Hope Falls: Cookies & Kismet (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Mayra Statham

  “So….

  “So?”

  “This thing. You and me. It’s kind of exclusive?”

  “No.” My heart dropped to the floor. “No kind of about it. You’re mine. I’m yours.” His eyes heated up, and I was probably crazy, but I liked the possessive tone in his voice.

  “Good. I don’t like to share.”

  “Nothing to worry here, baby. The month we were apart, I didn’t see anyone other than you. How could I when all I saw when I closed my eyes was you?”

  “You need to stop being so sweet.”

  “Never.” He leaned forward, sealing what we had just promised with a kiss. “Now, can I make you breakfast and we go get a tree?”

  “I think I have a small artificial—“ The way his eyes widened in horror made my words stop.

  “Stop.”

  “What?” I asked, and he shook his head.

  “Baby, you live here, and you want an artificial tree?”

  “What does that matter?”

  “Hope Falls is like the backdrop of the best Christmas movie ever. How do you not want a real tree?”

  “I didn’t say I didn’t want one.”

  “Good, because I won’t hear it. Come on. My woman needs to eat and I gotta get her a tree.” He started to scoot off my bed, and I watched the show.

  “Really?” I muttered as he stood in front of me. Sun-kissed skin, dark chest hair I knew exactly how great it felt pressed tight to your front and back, thick muscular thighs, and the most beautiful cock I had ever seen in between his legs.

  “Stop looking at me like that. We need to get a tree,” he warned and pouted.

  “But—“

  “How else are we going to get tangled up together in nothing put a strand of lights?” He winked and jumped out of bed then walked buck naked into my bathroom. The idea of us tangled up under a tree made my core zing and a blush fall over my cheeks.

  Tree trimming never sounded better!

  Nathan

  Angie had insisted on stopping by Brewed Awakenings, a cute coffee shop he could see himself frequenting on a regular basis. With her.

  Together, they sat and shared a slice of coffee cake with their drinks as they held hands and chatted. He wanted to make this Christmas special for them. He knew what he was planning was risky, and she might even think he was crazy, but he had to try. They might not be able to spend every day together from now until the twenty-fifth, but he could make sure that when they looked back on their first big holiday together, it was filled with just as many memories as the rest they would create.

  Glancing around as they walked to the tree lot, he couldn’t help but know he was right. There was something magical about Hope Falls and the people around them. Not only was it a charming town, the people were different. There was a kindness in the air, and he knew it had nothing to do with the upcoming holidays.

  He knew by the way people waved hello and smiled that this was home for her. Home in a way Miami had never been for him. There was no way he could ever ask her to leave. Especially when Miami didn’t feel like home after his return last Sunday.

  Hand in hand, they strolled to the Christmas tree lot next door to the coffee shop.

  “And see right there? That is the firehouse.”

  “They came to your school, right?”

  “Yeah.” She smiled. “They’re great with the kids, and the kids love seeing them,” she shared, and he nodded, trying to ignore the jealousy he felt over men being around her. “The next door is an MMA gym. Have you ever heard of Lucky—“

  “Dorsey?” he finished for her, and she nodded. “I lost once because I bet against him,” he admitted and loved how she laughed as they walked deeper into the lot.

  The chill in the air permeated his skin, but he found he really liked it, especially when she tucked herself in closer. He liked how open and affectionate she was with him. She wasn’t shy at all about public displays of affection.

  “I love the way this place smells.” She grinned up at him, excitement shining in her beautiful brown eyes.

  “See, and you wanted an artificial tree!” he teased her, and she laughed.

  “Okay, okay…” she playfully groaned. “I guess you were right.” She shrugged and looked around the lot. “So? What are we looking for?”

  “The perfect tree.” He winked.

  “Perfect tree?” She laughed slightly, and he stopped them and pulled her into his arms.

  “Perfect tree for the most amazing first Christmas together ever.”

  “First Christmas?” she asked softly.

  “First of many.” Her eyes sparkled brighter at his words, and he stroked her face softly. “At least I hope.”

  “Me, too,” she whispered. He couldn’t resist. He kissed her softly and sweetly. When he pulled away, he made sure to land a small peck on her forehead.

  “How about we check out those Noble Firs?” he suggested, pointing toward where they stood.

  “Okie dokie. Let’s do it!” With his hand wrapped around her shoulder, they walked together and checked out trees.

  She fell in love with a small Charlie Brown-like tree, while he wanted an eight-footer he knew would hit the very top of her ceiling. They compromised on a seven-footer that was fuller around the bottom and a fresh wreath for her front door.

  She tried to pay, but there was no way his woman would be paying for anything while they were out.

  “I got this,” he insisted sternly and knew she would give in when her lips twitched.

  “Okay.” She shrugged, and he leaned down to steal a kiss.

  “I’m going to pull up the car,” he told her, kissing her cheek after paying.

  “Sounds good. I’ll be right over there looking at those cute ornaments.” She winked at him, and he laughed.

  Pulling up the car, he parked and started to walk over toward her but stopped in his tracks. A bolt of jealousy swam through him, which caught him completely off guard. He had never considered himself the jealous kind. Never in his almost forty years.

  A tall, good-looking guy wearing a Hope Falls Fire hoodie was standing next to his girl, who was now holding two gift bags. They were smiling as they talked. The firefighter was standing way too closely to Angie for Nathan’s comfort. Hurrying, he closed the distance and came up beside her, throwing a possessive arm around her shoulder.

  “Hey, babe,” he mumbled, kissing the top of her head.

  “Oh, hey.” She beamed up at him. “Nate, this is Eli. Eli, this is—“

  “The infamous island guy,” Eli put out there as he extended his hand and Nate shook it. The kid was probably ten years younger than him, closer to his girl’s age, which only made his frown deepen.

  “Hey,” he muttered gruffly. In the back of his head, the voice of reason tried to chime up and remind him he had nothing to worry about. But the green streak inside of him ran deep and hard.

  “Umm, Eli is a firefighter in Hope Falls,” she pointed out, and he nodded.

  “That must be very satisfying work,” he mumbled, trying to make conversation.

  “I like it. I also help out here when I can. When I saw Angie here, I had to come and see if she needed any help.” The too-good-looking-for-his-own-good kid grinned. He tried to tamp down his need to claim her in a way everyone knew she was his.

  “Well, thanks, but I can take care of my girl.” He winked, pulling her closer into him.

  “Glad to hear it.” The tone in his voice made Nate still. Eli was just being protective of Angie. Maybe they were just friends? “Ang, it was great to see you.”

  “I know, and I didn’t even have to touch your hose.” She laughed, but Nathan felt himself stiffen. His hose? His girl shouldn’t be touching anyone’s hose.

  “Excuse me?” his voice rumbled as he looked down at her. Her face reddened.

  “Oh crap. I’m sorry. It’s not what that sounded like.“ She laughed, obviously embarrassed.

  “I was at the elementary school for career day this w
eek.” That was right. How could he have spaced?

  “Oh.”

  “But Angie, you need help with anything when you get back to school, you let me know.”

  “Thanks, Eli.” She waved at him, and the guy walked away with a smirk. Nathan wanted to growl.

  “What was—“ she started to speak, but he didn’t let her say another word.

  His hand tangled into her hair and held the back of her head. His lips went down and fell to hers. When she parted her lips for him, his tongue dueled hers. There, in the middle of the Hope Falls Christmas stand and all its patrons, Nathan made out with his girl.

  “Okay, then,” she whispered breathily before he walked them to the car and he strapped the tree to the top of his rental.

  ***

  He had just finished wrapping the lights around the tree and had turned off the room lights to see how it looked.

  “So… you get jealous, huh?” She grinned as she looked up at him from where she was sitting on her living room floor.

  The warm, white lights sparkled and twinkled, giving her skin an extra glow.

  “He was standing way too close.” He shrugged and enjoyed the way her laughter sounded in the space around them. He sat down with her and brought her up to his lap. The room was dark, the tree lights the only light around them.

  “I told you I don’t share,” he reminded her, and her face was nothing if not amused.

  “I know,” she said softly. Her hand stroked the side of his face. “It was kind of hot how you got all… caveman like.”

  “Yeah?” he asked as his fingers ran down her neck and stopped at her collarbone.

  “Nate,” she whispered.

  “You are mine,” he reminded her, and her skin filled with goose bumps.

  “I’m yours,” she said softly, and he kissed her.

  “I think I need to remind you.”

  “Oh… well, if you must.” She smiled. .

  Pushing the various ornaments next to them aside, he did just that.

  Slowly and intimately under a brightly-lit Christmas tree, he reminded her she was his.

  All night long.

  Chapter Seven

  Nathan

  When he woke up next to her, the sun was starting to rise, casting her in the most beautiful golden hue.

  Mine, a small voice whispered in the recess of his mind, and he knew it deep in his gut: she was it. Hell, he had known from the first moment he had laid eyes on her.

  Her eyes fluttered open, slowly, her lashes like the wings of a new butterfly. Opening and closing tentatively. Damn, she had him waxing poetic.

  “Morning,” she whispered, and he leaned toward her, his lips touching hers with a barely-there kiss that only made his already hardened dick strain and his balls ache.

  “Morning.”

  “Nathan…” She searched his eyes, and he knew she wanted him.

  “You’re more than sex to me,” he blurted, not giving a shit how awkward that might make him seem.

  He was leaving again and needed her to know. He’d had a fanfuckingtastic time with her these last couple of days, and it had nothing to do with spending time between her legs. Not that it wasn’t great. It was fucking amazing. It just wasn’t the end all be all of them.

  Damn. He was part of a them. He found he didn’t mind the idea one bit. It was the opposite. He felt good about it. He liked the idea of being a part of someone else’s team or family. Her family. She was his game changer.

  He watched her blink once and then twice. Her sleepy gaze went soft, and he knew she got it.

  “You are, too,” she shared, giving him a small kiss. “But I need you,” she confessed. He shut his eyes tightly, his hands clenching her hips as she shifted closer to him.

  “Fuck,” he growled, rolling them over. Her dark hair covered her pillows when she looked up at him as she lay beneath him. “I want you so much.” He kissed her cheek then did the same to the other.

  “Nathan, please…” Her soft pleading almost made him go cross-eyed.

  “Tell me you know.”

  “I do.”

  “It’s more than the physical,” her growled against her neck. The soft scent of her body wash from her shower last night and warmth of her skin engulfed him.

  “It is.”

  “More than lust.” His hands had a mind of their own as he was tempted by the sight of her bare flesh.

  He watched his tanned fingers lift her black cotton tank top upward. His eyes were pinned to the softness of Angie’s flat belly. He kissed the spot he knew in the center of his bones and being, God willing, would hold his babies when his seed took root. Fuck. The idea of procreating had never gotten him hot and bothered. If anything, before Angie, it would have been a mood killer.

  But that was before her.

  Kissing the soft flesh, he pushed the waist band of her panties and sleep shorts downward.

  He found the idea of making a baby with her a hell of a turn on.

  “Nate…” she whimpered, but he ignored it. When he caught a whiff of how turned on she was, his mouth watered. An overwhelming need to worship and explore her pulsed through him.

  Ignoring her bare mound and the heaven she had between her legs, he pushed the top up and over her head, tossing the shirt God only knew where. He couldn’t get himself to pay attention. Not when the swell of her breasts was right in front of him; making his mouth water more.

  Before her, he would have considered himself a leg man. But now, at the shrine of Angie, he found he liked everything. As long as it was a part of her.

  His mouth took her dark, pebbled nipple and suckled, while his hands explored, memorizing the curves and angles of her body. She arched her back beneath him, silently pleading for more of him. She cried out his name, which only fueled the fire of his desire. The soft hitches in her breathing made him ache. He was losing control all too quickly, but who could blame him?

  Over a month of missing her. She was the only thing that got him going like this.

  “Tell me you know,” he demanded, working his mouth down her torso. Reaching her dripping center, he dove in, licking and savoring. He lapped at her, making her writhe and squirm. He held her in place as she started to squirm, loving the sting he felt as she tugged on his hair.

  “Baby,” she breathed, and he couldn’t wait anymore. With one last kiss on her dewy sex, he moved, held his body over hers, right between her legs, after pulling down and kicking off his shorts.

  “Tell me you know,” he repeated, as beads of sweat formed at his brow and her mouth parted. He kneeled, and she leaned forward, kissing him as he lined up his hardness between her wet, slick folds.

  “I need the words, Angie,” he begged hoarsely. She cupped his face with her soft hands and nearly did him in when she spoke.

  “We are everything,” she breathed, and he lost control.

  With one smooth glide, he entered her tight heat and held himself still above her, letting himself feel everything. Her legs wrapped up and around his waist, her face now in the crook of his neck, her hands at the back of his head. Damn. Her sweet body wrapped around him felt incredible.

  “Fuck,” he cursed, sliding out of her cavernous heat, only to slide back in slowly.

  “Yes,” she hissed, her back arching, making him go deeper, the sensation so damn incredible.

  He worked in and out of her body. Like a miracle, he found a way to slow himself down, taking them to the edge, keeping each of them on the precipice of bliss. He was close, and when she started to beg him, bending her knee upward so he went deeper, he couldn’t stand it.

  Slipping a hand between them, his thumb rubbed her swollen bud, and he was rewarded with a breathy moan. He watched her eyes close as bliss washed over her face, so he rubbed again. Once, twice, and that was it. That was all it took to have her shatter beneath him, creating a sight to behold. One he wanted to watch over and over. Until the end of time, he thought to himself just a second before he followed her over.

&nbs
p; Angie

  Showered and dressed, I stepped out to the living room only to see Nathan on his phone, his face serious.

  “I get that, but there is no way I can be there.” The tone in his voice was ungiving. “I hear you, Hurston, and I get you want to get this done, but it’s freaking Sunday. Give me a break, man.” His scowl deepened as he ran his fingers through his hair.

  I stepped closer and was happily surprised when he pulled me down onto his lap, his fingers gently stroking my wet strands. “Whatever. Look, I’ll see you tomorrow... No, I already told you I can’t be there before that. Yep. Tomorrow at two. Bye.” He ended his call and looked at me. The tension washed out of his face and he smiled.

  “You smell good.” His voice was deep and gravely as he rested his forehead against the side of my face.

  “It’s my body wash.” I shrugged, slightly shy. Something about the way he grinned in that moment made me feel like a school girl around her first boyfriend.

  “Mmm….” His face went into my neck. “Na.” His voice vibrated, my skin suddenly sensitive. “It’s all you, Angie.”

  “Nate,“ I moaned when he suddenly had us both up and standing. With my hands on his chest, I looked up at him in wonder.

  “As good as it sounds, baby, and as much as I want to, we can’t get lost in the sheets again.”

  “We can’t?” I asked him, hoping maybe we could.

  “Nope. We have too much to do,” Nate explained, and my eyes widened.

  “We do?” My lips twitched.

  “Are you going to repeat everything I say? Because I could twist this to my advantage.”

  “Shut up.” I laughed. “Okay, what are we doing today?”

  “Well, we got you a tree.”

  “Yeah.” I glanced at the corner of the room, the pine freshness hitting my senses. There were decorations strewn over the floor, silently reminding me of the way he had made love to me beneath the lit tree. “My house has never smelled better.”

  “That’s because we haven’t made cookies yet.”

  “Cookies?” My eyes widened.

  “Yep. Cookies. Not just any cookies. Christmas cookies.”

  “Nathan, we don’t have to—“