by Zoe York
“He looks like a nice guy.”
Taking a deep breath, she looked up just in time to catch a weird look flitting over Ben’s face. “He’s a fellow teacher. Not at my school. But that’s the type I usually date. People I meet through work and social activities.” She gestured up and down his torso, her cheeks turning pink. “I guess on that point, you’re quite on brand.”
“So you don’t usually pick up Navy SEALs?”
She felt her eyes go wide. “No.”
The corner of Ben’s mouth quirked into a smile. “Good.”
“You didn’t say you were a SEAL before.”
“Didn’t I?”
She shook her head.
“People can be weird about it.”
That didn’t surprise her. “I’ll try my best not to be.”
He looped his arm around her shoulders and tugged her in close. “I bet you won’t,” he murmured, his lips against her temple. “You’re pretty cool, Chels.”
After a conversation that bumped from awkward to more awkward, that he thought so was a miracle. “Right back at you.”
He stroked his hand up and down her spine. “What’s on your agenda today?”
“I was thinking of going in search of a Christmas tree.”
Ben looked around skeptically. “A tiny one?”
“A full-size one,” she protested. “I can move some furniture, it’ll be fine.”
“Can I help? I’ve got a truck. Very good for carrying a full-size tree home.”
Ben would have driven Chelsea anywhere she wanted to go, but after they did a quick internet search, it turned out there was a pop-up tree stand on Orange Ave.
They walked down to it, but the selection wasn’t great.
“We’re getting more trees in a few hours,” the sales guy said. “Come back around two. I can save you a good one.”
“I want one that’s tall and skinny,” Chelsea said, giving him her name. “Promise me.”
The guy gave her a smile that said he’d promise her anything she wanted, and Ben wrapped his arm around Chelsea’s waist. She’s mine, he wanted to yell as he pounded his fists on his chest, which was a bizarre feeling since they’d only met five days earlier.
As they strolled away from the tree stand, in the direction of Hotel Coronado, Chelsea confessed she’d always wanted to try the ice skating.
“Let’s do it,” Ben said, eager to make up for the lack of a tree selection.
But when they got to the hotel, it turned out all the spots were fully booked—for the next few days.
“Bummer.” Chelsea brushed it off, but Ben knew it really was a bummer for her. She’d already lost her usual family Christmas, and now the two things she’d wanted the most weren’t actually easy to make happen.
“Why don’t we go and get my truck, and do a drive to other tree farm locations?”
She shook her head. “I like the idea of carrying a tree back to my apartment from that pop-up stall. It’s going to be okay.” She slid her fingers through his. “Come on, let’s just go for a walk. It’s a gorgeous day.”
They crossed the street and headed back in the direction of their building.
As they passed a gastropub popular with guys from the base, someone shouted his name from the patio.
Chelsea glanced up at him, and he made a face. “How would you feel about meeting some of my friends? We don’t have to stay long.” He paused, then clarified what he really wanted. “I would love to introduce you to them.”
Her face split into a happy smile. “Sounds like fun.”
It was Cade who had called out his name, but he wasn’t the only SEAL at the table. On the other side of Cade’s wife Mel was Kent, and when Ben paused momentarily at the sight of the man who’d inadvertently brought him and Chelsea together, Chelsea just squeezed his hand.
“Hey everyone,” Ben said. “This is Chelsea. Chelsea, this is Cade, we work together, and his wife Mel, and our buddy Kent. He’s a SEAL, too, but on a different team.”
“Hey, I know you.” Kent clicked his fingers at Chelsea. “Where do I know you from?”
Chelsea shrugged innocently. “I think I just have one of those faces. I’m a math teacher.”
“I don’t know any teachers…” Kent frowned.
“Well, I’m also Ben’s new neighbor,” she said. That wasn’t a lie, and Ben was impressed by her misdirection. “We kept bumping into each other—”
“Like every day.” Ben looped his arm around Chelsea and tugged her into his side. That felt good. “So we took the note from the universe.”
“Sometimes life is like that,” Mel said, her eyes sparkling. “Have you guys had brunch? We just ordered.”
“We have not.” Ben pulled out a chair for Chelsea.
“I’ll go grab the menus from our waitress,” Kent said.
Ben waited until he was gone, then leaned in and brushed his lips against Chelsea’s ear. “So you’ve seen Kent butt naked, I’m guessing?”
She turned and waggled her eyebrows in a perfect imitation of his friend.
He smothered a laugh, then sat next to her.
Chelsea whispered, “I’m not worried if Kent figures it out. He won’t say anything to the art studio, right?”
“Our secret is safe with him,” Ben murmured back.
She looked pleased at that. “Good. Then if he figures it out, it’s just a funny story.”
To tell our grandkids, Ben added in his head. That was the whole saying. It’ll be a funny story to tell their grandkids one day.
But his buddy didn’t bring up the recognition again, and when their food arrived, Kent headed out, leaving just the two couples to have brunch together.
The food was great, but the conversation was even better, flowing back and forth with ease until their plates were cleared away.
“Another round of coffee?” Mel asked, getting up and moving her seat to be closer to Chelsea.
Chelsea clapped her hands together. “Absolutely.”
Ben could get used to this. He rubbed his fingers up and down the bare stretch of her neck. “I could sit here for a while. We’re waiting for more Christmas trees to arrive at the stand down the street.”
“We got one there yesterday,” Mel exclaimed. “It smells so good.”
“They’re restocking at two this afternoon,” Chelsea said. “So we’ve got some time to kill.”
Cade stretched his arms wide, then grunted at Ben. “Hey, how’s the search for your stuff going?”
“They found it. Next game is, how long will it take to come back.” Ben shrugged.
Cade nodded. “You’re always welcome at our place.”
“Thanks, man.” He glanced sideways at Chelsea, who was buried in conversation with Mel. “We have lots of things planned, though.”
We? Cade mouthed, then whistled good-naturedly.
Yeah, he was moving fast. He hadn’t even told Chelsea about his moving debacle yet. Another funny story to tell the grandkids, maybe.
Or not.
There was a chance this was just a holiday fling for her. Could the pretty teacher see herself with a career operative in the long run?
When they got back to the pop-up tree stand, fresh trees were being unloaded off a truck. Chelsea did a happy dance, which made Ben and the sales guy both laugh.
There were a few kinds to pick from, of varying heights, and the sales guy pointed her to one type of tree that exactly fit her description. “It’s a skinny tree, will fit anywhere, and it’s a good price point,” he said, proud that he’d remembered everything she’d said.
He was doing his job, trying to make the customer happy.
But Chelsea had fallen in love with a big, blue Douglas fir the second she’d seen it being hauled off the truck. It reminded her of Christmas trees from her childhood, of driving to Colorado to see her grandparents.
It reminded her of snow, and family.
“This is the one I want,” she said, not caring about the higher price tag.
Ben even whistled a Christmas song on the walk home.
It was perfectly festive, right up until they stood the tree up in her apartment and cut the twine off of it—and the branches filled the entire space between her couch and her craft nook and her TV.
“It’s too big.” Chelsea sagged, her disappointment an impossible weight on her shoulders. And her heart. “Of course it is.”
“We can move…” Ben glanced at her couch, and her coffee table, and her craft corner, and her desk. “What about your bedroom?”
That would never work. “My bed is too big.”
He didn’t miss the opportunity to give her a sizzling appraisal. “It sure is.”
She laughed out loud. “That was just a tease to make me think about sex instead of this foolish purchase, wasn’t it?”
“Did it work?”
She preferred the flirtatious banter to the sad feeling that she’d missed the mark on a perfect Christmas, so she grabbed his hand and tugged him in that direction. The bedroom that had felt so off-limits just two days before.
It wasn’t off-limits anymore, and if she’d just wasted a hundred dollars on a tree, she was going to make up for it by getting laid again.
But Ben stopped her. “I have an idea.”
“Other than sex?”
He paused for a beat. “Okay, I have two ideas, and one of them is sex.”
“I’m in. What’s the other idea?”
“How would you feel about putting your Christmas tree in my apartment? I definitely have enough room for it.”
nine
“It’s so big,” Chelsea muttered. “How will it fit better in your apartment than mine?”
“Well…I don’t have a lot of stuff.” An understatement. “Bit of a story there.”
Ben should have explained the situation sooner, but in the rush of being distracted by her lips and soft skin, it hadn’t seemed important.
“It’s a commitment,” she teased. “Is that moving too fast?”
He probably shouldn’t tell her he’d had thoughts about grandkids already. “You may be the one to balk on the commitment once you see my place.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see.” He gave the prickly tree a big bear hug, to get the branches in tight enough to make it through two doors. “My key is in my pocket, if you’ll be so kind.”
“An elaborate ruse to get me to grope you,” Chelsea whispered as she slithered her fingers into his jeans.
He shook with laughter. “We’ll see if you want to grope me again in a minute.”
She led the way, opening her door, then his.
And then nothing. She just stood there, in the doorway to his apartment, saying nothing.
“Chels, I’ve got an arm full of tree here, so do you want to…”
“Right. Sorry.” She scooted out of the way, and he followed her inside.
She did a slow circle as he set up the tree in the middle of the room. “You weren’t robbed?”
“No.”
“It’s a bit Spartan for a deliberate decorating style.” She poked her head into the bedroom.
“I do actually own furniture.” He made a face. “It’s a long story, and not at all festive.”
“I’m the person who just paid way too much for a tree that can’t even fit in my own apartment. As far as sob stories go, I know that’s kind of weak, but I’m a pretty good listener.”
He grabbed the storage bin his laptop was sitting on, and took the lid off his makeshift desk. “Well, here’s the most important piece. Six months ago I made the knee-jerk reaction to move out of my apartment three hours before I left the country. I had ten minutes to grab everything that I couldn’t trust movers to handle. And you know what I made sure to pack?”
“What?”
He picked up an ornament. “Christmas decorations.”
“Oh!”
“Yeah. I don’t know why. It’s a…”
“Long story?”
He laughed, then gestured at the tree. “Shall we decorate this thing while I tell you the whole sordid tale?”
“Sounds like a plan.” She grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him in for a kiss. “Thank you,” she whispered against his lips.
She was thanking him?
What had he done to deserve that?
Chelsea darted back to her apartment, trying to ignore her noisy thoughts. Sure, it seemed like Ben was sleeping on the floor of his apartment with nothing more than a quilt and a backpack, and a Rubbermaid tote bin was his desk.
It definitely seemed like that was the extent of his current situation, and that was…
That was sad.
There was a story, she knew he would share it, and this whole time she had been moping about not being with her family.
Grabbing the bin of Christmas decorations she had spirited out of her parents’ home, she returned to what she would now think of as The Tree Ballroom.
And Ben could sleep in her bed until he sorted out his furniture problem.
He was waiting for her knock, and honestly looked a little relieved she’d returned. Why wouldn’t she? He was holding her beautiful Douglas fir hostage, after all.
Chelsea Jane, do not think about him holding anyone hostage. At least his apartment walls aren’t covered in conspiracy theory dioramas.
“You aren’t a serial killer, right?” The question just slipped out.
He grinned. “That would be a real Christmas bummer, so no. I’m not.”
“Excellent.” She set the bin down. “I like to do lights first, yes?”
“Only a serial killer would argue anything else. Yes, lights first.” He caught her by the waist and spun her around in a circle. “Chels?”
“Mmm?”
“Ask me why I’m still sleeping on the floor.”
“You’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
“I’m ready.”
She took a deep breath. “Why are you sleeping on the floor?”
“Well, six months ago I was supposed to be on airplane…” He told her the whole story. Getting a few hours extra, going home to his apartment, finding his roommate and girlfriend together. And then getting on that airplane anyway, instead of melting down, which is what Chelsea would have done. She was so angry on his behalf, incandescent with rage, and then the comedy of errors started. Him returning, getting the key to this apartment, only to find it empty and his stuff…somewhere.
“I think it’s currently on a truck in Oregon. Sort of like this tree was a week ago,” he said lightly. “And until it comes back, I’m making the best of what I had in my truck, and my bins.” He jerked a thumb toward the bedroom.
The stack of military storage boxes marked with spray painted labels. “So this isn’t your usual aesthetic.”
“Not at all. Although I don’t have a ton of stuff, I do have a real bed, and a couch. I’m not an animal. I could have told you sooner, it just didn’t come up.”
She cupped his face in her hands. “We just met. We’re going to be learning things about each other for a while. This is fine. This is more than fine, because it’s another funny story.”
This time his smile wasn’t nervous at all. It crinkled the corners of his eyes, and that was all she could see as he leaned in to kiss her deeply. “That was what I was hoping you were going to say.”
She kissed him back, the lights and decorations forgotten. He tasted so good, so pure and kind—could someone taste kind? Ben did, though—and she needed more of him.
Her mouth dropped to his neck, and he groaned as her tongue flicked against the taut muscles there. It was a beautiful sound, so she sucked on his skin to hear it again.
He shoved her shirt up, his hands big on her torso. “What about the tree?”
“Later.” She pulled at his shirt. “Can you be naked?”
“I can be whatever you want me to be.”
They peeled each other bare, kissing and licking and sucking at newly revealed slices of skin, and once they were stripped all the way down, they stretched out on his quilt in front of her tree.
Then he hauled her up his body, her limbs sprawling wide as she landed on top of him.
His mouth crashed against hers, his kiss hungry and demanding. Between them, his cock found her wet slit.
“Need you like this,” he muttered. “Want to feel you come on me. Can you come like this?”
His erection pointed up at his taut belly. If she rolled her hips, her clit would drag up and down the underside of his erection.
Could she come like this? She’d come like a magical Christmas elf. “Mm hmm.”
“Ride me, then,” he urged. “Let me feel you.”
Her bare flesh rubbed against his, hot and wild, no barrier between them. It made her think of rising up on her knees and taking him inside her without a condom, without anything between them.
Too soon, Chelsea Jane. Too soon. But very hot, and oh, she didn’t care if it was too soon. Not as a fantasy. For once in her life, she wasn’t going to be pragmatic and reasonable.
She wanted Ben so much it hurt, but in a good way. She wanted him desperately, endlessly, hungrily.
Heat built inside her as they ground against each other, a wave of need and pleasure twisted together. It felt so good, him between her legs, the surging, rolling muscles of his body. But even better was the way he watched her from below, the wide-eyed boyish appreciation for her naked body on top of his.
I’m going to fall for you, she realized with a shock.
“Chels…” he breathed.
She rocked her hips, suddenly slicker than before. An unintelligible sound slid from her lips, and he clamped his hands on her thighs, holding her in place as she rocketed to the stars.
As every cell in her body seemed to explode at once, he grunted and tensed up beneath her, hot come spilling onto his stomach.
She slid to the floor beside him and buried her face in his side.
“Well, that was hot,” he said after a bit. Then he laughed. “I did buy a couple of towels. They’re in the bathroom.”
She hopped up, and felt his gaze on her bare bottom.