WMIS 01.5 Under The Mistletoe With Me (9 page)

It looks
like Santa is going to walk through the front door at any moment, kick off his
big black boots, and cop a squat in a chair by the fireplace.

“We had it
professionally done. There’s no way in hell Nat’s getting on a ladder, pregnant
or not.” He rubs her belly and kisses her cheek, making her blush.

We’re all
gathered here again, the same crew as at Thanksgiving, adding my brother Caleb
who just got back from a mission in God knows where, Brynna and the girls, and
Brynna’s parents.

There’s a
hell of a lot of us.

Brynna and
Matt have their heads together at the kitchen table, talking seriously and
quietly, most likely about whatever in the hell the situation was that made her
run from Chicago. Matt shakes his head and Brynna slams her fist on the table
in frustration and then stomps away from the table.

Caleb’s
head snaps up at the loud sound, and he watches Brynna leave the room, his eyes
narrowed and trained on her curvy ass.

Fuck, I’m
not getting mixed up in it.

Stacy is
sitting in the rocker with Sophie, cooing and laughing at our sweet baby. God,
I go all soft when I see them, all soft skin and auburn hair – I swear, Soph’s
hair is going to be auburn like Stacy’s. I wander over to them, hand the hot
apple cider in my hand to Stacy and lift them both, sit in the chair, and
settle them on my lap.

“Wow,
Uncle ‘saac is strong! He lifted two people!” Josie exclaims, her sweet dark
eyes wide, and I chuckle.

“He is,”
Stacey responds and kisses my cheek. Mmm… she smells good. I bury my face in her
neck and take a deep breath.

“Let’s go
home,” I whisper in her ear, smiling as she shivers.

“We just got
here,” she giggles and pushes me playfully away.

“I don’t
care.”

“Get your
nose out of the poor girl’s ear, Isaac. She’ll go deaf.” Jules is glaring at
us, so I decide to taunt her. I am, after all, her big brother. It’s my job.

“Nat?” I
ask, not taking my eyes off my gorgeous wife.

“Yeah?” I
can hear her smile.

“Take
Sophie for a sec?”

“Sure.”

Sophie is
lifted out of our lap and I fold Stace into my arms and look into her sexy
hazel eyes. They’re glowing, in that way they do when she’s turned on, and it
makes my cock twitch. She gives me a sassy little smirk.

“You love
pissing Jules off, don’t you?” she whispers.

I just
grin and kiss her, deeply, teasing her lips with my own, dip my tongue in her
mouth, and then pull back, kiss her nose and her forehead and settle her
against my chest.

“Puke,”
Jules mutters.

“What is
it with you and PDA?” Brynna asks, walking back into the room from the deck.
Matt’s on the phone in the kitchen, in the middle of a heated discussion, eyes
on Brynna.

I wonder
if something’s going on there?

But then
Bryn glances at Caleb and flushes pink when he catches her gaze and offers her
a grin.

I’m so not
getting mixed into that. No fucking way.

“I don’t
mind PDA if I’m the one receiving it,” Jules responds casually. “I just don’t
need to see my family doing it.”

“Prude,”
Nat murmurs and kisses Sophie on the cheek.

“Don’t be
a bitch, Nat.” Jules responds.

Natalie
sticks her tongue out at her and everyone chuckles.

“How have
you been feeling, Stacy?” my mom asks from the floor, where she’s coloring with
the twins. “Isaac mentioned that you’d been having headaches.”

Stacy
tenses in my arms, and I feel her inhale sharply.

What
the fuck?

“Oh,” she
nuzzles my chest with her cheek. “I’m fine. No headaches for a few days now.”

“Good.”
Mom nods and goes back to the girls, but I’m not buying it. I grasp Stacy’s
chin with my thumb and forefinger and tilt her head back to look at me. She
looks a bit apprehensive and bites her delicious bottom lip.

“What?”
she asks.

“You and I
need to talk,” I mutter and kiss her again.

“Oh, we’ll
talk,” she mutters under her breath.

Before I
can pick her up and carry her out of the room to demand some answers, dinner is
served by the catering crew that Luke hired. He decided, and I agreed, that
cooking for this many people was too much to ask of any of our women. They
should enjoy the holiday too, so from here on out, family gatherings will be
catered.

Except
barbeques in the summer because my dad would have a stroke if he didn’t man the
grill himself.

And I
can’t blame him.

Dinner
brings more chaos of brothers ragging on each other and stealing each other’s
food, kids spilling drinks, and women discussing shopping, spa treatments,
movies and fashion. At least, that’s what our women discuss because the whole
lot of them are girly girls, and honestly, I wouldn’t have them any other way.

Stacy
smiles sweetly up at me as I pass her another roll. She likes to dip the bread
in her gravy. Fuck, I’ll give her any damn thing she wants. I may not be Luke
Williams wealthy, but my girls will never want for anything.

“Stacy,
would you like a glass of wine?” Jules asks. “I brought your favorite.”

“Oh, um,”
she pauses and wipes her mouth with her green napkin. “No, thanks. I’ll take
some more hot cider, though.”

“No wine?”
I ask.

She shakes
her head.

Huh.

Finally,
dinner is done, and everyone moves into the living area to exchange gifts and
relax. My mom grabs Soph and settles into the rocker Stacy and I vacated
earlier.

I’m so
excited for this. I was going to wait to give Stace this gift tomorrow morning
at home, for our first Christmas as a family, but I just can’t wait.

“Okay, so,
I’m the oldest, so I get to give my gift first,” I announce to the room.

“Yeah, you
better go first, old man, ‘cause in about ten minutes you’ll forget what
holiday this is,” Will quips, earning a high-five from Caleb. I glare at them
and pull a small box, wrapped in gold with a cream bow, out from under the tree
and hand it to my wife.

“We didn’t
bring this from home,” she says with a smile on her pretty lips as she looks
down at it.

“Nope,” I
respond. “Open it.”

She gently
pulls the ribbon off the box, and begins to ever so fucking carefully pull the
tape off the sides.

“For God’s
sake, woman, just open it,” I growl at her, making her laugh. She knows I hate
it when she does this.

“I like
the paper,” she murmurs.

“I’ll buy
you a whole roll of the shit, open the damn thing!” Will yells from across the
room, stuffing more pumpkin pie in his mouth.

“Jesus,
man, didn’t you just have two pieces of that?” Caleb asks him.

“Shut up.
Christmas.” He mumbles from around the food.

“Don’t
talk with your mouth full!” Mom yells at him, and Stacy and I laugh with each
other.

Yep, it’s
a Montgomery Christmas.

“Open it,”
I whisper.

She pulls
the paper off and frowns at the soft blue Tiffany box. “Tiffany?” she asks.

“He’s got
good taste,” Natalie boasts.

“Yes, he
does,” Stacy murmurs and opens the box. Inside is a platinum pendant and chain.
The pendant is in the shape of a heart.

She pulls
it out and smiles softly.

“Turn it
over.”

“What is
this?”

“What is
it?” Samantha asks. The girls are all straining their necks to see.

“It’s
Sophie’s fingerprint.”

Stacy’s
hazel eyes meet mine as they fill with tears. “This is her fingerprint?”

“Oh, what
a lovely gift,” Luke’s mom sighs.

“Yeah, I
thought you’d like to always have a piece of her with you, even if she’s not
with you.” I shrug, feeling kind of silly, but she gives me that wide, special
smile and I know that she loves it.

“It’s
wonderful! Thank you.”

“Here,
Stace,” Nat hands Stacy a box wrapped in silver with a blue bow. It’s the size
of a small shirt box.

“We didn’t
bring this from home either.”

“No, we
didn’t.” She fidgets, not looking me in the eye, and looks suddenly very
nervous.

“Do I get
to open it?” I ask dryly.

She
glances nervously around the room. Brynna gives her a discreet thumbs up and
Natalie smiles brightly at her, and now I’m dying to know what’s in this damn
box.

“Maybe we
should wait until we’re home.”

“Oh hell
no!” Caleb and Luke yell out together. There are moans and boos, and she winces
and looks back up at me, biting her lower lip.

“Hey,” I
cup her face in my hands and smile down at this amazing woman that I’m lucky
enough to call mine. “It’s okay. Whatever it is, I’ll love it.”

She
swallows hard and whispers so low I can barely hear it, “I hope so.”

She hands
me the box and, because I’m a smart ass, I start to slowly unwrap it the way
she always does and she giggles.

“Unless
you want to die, speed it up, brother,” Caleb growls.

I make
quick work of the bow and paper and open the lid.

And my
world stops.

It’s a
black and white photo of Sophie. She’s sitting up on a hardwood floor with
Christmas lights all around her. She has a Santa hat on that’s just a little
too big. Her big eyes are laughing happily at the camera. But propped up next
to her is a piece of paper, and on it are the words:

I’m
going to be a big sister. Merry Christmas!

My eyes
shoot to Stacy’s and she’s got tears flowing down her cheeks.

“What?” I
breathe.

She just
nods.

I shake my
head and look at the photo again and feel my own eyes fill. We’re having
another baby?
Now?

But how?

“But…”

“I know,
it’s soon, but the doctor confirmed it the other day.”

“Is
this…?” I don’t even have to finish my question before she’s nodding
frantically.

“Yes.”

“Oh my God.”
I look up at our family, all staring at us with a mixture of curiosity and
wonder. Brynna is crying – of course she already knew – and Natalie is rubbing
her own belly serenely. “We’re having another baby!”

“Holy
shit, I’m getting the beer!” Will runs for the kitchen for the celebratory beer
and everyone else rushes around us, pulling us into hugs, slapping me on the
back. It’s a blur of smiles and tears and hands and hugs.

Finally my
wife is back in my arms and I’m kissing her with all I have. Jules doesn’t even
dare say anything about this public display of affection.

I pull
back, and wipe her tears off her cheeks with my thumbs. My God, after all these
years of praying and hoping and trying so fucking hard to add to our family,
it’s finally happening.

“I love
you,” she whispers in her sweet soft voice.

I bury my
face in her neck, breathe in her sweet Stacy scent and murmur, “God, I love you
too. Merry Christmas.”

THE END

The WITH
ME IN SEATTLE series continues in Book Two, FIGHT WITH ME, Jules and Nate’s
story. This book releases on January 4, 2013.

As a
special treat, here is an exclusive look at the prologue of FIGHT WITH ME…

*Please
note; this is not the final version. Content may change in final editing.

Prologue

Summer

My back
hits the wall with a light thud, and Nate’s face is buried in my throat, his
hands on my ass, skirt hiked up around my waist, pulling me up so he can cradle
his still-covered erection in the apex of my thighs. I pull the hair-tie out of
his thick, inky black hair and run my hands through it, holding on to him. I’ve
never seen his hair down before; he always ties it back at the nape of his
neck, and it’s so sexy. It falls just above his shoulders, framing that
impossibly handsome face of his that makes my insides quiver and my mouth go
dry every time he looks at me.

But he’s
never looked at me the way he is right now, in the semi-dark hallway, in the
middle of his apartment, just outside his bedroom. His gray eyes are burning as
he rocks his pelvis against mine.

“Do you
know how beautiful you are, Julianne,” he murmurs. “I need you naked, now.” He
picks me up, hands still braced on my ass, and I wrap myself around him. He
carries me into his bedroom, and I’m suddenly standing before him, and we are a
tangle of arms and greedy hands, pulling and grasping clothes, flinging them
haphazardly about the room. He doesn’t turn the lights on, so I can’t see him
anymore, but oh, those hands. I don’t know how many times I’ve sat in a
meeting, watching these beautiful, large hands, and now they’re on me.

Everywhere.

His mouth
is on mine, his hands in my blonde hair, and he’s kissing me with a fervor that
makes my knees week. He’s a really good kisser. Excellent.

Fucking
amazing.

He picks
me up again, cradling me in his arms this time and lays me down on the bed. The
sheets are soft and cool against my naked backside, and I wish I could see him
in all his naked glory. I’ve been daydreaming about a naked Nate since he
became my boss almost a year ago. I have a feeling there is a fine, fine body
lurking under all those expertly tailored business suits.

Nate
follows me onto the bed, and I run my hands up his stomach, over his chest, and
up to his shoulders.

Holy fuck,
he’s built, and his skin is warm and smooth and …
oh my.
His hands are cradling
my face, kissing me tenderly now, biting and nibbling my lips, and then he
leans on one elbow at the side of my head and sends his other hand down my
neck, over my breast, teasing the taut nipple with his fingers, and farther
south, slowly finding his target.