Page 33 of Wrapped in Red

His lips found mine in the dark, and everything I wanted to say was lost as he kissed me like his life depended on it.

Chapter Ten

Ezra

When I woke up, I immediatelyreached for CC, only to find him gone. Did he leave? I couldn’t blame him. I had gotten all stupid and clingy with him last night. That wasn’t normally how I was. It had to be the sex with him making me like that. I pressed my face into the pillow he had slept on and took a deep breath. God, why did he smell so good? All sexy and manly. I curled onto my side, trying to figure out how to handle what had happened.

No more sex with strangers If I wanted my best friend. No more dealing withhim. We broke up months ago, anyway, and he had that restraining order. He wasn’t even supposed—Nope. Not going there. I shook him out of my head. I could do that. Iwoulddo that for CC. But having him take care of me sounded a little too domestic. I had never wanted the whole white fence, dog, and kids’ thing, like CC.

The sound of footsteps had me sitting up. Wait, was he still here?

I dragged myself out of bed, grabbed CC’s shirt from the top of the hamper, and slipped it on over my head before I came face to face with him walking out of my spare room.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Good morning to you too. I was putting the empty decoration boxes away.” He smiled. “Sleep well?”

I tilted my head. “Why does it smell so good in here?” I took a step toward him.

“I made cinnamon rolls.”

“You did?”

CC grinned at me. “What, you think I can’t bake like my mother? Who do you think she’s going to pass all the recipes down to? Go freshen up. I’ll warm them up for you.”

I stood there for a second as he walked back down the hall. Cinnamon rolls, decorations, this was all very relationship like. I mean, okay, to be fair, we did this sort of thing before we started sucking each other’s dick, but... I might be freaking out just a little bit. I moved into the bathroom to brush my teeth and splash water on my face. Relief hit me when I saw how much better the bruises looked. I didn’t look like someone’s punching bag anymore, but it was still pretty obvious that someone had taken a fist to my face.

“CC, did you make coff—”

The Christmas tree was up, the lights strung around the branches. The boxes of ornaments sat opened and on the floor. The silver and blue garland hung around the windows. Something fluttered deep inside my belly.

“Hungry?” CC’s voice was in my ear as he wrapped an arm around my waist.

I nodded. “Yeah, I could eat.”

“I saved the ornaments so we could do them together.”