aidan said again, bouncing up and down. “Yay!” He turned to look up at Lindsey. “This is going to be the best Christmas, Mom!”
Matt felt Lindsey’s arm tighten around him as she nodded at their youngest. “It really is, baby.”
* * *
They retrieved the car and headed for the convention center. Lindsey knew something was going on with Matt but now was clearly not the time to talk about whatever had put the tightness around his eyes.
She could tell he was hell-bent on doing everything Christmas-y he could possibly think of, all at once, and soon enough she’d find out what was going on.
He was leaving.
That much she knew.
Sooner than he’d expected. She could read it in him. But it was fine. She’d make sure it was fine.
She hadn’t asked how long he was home. Because it didn’t really matter. It would never be long enough, no matter how much time he had. And she wanted to be in the moment too. For him. For the boys. For herself. There were not enough of these moments where they were just a family of four, all together, playing and laughing.
His phone buzzed with a text just as they were parking at the convention center. She watched him pull it out, look at it, frown, and then tuck it away.
Okay. She was just going to make the most of the moments up until he told her the date they were saying goodbye.
Over the next few hours, they slid, they skated, they ate—they did nearly every activity in the entire convention center. And most of all they laughed. She got photos of Matt with the boys doing a host of activities, all with huge smiles on their faces.
They ate an amazing dinner at Vacherie. The four courses consisted of seafood gumbo with jasmine rice, sweet potato and andouille soup, boudin-stuffed game hen, and the best pecan pie Lindsey had ever had. But more than the amazing food, Lindsey soaked up the sights and sounds of Matt with his parents. She loved her in-laws and she made sure that she and the boys saw them often. But there was something so wonderful about seeing Matt with his mom and dad. The way Kate looked at Matt was heartwarming and all Lindsey had to do was imagine going months without seeing Liam or Aidan to understand everything Kate was feeling. Matt was good about staying in touch with them as well. They’d taught Kate and Neil how to use Skype just for the purpose of talking to Matt. But online and on the phone was never the same.
And it was when Matt was with his mom and dad that Lindsey really thought about the fact that he was in danger when he was away. Maybe not constantly, but she also didn’t know much about what he did. He couldn’t share a lot of details. So a lot of the time she didn’t let herself think about the possible risks he was taking. It was easier to sleep that way. But it had been more in the forefront of her awareness since Dana’s husband Chad had been killed. And she prayed for Matt every single night.
They lingered over dessert, but soon enough the boys were antsy to go see the Christmas lights in the park. They strolled through the trees and displays, drank more hot chocolate, took a train ride, and soaked up the Christmas spirit.
And by the time they said good night to Kate and Neil and pulled into their driveway, the boys were barely keeping their eyes open.
Matt looked into the backseat and sighed. “Maybe no movie tonight, huh?”
He sounded completely disappointed and Lindsey had the prickling awareness that it was possible that his time home was going to be up even sooner than she was guessing.
“We can still do it,” she told him. “We’ll do baths and put on pjs first and if they fall asleep, they can camp out on the couches tonight.”
She almost laughed over how much he brightened at that. “Yeah? Okay, that sounds good.”
“What are we watching?” she asked as she reached for the door handle.
“It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Lindsey stopped and looked back at him. He was leaving tomorrow or the next day. She could feel it. They were going to watch the movie he’d never seen until he met her? The movie that he knew she always watched with the boys on Christmas Eve? Yeah, he was leaving really soon.
She swallowed. “You have marshmallow popcorn?”
“Dana said she’d bring some over.”
Lindsey pivoted back to face him. “You asked Dana to get us popcorn?”
“She and Logan,” Matt confirmed. “And a few…other things.”
Lindsey took a deep breath. Matt rarely, if ever, asked for help on things when he was home. He liked to do things. Fix things. Work on things. He definitely loved to do the little, normal, daily things like grocery shopping and washing the car and helping with dishes. It was all the silly little stuff that he didn’t get to do on a regular basis. Stuff that most people took for granted.
For him to ask for help with something like picking up popcorn meant that he was running out of time. She felt her heart skip a beat. “Tomorrow?” she asked softly.
“Monday morning,” he answered, understanding what she was asking.
She felt her throat tighten and she made herself nod. “Okay.” Damn, that was soon. Really soon.
“It wasn’t supposed to be—” He broke off and shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. It’s Monday.”
She nodded again. “Okay.”
They didn’t talk a lot as they got the boys into the shower and into their pajamas. The boys kept up with a nearly constant stream of chatter about their day and how fun it had been and how awesome ice skating was and how awesome the lights had been and how awesome the fancy dinner had been.
Awesome was the word of the night.
It was also awesome that the boys fell asleep long before George Bailey walked Mary Hatch home from the school dance.
Matt and Lindsey looked over at one another. Then, without a word, laid the boys d
own on the couch, covered them up, turned off the television, turned off all the lights but one so the boys would know where they were if they woke up in the night, and headed up to bed.
Well, Lindsey did.
Matt made a detour in the kitchen.
And arrived two minutes behind her. With eggnog in hand.
“Take your clothes off and lie back on the bed.”
That was really all the foreplay she needed.
7
Matt prowled toward the bed.
The first time in the conference room at the community center had been pretty quick and dirty. They hadn’t really removed many clothes. They hadn’t been able to take their time.
But honestly, he couldn’t now either.
Thank God Lindsey didn’t seem any more inclined to take things slow.
A knot had been gathering in his gut all day. The ticking clock at the back of his head. The pressure to get everything in before he headed out again. How happy everyone had been to see him. The talk of the things everyone wanted to do and plan and the things they were looking forward to. He’d worked to make the day everything they all needed it to be. He’d focused, forcing his concentration to stay in the moment, on the people that needed him to be present today.
And now…damn, he just wanted to let go. He wanted to not worry about saying the right things, making it all perfect. He just wanted to just let go, get lost. In Lindsey. With Lindsey.
She was already naked and he paused at the end of the bed only long enough to pull his shirt off over his head and strip off his jeans and underwear.
He was already hard. Aching. He’d been touching her, kissing her, holding her hand, running his hands through her hair all day long. He’d kept it PG—maybe PG-13 in a few of the things he’d whispered in her ear here and there…okay, maybe R a couple of times…but he hadn’t been able to keep his hands and lips completely to himself.
He had taken full advantage of having her within reach, taking huge deep lungfuls of her scent, running his thumb over the silky skin on the inside of her wrist, tasting the sweet vanilla of her lip gloss. He’d told her she was beautiful, he’d whispered how much he loved her, he’d told her she was amazing with the boys and how proud he was of them. He’d wanted her to know that he appreciated all the ways she made his life better. Easier. More full and just…better.
But he now intended to take full advantage of being with her right now—alone, naked, and with a huge bed.
She was lying on her back as instructed, her hair spread out on the pillow, her cheeks flushed, her chest rising and falling with her rapid breathing, her nipples already hard—a gorgeous sex goddess he would never get enough of.
He lifted the carton of eggnog that Dana had stocked for him. Lindsey’s eyes got a little wide but she didn’t move or try to stop him. He tipped the carton and she gasped softly as a thin trickle of eggnog hit the upper curve of her right breast. The sticky fluid slid down and around her nipple. He tipped more out, watching the sweet rivulet make a trail for his tongue to follow. He moved to her left breast, doing the same, before dribbling eggnog down her stomach and then kept going, pouring it over her lower belly and lower, covering her mound, watching it run between her legs.
“You’re getting the sheets sticky,” she said, restlessly moving her legs against those sheets.
He put a knee on the mattress next to her. “You’re going to be wet and sticky all over before I’m done. I want you covered in eggnog and then in your come…” He leaned in and put his mouth against her. “And then in mine.”
He kissed her deeply, taking her mouth fully. He was a possessive guy. He wasn’t going to lie about that. And even after being married to this woman for over ten years, and touching and tasting every inch of her, he still had a primal urge to just flat-out make her his. Over and over again. He wanted to drive her crazy, he wanted to make her lose her mind, he wanted her to be fully caught up in him.
And he wanted to give her lots and lots of sweet and dirty memories to keep her going in between his times home. He knew that she and her vibrators had dates from time to time and frankly, the thought of that, and the idea that she was using it and thinking of him, kept him going at times.
As he kissed her, he brought the carton of eggnog up over her body again, pouring more of the sticky sweetness over her stomach and ribs and between her breasts and letting it run wherever it would.
She was wiggling on the sheets and now she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, arching closer and running her tongue along his lower lip.
He stretched to set the eggnog carton on the bedside table, keeping their lips together, then ran his hand over her stomach and up to one breast, spreading the eggnog over her skin and using the slickness to pluck at her nipple. She moaned into his mouth when he squeezed and then gasped when he tugged a little harder. He moved his mouth to the nipple, licking the eggnog from it before sucking, making her grip his shoulders and moan his name.
“God I love you sticky, Linds,” he said. He ran his hand over her stomach again, coating it in eggnog and then reaching for his cock. He stroked himself as he sucked her nipples and then moved up the mattress to bring his cock up to her mouth. “But this is always sweet.”
She gripped him, wrapped her fingers around his cock, and stroked. “My panties are going to get wet just smelling eggnog now.”
“Good.” He rubbed the head of his cock over her lips. Her tongue appeared, flicking over his tip. “Then I might just fuck you with chocolate milkshakes and peppermint schnapps and peach iced tea,” he said, naming her other favorite drinks. “Then I’ll know your panties are wet for me every damned day.”
“Thankfully I don’t like a lot of hot drinks, I guess,” she said with a soft laugh, just before taking him partway into her mouth.
He groaned. “Suck me clean, babe.”
And she did. Greedily. She circled her tongue over the head, ran her tongue up and down his length, and sucked until he was gripping her hair and breathing hard.
He stopped her, pulling her head back and bending to kiss her. “My turn.”
Before she could say a word, he was between her legs, her knees bent over his forearms. He spread her wide and licked a wide path up her inner thigh, tasting the eggnog, tracing the bend of her hip, and then focusing on her clit. He teased her, tasted her, sucked and licked until she was bucking underneath him.
“Come for me,” he ordered gruffly. “Now. I want you sticky and wet inside and out.”
She gripped the sheets on either side of her hips, pressing up against his mouth.
“Come on, Linds,” he encouraged, adding a finger, then another, as he flicked over her clit faster. “I want something even sweeter and creamier than eggnog.”
She gasped and laughed at the same time. “Oh my god, you’re so dirty.”
“You love it. You make me talk so dirty on the phone.”
“When I don’t have your tongue and fingers helping, the dirty talk gets me going faster.”
“I know. You didn’t get on Santa’s naughty list by robbing banks, babe.” He thrust and curled his fingers, making her gasp. “But now you’ve got my tongue, fingers, and the dirty talk.”
He stroked her deep and felt the beginning flutter of her muscles around his fingers.
“You want to know one of my favorite images to jerk off to when I’m alone?” he asked, flicking his tongue over her clit. “That time you picked me up from the airport and you drove one mile before you had to pull over and suck me off.”
She moaned. “I’m so easy for you.”
He chuckled. “Damn right you are.” He sucked on her clit and thrust his fingers deep again.
“I’m so—” And then she came, clenching around his finger and crying out his name.
Yes. Damn. That was the sweetest thing of all. He knelt, sheathed himself with a condom, and pulled her toward him.
“I thought you were going to…you know.”
He looked up at her, his cock
screaming for release. He did know what he’d said. But he wanted to hear her say it. “What was I going to do?”
“You know.”
He shook his head. “I don’t remember exactly. Fucking you until you cry my name was kind of the main focus.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re going to make me say it?”
“Yes.”
She bit her bottom lip and ran her hand down her stomach, spreading the eggnog. “You’re going to make me say that I want you to come right here.” She swirled her finger through the eggnog on her lower belly. “That I want you mixed in with the eggnog, so that I’ll think of you and how you taste and feel every time I even see the word eggnog?”
His balls tightened and he had to stroke himself to ease some of the ache. “I really do want to hear you say that.”
The corner of her mouth curled. “Do it, Matt. I want that. Mark me.”
Jesus. He blew out a breath. Then ripped the condom off and thrust deep. “I need your sweet, tight, hot, wet pussy first, Linds,” he said roughly. “Take me to the edge. Then I’ll fucking mark you.” He was already on the edge. He was fighting to last more than a few thrusts.
She arched into him, taking him deep, digging her fingers into his back. He lifted her leg, opening her wide and sinking fully into her sweet heat. He wanted to absorb everything about this, about her.
But her body was milking him, dragging his climax from deep in his gut, forcing him to thrust harder and faster and it was only a few minutes before she came again, tightening around him hard, insistent in taking him with her, and he was gritting his teeth and pulling out seconds later. He locked his eyes on hers, the dazed, lustful look on her face sending him over the edge. He came hard, marking her exactly as she’d asked, breathing fast, and still, somehow, incredibly turned on.
Eggnog Makes Her Easy: A Boys of the Big Easy Holiday novella Page 7