by Jessie Lane
Neither of them moved for the longest time. The movie they had been watching faded to black as they lay there, naked limbs tangled together, on her couch. She imagined that if they were in their feline forms, both of them would be purring right now. Instead of purrs though, they both breathed raggedly from their ferocious love making session, the sound filling the silence of the room.
Only the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree illuminated the room, casting soft, colorful glows against her mate’s naked skin. Illuminating his hard muscles that covered her still. She should have been sated. Only she wasn’t because her mind was whirring.
It was a mistake. It was a mistake because now he’d be in her heart and in her head forever. She knew that. But at that moment, she was finding it a little hard to care.
Chapter Fifteen
Joe awoke on the couch, stiff and sore. But no amount of soreness could take away the gratification of the night before. He’d given Nikki everything he had to give and then some. Christ, it would be a miracle if either one of them could walk.
Sitting up, he stretched much like his lion would and then reached for his shirt. Some sense of propriety had prompted him to put his jeans back on last night. The last thing he needed was for Sarah to wander out to watch cartoons and see his bare ass peeking out from beneath the covers.
He heard clanking come from the kitchen, combined with the smell of coffee, and knew his mate was already getting ready for the day. Glancing at the clock on the cable box, he cringed. He needed to get motivated too. He only had a couple of hours before he had to report in as Santa at the mall.
Not that he wanted to go. Joe lay back on the couch and stared at the Christmas tree, the lights now turned off. He wanted to spend the day here with his mate and Sarah. He could just imagine the small cub bouncing around the living room as she talked about the ornaments again. The cub was a gift all in herself, and combined with Nikki, the two of them were the best gift he had ever received in his life.
The thought brought him back to the gift Nikki had given him last night. She had been both sweet and sassy as they made love. No, love wasn’t the word for what they had done. Fucked. Good, hard animalistic sex. The best of his life. Both he and his lion had never been as satisfied as he was right now. The only thing that would be better was when he would make love to her and give her his mate bite. Making her his for always.
There was one small problem with last night now that he thought of it though. He had come inside of her bare. Joe would need to make sure she wasn’t fertile before he did that again. Not that he didn’t want to see his mate’s belly swell with their cubs, he thought it might be best to give it some time before they did that. Sarah needed to adjust to what the new normal of a family was going to be.
A family that included him.
His thoughts didn’t get much further than that before the smell of bacon drifted to him. Hell yes, he wanted some of that! Getting off the couch, he made his way to the kitchen and took in the delectable sight of Nikki standing at the stove in a nightshirt, bare legged and cooking breakfast. He started to get hard all over again and had to remind himself now wasn’t the time for that. Little Sarah was bound to come out of her room at any moment.
Willing his cock to go down, he sidled up behind Nikki and kissed her on the neck. “I smell something delicious,” he muttered into her ear.
Nikki laughed and elbowed him in the gut. “Of course you do. I’m cooking.”
Joe nuzzled her neck again and then gave her a playful little bite that had her hitching her breath in surprise. “I was talking about you, babe. You smell so damn good I could just eat you up.”
The smell of Nikki’s arousal teased his nose and Joe smiled into her skin. Who knew teasing your mate could be so much fun?
She giggled. “You did that last night.”
“You can never have too much of a good thing,” he whispered hotly.
“Does that mean you don’t want the bacon I made?” she asked, somewhat breathlessly.
Grabbing her around the waist, he carefully turned her so that she wouldn’t burn herself on the stove. Once she faced him, he gave her a mock growl. “Am I a man? Hell yes, I want the bacon, woman.”
As if on cue, Joe’s stomach rumbled loud enough for them both to hear it. Nikki laughed, and it was at that moment that a tiny pair of arms wrapped around one of his legs. Looking down, Joe smiled at Sarah. “Good morning, sweetling.”
“Joe, you spent the night!” she howled in delight.
He felt Nikki tense in his arms and then smelled her unease. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what his mate was thinking. Were they moving too fast?
Not fast enough in his opinion.
That didn’t mean that Joe didn’t realize he had to tread carefully when it came to answering the little girl.
Tightening his hold on Nikki so she couldn’t get away from him, he answered Sarah, “I did. Is that okay with you?”
The cub nodded enthusiastically. “I want you to sleepover every night! Forever and ever and ever and ev—”
Nikki reached down and placed a hand over Sarah’s mouth. “We get it, stinker. You like Joe spending the night. Now how about some breakfast?”
Not exactly the way he had hoped his mate would respond to Sarah’s enthusiastic answer, but not exactly the worst either. He let her change the subject, though, and stepped away so she could serve Sarah breakfast. Watching Nikki, he could tell she still had some reservations, even after last night, but Joe didn’t let that dishearten him. He still had one day left to prove to Nikki that they could make this mating work and he had no intention of failing.
He watched as Nikki walked over to the small dining room table with Sarah’s plate and helped her settle into her seat. After grabbing a couple of plates off the counter, Joe then filled them up with the rest of the food and brought them both over to the table. Nikki looked up at him in surprise. He gave her a wink. “I’m a big boy, sweetheart. I can help too, you know. Have a seat and eat. You’re going to need your strength later on tonight.”
Nikki turned an adorable shade of pink at his insinuation and shot him a look before glancing down at Sarah to see if she was listening. The three-year-old could care less what they were talking about. She was happily chewing her food and looking at the Christmas tree.
Sitting down, Joe waved for Nikki to do the same, and then dug into the food she’d cooked. When he was done chewing a mouthful of food, he looked to Nikki and asked, “What are you girls doing today?”
Nikki swallowed her bite and then answered. “Since it’s Christmas Eve, the owner closes the bar to be with his family and I have the day off. But I still have a few more gifts to get so we’ll be at the mall at some point.”
“Bring the munchkin over and the elf and I will watch her while you take care of it,” he said, and then whispered, “I’m assuming she’s not supposed to see these things?”
Nikki laughed. “She’s good. These are gifts for friends. We do an After Christmas party. Mostly gag gifts and a lot of booze, but it’s fun.”
“Sounds like a good time,” Joe agreed. A dozen jealous questions burned inside him. Were there other men there? Men she’d dated? That was part of being a shifter, being possessive and protective. But asking those questions would only create problems between them, so he tamped them down for the moment.
“What time do you have to be at work?” Nikki asked.
Sighing, he got up. “Ten. And I know it’s early still, but I have to go. I just realized that I left the suit at Sam’s last night. I have to go all the way back up the mountain to get it.”
Nikki frowned at him. “Be careful. The roads are slick. The snow didn’t amount to much but there’s plenty of ice out there.”
Joe grinned at her and leaned in for a quick kiss, which had Sarah squealing in delight. “I like that you worry about me.”
“I worry about everybody. Don’t take it personally,” she groused.
Joe turned
and swept Sarah up into his arms, swinging her around until she was in fits of giggles. When he stopped, breathless, she snuggled against his chest and an ache bloomed inside him. God, he wanted it. He wanted mornings with Nikki and Sarah. He wanted more cubs of their own.
Choking up, he set the little girl down. “Be good today, munchkin. The big guy is still watching!”
Chapter Sixteen
Nikki wandered through the mall, Sarah tugging at her hand as they passed store windows and pretty displays. She’d never seen anyone as excited for Christmas as that little girl was. It was Joe. He’d done that, given her back her joy.
But what happened down the road? Would he always be so loving and careful with Sarah, or would he be like so many men and get annoyed at having a kid around, always under foot?
They rounded a corner and Sarah stopped. Looking ahead at what had caught the little girl’s attention, Nikki felt her heart break a little. A couple stood there, their daughter between them. The little girl was about Sarah’s age and she had a hand held by each parent. They picked her up and swung her every other step while she giggled.
“I want Joe to stay,” Sarah whispered.
“Baby, Joe can’t be your daddy,” Nikki said.
“I don’t want him to be my daddy,” Sarah insisted. “I want him to be my Joe.”
It was so tempting to say yes. To give in to her own desires and ignore the dark, whispering voice in the recesses of her mind that told her all the reasons it wouldn’t work. “Baby, it’s complicated.”
“He wants to stay. We want him to stay… it’s not compicated!” Sarah all but stamped her foot for emphasis as she butchered yet another word.
Nikki didn’t laugh or get frustrated, but she did kneel before her. “You know how bad it hurts to lose someone. How bad it hurt when Mom and Dad went away?”
The little girl nodded solemnly and immediately shoved her thumb in her mouth.
Nikki looked at the floor and blinked away the threatening tears. “The more people you love, the more likely it is you’ll get hurt, because they don’t always get to stay… Even when they want to. I don’t know if it’s worth the risk.”
“It is!” Sarah insisted more firmly.
Nikki rose to her feet again and looked down the long corridor of the mall. The couple and their happy, clearly loved and wanted child had disappeared into one of the stores. But another couple was there. They stood next to one another, holding hands, looking at their smart phones. Their kid ran around them, creating chaos in a desperate bid for attention.
That had been her parents. For her, for Sarah, whom they had freely admitted had been an accident—they’d never really been present. Nikki had been missing them her whole life, long before they had died.
“Baby, I just don’t know what’s going to happen yet,” Nikki replied. “Let’s go see Joe and then go home, okay?”
Sarah pouted anyway but gave her a nod.
“And don’t mention this conversation to him, all right?”
Again the little girl nodded, but her bottom lip turned out even more.
Nikki turned them in the direction of Santa’s Workshop and the pretty display that housed Santa and his elf. She could see Joe from a distance as they approached. Each kid was picked up and sat on his lap. Then Joe would lean in to listen to their answers. He looked happy, she thought, like he was invested in each one of those kids and wanted them to have a good experience with Santa. Even the ones who cried, he patted gently and then offered apologies to the parents. Could any man really be that good?
As they neared the dais, he spotted them and motioned to the elf. The disgruntled looking man came over and said, “Santa says the munchkin can stay with us. But if you stay, you gotta wear the ears.” He pointed up to his own elf ears.
“Do you want to wear elf ears, baby?”
Sarah’s eyes had lit up with delight and she nodded enthusiastically.
Nikki chuckled. “Looks like you have a new elf.”
“For how long?”
“About an hour,” Nikki answered. “I need to pick up some last minute things and get them loaded into the car. Then I’ll be back for her.”
The elf nodded, waved to her, and said, “All right, we’ll be breaking for lunch then. Santa will be in the food court.”
Done shopping for her friends, Nikki headed back to the toy store where she’d seen Sarah longingly eyeing a particular doll. She’d get that for her, but it would leave her broke. Still, she wanted the little girl to get what she wanted for Christmas.
If you did, she’d have Joe. Nikki pushed that thought aside. It was not helpful in the decision making process.
Chapter Seventeen
Joe was proud of how well behaved Sarah had been. She’d sat there quietly and watched him work. Now they were breaking for lunch and he’d ditched his Santa costume so they could eat in peace. At the food court, he got her chicken nuggets. He didn’t know what the hell part of a chicken produced a nugget but he didn’t want anything to do with it.
“Do you always lose people you love, Joe?”
That was a profound question from someone who barely reached his knee. Joe looked down at Sarah in surprise. “Is this about your sister?”
Sarah shook her head. “Not ’sposed to say.”
It was about her sister.
“Honey, everyone will die someday. None of us know when or how that will happen. But it’s better to love someone, even if you lose them, than to be alone all the time.”
Sarah cocked her head. Her thinking pose again. After a moment, she nodded and then proceeded to dip her chicken nugget into the barbecue sauce like she was looking for something at the bottom of the little plastic cup.
The little girl suddenly looked up and blurted, “Joe, where do chickens come from?”
Surprised at the question, Joe automatically answered, “An egg?”
Sarah nodded again and then pulled her nugget out of the dipping sauce to analyze it. Then she turned those big eyes on him and he saw the trouble coming before the cub even opened her mouth. “Where do eggs come from?”
Unsure of how to proceed, Joe hesitantly said, “A chicken.”
He watched as she cocked her little head. Her eyes went back and forth between her nugget, its dipping sauce starting to go down her fingers, and him. “Where do the eggs and the chickens live?”
Joe almost sighed in relief. For half a second he thought the kid was going to ask him which came first, the chicken or the egg. That was not a debate he wanted to get into with a three-year-old. “They live on a farm. Now eat your nuggets before they get cold, sweetling. Lunch break is almost over and we have to go back soon.”
Thankfully for the next twenty minutes, Sarah ate her lunch without anymore unnerving questions. At least she hadn’t asked where babies came from. He shuddered a little bit at the thought of trying to have that conversation and prayed he would never have to find out. He’d leave all those future biology talks to Nikki when it came to Sarah and their future cubs.
They headed back to Santa’s Workshop. Joe left Sarah with the elf for a couple of minutes while he changed. By the time he came back, Sarah was already sitting next to the big throne and a line of kids were waiting to come see him. Looking down at Sarah, he asked, “You ready for this, munchkin?”
Sarah shook her head. “I’m not a munchkin, I’m an elf! Silly Santa.” She giggled.
Joe gave her a wink and then waved for the elf to let the first child in. The little boy stormed up to him and jumped in his lap.
“Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas! And what would you like for Christmas, young man?”
“I want a new bike, and a flying helicopter toy, and a robot, and—”
“Whoa, there, son.” Joe tried to put the brakes on the little boy’s demands or else they were going to be there all damn day. “How about this, what do you want most for Christmas? Just one toy, what would it be?”
The little boy’s face scrunched up in a frustrated way, and then
he yelled, “But I want it all, Santa! And I’ve been a good boy so you have to give it to me!”
Joe looked up at the kid’s mother and saw her blushing in embarrassment. The poor woman looked utterly mortified at how her kid was acting. He himself could feel his irritation rising at what he realized now was a spoiled brat. He couldn’t say anything like that aloud though, so he did his best to handle it diplomatically. “I’ll have to check my list, but I’m sure you’re right and have been a good boy. That doesn’t mean you get all the toys though. We have to save some for the other kids too. Now tell me, what’s the toy you were hoping to get most of all?”
Just as fast as he had jumped on, the little boy jumped off and pointed his finger at him. “You’re just a crappy Santa! That’s why I can’t have all the toys.”
What the kid needed was a good spanking, but that wasn’t Joe’s place to say. He watched as the little boy’s mother scrambled forward to get hold of her son, but she didn’t make it before Sarah stood and marched over to point her own little finger in the boy’s face. “You hush up, you big ol’ meanie. He’s the pewfect Santa and you should say you’re sowwy!”
Joe sat there in awe of his fierce little protector while the boy’s mother tried to apologize to him profusely. Joe gave the flustered woman a friendly wave and watched as she dragged her son away kicking and screaming. Sarah, on the other hand, the little angel that she was, walked back over to Joe and put her hand on his face. With a serious expression, she quietly asked him, “You okay?”
Joe bent down and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “You bet, sweetling. Thank you for sticking up for me. That was very brave of you. Now have a seat again and we’ll get back to work.”
He watched as Sarah sat down on the floor next to his foot, beaming at him with her pearly whites. All Joe could think as she smiled at him was that he was the luckiest bastard in the whole wide world for having her in his life now.