Smoke and Mistletoe (Best Wishes Book 3)

by A. J. Macey

  "You all packed up?" I asked, focusing on pulling out mugs, cocoa packets, and marshmallows.

  "Yes, I did not need to do much, just washed what I had worn yesterday and grabbed the couple of items I am bringing from home," Nik said quietly, leaning against the counter. "You?"

  "Not yet, figured I could do it after I make hot chocolate. I was in the shed working on organizing with Laurel and Rick most of the day." When the microwave dinged, I pulled out the hot cups, stirring in the powder in one mug then the other before dropping in a couple large marshmallows. "Here you go."

  "Thank you," Nik murmured, following me up the stairs to my room. He sank into his usual gaming chair, sipping his drink.

  "Movie or music?" I asked, setting my drink on my dresser. When Nik picked music, I turned on the music app on my phone that connected to the bluetooth speakers, busying myself with pulling out anything in particular I would want to take to Lucie's or school. It only took ten minutes until my items were picked out and another five to pack them in my bag.

  “How’s the hot chocolate?” Placing my back next to the door, I questioned Nik. He hummed, the gravelly quality making me thirst for something other than the chocolatey drink in my hand.

  “It is tasty,” Nik whispered. “Yours?”

  “Good, but not what I want right now.” I spoke in a low tone, taking his mug and placing it on the TV stand. Nik whimpered, shifting in his seat, his hand pulling at the front of his black jeans to relieve some of the tightness of his pants. “You look good enough to eat, babe,” I murmured, pressing myself against his hard cock as I maneuvered myself between his thighs.

  “Then do it, King,” he ground out, his words breathy with need. “Bite me, please.”

  “Where?” Leaning forward, I brushed my lips over his skin, not kissing his chiseled jaw and pulsing neck but revelling in the sensation of his shudder.

  “Wherever you want,” he answered softly, grinding his hips against me as I opened, barely scraping the hint of my fangs over his pulse. “I have… I have missed our time together in the last few weeks with everything going on.”

  “Me too, Nik.” I pulled away, smiling at the slight part to his lips and the gasp he loosed as I rocked against him. My hands slipped under the hem of his soft henley, the dips of his abs making my blood surge. Fuck, I can’t wait to sink into him. I moaned, unable to hold back as I kissed him fiercely. Possessiveness coursed through me, the predator in me wanting to mark and claim my best friend and lover.

  Unhooking his belt, I reached in, curling my fingers around his shaft and gripping the silken steel tightly. His pained groan was like a siren’s call, urging me forward to fall deeper into that pool of need pulsing through me. My aching fangs had me yanking Nik’s jeans down, folding over until my lips pressed into his inner thigh near the crest where my hand continued to stroke him roughly.

  I bit, sinking my fangs into his leg. The coppery tang flooded over my tongue, and his gasp filled my ears as I cupped his balls with my other hand. Squeezing him lightly, I continued to pull from his leg, making sure to keep my pace steady as to not take too much. I wanted to mark him, not hurt him. When the hunger was fulfilled, I slowed, focusing on more of what my hands were doing as I licked the puncture wounds.

  "You always taste so amazing, Nik," I told him, kissing him fiercely as we ground together. "I want you so fucking bad."

  "Please, King. I want you too." At his plea, I stepped back and pulled him out of the gaming chair, directing him to my bed.

  "Lie down with your hands stretched up. I want to see you spread out on my sheets." Nodding, he tried to move to do as I asked, but I tangled my fingers into his hair, tugging lightly and keeping him from going too far. "What was that? I don't believe you answered me."

  "Yes, King," he whispered, a rumbling moan lacing his words as I tightened my grip slightly, my palm running down his sculpted chest until I could grip the edge of his shirt. Yanking up, I took his shirt off and let him crawl into the middle of the queen-sized bed, his pale skin a stark contrast to the dark color of my sheets.

  Exactly the way I like it.

  Working silently, I walked from one side of the bed to the other, hooking his wrists into the soft restraints and locking my bedroom door. While Laurel and Rick would be working for another two hours at least, I didn't want to risk anyone walking in on us. My fang pricked my lip when I turned to see Nik ready and waiting for me, his cock standing at attention, his breathing ragged as he lay still. God, he's a work of art, I thought, savoring every dip of his sculpted muscles, the swirls of his tattoo on his side, everything that made him my Nik. I started with his pants, peeling the tight material from his toned legs, my hands running up his shins until I reached the apex of his thighs. Goosebumps flared over his skin as I rubbed circles over the creases of his hips, his cock bobbing as he shook with need.

  "Please," he pleaded, the word nearly lost in the silence of the room, but even over his roaring heart rate and the scent of his arousal, I heard it. Figuring he had been a good boy, and since it had been so long, I folded over him, taking him as deeply as I could.

  He bucked, crying out in pleasure as my fangs scraped the sides of his cock, not breaking skin but enough to feel the point. Sucking, I moved quicker, bringing him until he was trembling, nearing release before pulling away. I shot forward, grabbing my lube out of my nightstand and slicking myself up. Before Nik had time to come down from his near orgasm, I lined up.

  "Tell me if it's too much and you want me to stretch you out," I said softly, rocking into him gently. He shook his head with a garbled sound that I think was supposed to mean keep going, but in his high state, it was muddled.

  When I passed through the tight ring of muscles, I shivered, a lick of fire uncoiling in my lower belly as I buried deeper into him. My fangs ached despite just feeding, the urge to fuck him into oblivion fueling me to move harder, faster. The restraints became taut as Nik tried to pull his arms to him, my abs rubbing his cock between us, but it wasn't enough for him to get off.

  Just the way I wanted.

  "Nik, you feel so damn good. Do you want to come?" I whispered, kissing him between my words, my pace relentless.

  "King," was all he could get out before his voice broke. Trailing a line of kisses down his jaw and neck, I reached between us, pumping his cock in time to my thrusts. It didn't take long for him to come completely undone under me, but before I could follow him into the blissful pool, I needed his hands on me. When I released him, he immediately had his hands roving over my chest, back, and ass. His kisses were the final piece I needed to succumb to the fire that was searing me, emptying into him hard. I shuddered, my body gladly riding the wave of my orgasm as Nik continued to shower my neck and chest in affections.

  "Come on, let's get cleaned up," I murmured, sliding out of Nik and helping him up off the bed and into the bathroom. Starting the shower, I pulled out our usual towels and dropped them on the counter. "All right, it's hot."

  "I can do it myself, you know," he muttered.

  "Yes, but I like making sure you're taken care of," I told him, running my fingers through his hair and soaping up the shampoo I had in my palm into his thick locks. "Besides, you can't tell me that you don't enjoy the feeling of me doing this."

  "Fine, I like it, but I do not want you to feel like you have to."

  "I don't, promise." We had stayed silent, my attention focused on washing Nik, but my mind started to wander. After a little while I couldn't stop the question from tumbling out. "What would you do if you started liking another one of your friends?"

  "Like, one of our friends?"

  "Yeah." I kept my eyes on his body, refusing to look at his face for fear of hurt or anger, but I couldn't stop what had been running through my mind for the last couple months.

  "Depends, do they like you back?"

  "I doubt it, but what I meant was how would you feel? If I liked one of our friends. I mean, not like like," I stumbled over my explanation. "I mean
being physically attracted to one of them." My stomach clenched and acid burned my throat. Nik had been all there was for me. Well, we had our girlfriends or one-off with girls, but they had never meant anything. Nik meant more to me than anything save for Lucie, and while I knew I couldn’t hold what I had been feeling in forever, I didn’t want to risk losing him. If I was honest with myself, I was curious if he would be willing to try something with Dante and me.

  "It is Dante, right?"

  "How did you know?"

  "Truth or dare. I do not blame you, Dante is attractive. I had not considered any of the guys as potential partners before then, but I could see it." He paused, and while his silence was not that unusual, it had an air of expectancy, like he was waiting to see what else I would share.

  "I would never do anything without knowing you and Lucie were okay with it. While I am attracted to Dante, I love you two first and foremost. We’ve been together for years, and that matters more to me than getting horny for Dante." Nik chuckled at my bluntness, his hand coming to cup my cheek, pushing my hair out of my eyes.

  "I want you to be happy, and I want Lucie to be happy. It does not upset me, if that is what you are worried about." Relief filled me, my shoulders relaxing as my tension melted away. Turning my head, I kissed his calloused skin.

  "Would you… maybe join us? I mean, if he would even consider it.”

  “I had never seen any guy other than you like this, but I would not be opposed to thinking on it. I find I quite like sharing you with Lucie, I feel I may as well with Dante.” His answer had me smiling, rubbing my cheek on his palm.

  “I won't go forward or do anything without telling you or Lucie. Though, Dante's straight, so I highly doubt anything will happen."

  "I would not be so sure," Nik told me, his lips curling into a smirk. "You could make even the straightest man curious with that sensuality, Cam."

  "You're biased, brat," I teased, smacking him on the ass. "Love you."

  "Love you too, King."

  Lucienne

  Ding.

  Ding.

  Ding.

  “Oh my fucking god, if you don’t silence that thing, I’m going to chuck it outside in the cold,” Charlie threatened, her head popping up from her pillow, her book dropping to her chest as she glared at me. “Tell those boys they can pester you tomorrow.”

  “Sorry, I’m waiting for a notification from Alex about something I had asked him about. He had said he would have an idea if he could get what I needed today,” I explained, snatching my phone from the nightstand to silence it.

  “And what is that?” she asked, pulling her book back up to read.

  “A surprise for one of the guys. I don’t want to jinx it or tell them about it in case it doesn’t end up happening. Besides, your phone was a couple of those notifications too, so don’t put all that on me,” I chastised. “Who you texting, anyway?”

  “Uh, no one,” she mumbled.

  “Charlotte Ava Hauser, I know you’re not lying to me right now,” I sassed, cocking a brow at her.

  “GabeandElijah,” she coughed, the words garbled and running together in her attempt to not let me hear. I continued to stare, waiting her out until finally she blew a raspberry at me. “Gabe and Elijah.”

  “Ooo,” I squealed excitedly, “how’s that going?”

  “It’s good, I mean… I think? I’m not sure. We haven’t done much other than talk.” Her cheeks tinted pink as she shrugged.

  “Do you like them?” I asked with an attempted eyebrow wiggle, but all I ended up doing was aggravating the healing cut on my face. “Ugh, ow,” I moaned, pressing my palm to the gauze. As soon as that throbbing radiated through my face, I was flooded with just how much my body actually hurt.

  Each bruise held a bone deep ache, each cut and gash burning and itchy, and my skin felt as if its sensitivity had been turned from normal to extreme. Whimpering, I lay back against my pillow, closing my eyes and taking a few deep breaths. I had been doing so well up until this point today, I grumbled, stupid injuries.

  "Do you need your medicine?" Char asked, her voice a lot closer than before as I heard her shuffling out of her blanket bed she loved to make whenever we had a sleepover.

  "Yes, please," I murmured, trying to not move my lips too much in case the scab on my lower lip tugged. "I think I'm paying for all our walking around today."

  "Here you go." Char's fingers pressing against my hand had me peeling open my eyes, sitting up as much as I could to down my pain pill. "As for your question, I don't know if I like them. Like... I think they're cute, and they seem nice, but I'm not sure, you know?" Charlie rambled, one shoulder raising before dropping. "I'm so focused on my schedule and work that I don't know if I have the time to commit to a relationship or even a crush. Let alone on two guys."

  "You're not just saying that because you're a sassy independent woman who doesn't need the help of men?" I teased, trying to not laugh so I didn't jostle my ribs.

  "Ha," she huffed with a half-hearted glare. "Shush you, you don't know me."

  "Girl, I do too." This time though, I couldn't stop the laughter that bubbled out of me which led to a pained groan deep within my chest as my body locked up in pain from the shaking. "Okay, no more laughing. I'm going to put in my ear plugs and try to do some meditation before these meds kick in. Night, love you."

  "Love you too, boo. If you have a night terror, want me to wake you?" she asked, settling in for the night as I turned off the lamp.

  "Yes, please," I said, the soft glow from my night light radiating through the space just enough to help keep my anxiety of the dark away. With that, I put my ear plugs in, starting the soundtrack I had been loving recently for meditation. The soft sounds of the wind blowing through trees mixed with the noise of animals, reminding me of my little clearing in the woods on campus.

  It didn't take long for the repetitive breaths and the soothing music to relax my body. The pain slowly eased as the medicine worked its way through my system, and before I knew it, I drifted off.

  "What supe type are you?" Thud... sharp pain radiated through my cheeks as a grip tightened on my jaw. "What powers do you have?" Thud... air flow cut off as a hand seized my throat. "I can't wait to use this token. Now you'll never be able to escape me, Lucie baby." Noah's cold gaze filled my sight, everything else dark as I tried to scream, no noise leaving me.

  Shooting to a sitting position, I panted, fear icing my veins. Charlie's rhythmic breathing and the cookie night light reminded me that I wasn't back in that ice cold garage with Noah but safe in my bed. However, no matter what I told myself or how many deep breaths I tried to take, I couldn't calm. I grabbed my phone and slipped out of bed. Wincing at my body's ache as I moved, I crept quietly out of the room so as to not wake Charlie. Ringing filled the silence of the spare room after I hit the first name in my messages, knowing whichever of my guys it was would answer.

  "Lucie?" Yanking the phone from my ear, I realized who I had called.

  Alex.

  Why am I the way that I am?

  "Lucie? Are you okay?" I heard him ask, shocking me out of my stupor.

  "Yes, yes, I'm sorry," I rushed to explain, my voice shaky both from the remnants of fear in my system and the embarrassment of my fuck up. "I was having a night terror and couldn't seem to shake it. I thought I was calling one of the guys. I'll let you go."

  "It's all right," he assured me. "I was still awake, doing some work for this exhibit. Do you want me to try and help?"

  I hesitated. We had sort of created this bubble of trust where I could talk about what was causing my anxiety to flare up, but that was at school in his office, not on the phone in the middle of the night because I couldn't sleep. Fiddling with my pajama shirt, I sank onto the spare bed in the small amount of room left in between the mountains of pillows and blankets.

  "If you're sure you're not busy," I murmured, not wanting him to think I didn't trust him especially after everything he and the guys had done for me durin
g the last few months.

  "It's the middle of the night. I shouldn't even be working, so I promise I'm not too busy," he said, his voice conveying the smile he was wearing. "Do you want to talk about your night terror? I'm not sure how your gentlemen typically handle something like this."

  "Distract me usually, the twins tell me funny stories about the pranks they've done or read to me whereas Cam and Nik will tell me about random interesting facts," I listed in a nervous ramble. "Dante and Hudson normally just talk to me. I don't like talking about my dreams; that only makes it worse when I finally fall back asleep."

  "All right then, how about the story of how I met the love of my life. Will that help distract you?” His tone was light, nostalgic as he talked, the sound of his leather chair creaking in the background. “One random day, I was out and about after school. I was a senior at the private school I went to, and I had been tasked to grab something from the store on my way back. Well, this lean girl came barrelling down one of the aisles and ended up colliding with me. We got to talking, and I ended up asking her on a date. I don’t do anything halfway, mind you, so I had this entire elaborate date set up.”

  “You, not do anything halfway? I never would have guessed, dean of a university,” I joked. His deadpanned laugh filled the line, making me chuckle quietly, the shivers from my night terror slowly receding. “Did it go as you had hoped?”

  “Ha,” he exclaimed, “no, it was horrid. Anything and everything that could have gone wrong did, but regardless, Addie rolled with it, making it fun and memorable. When it was she and I at the end of the night, she ended up nervously rambling about something and that was when I knew. She was it for me.”

  “Happily ever after?” I questioned, my smile dimming when I realized he didn’t wear a ring and never had any photographs within his office.

  “Yes, Lucie, happily ever after,” he told me with a soft sigh.

  “Then why don’t you have a ring or any pictures?” I asked, groaning when I realized I had just put my foot in my mouth. Here lies Lucie, death by social awkwardness.