Lone Star Christmas Mission (Hard Justice #9.5)

Chapter Ten

Kayla woke from her nap to two amazing things. A Christmas tree and a naked Cash with her on the sofa, a spot they’d returned to shortly after they’d taken a post-sex shower together.

Where they’d had more sex.

Both times Cash had no doubt been worried about her having a panic attack, but it hadn’t come. Just the opposite. Both the before and after part of the sex had been pure pleasure.

And she was looking forward to more of that pleasure.

She stared up at him, not surprised to see that he was wide awake. She’d spent most of the day napping, recovering from the adrenaline crash, but he seemed to need no such downtime.

However, he might need thinking time. Some hours, or days, alone to try to sort everything that’d happened in the past thirty-six or so hours. That’s why Kayla had decided to hold off on telling him how she felt about him.

“I always thought you were my soulmate,” he blurted, and she wasn’t sure who was more surprised by that, him or her.

Surprised, but in her case, very pleased. It was a nice sensation to go along with her sated body.

“Soulmate, huh?” she repeated.

He cursed and generally looked miserable about his confession. “You don’t have to say or do anything—”

“I like the sound of that. Soulmate,” she said again, smiling around the word. “It’s sort of like Christmas.”

Cash lifted his eyebrow, beckoning for her to explain.

“Two happy words,” she tried. “Both filled with…stuff,” Kayla settled for saying. “Good stuff,” she amended. “Happiness, joy, and love stuff.”

The surprise came again, both to Cash and her, and she knew exactly what had put that shock in his eyes.

The l-word.

He probably hadn’t been ready to hear that, but she decided to finish what she’d started.

“When we were in the fight for our lives, there was one thought that kept going through my head,” she explained. “Well, two thoughts actually. One was I didn’t want to lose you, and the other was that I’m in love with you. I have been since I was eight, and you spent your last dollar, literally, to buy me a replacement ice cream cone.”

The corner of his mouth lifted into a near smile. “That’s when you fell in love with me?”

She nodded and because she couldn’t help herself, Kayla kissed him. The heat and pleasure began to stir again.

He eased back from her so they were eye to eye and breath to breath. “I fell in love with you before that,” he said.

Kayla thought that might be BS, but then that wasn’t a BS kind of look in his eyes.

“Soulmate,” he repeated, and Cash snapped his fingers. “It happened the first time I saw you, and it’s never stopped. Never,” he emphasized.

Kayla felt a new sensation blending with the pleasure and heat. She felt the love and realized it had always been there. Right from the start.

“So, what do soulmates do on Christmas?” she asked, nipping his bottom lip with her teeth.

Cash nipped her lip right back. “They kiss, make love and say a lot of I love you’s. It’s the perfect gift,” he added.

Yes, it was. The soulmate trifecta. And Kayla decided to get started with another round of that gift giving. She latched onto Cash and pulled him to her for a long Christmas kiss.