Christmas at Mistletoe Cove: A heartwarming, feel good Christmas romance to fall in love with

by Holly Martin

  But god, it needed to happen soon. Kissing him was an incredible drug she was never going to get enough of. The taste of him, the feel of his body against hers, it had been a wonderful, delicious, tantalising appetiser and now she was ready for the main course. But that was crazy because she’d never jumped into bed so fast in a relationship before.

  Her stomach rumbled hungrily. Thoughts of enjoying the main course had got her brain thinking about food and, coupled with the gorgeous smells that were drifting from downstairs, she tried to put thoughts of making love to Dougie to the back of her mind and started thinking about dinner instead.

  Dougie had been busily preparing for the evening for the last few hours while she had been relegated to the bedroom. Surely dinner had to be ready soon or maybe she could call downstairs and ask for some kind of snack.

  A thought occurred to her that maybe she should dress for dinner. He was making all this effort so perhaps she should make an effort too. With that in mind she quickly leapt off the bed.

  She opened her wardrobe and looked inside. She wanted something that said class, sophistication, romance and happy-ever-afters. Hell, what she actually wanted was something that said to Dougie, ‘Take me now.’ Sadly, her wardrobe was lacking anything that would say any of those things. She rifled through the coat-hangers hoping that something magical would leap out at her but nothing did. And then she spotted it. The pretty bright blue satin dress that had unicorns flying all over it. It had been a gift from Dougie and something that she loved but had never found the right time to wear it. It was so crazy and whimsical and she loved that he had thought of her when he saw it.

  She quickly pulled it out and put it on. Then she swept her hair up into a high French roll and clipped it into place with some sparkly grips. There was just one more thing to complete the outfit. She’d rushed to the cupboard to try to find it when there was a knock at the door.

  ‘Just a minute,’ Eden called as she rummaged around in the boxes, trying to find the perfect accessory.

  ‘Are you naked in there?’ Dougie asked, mischievously rattling the handle. ‘Because I’ve already seen that so there’s no point in hiding.’

  Eden laughed. ‘Just give me a second.’ And just as she was about to give up she found the box with the pink crystal-studded tiara, yet another gift from Dougie. If this really was a fairy-tale romance then she might as well play the part of the princess.

  She didn’t have any heels so she pulled on her sparkly unicorn Converse instead as at least they matched the dress. She rushed to the door to answer it and was wonderfully surprised to see that Dougie was wearing a suit. God, he looked so sexy, he was so broad and he filled the suit perfectly in every way. The suit had been made for him, making him look like some rich CEO, which she supposed he was since he owned his own gaming company now. Her eyes cast down to his powerful thighs and then up over his large chest and strong muscular arms. She looked up at his face, at his warm cheeky smile, his beautiful clover green eyes and his mop of red curls that never seemed to be tidy but didn’t detract in any way from his sexiness. She loved this man; she loved every single thing about him.

  ‘You look beautiful,’ Dougie said, his eyes roaming appreciatively over her dress. His eyes caught the pink tiara and he smiled.

  ‘You look pretty bloody sexy yourself, Prince Dougie.’

  He grinned at her and then offered her his arm. ‘Princess Eden, can I have the honour of escorting you to dinner?’

  ‘Of course.’

  She took his arm and he led her down the stairs and into the kitchen. She paused at the bottom of the stairs, noticing that the room was lit only by a candelabra in the middle of the dining table. Golden shadows flickered up the walls, making it look magical. Dougie reached out and passed her a bouquet of lilies.

  ‘Oh Dougie, you didn’t have to buy me flowers, you already bought me those roses the other day.’

  ‘Yes but that was before I knew we were going to have sex. Those were friendship flowers. These are I-can’t-wait-to-get-into-your-knickers flowers.’

  Eden laughed. ‘At least there’s no misunderstanding.’

  ‘Yes by accepting these flowers, you are committing yourself to a night of nookie.’

  ‘I agree to those terms. In fact we can just skip dinner and go straight for dessert if you want.’

  ‘No, I’ve told you, you have to let me woo you first.’

  ‘OK, OK. You may commence wooing.’

  Dougie took the flowers back off her and turned to put them in a vase.

  ‘Ah you see, you’ve taken the flowers off me now, I’m not sure our contract still stands.’

  ‘You can’t eat while you’re holding the flowers. I’ll give them back to you to hold during the sexy times if you want.’

  ‘I might be busy holding other things.’ Eden smirked at him.

  He stared at her and shook his head. ‘I think this might be the fastest dinner I’ve ever eaten.’

  ‘Well, we don’t want to get indigestion or heartburn, so I think I’d better take my time over this meal that you’ve lovingly prepared.’

  Dougie groaned as he pulled out the chair for her. ‘You’re killing me.’

  Eden settled herself at the table while he went back to the oven. Wonderful smells filled the air and, despite what was going to happen after dinner, she couldn’t wait to eat some of Dougie’s home-cooked food. He was a fabulous cook, knowing almost instinctively which flavours and ingredients went best together. Over the years, he had gone on many different courses and classes, constantly trying to better himself. He had learned Spanish, how to play the guitar, he’d done a plumbing course, an archery course and learned how to paint. Cooking was another thing he had taught himself to do and something that he was really good at.

  He returned to the table with two small plates and presented hers to her with a flourish.

  ‘To start with this evening we have creamy garlic mushrooms. They were sautéed in garlic butter and then cooked with parmesan and cream.’

  They looked amazing. Eden picked up her fork and speared one of the mushrooms. ‘Garlic? We’re going to be kissing each other later, you didn’t really think this through.’

  ‘Yes, but we’ll both stink of garlic so it won’t make any difference.’

  Eden nodded to concede this. Dougie could eat a whole clove of garlic and it wouldn’t make any difference to their plans for that evening.

  She popped one of the mushrooms in her mouth and the wonderful creamy flavours combined with a slight tang of garlic exploded on her tongue.

  ‘Oh god, these are amazing.’

  Dougie grinned as he tucked into his own. ‘It’s worth a bit of pong when it tastes like this.’

  He poured some red wine into her glass and she took a sip. The flavours combined perfectly.

  ‘I could get used to this kind of treatment.’

  Dougie flashed her a winning smile. ‘Well when we get married, I’ll cook for you every night.’

  He turned his attention back to the mushrooms and Eden stared at him over the table, her fork frozen halfway to her mouth.

  When.

  When we get married?

  As if it was already a foregone conclusion. This was their first date and he was already talking about marriage. There had been some mention of it before but that never seemed serious or real, now it suddenly seemed very real. She couldn’t even imagine that far ahead. They had been friends for so long that it was hard to conceive that this was going to be forever. She tried to picture that in her mind, coming home to Dougie every night, making love to him, raising their children together. God, she wanted that but it seemed so ridiculous to even begin to hope for it. At the moment this all seemed like a bit of fun. Was that really where this was going?

  He must have felt her watching him because he looked up and then cocked his head slightly, clearly confused by her expression.

  ‘What’s up?’

  ‘When we get married?’

  He swal
lowed a mushroom too quickly and then took a long slug of red wine. ‘We both love each other, you want to get married. So I imagine we will get there eventually.’

  ‘When you first came back to the island you said you weren’t interested in having a relationship with anyone, you said that you weren’t sure you ever wanted to get married, and now you’re talking about us getting married as if it’s the most normal thing in the world?’

  ‘I said I wasn’t interested in having a relationship with anyone but you.’

  She frowned. ‘That’s not what you said.’

  ‘Yes it is. I said no relationships unless my secret crush suddenly decides that she loves me.’

  ‘I’m your secret crush?’

  ‘I’ve told you, I’ve been in love with you for years.’

  Eden stared at him. Why could she not believe him? ‘It just seems a little fast.’

  Dougie smiled.

  ‘“Twelve years, Eden! I hardly think that we can be accused of rushing things”,’ he quoted her own words back at her.

  She smiled. He was right, she supposed.

  ‘Look, don’t worry about any of that now. When it’s the right time for us, we’ll talk about it then.’

  She popped the mushroom in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully, not taking her eyes off him.

  He reached for her hand. ‘Stop looking for flaws in this. It is what it is, no scam, no joke, I love you. Just enjoy what we have and stop waiting for it to end.’

  She looked down at her fingers entwined with his. They looked so right there. This thing between them felt so right as if they’d been doing it for years and in many ways they had. This was her dream and, as she’d told Dougie today, it was time to enjoy it.

  She lifted her glass and held it across the table towards him. ‘To us.’

  He smiled and lifted his glass to chink against hers.

  This was Dougie, her best friend. Whatever happened they would be OK.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Eden placed her spoon carefully down inside her bowl. That was it. Three delicious courses had been eaten and, unless Dougie wanted to prolong the evening with coffee, cheeses or after-dinner mints, they were about to have sex for the first time.

  Before dessert had been served, he had disappeared off to the lounge, closing the door behind him so he could get ready for the rest of the evening, though she wasn’t sure what preparation was needed. Whenever she’d had sex in the past, there had been very little preparation. In fact bringing a condom along to the evening was probably as prepared as it had gone with the men that she had dated. She had no idea what to expect.

  Dougie reached across the table to hold her hand, stroking his thumb over her knuckles.

  ‘So…?’ Eden said, still not quite believing this was about to happen.

  He grinned, waggling his eyebrows mischievously. ‘So?’

  ‘How do we do this?’

  He smiled. ‘Well, first of all we have to get naked and then there’ll be a lot of kissing, touching, in, out, in, out, shake it all about.’

  He stood up and took the bowl over the dishwasher as he hummed the ‘Hokey Cokey’.

  ‘Interesting technique.’

  He shrugged. ‘It’s worked for me before.’

  ‘So women like the shake-it-all-about approach?’

  ‘They love it.’ He closed the dishwasher door and moved back towards her.

  ‘And the “Hokey Cokey” part?’

  ‘The women go crazy for that.’

  Dougie held out his hand and she placed hers inside it. He gently pulled her to her feet and kissed her cheek.

  ‘Should we start ripping each other’s clothes off?’

  Dougie looked down at her clothes. ‘This dress is way too pretty to be ripped, besides I don’t think the unicorns would like that. But if you like that sort of thing I can certainly rip your underwear off.’

  Eden giggled. ‘I’ve never had a conversation like this before sex.’

  Dougie nodded. ‘It’s certainly lacking the spontaneity of my previous sexual experiences. But a little bit of preparation is sometimes a good thing.’

  Still holding her hand, he led her to the lounge door and pushed it open. Eden followed him inside and stopped when she saw that every surface was covered in flickering candles. There had to be easily a hundred candles lighting the room along with the twinkling fairy lights. The log fire was burning merrily, adding warmth and comfort to the room. Blankets and pillows were laid out in front of the fire and just the idea that in a few minutes they would be lying there making love sent butterflies somersaulting through her stomach.

  ‘Oh my god, are we really going to do this?’

  Dougie stroked her cheek.

  ‘Only if you want to.’ Then he whispered theatrically, ‘Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.’

  She laughed again and leaned her forehead against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her head. ‘Oh Dougie, if we do this everything changes between us.’

  ‘Everything has already changed between us, but in the best possible way.’

  She looked up at him and knew he was right. She leaned up and kissed him and he cupped her face in his hands and gently kissed her back. She didn’t make a move to take it any further, but neither did he, seemingly content to just kiss her. And it was wonderful, she had never felt so loved and so adored with a man before, but then Dougie was her best friend, it was never going to be anything but magical.

  She pulled back slightly. ‘I love you,’ she whispered against his lips and he smiled as he kissed her again.

  She slid his jacket off his shoulders and then went to work on his tie, cursing that the bloody thing seemed to be knotted up tighter than the locks on Fort Knox. When her fingers struggled to make any progress, Dougie took over, still kissing her while she started work on the buttons of his shirt. Finally the tie came off and she was able to finish undoing the buttons on the collar. She dragged his shirt over his shoulders and down his arms where they became stuck over his hands.

  He gave a little moan of protest against her lips. ‘Cufflinks,’ Dougie muttered.

  She stepped back and sighed with frustration. ‘Dougie! Didn’t you learn your lesson with the whole drawstring debacle?’

  ‘I thought they were sexy,’ he said as he struggled to get the cufflinks off. Finally he freed himself and showed her the cufflinks, little black studs with the letter E engraved in them. She smiled hugely when she saw them and leaned up to kiss him again.

  He slid his arms round her back and unzipped her dress then stroked up her bare back and slipped the dress off her shoulders where it fell to the floor. His mouth was on her neck, trailing kisses over her shoulder as he slid her bra straps down her arms too. He unclipped it round the back and let that fall to the floor as well.

  She moved her hands to the button on his trousers. He kissed her again, cupping her breasts and running his thumbs across her nipples. She gasped against his lips and she stood almost frozen to the spot as she enjoyed the wonderful sensations of Dougie touching her body before she remembered that she should be undressing him too. He brought his mouth back to her neck; his stubble grazing her skin was an incredible feeling. But it was all too much, too many feelings, too intense, too much of everything. And even though, with Dougie’s hands on her, the very last thing she wanted to do was crack a joke, she knew she needed a little bit of light relief from what was about to come.

  She unzipped his trousers, slowly. ‘I get to see you naked,’ she sang. ‘I get to see you naked.’

  She felt him smile against her skin. ‘That’s kind of a necessity if we’re going to have sex. Well, it isn’t but definitely certain bits have to be naked.’

  She pushed his trousers off his hips and let them fall to the floor. He quickly stepped out of them. She left his tight black boxer briefs on, wanting to slow it down just a little bit. ‘What if getting naked puts the other person off? Maybe we should blow out all these candles and do it
in the dark.’

  ‘I’ve already seen you naked baby, there’s no possible way that you could put me off. Besides, staring at your beautiful body is part of the fun.’

  She stepped back a little to appraise him. He was magnificent in every way. She moved back towards him, caressing her hands over his body as he stood there and watched her. Then suddenly he was kissing her again, gathering her close against him.

  Without taking his lips from hers, he scooped her up into his arms. She let out a little squeal at the sudden movement and giggled against his lips as he carried her over to the blankets. He laid her down and then lay down next to her as he resumed his kissing, his hands roaming across her body in the gentlest of touches.

  He suddenly moved back onto his knees and she wondered what he was doing. He eyed her with a mischievous smile as he moved his hands to her knickers. He looked like he was up to no good. He ran both hands slowly round the waistband and then to her surprise he suddenly ripped the knickers clean off her.

  She gasped and then laughed. ‘I can’t believe you just did that.’

  ‘You said you wanted me to rip your clothes off,’ Dougie said.

  ‘I didn’t expect you to actually do it.’

  ‘Hey, I have to give the people what they want.’

  Eden reached out for his shorts. ‘I’ll tell you what I want.’

  He caught her hands and pinned them above her head as he continued to kiss her and she got the feeling that he was trying to delay the big moment too. Would he pull back, would he change his mind? Surely he wouldn’t go to all this trouble and then back out at the last minute? Keeping her wrists pinned over her head with one hand, he slid the other up her thigh. She moaned softly against his mouth when he touched her between her legs. His touch was exquisite and he captured her cries of pleasure against his lips as he quickly brought her over the edge.