Three Nights Before Christmas: A Holiday Romance Collection

by Kati Wilde

  Only thirty minutes pass before the helicopter touches down in front of my cabin, the blades whipping up a small blizzard of powdery snow. Waiting for us is the small team of personnel who came up earlier today with our luggage and to prepare the house for our arrival. They’re flying out as soon as we fly in—so I’ll have an entire week utterly alone with Caleb.

  With my husband. A word that means so much more than I imagined, now that we’ve spoken our vows.

  Leaving the helicopter, Caleb doesn’t let my feet touch the ground, cradling me in his arms as he carries me to the front door. His silent laughter shakes through his chest when he looks up at the cabin. Warm light spills through the windows on the upper and lower levels, welcoming us in. “It’s never what I expect.”

  With my arms linked around his shoulders, I ask him, “What isn’t?”

  “This place. I was expecting a ski resort. Not a cozy log cabin.”

  “Do you want a ski resort?”

  “No, baby.” His voice deepens as he continues up the porch steps. “I just want you.”

  He’s all I want, too. His warm lips fasten over mine as he carries me over the threshold, kicking the front door closed behind him.

  “The bed’s in the loft,” I tell him between soft, panting kisses.

  That’s where he finally sets my feet down, though his mouth never leaves mine. Standing in front of a crackling fireplace, he slips my coat from my shoulders while I tug at his tie, his collar. My dress slithers to the floor in a puddle of white silk. A moment later he releases the jeweled comb from my hair, and the long strands tumble out of their elegant twist to curl over my bare shoulders.

  Almost naked already, but I’m still working on his shirt buttons. I laugh against his lips. “You have the easier job.”

  “I’ll finish it. Just keep kissing me,” he commands gruffly, and I do. Cupping his beloved face in my hands, I rise up onto my toes and keep going, higher and higher, spinning but this time I don’t get so far out of myself, as if the dizzying emotion is finally sinking in and settling beneath my skin—but it’s light, so light, and so big that I still feel as if I might float away if I wasn’t holding onto him.

  “Audrey.” A pained groan rumbles from his chest. “What is it? Are you hurt?”

  Because tears are slipping down my cheeks. “No. I feel…I don’t know.”

  “Happy or sad?”

  “Happy. So happy.” But I’ve been happy and this isn’t the same. “More than happy. More than everything.”

  “I know, baby.” Strong fingers cradling my jaw, he gently kisses my lips. “It’s the same for me. Ever since you said you loved me. And this whole day. I thought it was so damn perfect—first marrying you in front of everyone, and then celebrating with our friends. Everything was pretty fucking amazing. I didn’t think I could be happier. But it was just…like the spiked punch at the wedding. Because when I’m alone with you, it’s like drinking straight from the bottle. It’s so much stronger.”

  Pure, undiluted emotion. So powerful that we’re dizzy and drunk on it.

  “So much stronger,” I agree on a whisper, then rise onto my toes again.

  His mouth claims mine only for an instant before he groans and backs away. “Just give me one second. One second to look at you like this, so I can always remember it.”

  Standing in the firelight, wearing only my panties. His gaze devours me, but I’m just as entranced by the sight of him. While kissing, he managed to get everything off except for his dark trousers, and those are unbuttoned with the suspenders hanging loose from his hips. The aggressive bulge of his cock tents the fine wool. His ridged stomach contracts with every ragged heave of breath, his broad chest and powerful shoulders stacked with muscle. He’s so big, so tall…and all mine.

  And I never want to forget this, either—the way he looks now. The way he looks at me, his face flushed with arousal and his heavy-lidded eyes inflamed with desire. Nothing has ever been sexier than the way he slowly drags his lower lip between his teeth when his focus drifts downward, as if already anticipating the taste of my nipples…and lower. As his gaze pauses on my panty-covered pussy, I can’t stop my thighs from squeezing together or my whimper of need, because his reaction is everything. Hunger and tension seem to battle within him, a war between his need to look and his need to touch, his big hands clenching and unclenching at his sides, his muscles like corded steel.

  Hoarsely he says, “I just can’t believe you’re mine, Audrey. I’m the luckiest bastard in the world.”

  I laugh, my heart swollen so full. “At least one of us needs to believe this is real.”

  His fiery gaze meets mine again. “What’s not real to you?”

  “That I can be loved like this,” I confess shakily. “I feel like it all must be happening to someone else.”

  Instantly the war that waged within him seems to cease. As if his battling desires no longer pull him in opposite directions, and everything within him abruptly focuses on…me.

  Without another word, Caleb comes for me, crossing the distance in a single powerful stride. His left hand wraps around the nape of my neck and he pulls me into a devastating kiss, shattering my senses with every deep, hot lick between my lips. As if he means to consume me alive, to drown me with pleasure.

  As if he means to destroy any doubts about who this is happening to.

  My trembling legs barely support my weight when he abandons my lips. Desperately I cling to his shoulders as he bends me back over the iron band of the forearm he wraps around my waist, lifting my breasts to his mouth. With a growl, Caleb lowers his head to feast. Like a man possessed, he lavishes his attention on my nipples, suckling and licking the taut peaks, the force of his hunger almost painful but too sweet to run away from.

  Far too sweet. Like the exquisite ache building inside me, the ache that isn’t a hurt but just need, need, need. Frenetic desire that transforms my clinging hands to fists that clench in his short hair to tug and demand. That changes the breathless chanting of his name to a desperate plea, begging for him inside me.

  But Caleb has no mercy, dropping instead to his knees. No longer demanding, the grip I have on his hair becomes my strongest anchor against my husband’s sensual storm. Strong fingers hook into the waistband of my panties. His dark eyes lock with mine as his warm breath penetrates drenched silk.

  In a rough voice, he says, “Let me tell you what’s happening to you, Audrey. I’m making love to you on our wedding night. Not someone else. Because I’m so in love with you.”

  “I know. I do.” My body begins to shake as he slowly drags my panties down over my hips. “I love you, too. So much.”

  So much I can hardly bear it. Or this. The electrifying pleasure of his mouth, the long hot lick through my saturated folds. The fervid hunger in his groan. The commanding pressure of his fingers digging into my backside as he holds me still for the relentless teasing of his tongue.

  My legs nearly give out when he sucks on my clit, but I want, need, so much more. “No more waiting, Caleb. I need you inside me.”

  With a groan, he buries his face against my belly, rolling his forehead from side to side as if in denial. His mouth glistens with my arousal when he looks up at me, his voice harsh with strain. “I’m not holding back with you, baby. This isn’t waiting. This is the first part of doing.”

  Making love to me. “We’ve got the rest of our lives to spend on foreplay.”

  “Yeah, we do.” Pleasure darkens his eyes, either at the thought or because his fingers just took over for his mouth, his thumb circling my slippery clit. I curl forward on a gasp, bracing my hands on his shoulders as a thick finger pushes past my entrance, gently thrusting. “But your cunt is so damn delicious—and I want this night to be good for you. I want it to be perfect.”

  It will be. It already is. It’s been perfect since the moment we spoke our vows. But that perfection isn’t because of pleasure or an orgasm.

  “And I want to finish what we began in the church t
oday,” I manage to get out, then my brain almost melts, my back arching as he adds a second finger, stretching my inner walls and making me feel so full. The rest emerges on a rush before I completely lose my mind and come. “I want to consummate our vows, to make you a part of me, and hold you so deep inside that you’re the only thing I know. I want to give myself to you and make you mine when I do. I want to take my husband. And I want my husband to take his wife.”

  “My wife.” Feral possession tightens his expression. In a powerful movement, he surges to his feet—and I cry out in surprise as he lifts me with him, his right hand gripping my bottom and his left hand cupping my pussy, two fingers still scissoring within me. “Wrap your gorgeous legs around me, wife.”

  And my arms, linking tight around his neck, holding on as I cling to him with my legs around his waist. The iron bar of his forearm across the small of my back pins my torso to his broad chest. A soft whimper escapes my throat as he withdraws his fingers from my liquid heat.

  “You’ll give yourself to me right here.” His biceps bulge and flex as his hand works beneath me, tearing open the remaining fastenings on his trousers. “Take me in easy, let your little pussy get used to having this big cock again. Then I’ll carry you over to that bed and claim what’s mine.”

  Oh god, yes. Wildly I kiss him, tasting my arousal on his lips. With a grunt, he hefts me higher. The blunt head of his erection parts my intimate folds, hard and hot as it prods my entrance, and I automatically glance down to see though there’s not an inch of space between us.

  “Look at me, Audrey.” He rasps out the command and my focus snaps back up to meet his burning gaze. “Look at me while you fill yourself up with my cock. And know that I’m completely yours whether you take me or not.”

  I know he is. Devotion and love shine from his eyes as fiercely as when he spoke his wedding vows. “Now?” I whisper breathlessly against his lips.

  Jaw clenched, he nods. Waiting for me to take him, his every muscle like high tensile steel as he aligns me over his rigid length. Straining not with the effort of holding me, but the effort of holding himself under control as I relax the tension in my thighs.

  Gravity does the rest. Pressure builds at my entrance, then my own weight forces my drenched flesh to give way to the solid thickness of his cock. Only a few inches, but we both groan at the incredible sensation of my inner muscles stretching to accommodate his heavy shaft. We’re face-to-face, Caleb’s head slightly bowed and his forehead pressed to mine, his gusting breaths a ragged storm against my parted lips. His supportive arm around my back prevents me from falling but also denies me any further assistance from gravity, and his erection is so thick and hard and so good inside me that my legs begin trembling, my muscles quivering uncontrollably. Simply clinging to him is suddenly all that I can do.

  “Help me,” I beg, desperate to take all of him. “I can’t—”

  Jagged lightning flashes behind my eyes as Caleb’s hips surge upward, driving his cock deep. So deep. Filling me completely, and the stunning pleasure of his possession sears my nerve endings with white-hot ecstasy. My head falls back on a loud, helpless moan.

  Instantly strong fingers tangle in my hair, bringing my face close to his again. Caleb’s features are a taut mask of arousal, his teeth gritted. “You’ve given yourself to me? Sealed your vows?”

  “Yes,” I gasp against his lips, my overfilled sheath still adjusting to the unyielding hardness wedged so far inside me. “You’re mine now, Caleb Moore.”

  His eyes blaze. “I’ve always been yours,” he grinds out. “And it’s time to make you mine.”

  His mouth captures mine in a scorching kiss as he strides toward the bed. The movement stirs his pulsating length within my body’s tight clasp, each step sending jolts of ecstasy streaking through my sensitized flesh. But even as I tighten my arms around his neck, trying to rise up and ride him, he wrenches me upward, off of his cock. My disappointed whine is cut short when he gently lowers me onto the mattress.

  But he doesn’t follow me down as I expect. He remains standing by the bed, his huge erection bobbing and gleaming with my juices. The shaft and crown are flushed a purplish red, as if angry it’s no longer inside me.

  So is my pussy. My inner muscles furiously clamp down on the nothing that fills me now. Moaning, I clench my thighs together to ease the ache. “Caleb?”

  “Just give me another second, baby. I want to look at what’s mine.” Tension pales his lips as he wraps his fingers around his slick cock and begins to pump. “Our vows didn’t include a promise to obey. But I want you to obey me now and spread those long legs.”

  The command sweeps through me on a wave of sheer need. Delicious heat spills deep within me, expanding outward from my center. My body feels utterly heavy, weighed down by the desire flooding through my limbs, pressing me into the bed as if Caleb was already over me, his cock plunging deep.

  I need that. My pulse pounding in my ears, obediently I part my thighs, spreading them wide. My breaths come in sharp gasps as his hungry gaze settles on my exposed pussy. He groans, his knuckles whitening as his grip on his cock tightens.

  “You’re so damn beautiful, Audrey.” The mattress dips as he climbs on, and my heart seems to sway and swell with the movement, everything within me rolling toward him though my body stays in place. Sweat glistens over his skin as he draws nearer, his hands shaking when they begin trailing up my legs. The aggressive jut of his erection between his heavy thighs draws my gaze to the pearls of cum dripping from the smooth tip.

  Yet despite his turgid arousal and obvious need, he barely touches me. His palms skim from my ankles to my calves in the lightest of caresses, his fingers trembling.

  Sheer wonder fills me at the sight. “Are you nervous?”

  “No. And yes.” His throat works, and his voice is hoarse as he continues, “I’ve got a handle on the sex part. But I’ve also got my whole life, my whole future right here before me. So I need to be careful with it, because you’re so fucking precious.”

  And he’s so incredibly sweet. Tender emotion melts through all the liquid desire swirling within me. “I’ll always feel safe with you, because I know you’ll be careful whether you’re gentle or rough. And if you are rough, Caleb, I won’t shatter.”

  “I know,” he says gruffly. “You’re so strong and resilient, baby. And so generous, so loving. You’re too damn good for a selfish asshole like me—but I’m taking you anyway.”

  Abruptly he drags me closer, friction warming my back as I slide across the bedspread. His fingers curl under my thighs and he raises them higher, higher, then rocks forward until he’s braced over me with my knees hooked over his elbows and his swollen cock parting the soaked lips of my pussy.

  Everything about the position is forceful, commanding—and every part of him is hard, from his corded muscles to his thick erection to the demanding fingers that tilt my chin up to meet the claim of his mouth.

  But his kiss is so gentle, and his voice a low murmur against my lips. “Will you take me, Audrey?”

  “I will, Caleb,” I vow, clasping his face in my hands. “Today. Tomorrow. Forever.”

  His warm mouth seeks mine again and his kiss deepens, capturing my moan of pleasure as my body yields to his sweet, inexorable possession. The taut strain of my inner walls echoes the adjustment taking place even deeper inside, as Caleb becomes a part of me. Truly making me his wife. Giving me his heart and his life. It’s so big, so much. Almost too much too take. But I do.

  I always will.

  Holding him tight, I take him all. When his enormous cock is seated deep within my pussy, filling me completely, he pauses for only a moment to hoarsely groan, “I love you, baby,” before he begins to move.

  He loves me. And I’m no longer outside of myself, looking down—as if his every long, slow thrust forces me back into the flesh that he’s worshipping with his lips, with his hands, with his body. No longer disconnected, but exquisitely and gloriously contained within my own skin
, this woman who’s crying out as he fills me again and again, relentlessly loving me, making me his.

  So endless. So delicious. I didn’t know it would be like this. The luscious burn, the frenzied need—none of that is new, yet it’s so much more than it was before. Not just lust and pleasure, but joy and astonishment as my hands cling so tight to his shoulders, as my hips twist and writhe beneath his, the ecstasy within me stretching tighter and tighter. As if with every thick, devastating stroke of his cock he’s driving more of this heart-swelling emotion into me, until I’m almost bursting.

  But when the orgasm hits, it’s not an explosion that frees all that trapped emotion. Instead a cresting wave crashes through me again and again, drowning my senses in the euphoric wonder of Caleb loving me. Desperately I gasp for air, arching as my body convulses. He abruptly stills inside me, groaning my name against my lips as my inner muscles constrict, and his ragged exhalation gives me the breath I need to survive the deluge of his own release, the hot pulse of his cock that sends me under again, coming helplessly as he pumps me full of his seed.

  Then he kisses me and kisses me, before rolling over onto his back and taking me with him. I sprawl bonelessly over his chest. For a long moment I can’t do anything but catch my breath, luxuriating in the feel of his hard body against me, within me.

  Until gently he withdraws, sweeping his hand down my back, murmuring that he loves me. At that, I kiss him again. He’s not even inside me now, but I’m closer to him than I’ve ever been, as if he’s burrowed beneath my skin. As if all the love he fucked into me is still there.

  Lifting my head, I search his gaze—and see the same joyous wonder and blissful contentment that I’m feeling. My hand trembles as I trace his lips. “You told me our wedding night wouldn’t be the same as our first time, but I didn’t realize how much different it would be.”

  A rough laugh escapes him and he shakes his head before kissing my fingertips. “I just meant that I’d last longer than a few pumps. I didn’t know it would feel like this.”