Her breath caught. What if abuelita was kicked out of CaringHands? How would Kennedy live with herself if she failed the one person responsible for her education, her career, and her entire life?
The tears fell unbidden, and she cursed herself. Then she remembered why she was crying: she was a horrible granddaughter. The tears came down harder and the cycle started all over again.
Then there was Luke. She was falling in love with him. Again. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Her emotional bandwidth was already maxed out. She didn’t know how she was going to break it off when she already so deep. All Kennedy knew was that her heart broke into a million pieces every day she was away from her only remaining family member.
She didn’t have any pieces to spare for an enigmatic divorce lawyer with a heart of gold.
“Kennedy? You in here?” Luke called out from her bedroom.
Speak of the angel.
Crap. She must’ve been gone for longer than she realized. Wiping away salty tear drops, Kennedy stood up in front of the mirror. No amount of primping was going to fix this mess. That went for both her splotchy face and her entire life.
“I’m here.” She quickly hid the phone in the cabinet under the bathroom sink.
His voice came closer. “I woke up and my lips didn’t have anything to kiss.”
She gave a rueful laugh. “Sorry, was just freshening up. Sweat and musk is not my favorite scent.”
“You okay in there? Your voice sounds strange,” he said, right outside the bathroom door.
“I’m okay, just peachy,” her voice cracked as she tried to keep up the lie.
The knob turned, and the door swooshed open. His eagle sharp eyes homed in on her tears. The seal responsible for keeping her emotions bottled up cracked. She was a blubbering mess when Luke picked her up, took her to the bedroom and placed her in his lap.
“Hey now, bombon. What’s wrong?” Concern spiked his usually laid-back voice.
He stroked her hair and rocked her in his lap. Her sobs were coming every ten seconds. Of course, Luke would be sweet to her. She didn’t deserve him. She’d broken his heart and was bound to do it again. Would the sap ever learn? She was a workaholic with a one-track mind.
She bawled harder, hiccupping every twenty seconds and sobbing every five. Christ, why the hell was she timing her sobs like contractions?
She didn’t deserve anyone. No doubt that was why her parents had abandoned her. They left her almost three decades ago but that didn’t diminish the pain any less. Nothing was going right in her life. God must be punishing her for something she did in a previous life. That was the only explanation she had for why God was now taking Yelena away from her too.
“You gotta help me here, babe. Did I do something wrong? Did I fuck up?”
Through bleary eyes, she saw how genuinely concerned he was. She also saw that he was out his depth. She couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t as if she had ever cried in front of him. Guess it was time to show him the truth behind the smoke and mirrors.
“It’s not you,” she sputtered out.
“Tell me how I fix this, Kenn.” He searched her face for an answer.
She sniffled “That’s just it, you can’t.”
“I don’t accept that. Be real with me, babe. Let me in.” He looked determined to get to the bottom of her tears.
For the first time in a long time, Kennedy wanted to open up to someone. Not just anyone. But to Luke. Being emotionally starved for so long had made her desperate to unload her baggage.
Everything tumbled out in staccato-like sentences. “Um, my dad is essentially a sperm donor. My mother only pops up when she needs money. They both abandoned me when I was a baby.” Luke rubbed circles on her back, convincing her to keep going. “No one really matters to me except mi abuelita. But the joke is on me because she’s leaving me too. I’m here competing for cash because…” She stopped herself.
“It doesn’t even matter.” Kennedy dropped her head back against his chest. “So, no Lu, you didn’t fuck up. My entire life is screwed up. How’s that for being real?”
Screaming clients, he could handle. A sobbing woman? He was fucking useless. He must’ve missed that particular tutorial in the modern-dude life manual.
Luke was speechless. His fierce barracuda was falling apart in front of him. It was like a knife through the carotid. He didn’t expect this level of vulnerability from her. Kennedy never let him in while they were in law school. He didn’t even know about her dysfunctional family until she hinted at two days ago.
“You never talked about them.” He balanced his chin on top of her head, his arms keeping her seated in his lap.
“Who?” Wiping her face, Kennedy snuggled into him.
“Your parents. You might have mentioned your mother once or twice in school. And your father, I don’t think you ever brought him up once.”
She shrugged. “That’s because I don’t have parents. I mean, I do, obviously. But I consider them biological contributors. That’s it. Yelena Notyce is my mother, father, and a damn good tooth fairy.”
He sighed. “I get that. My governess was kind of the same.”
She turned to face him. “I thought you were close with your family.”
“Not at all. My father is mean old drunk. You’d think a money with so much money would at least pretend to be happy. Nope. My mother… Well, she loves me in her own way. I know that now. But back then she may as well have been invisible.”
“I’m so sorry, Luke.” Kennedy gave him a sympathetic look. “I didn’t know.”
“Not your fault. Just like your parents abandoning you is not your fault. At all. Tell me you know that, Kenn.”
She nodded. “Of course. But sometimes it feels like I’m cursed.”
“Do you think your abandonment issues have something to do with you being single now?”
“What is this, therapy? If I knew the topic would be this heavy, I would’ve cracked open a bottle of wine.”
“It’s not too late.”
Kennedy chuckled. Then groaned. “I’m sorry I unloaded on you like this. At least now you know why I’m here. I need that money.”
He tried not to feel put off by that. “I get it. Don’t you worry, we’ll be home on Christmas Eve. Only have three more days and that money is yours. I’ll even give you my half.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Why? We both know I don’t need that. So it’s settled.” He was happy to oblige. Money didn’t mean as much to him as it did to him. If he couldn’t fix her worries outright, at least he could provide some temporary relief.
Luke heard the faint gurgle of her Kennedy’s stomach. His woman was always hungry.
“Um, first things first. Let’s get you fed. Then maybe we’ll see about having our own little Christmas set up here at the cabin.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Hungrily, she kissed him. “Thanks, Lu.”
“For what?” his voice was tender.
“For being kind and unselfish. For always feeding me. And for putting up with my ugly cryface. You’re going to make a great husband someday.”
Kennedy’s words cut him in half. Every day, Luke felt like he was losing his heart a little. This was hard for her, and probably completely new. He got that. But he needed to know if, one day, she’d ever love him as deeply as he loved her.
Chapter 20
“Time to wake up, sweetheart.”
Kennedy rolled unto her side and clutched her head in her hands, giving Luke the evil eye as he intruded on her nap. “You must have a death wish.”
“Nope. But I do have the perfect remedy for your lack of holiday spirit.” He produced a glass of eggnog from out of nowhere, but his eyes, gleaming with humor, stayed on her. Exhausted from crying and bingeing on bacon and cheese sandwiches, Luke had wisely recommended that she take a nap.
Behind him, Gretzky cleared his throat. “Ms. Notyce, Mr. Simon asked to make the cabin more festive. In light of the holidays, please enjoy this
, ahem, ugly Christmas sweater.”
Luke moved out the doorway so that she could she. My my, that takes the cake. Gretzky held out his hands. The sweater was neon green with tinsel running up and down the sleeves. Two identical brown reindeer decorated the front, perfectly aligned with where her breasts would be. On the back was a fat Santa and a brown-skinned, curly-haired elf, with the play on a popular song lyric, “when I think about you… I touch my elf.”
“How…thoughtful of you both.” Kennedy sat up in the bed took the sweater from Gretzky before the man disappeared into the hallway. He was honest. The sweater was damn ugly.
Luke handed her eggnog. “Can’t wait to see how it fits.”
“I’m supposed to put this on now?”
“Yup. When you’re dressed come on down to the library.” Then Luke disappeared too.
“Okay, then. Not weird at all,” she muttered to herself.
After a stop by the kitchen for some extra rum, Kennedy, her ugly reindeer-nipple sweater, and her boozy eggnog made it to the library.
A massive Fraser fir took up fifty percent of the room. Flawlessly uniform, the seven-foot tree was straight out of children’s story book. Poor tree. Super sorry someone sacrificed your life for a make-believe holiday, she lamented.
“What the hell? Did Santa Clause, the McCallister family, and Martha Stewart all have an orgy then implode?” she asked.
Looking sheepish, Luke appeared behind the tree, a couple of ornaments in hand. “I, uh, I thought we could have our own little Christmas.”
She arched a brow.
He put the ornaments down, grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room. “It’s technically four days early but I thought maybe this might take your mind off your grandmother.”
Kennedy could count on one hand the amount of times she was stunned into silence. This was the fourth time. Two embroidered stockings hung over the fireplace. Bowls of candy canes sat on the couch. Piles of string lights rested by the tree. Boxes of red and gold and white ornaments were stacked haphazardly on the table.
“Since you tend to prefer books over people, I got you this,” he held out an ornament in the shape of a stack of books and another made to look like a vintage library card.
This was classic Luke. Moments like this were why Kennedy felt her barracuda heart softening to guppy-status by the second.
She looked around the room in wonder. “How did you even find time to do all of this?”
“Gretz is wicked resourceful. He made some calls and had everything delivered.” She cringed then immediately forgave him for using ‘wicked’ as an adjective.
His gaze snapped back to her. Luke waited for her response. He’d put in so much effort into creating his own version of Christmas. She’d only been asleep for two hours!
“I don’t even know what to say. This is…” she trailed off and tried to focus on the abundance of festive decorations.
His shoulders slumped. “You hate it, don’t you? Shit. It’s too much. I knew you weren’t a big fan of the holidays. I just thought maybe this might help.”
How did he know that she needed this? Not the vomit of Christmas spirit, she was still a Grinch. But the insane distraction of creating a Christmas tradition. Never before had she ever wanted to be a Christmas junkie. Bake cookies. Stay up late wrapping presents. Sing carols off-key. Have sex under the mistletoe. Maybe Luke’s holiday attitude was rubbing off on her more than she cared to admit.
She tapped his lips with her index finger. “If you’d let me get a word in, you’d know that I think you did good.” She nipped at his chin. “So good.”
His eyes lit up. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He smiled and out popped his sickeningly pretty dimple. She kissed him full of noggy tongue and laughed. “Alright, show me how this decorating crap is done, Master Elf.”
Luke loved decorating the dead tree. Much more than she did. He was also very particular and methodic in his decorations. So, she sat down and watched him work, staring at his brawny muscles unravel strands of light and hang bulbs off the tallest branches on the tree. Nat King Cole, Mariah Carey, N’Sync and Motown Christmas albums served as the background music.
Hours went by and they kept right on decorating. Well, he did. She was more of a cheerleader. Sitting on the couch drinking copious amounts of spiked hot chocolate and spiked eggnog. Luke was in his element and she got a contact high watching his merriment. It was sickening. Surprisingly, he didn’t even ask her if she wanted to sing embarrassing Christmas carols.
But if he asked her, she would’ve done it.
For him, she would’ve done it a million times over.
Chapter 21
It was three days before Christmas. Luke always counted down to the holiday, ever since he was a child. This morning, Luke woke up in time to see a fresh dusting of snow clinging to his bedroom window.
Last night they’d made Christmas memories he’d cherish forever. After a few rounds of festive sex under the mistletoe, Luke let Kennedy escape to her room. He told himself that she could use the space to process her feelings about him, the holidays, and her grandmother. He could pretend to be patient. They would ease into this new phase of their situationship with Kennedy setting the pace.
It was complete bull shit.
The first two nights at the cabin, Luke’s dick had pulled all-nighters like a straight-A student. But now that he had access to Kennedy’s sweet body, his dick was never content unless it was plowing away into her silky soft folds.He daydreamed about her and then wetdreamed about her too.
He hadn’t liked short pixies until he met her. But once he saw how perfectly they fit together, he came around to her intimidating height of about five-foot even. Kennedy was different than what the cookie-cutter blondes he was used to growing up. She wasn’t exactly the girl-next-door type. At all. Instead he dubbed her a voluptuous vixen sent to torment him and Luke Junior every damn day.
Maybe there wasn’t any peace. Maybe he was doomed to suffer. If that was the case, he’d choose to slake his impossible lust inside of Kennedy.
Decision made, he leapt out of bed. Her door was mercifully unlocked. He could barely make out her body in the dark save for the obvious lump in the middle of the bed. He moved quietly. Stripping off his pajama bottoms, he was careful not to wake her up. To his relief, her breaths remained calm and even.
Luke peeled back the comforter and slid in behind her to snuggle up close to her heat. The minx rolled her hips in his sleep, unconsciously trying to get closer to his naked body. He stifled a moan as his cock nestled in the crease of her ass.
His throat was suddenly dry. He concentrated on the beauty mark on her collar bone.
He reached around to palm one of her heavy breasts. He wasn’t a professional boobologist but her sweater puppies were magnificent. More than a handful. But not too much. Perfect pillows of flesh topped with dark chocolate tips.
Luke leaned forward to kiss the beauty mark he had been eyeing. His hand trailed southward. Over her flat stomach. Past her navel. His hand finally lingered at the sweet juncture of her thighs.
Even in her sleep, her body could read his mind. Kennedy shifted, splaying her legs open just enough for him to work a finger between her honey petals. Starting painstakingly slow, he rubbed her until his finger was coated in dew, incrementally speeding up.
Luke eased one finger inside, then two, until her hips pick up the rhythm of his strokes. Carefully, he coaxes open her legs so that her thigh lays on top of his. Changing from spooning to sporking, there was just enough room for him to guide his cock into her from the back.
With a breath, Luke finally pushed himself fully into her wet tunnel, nestling his balls against her backside. Uncontrolled shivers of pleasure coursed through his body. He breathed in his Kennedy’s strong, rich peach conditioner and his eyes fell shut. He felt like he wanted to stay here all day, breathing in her in like oxygen, feeling the warmth of her moist center, letting his precum spill into her.
&nbs
p; He fed her shallow strokes, not wanting to jolt her awake. Suddenly she tipped her hips backwards, giving Luke a better angle to penetrate her pussy. So he did. His wayward hand played with her clit until he felt the beginning spasms of her orgasm.
She slammed her hips behind her and Luke knew without a doubt she was awake. Sneaky minx, pretending to be asleep. His hand dug into her hip bone as he drove into her, harder and deeper.
“Give it to me,” she said on a gasp. So soft he barely heard it.
She didn’t have to worry about that, he’d give it to her real soon. In fact, pretty soon, the convulsions were too much for both of them. Luke exploded the imploded in sensory overload. He bit the inside of his cheek to prevent him from grunting into her ear. He emptied himself into her and let his dick rest inside. Kennedy panted sharply for a moment then drifted blissfully back to sleep.
His palm slid to her stomach possessively. “I tried, Kenn. I really tried my fucking best not to fall for you.” He swallowed down the wave of emotion associated with those words. He wanted more than he should want from the woman who seemed incapable of committing. But he wouldn’t be satisfied knowing he hadn’t given it his all.
He looked at the ceiling, speaking to no one in particular. “If you’re listening old man Nick, don’t let her rip my heart out again. She broke me once. I won’t survive it a second time.”
Later that afternoon, during a feisty round of Uno, Kennedy brought up the inevitable.
“Three days left until we’re homeward bound. I can taste that one hundred thousand smackeroos now.” A shadow passed over Luke’s face. Suddenly, his joy at kicking her butt in UNO evaporated.
Still sullen, he said, “It all went by so fast.”
Snow and Seduction (A Holiday Romance) Page 15