Christmas Kiss Read online

  © Copyright 2017 Micalea Smeltzer

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidenta l .

  Cover Design: Cover Couture

  “Sleigh bells ring, are you listening, in the lane snow is glistening.”

  I smiled as I walked past the carolers singing. Living in a small town had its perks now and then.

  My book dug into my arm as I adjusted my scarf so it covered more of my face. Up here in Maine it was freezing with a good foot of snow already on the ground with Christmas a week away. I grew up mostly in Florida until I was about twelve and my dad got a transfer to here. But even with eight years to acclimate myself, I still hadn’t quite adjusted to the frigid cold.

  Often, in the winter months, I found myself dreaming of palm trees and sandy beaches.

  I always woke up in the end and that sucked the most.

  I was only a block from my parent’s house when I hit the ice.

  A scream tore out of my throat as I slid, my arms flailing. You’d think by now I’d be used to the slippery conditions, but no.

  “Whoa there,” a warm husky voice sounded behind me.

  I started.

  That voice.

  It couldn’t be.

  No.

  Once I was steady and had taken a breath, I turned around.

  Sure enough, there he stood.

  “Dylan.” My voice quavered.

  I hadn’t seen Dylan Carmichael since the year he’d graduated high school—two years before me.

  He’d filled out more since I last saw him, even with his bulky coat I could see the outline of thick-corded muscle, his cheeks were thick with scruff where they’d once been bare, and his hair fell messily over his forehead. His warm brown eyes were looking at me with surprise, and maybe a little desire—but I might’ve been imagining it.

  “Penny,” he replied, his eyes gliding over me from head to toe.

  I shivered and instantly cursed myself.

  He was the one man who had ever had this affect on me and he left.

  “What are you doing here?” My voice was soft and wispy.

  “Home for the holidays.”

  “Oh.” I shook my head. “Right.”

  But my best friend, Liz, his sister, hadn’t told me he was coming back. It wasn’t like her to leave this kind of news out. Not since he’d left for NYU and never looked back. It’d been a sore subject with her parents and even her. They’d been so proud of him for getting in and pursuing a degree in film, but when he never came back … well that didn’t go over well for many different reasons.

  “Well … um.” I stepped away awkwardly. “I guess I’ll be seeing you then.”

  My cheeks heated as I realized how monumental him being home actually was and what it meant for me.

  My stomach rolled.

  He nodded and as I turned and continued up the street I felt his eyes on me.

  I reached my parents house and opened the unlocked front door.

  I heard everyone in the kitchen and headed that way with a smile on my face.

  My parents were making gingerbread cookies with my daughter Mya who sat on Liz’s lap.

  “Mommy!” Mya cried, and dashed into my arms, knocking the book out of my hands where it clattered to the floor.

  I grabbed her and hugged her close.

  “Hey, baby girl.” I kissed her cheek and brushed her dark hair off her forehead looking into her brown eyes. She rubbed her nose against mine and smiled.

  “We’re making gingerbread cookies. You wanna help?”

  “Of course.”

  She took my hand and led me to the table, pulling out an empty chair for me.

  “Thanks, sweetie.” I lifted her up into my lap.

  “I know it’s cold out,” my dad began, “but you look awfully red-faced.”

  I frowned and grabbed a cookie and some icing. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Dylan was a sore topic around here.

  Mya began decorating her own cookie and then spread icing on her finger, poking my nose.

  “What was that for?” I asked her and she giggled.

  “You look mad. I want you to smile.”

  “I’m sorry. Is this better?” I smiled for her and she nodded.

  If there was one thing in this world that could make me smile when I was having a bad day it was Mya.

  “You’re still coming for dinner on Christmas Eve?” my mom asked.

  Her gray hair was cut short, and there were wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, but she was still beautiful. She wore one of those ugly Christmas sweaters she always insisted the whole family wore on Christmas day—but she wore them all month, so at least we escaped that wrath.

  “Yeah, of course. We’re here every year,” I laughed.

  “Your brothers are coming in tomorrow,” she reminded me. “Will you pick them up from the airport? I can’t now, Sherry next door—her husband just died, you know—asked me to go Christmas tree shopping with her and I couldn’t say no.”

  “Uh, what time?”

  “One o’ clock.”

  “Yeah, I’m closing the store early tomorrow. Mya and I are going ice-skating. So we can get them.” I tickled her side and she giggled.

  After I graduated high school with a two-year-old, college wasn’t an option for me, so I took over managing our family’s bookstore. It wasn’t what I’d once dreamed for my life, but dreams change. I was happy here, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

  “I’m sure they’ll be excited to see Mya.”

  My twin older brothers had moved back to Florida after they graduated, but still managed to visit every Christmas and for a week in the summer. I missed them so much, but I knew they were happier there.

  “Are you excited to see Uncle Corey and Cramer?” I asked Mya.

  She lit up. “Yes! They always bring me presents.”

  I shook my head. “You know life isn’t all about presents, right?”

  She giggled. “Of course, mommy, but presents are fun.”

  My parents laughed.

  Getting pregnant at sixteen definitely hadn’t been planned but I was lucky to have parents who cared so much. They stood by me the whole way and loved Mya like she was their own. It made being away from her when I was working easier, knowing she was here with them.

  An hour passed with us decorating Christmas cookies before I finally stood with a sleepy Mya wrapped around me like a sloth.

  “I need to get this one to bed.”

  “Here, let me get you some leftovers.” My mom jumped up from the table. “I know you’ll get home and forget to eat.”

  She was right. There were too many nights I went to sleep on an empty stomach. I was so busy though that there was little time to think of food.

  She grabbed the food and the book and handed it to Liz who was also on her way out.

  My car was parked on the street. I often left it there and walked to work, even in the cold. It wasn’t far and I liked the time to clear my head.

  I unlocked my car and strapped Mya into her car seat before taking the book and Tupperware from Liz and placing those on the floor of the car.

  “I need to talk to you but let me start the car.”

  I didn’t want Mya to cold.

  Liz nodded and waited by the mailbox for me to return. Holding my coat close to me I let out a breath.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Dylan is back?” I blurted o
ut the words like I was ripping off a Band-Aid.

  Her mouth dropped. “Dylan’s not back.”

  “Uh … yeah he is. He literally saved me from falling on my ass before I got here tonight.”

  She shook her head. “This is news to me. Must be to my parents too. They would’ve said something to me.”

  I clenched my teeth and looked away down the street, my eyes blinded by all the twinkling lights.

  “He doesn’t know about Mya.”

  Liz knew this of course.

  She pulled a face. “He lost the right to know about her when he left and refused to talk to any of us. He changed his phone number for God’s sake. Like what did any of us ever do to him?” Her face grew redder and redder as she spoke.

  I sighed. “I have a good thing going here and I can’t have him ruining this.”

  She nodded. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  Leave it to Dylan to continue to find ways to fuck up my life even now.

  “Mya and I have been fine without him for four years. I don’t want him getting any ideas,” I warned Liz threateningly even though she wasn’t the one I’m mad at.

  She raised her hands in defense. “I’ll be the first to tell him to fuck off, you know that.”

  “I’m sorry.” I pinched my nose. “It’s just … Mya is mine . I don’t want to fight with him if he finds out.”

  “It’s a small town,” she whispered softly. “You know someone will tell him.”

  I sighed and looked up at the starry night sky, the echoes of carolers several blocks over reaching my ears.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  I lay in bed staring up at the ceiling.

  It was three in the morning and sleep had yet to come.

  All I could think about was Dylan being back.

  Dylan, who left before I found out I was pregnant, and then basically fell off the face of the planet. I’d been left a teen mom, raising a daughter while trying to finish high school. It’d been the hardest thing I’d ever done, but I succeeded.

  I was stubborn like that.

  I heard a pounding on the apartment door and sat straight up.

  I lived a town over from my parents and it wasn’t quite as safe—especially my apartment complex. They’d begged me to move back in with them, but I liked Mya and I having our own place.

  I threw my robe over my nightgown and grabbed the baseball bat from behind my closet door.

  Holding it tightly I crept toward the door.

  The pounding continued.

  “I know you live here, Pen. Open the God damn door.”

  Fire ignited in my veins and I threw the door open. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  I stepped outside and eased the door closed behind me.

  He looked a mess, his teeth chattering and his hair mused like he’d been running his hands incessantly through it.

  “Why are you here?” I repeated. “You have no right to be here.”

  “I have every fucking right to be here.”

  My stomach dropped.

  “Go.” The word bit between my lips.

  He shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

  “Are you drunk?”

  He glared at me. “More fucking sober than I’ve been in my entire life—I assure you.”

  I sighed. “Dylan. Can we do this some other time?”

  His eyes dropped to my chest and I realized my robe had fallen off my shoulders and my nipples were pebbled against my nightgown.

  I made a noise and quickly wrapped the robe around me.

  “We’re talking now .” His voice left no room for argument. “But maybe we should do it inside.”

  “No,” I bit out. “We can do it here.”

  “Always so stubborn,” he muttered. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me we had a kid? A daughter? ”

  “Um…” I pretended to think, finger on my chin and hip jutted out. “Maybe because you left, changed your number, and no one could get ahold of you. It wasn’t exactly fun , you know? Finding out I was pregnant, and having to tell my parents and yours. Fuck, Liz didn’t even know about us then. Thankfully she couldn’t even be mad at me because she was too mad at you.”

  His nostrils flared. “I wanted a clean slate.”

  “I’m glad one of us got that,” I sneered.

  “It wasn’t all I thought it’d be.” He rubbed the back of his head, his voice soft.

  “Well, goody for you. If that’s all I’ll be going to bed.”

  I started to open the door but his hand shot out blocking me.

  “I’m back.”

  “And?” I prompted.

  “That’s my daughter.”

  I shook my head roughly. “You lost the right to call her that when you vanished never to be heard from again.”

  He continued like I hadn’t spoken.

  “And I still love you.”

  I snorted. “Fuck you, Dylan. Fuck. You. ”

  His eyes dilated. “I’d very much like to fuck you.”

  I pushed his chest. “Go away.”

  His hands captured mine and my breath stuttered out of me. His hands nearly swallowed mine whole. I suddenly realized how large he was compared to me. He’d always been bigger than me but suddenly he seemed larger than life.

  “Let me go.”

  He didn’t.

  Of course he didn’t.

  And if I was honest with myself I liked him touching me. I was seriously disturbed. I was supposed to hate him, he abandoned me, but for some reason I just couldn’t.

  “I’m back ,” he growled lowly. “I came back for you. And I’m not going anywhere.”

  His eyes bored into mine and I felt myself weakening.

  Dylan had always been able to get at me and I hated him for it.

  “Stop,” I begged. “I don’t need you.”

  He crowded into me until my whole world was made up of him. All I could see, smell, and even taste was him.

  “Well I sure as fuck need you.”

  His lips descended on mine so fast I didn’t have a chance to blink or even think.

  Then, I was kissing him back, my treacherous body melting into him the same way it used to when we were two kids making out in the back of his car.

  All those old feelings came rushing back, squashing out the hate I’d built up over the years—reminding me that as much as I thought I hated him, I never had and never could.

  He lifted me up, his hands on my ass, and pushed the door open as he carried me inside.

  He moaned, his tongue sweeping into my mouth.

  In the back of my mind I kept thinking I was going to wake up and find that all of this had been a dream, but then he was finding his way into my room, and laying me on the bed.

  He let me go and stood back, staring at me on the bed.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he growled. “Not a day has gone by when I don’t think about you.”

  “Then why’d you leave?” I whispered softly, my lips swollen and bruised from his rough kiss.

  “I thought I was lost,” he confessed, his eyes flashing in the dark. “But I wasn’t. I’ve found my way back home now, to you, to our daughter. This is where I’ve always belonged. I’m sorry I lost sight of that.”

  He removed his scarf and coat and let them fall to the floor.

  Leaning down to me on the bed, his face inches from mine, he whispered, “We’re a family and I won’t let you push me away. You’re mine.”

  I closed my eyes.

  When he first left, this was the moment I dreamed of, but when years passed with no contact I gave up on that silly dream.

  But here he was, finally, after all this time, and I didn’t have it in my heart to push him away.

  “Yes.” I licked my lips. “Yours.”

  His lips tilted into a smirk and he backed away once more, tearing his shirt off over the top of his head and his hands going to his belt. His jeans pooled onto the floor, and his cock strained against his boxer-briefs.

&nbs
p; “I’m going to show you exactly how much you’re mine,” he growled and I shivered.

  I sat up and he reached for my robe, pushing it off my shoulders.

  My heart roared in my ears.

  Are you really doing this Penny? Have you absolutely lost your mind?

  I must have, but I didn’t find myself caring.

  Maybe it was the fact that I hadn’t had sex in four years, but I couldn’t seem to find my senses.

  I stood up, our chests a breath apart. He towered above me. I felt small, but safe with him closing in around me.

  Boldly, I placed my hands on his rock hard stomach and glided them up his chest to his shoulders.

  His whole body shuddered.

  “It’s been too long,” he whispered into the dark. “Have you … has anyone?” He ventured to ask me.

  I shook my head. “No. No one’s ever been you.”

  He closed his eyes and a look of pure relief came over him. “Thank fuck for that.”

  His fingers found the bottom of my silky nightgown and I lifted my arms so he could raise it over my head. It dropped to the carpeted floor with his coat and shirt.

  “Fuck you’re going to kill me.”

  His big hands came up to cup my breasts. I worried he wouldn’t like them now, they weren’t as perky and firm as they’d been the last time he saw them, but from the way he was looking at them my worries had been for nothing.

  He lowered his head, swirling his tongue around my pebbled nipple.

  “Dylan,” I gasped raggedly, clutching at his dark hair.

  He moved his mouth to the other breast and gave it the same treatment.

  Then his hungry mouth returned to mine. He kissed me like he was trying to brand himself on me, but Dylan Carmichael had been branded on my soul since I was a small child who fell out of a tree house and he rescued me.

  He broke the kiss and before he could push me onto the bed again I dropped to my knees.

  I grabbed the band of his boxer-briefs and lowered them. His cock sprung free, the head purple and aching with desperate need for release.

  He stepped out of them and I grabbed the base of his cock.

  “Pen,” he cried in a shaky voice when I lowered my mouth around him.

  He was hard and thick, and I couldn’t fit much in my mouth but I did what I could.

  I hadn’t sucked him long when he urged me up.