Page 56 of The Christmas Tree Farm

‘Yeah. I opened it in front of my grandma. It was mortifying.’

‘Oh, God, no!’

‘It got worse when she saw what it was and said “Oh good, a practical gift, you’ll get a lot of use out of that.”’

Kira was nearly rolling off the couch with laughter now, gasping for breath as she sat up. ‘That is amazing.’

‘At the time it was the worst. I didn’t masturbate for like months after that. Every time I saw the lube, I thought of my grandma.’

Kira snorted. ‘Why did you keep it, then?’ She was laughing so hard, tears were streaming down her face and the trauma of his grandmother commenting on his lube usage was totally worth it for this moment of seeing Kira completely undone.

‘I don’t know! It seemed rude to throw a gift away.’ He laughed, too, more than he had in a while. The kind of laughter that makes your stomach hurt and you forget why you’re laughing but you can’t seem to stop. It felt good. It felt like maybe he’d been missing something for a while and hadn’t noticed, hadn’t even realized it until right now.

Kira sighed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

‘Thanks,’ she said, still smiling at him. ‘I needed that.’

‘Yeah, I think I did, too.’

She held his gaze, her hazel eyes warm in the glow of the fire. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to pull her close to him again. He wanted her naked and panting beneath him.

He suddenly wanted a lot from Kira North.

‘How about lunch?’ she said.

‘Uh … sure.’

‘Okay, follow me. I’m sure we can find something…’

He grabbed her hand and pulled her back down to the couch. Her eyes went wide.

‘Wait.’ His voice was gruffer than he’d meant it to be, but he’d spent the morning with Kira curled around him, her breasts against his arm and her legs nudging his cock and he just needed to know which way this day was headed. Was there a chance this could go further?

‘Okay…’

‘Can I do something first?’

Kira arched an eyebrow, a small smile tugging at her lips like she knew exactly what he wanted to do. And she wanted it, too.

‘What is it you want to do, Bennett?’

He brought a hand to her face, cupping her jaw, his fingers in the hair at the nape of her neck. Her eyes fluttered closed.

‘There’s a lot of things I want to do, but how about we start with this?’ He dipped his head and kissed her, a soft touch, a gentle nudge of his mouth against hers, so light that he could feel the delicate curve of her smile.

‘That’s a good start,’ she whispered, pressing her forehead to his for a breath. ‘Let’s try a few more things.’ She kissed him back and he knew then that she’d been thinking about this just as much as he had. There were things she wanted to do to him, too, ways she wanted to kiss him and touch him, and it was so nice to not be in this feeling alone.

She ran her fingers through his hair as she deepened the kiss, her tongue sweet and warm against his. A soft groan rumbled in her throat and Bennett was undone. His hands were on her waist and he was pulling her on top of him before he could think better of it. He kissed her, deep and strong and urgent, now that this experiment had started, he didn’t want to stop. She straddled him, those beautiful legs bracketing his, and he traced her thighs with his fingers. Kira wriggled in his lap and he thought he might die.

‘Kira,’ he ground out, stilling her hips with his hands.

She looked at him with a wicked grin on her beautiful mouth. ‘I think I was wrong about you,’ she said, rocking just slightly forward.

He groaned and dropped his head to the back of the couch. ‘Oh, yeah?’

‘Yeah, I thought you were too … wholesome.’ She whispered the words against his exposed neck, following them with her tongue.

Bennett squeezed her ass and she yelped.