Accidentally Under Your Tree (Grand Ridge Christmas #1)

10. Will

ten

Will

Five nights before Christmas

Being a gentleman was the damned worst. My entire body was sore from sleeping on the floor—but it'd be too weird to share a bed with Rose. So, I'd made a pathetic nest on the carpet with as many extra blankets and pillows as we could sneak into the spare bedroom without her parents noticing.

I stretched my arm across my chest and my shoulder cracked while Rose drooled on a pillow that looked like a cloud. Stepping into the hallway, I resisted shaking her awake out of vengefulness.

I followed the smell of coffee to the kitchen. Only to find Lizzy.

Her hair was in a bun on top of her head, and she wore a burgundy robe tied around her waist. Fluffy slippers covered her feet. Her ankles were bare. So bare…

I didn't think I'd ever been more aware of another person's ankles. I felt like an olden times pervert, lusting over the smooth skin peaking between her slippers and pajama pants.

"Good morning." She swiped a hand over the wild strands of her hair curling around her shoulders.

I cleared my throat, but my voice still sounded scraped with gravel with my reply. "Good morning."

With a mug covered in cat faces, she gestured over her shoulder. "There's coffee," she said, at the same time I said, "I smelled coffee."

My smile was a mirror of hers—small, embarrassed, careful.

The night before, I'd finished my beer while trying not to notice the adorable pink that filled Lizzy's cheeks every time I looked at her. Shay and Rose did most of the talking—something about a decorating competition. The conversation didn't capture my attention long enough to retain any details.

Her gaze cast down to her slipper covered toes, and my heart ached. This was not how I wanted to know her. If this were a different morning, I'd have woken up next to her. Or I'd find her in the kitchen and pull her against my chest, breathe in the floral scent of her hair. The same smell I'd been craving since I had her underneath me in a hotel bed.

The memory washed over me like electric sparks on my skin. I closed my eyes to it, but there was no blocking out the remembered taste of her on my tongue or the way her thighs twitched over my shoulders.

"Are you okay?" The floor creaked as she took a step closer.

Stuffing my hand in the pocket of my basketball shorts, I adjusted the very sudden and very unwelcome semi.

When I opened my eyes, she was still a few feet away. Her brown gaze concerned, and her soft, pink lips parted. She must have interpreted the path my thoughts had wandered down because her eyes flicked down to my shorts.

Her mouth pulled into a silent, "Oh."

Under my fingernails, the stubble on my neck rustled with my nervous scratching. "Sorry."

She covered her mouth with her free hand, clearly hiding a smile.

"Is this funny?"

She lifted one shoulder. "Boners are funny," she whispered.

I snorted, and she pressed her finger to her lips to shush me. We contained our laughter from growing too loud. The shame and betrayal I'd seen in her eyes the night before was gone. Replaced by a secret that only we shared. A silliness that did nothing to quell my growing… problem .

"You're not helping the situation," I groaned, forcing myself to not close the distance between us.

"I'm not even doing anything."

"You don't have to."

"Should I go back to my room?"

Self-preservation would say, yes . What good could come from this? Was there a reality where Lizzy and I could have more than a hidden fling some day?

But the golden morning sunlight cast her in shades I didn't want to turn away from, so I shook my head.

Her teeth pressed into her lower lip. "Why don't you take a seat at the counter while you…take care of that."

"Take care of it?"

"I don't know… tend to it?"

"At the kitchen counter?"

She struggled to control the smile dominating her face and lost. "You know what I mean."

Placing the island between us, I sat on the stool and tapped my fingers on the quartz countertop. "Don't mind me, I'm tending ."

She giggled, her cheeks turning bright pink. "Stop it. How do you like your coffee? I'll grab it for you."

"Lots of cream, little sugar."

She opened the refrigerator door. I watched her move around the kitchen. She stretched up onto her toes to grab a mug, revealing more of her slutty ankles. It didn't take long before she set a full, steaming cup in front of me.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

I held her gaze as I lifted the liquid to my mouth, taking a sip as she took a drink of hers. The delicate muscles of her neck flexed.

What I wouldn't give to scrape my teeth up the tender skin of her throat—

"Good morning," Jim—her dad —greeted us.

Somehow, I didn't sputter my coffee in my surprise, instead I swallowed way too much, and it burned the entire way down. I blinked back the tears filling my eyes.

On the plus side, my erection had practically deflated.

"Morning," Lizzy chirped, her shoulders rigid. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine. Thanks for brewing coffee, sweetheart."

"Sure thing!"

"Mornin', Will."

I nodded my head once. "Jim," I groaned, my throat still burning.

"I see you met Lizzy."

"At the bar," she explained, then a little too quickly she added, " last night."

"Is that where you two ran off to?" He directed the question to me.

"Yup." I coughed once into my fist. "Nice place."

"It is. That Ben is a smart young man. You all doin' the Christmas Tree Decorating Contest today?"

Lizzy shifted her weight to one hip and raised an eyebrow at her dad. "You think Mom and Rose would sit this out?"

"Them? No. But you do some years."

"I'll tag along."

"Wait…" I scowled into the middle distance, the inkling of a memory tickling the back of my mind. "Would there be a vision board for this? Something to do with… What is that ballet?"

They exchanged a vexed glance before answering in unison, "Swan Lake."

Jim shook his head. "There are so many feathers in my basement."

"And other design elements," Rose said through a yawn. She padded barefoot to kiss her dad on the cheek. "Morning, Anne."

Lizzy blinked, her mug paused on the way to her lips. "Good morning."

"What about your young man? No kiss to start his day?" Jim asked. He might have been joking but judging by Rose's deer-in-the-headlights expression, she had experienced the same jolt of terror that I had.

"It-it's okay," I stammered. "We already did, in the bedroom."

She tilted her head saying without saying, What the fuck?

"Not like that ," I rambled on.

Jim's eyebrows shot up.

"You know, not like that ."

"Yes, son, I believe I know."

"Yeah, you know."

"Oh my God," Rose groaned, her palm pressed to her forehead.

"Why did you emphasize 'you' like that?" Lizzy asked.

And lord help me, there was the sweetest affection set in her warm eyes. It was the lifeline I needed to close my mouth—to stop digging deeper into the humiliating hole I was about six-feet deep in.

"If I kiss you, will you stop talking?" Rose had already rounded the kitchen island. Placing her hands on both sides of my face, she turned my head toward her and away from Lizzy.

Then her tightly closed mouth was on mine.

And it was…not good.