Derek chuckles. “Hmm, I bet.”
Tanner snaps his eyes to his dad and raises a brow. “You were saying.”
“I wasn’t saying anything, but I do think we need to eat up so that we can get to the presents.”
“Tanner did warn me that you’re just as eager to watch me open my present from him.”
“You have no idea,” Derek drawls and then ignores me but I didn’t miss the secretive smile on his lips.
Turning to Tanner, he has his face stuck in his breakfast but looks amused as well.
These two are up to something as I glance between them. They’re like little kids busting a gut to keep a secret inside. Rolling my eyes, I pinch a piece of food from Tanner’s plate, getting his attention as I pop it into my mouth. “You are thinking about your secret and ignoring me.”
He grins with a mouthful of food, shoveling more in. “I wait twelve months to eat my favorite breakfast, except this year, I’m eager to be finished.”
“It is good,” I comment. “Very good.” Wiping my plate clean with the last piece, I eye my impatient boyfriend, and laugh.
“Presents!” He jumps up, dragging me with him, excitement in his every move. At the tree, he pulls a small, red box from between a couple of branches and looking at me with love in his gaze, gets down onto one knee.
My heart thumps wildly while blood rushes through my head at what he’s about to do…what he's doing.
Popping the lid, he holds it up to me while he takes my hand. “We’ve talked about the future, but we haven’t talked about getting married… I love you, Charlotte. I fell in love with you eight months ago, and it’s only grown stronger since you came back into my life. I want to spend every day for the rest of my life by your side. Will you be my partner? The mother of my children? My best friend? And most of all, will you marry me and become my wife?”
Tears have been running down my face from the moment he got down on one knee. Sobbing, I whisper, “Yes,” crying even harder when he tugs me into his arms. “I love you.”
I feel him smiling against my neck before he places a tender kiss there. “Let me put your ring on.”
Pushing me down so I’m sitting on the coffee table, he sits opposite. I take the tissues Derek passes me and wipe my tears. At least I can see the beautiful, square cut diamond ring now.
“This,” he pauses, “was the ring my mom wore from the moment my dad proposed to her, until the day we lost her, when she gave it to me.” He pauses, needing a minute. “Apart from my mom, you’re the only woman to have worn it,” he adds, slipping it on my finger. His words tell me more than anything else could about his past relationship with Emma.
“It’s beautiful and you have no idea what it means to me to wear this ring.” I cup his face in my hands and bring him closer, sealing our engagement with a kiss.
“It’s set on platinum and it looks perfect on your finger.”
“I’d have to agree,” Derek adds.
I glance at him and notice the tears on his face. Leaving Tanner, I wrap myself around his dad. “I hope you know that I love your son so much and I’ll always treasure this ring so that one day I can pass it on to your grandchild.”
He pats me on the back. “Now don’t go saying things like that, otherwise, I’m going to be embarrassing myself in front of your family.”
I frown. “My family?”
He nods and holds up a small tablet device. “Thought they’d want to witness your engagement.”
My mouth drops as I take in the image on the tablet. Sitting in the frame are my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even grandpa’s old dog, Rufus. Not a dry eye in the house.
Tanner wraps an arm around my midriff, pulling me back against him. Smiling, I turn my face up to his and grin against his lips as he claims mine in a sweet kiss. “I love you,” he breathes against my lips. “Talk to your mom,” he urges.
“Stay with me.” I grip his hand and accept the table Derek passes to me.
“I’ll go and find us something to celebrate with.”
Taking the tablet from my hands, Tanner greets my parents, bringing me straight in on the conversation. “She’s one in a million,” he says, kissing the top of my head.
“I’m glad you realize that,” Dad answers. “We’ll talk when you arrive in a few days.”
I roll my eyes, laughing, “Leave him alone, Dad. It’s taken us eight months to finally be together, I don’t want you scaring him off.”
“I’ll talk to your dad, Charlotte.” Tanner briefly tightens his arms around my stomach. “I love you, nothing will scare me off. I promise.”
Dad’s lips twitch at Tanner’s declaration and I smile as mom reaches up and slaps a big wet kiss on Dad’s mouth.
“Oh God! Mom, stop mauling dad in front of us,” my brother Joshua groans.
Mom smirks. “I can’t wait for your brother to find the woman,” she says to me. “Your dad is still as handsome as he was the day I met him,” she adds softly, reminiscing.
Dad holds her in the same way that Tanner holds me, and he looks at her as though she’s his world. She is, but it always makes me happy to see them like this.
“Are you happy, honey?” Mom asks.
“I’ve only been existing these months that we’ve been apart, so yes, I’m happy. I’m happier than I ever remember being. He’s my soul mate, Mom. I need him to breathe.”
Tanner sighs heavily into my neck, kissing a tender spot, he stills though when Mom asks, “What’s on your forehead?”
Before I can answer, Tanner admits, “It was my fault.”
“It was an accident.” I give him a brief kiss on the lips before turning back to my parents. “I saw Tanner arrive home, so I got up and went to the door. Except, before I could open it for him, he opened it, not realizing I was behind it.” I touch the bump. “I’m fine, but exhausted with Tanner insisting he’s at fault. It was an accident and it’s never going to be mentioned again.”
“Stubborn just like her mother,” Dad mutters, and gets a gentle elbow in his side for his trouble. “I wouldn’t be without her though.” He grins.
Mom rolls her eyes at Dad, and then gets teary-eyed. “We’re not going to keep you, but it was so nice and appreciated what Derek did for us today. To see our baby being proposed to.” She swipes at a tear. “And Tanner, that was a beautiful proposal…Welcome to the family.”
“Thank you, Mrs. McKenzie.”
“Lily.” Mom smiles.
Tanner nods.
“We’ll have a guy’s night out when you’re here. Welcome you properly into the McKenzie fold,” Dad states while Mom and I moan. He chuckles, “And I’m Michael… Your father is more than welcome to join us for New Year.”
“Thank you. I’ll pass that on.”
Dad nods and breaks the connection. Silence follows as I turn in Tanner’s arms. “We’re engaged,” I whisper, holding him close.
“Hmm.” He chuckles. “In years to come, I’ll be able to tell our kids how I proposed to you on Christmas Day while you wore pajamas covered in penguins.”
I gasp and smack him on the ass. “I’m not the only one in penguins,” I tease, raising a brow. “You look really hot though. Penguins on your legs, black T-shirt, morning hair, morning scruff…”
“Morning wood,” he whispers into my ear, tugging me with him toward the Christmas tree while I laugh, feeling so happy I could burst with it.
82
Tanner
Her breasts quiver under my teasing tongue while my body holds her down under me. Her breathing is heavy and her hands tremble in my hair. I slowly move and kiss the pulsing hollow at the base of her throat before moving my mouth over hers, devouring its softness.
Fondling a large globe, its pink nipple goes marble hard and Charlotte gasps, arching into my touch while I deepen the kiss.
My cock throbs for relief against her thigh, but I haven’t finished the slow loving I want to give her tonight. The first night as my fiancée.
Consum
ing her moans of pleasure, my hand sears a path down her abdomen and onto her thigh, gently creating a blazing trail of fire along her skin as she moans and writhes under my touch.
I dip my head to capture a taut, dusky pink nipple between my teeth, biting down gently as I explore her thighs with my hand, moving it slowly upwards to the heat of her arousal.
Pausing to catch my breath, I kiss her, whispering my love for each part of her as I gather her against my pulsing body. Instinctively, she arches toward mine, as she matches my urgency with her own lusty needs.
Unable to wait a moment longer to feel her slick sheath wrapped around me, I widen her thighs to accommodate my size and slowly push forward.
Charlotte arches from the bed, moaning, and arching closer to my groin until its flesh against flesh, man against woman. My body has her imprisoned in a web of growing arousal as I dip my head and brush my lips across the tight buds of her nipples.
“Tanner…so intense.” Her gaze holds mine as she gasps in sweet agony when I slowly rock my hips, my hands exploring the soft lines of her back, her waist, her hips.
“I want to touch you everywhere at once,” I mumble, slipping a hand around to her bottom, holding her still, sinking deeply into her body.
Charlotte cries out for release, urging me to move faster as her body melts against mine and my world is filled with only her...the woman I’ll love until my last breath.
Clinging to my arms, her eyelids flutter, and waves of ecstasy throbs through me. Unable to move my gaze from her expressive face, I watch as Charlotte explodes in a downpour of fiery sensation, tugging my own release from my body, in slow hard pulses.
She lies panting under me, her chest heaving, while small tremors tingle along my spent cock inside her warmth.
With huge reluctance, I slip free of her body and collapse beside her. She snuggles against me and our legs intertwine. Reaching for the quilt, I toss it over us and lie in silence, letting the night wrap around us.
We stay together like this for a while until Charlotte lifts her hand from the bed, letting her ring catch in the moonlight coming through the window. “I’ll always treasure today, Tanner. Not just the proposal. This ring. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell you what it means to me that you trust me with your mother’s ring.”
I kiss the curve of her neck and admit, “She told me to give it to the woman who will hold my heart until I take my last breath…and that’s you.”
I blink back the tears forming in my eyes in remembrance, but Charlotte knows and forces my gaze to hers. “She would have been so proud of you, Tanner.” She smiles. “Not just for finding me,” she teases, “but for the man that you are today.”
Inhaling deeply, I tug her head against my chest so she can’t see my face as it’s become difficult to focus with her words. It takes a few minutes to get myself under control, and then I admit, “I think the fact that I’ve only given this ring to you, says everything about my past…it’s my new beginning Charlotte. I’m finally going to have the life I once dreamed of.”
“We both are.”
“Hmm.” I caress her back and let my hand linger on her firm bottom as she tosses her leg over my hip. “I thought you were tired.” I nuzzle into her neck, pressing her bottom closer so my cock can nestle against her wet pussy.
“I am tired.” Her hand wanders down my back and then her fingers tickle between the crack in my ass. “Mmm, you like that.”
“I like you touching me everywhere.” I chuckle, ending on a deep groan as my swollen shaft nudges against her clit. “My body reacts with just a hand to my face. I’m completely in tune with you.”
“You most certainly are,” she agrees, slipping a hand over my quivering stomach, seeking and finding the hard flesh bursting from my groin.
I let her stroke me a few times, heightening my arousal, and then I move her hand away and cup her face. “Have you had a good Christmas with me?”
She searches my gaze, becoming serious, and says, “It’s been a day I’ll never forget. The breakfast. The proposal. Talking to my parents. The Christmas movies. The dinner. The off-key Christmas carols we sung. The snow outside that brought my little bird for a visit on the sill. The whole day has been amazing from start to finish.”
“It’s been the best Christmas that my father and I have had in years, and we owe all that to you.” I smile softly. “Thank you.”
I kiss her forehead while rolling her onto her back. Slipping inside her folds, I feel whole.
83
Charlotte
Two days before New Year and my parents’ house is upside down. We arrived late yesterday, so we’ve only been here about an hour, and already Tanner has been taken into the fold. At this, I make a mental note to thank my brothers for making it happen.
“It looks as though he’s always been part of this,” Mom comments, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.
“It does… He makes me happy Mom.”
“I can see that, and so can your dad.”
“Talking about dads, Derek will be here soon.” I let her lead me into the kitchen. “He has it in his head that he’s crashing the party, when I’ve tried to tell him he isn’t and we genuinely want him here with us.” I sigh. “Tanner says his father can be a bit funny around the holidays, which I get, but I don’t want him thinking we’re only asking because he’s alone.”
“Oh honey, he’ll get used to us all. It’s been him and Tanner for nearly ten years now, and the McKenzie family is a lot to get used to. Pity there’s no one around his age.” Mom gets a gleam in her eye.
“Now Mom,” I warn. “He’s a handsome guy, and I’m sure if he was truly interested in meeting someone else then he would have done so by now. Leave him alone.”
“We’ll see,” she says, not committing one way or the other.
“Mom,” I groan.
Aunt Carla’s throaty laugh fills the room. “What on earth is your mother up to now to get the ‘Mom’ attitude?”
I slump into a chair at the table. “She’s trying to think of someone to set up Tanner’s father with.”
“I’d leave that alone,” Garrett says, entering the kitchen with a diaper bag in his hand, his arm wrapped around his wife, and his son in the other. “He won’t appreciate it. That I can tell you.” Aunt Carla takes the diaper bag, and my mother takes her grandchild, while Garrett helps Sirena into a chair.
“I can’t believe I have two months left. I feel like an elephant,” Sirena grumbles.
“You look gorgeous, which I’m sure your husband has told you plenty of times.” I glance at Garrett, who laughs.
“I tell her more than once a day, and that’s all I’m saying on the matter.”
Sirena smirks at her husband. “I don’t mind filling in the blanks,” she wiggles her brows.
“You do that, honey.” He grins with confidence because he knows my sister won’t say anything about his prowess in the bedroom.
Noticing Garrett’s eyes on me, I stand and move into his arms as he grabs me up for a hug. “Congratulations. You’re getting a good man.”
“I know. Thank you.” He puts me at arms length and looks between my mom and me. “I’m serious about Derek. As much as it bothers me that he’s alone, I really wouldn’t throw anyone at him.”
“We won’t,” Mom reassures. “Go find your godson. I have a feeling your approval is important to him.”
“She’s right,” I add. “You’ve helped him over the years more than I think you realize.”
Garrett swallows hard, and glances at his wife. “You’ll stay in that chair, right?”
“She’ll stay.” Mom shoves him out of the kitchen. “I have Elias, so go.”
“Have I said how much I love that man?” Sirena sighs, and Mom rolls her eyes.
“Every day, honey.”
Elias chooses that moment to fill his diaper, loudly. He silences the room before we start laughing. “Let me make this little one comfortable, and then we’ll start on the dinne
r.” She grabs the diaper bag. “Charlotte, come and help me.”
“I’d rather not.”
Sirena chuckles. “Take a peg for your nose and leave Mom to the diaper. Unless, of course, you want practice?” she raises a brow and I feel myself blush.
“Not yet, I don’t.” I quickly follow Mom before my sister can question me further. She’ll have Tanner’s life story out of me otherwise.
I stand at the door of Sirena’s old room and smile as my eyes land on the dresser that still holds Sirena’s trophies for the horse shows she took part in. A noticeboard above the white desk holds a collection of pictures, pins, and ticket stubs. The large built in bookcase holds Sirena’s collection of books that Mom has kept in top condition for Sirena’s children.
My gaze settles on Mom standing at the changing station that has been set up in front of the large window while wrestling with her grandson who prefers to wiggle than have a clean bottom. The crib to the side is covered in a pale blue comforter that looks fluffy and warm, with a duplicate of his favorite Paddington bear.
Elias is soon clean and giggling away as Mom places him in the crib to keep him safe while she cleans up the smelly mess. Her nose wrinkles as she ties the throwaway diaper bag.
“I don’t know what they feed him, but I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with that every day,” she comments.
I shake my head. “You’d love to be doing that every day.”
She sighs and leans a hip against the changing unit. “Actually, I really wouldn’t.”
I look surprised as she moves to sit on the end of the large bed. She pats the space next to her.
“I love my grandchild, and I’ll love any others I’m lucky enough to meet, but I’m not as young as I was. I find that it’s nice to be able to give him back to his parents.” She takes my hand. “It’s a beautiful ring,” she comments playing with my ring. “It makes my heart lighter seeing you with him. It’s been him since Sirena’s wedding, huh?”
“It has. I’ve been so miserable without him.”
McKenzie Cousins Box Set 1 Page 41