Naughty Elf: Mistletoe (Santa’s Naughty Elf Mates)

Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

RYAN

At the Halls' insistence, I booked a hotel room on Lake Superior. Miz spent the afternoon pumping more breast milk than the babies needed for the night, and then we headed out.

The sun had set by the time we arrived. We checked in and dropped off our bags and then went to dinner at the hotel restaurant facing the lake. Our booth looked out over the dark water, where pinpricks of stars dotted the sky above.

"I've never seen the lake at night." Miz stared out the window, mesmerized by moonlight glistening off the dark water by the shore and ice further out. "It's so peaceful."

I watched him instead, studying the curve of his lips, the relaxed set of his shoulders, and the way his hands rested on the tablecloth. I'd seen him calm and happy before Christmas, sure, but I hadn't realized how much he'd worried Santa would turn him into a figurine, even after he proved he was such a great fit for me.

My blood pounded in my ears and my face burned with the truth. I'd given Miz reason to doubt me. I'd been so wrapped up in my own healing, I hadn't noticed Miz's distress. "I owe you an apology. I should have told you sooner."

"Told me what?" His quizzical gaze snapped back to me.

"I love you. I've been falling in love with you since the night you arrived, since watching you and Ellie play beneath the Christmas tree."

He frowned.

"I didn't say anything because I didn't know it was me, that I was your fated mate. My moose was being difficult, or maybe I didn't want to listen because I was still grieving. I love you, Miz. I'm sorry I let you worry that I didn't. Our vows didn't even say it."

"It's fine," he said. "We're fated mates, and love takes time."

"But it didn't," I insisted.

"Hindsight and all that." Miz rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter. I know you love me now. You said it when it mattered."

"You were so worried for so long." Our server interrupted my groveling, so I had to wait until after we'd ordered.

I opened my mouth to start again once the server vanished with our drink order, but Miz placed his hand over mine. "You don't need to apologize. You didn't have to tell me you loved me. I saw it in your every gesture." He grinned. "I remember how nervous you were when we signed the work contract."

"I thought you would say a relationship outside of work was off the table."

He shook his head. "It was all I ever wanted. Watching Ellie was a treat, but you were the real prize."

"You're only saying that because you knew I was your fated mate."

He nodded. "Yep."

"You didn't say anything!" I tried to keep my voice down, but the diners at the closest table glanced over at us.

"I didn't want to jinx it," he said. "I wanted you to love me for me, not for fate's sake." He covered my hand with his. " I loved you too. I knew you weren't ready to hear it. You needed time to heal."

We'd talked a lot about John on our first date. That was how Miz had convinced me to go to family therapy. Ellie wasn't the only one who needed help dealing with John's death.

"You really are the most wonderful person I've ever known," I said.

"I'm not so great," he said. "I almost burned down Santa's workshop while making Janey's action figure."

I'd seen the plastic figurine. Janey brought it on every sleepover and slept with it under her pillow, which had to be painfully lumpy over the hard plastic.

"I don't care. I still want you." I gazed at him with the open lust I'd been hiding for over a month. I didn't want him to feel guilty for not wanting me back. Before the twins' arrival, he'd ached all over and just wanted them out, already. Now that they were here, we barely had the energy to kiss goodnight before we both fell asleep.

That was the reason John's parents sent us away for the night, to reconnect now that Dru had given Miz the green light for sex.

"Ugh, how?" Miz made a face as he glanced down at his large pecs. "I'm nothing but milk and stretch marks right now."

"I love all of you."

He grinned back at me. "I know. I think you're blind, but you're honest."

I wanted to defend my eyesight and share with him all the ways I found him sexy and gorgeous, but instead, the server returned with our drinks and asked for our orders. Miz wanted cheese sticks for an appetizer, which arrived quickly afterward, and then the food kept coming.

"No dessert," Miz begged the server. "I'm stuffed."

"You will be stuffed soon enough," I said once we were alone again.

He blushed. "It's a good thing I started taking those pills Dru gave me right away. I think I have to take them for a full month before we can be sure I won't get pregnant, though."

"You're not in heat," I reminded him.

"I may never go into heat again, but I assure you, I can still get pregnant." He crossed his arms over his chest with a huff.

I laughed at his pout. "There are plenty of ways we can have sex without getting you pregnant," I reassured him.

Miz's confidence shrank with every step we took back to the elevator. When we arrived at our hotel room on the eighth floor, he collapsed on the bed with his hands over his eyes.

"I don't want you to see me."

"I love looking at you."

"I know, but … please?"

"We can do whatever you want," I reassured him.

"On your hands and knees." He muttered something about his slick, and I agreed. It would be easier for him to prep me with his slick if I presented my ass to him.

The headboard of the queen bed wasn't much to look at. I propped my chest up with pillows so I could reach for Miz's hips later.

"I love your back," Miz said, tracing over the lines of muscle. "All that firewood chopping and playset building looks good on you."

My chuckle cut off when his finger circled my hole, lining it with warm slick.

Miz grabbed my ass cheeks and pushed them apart, making room to insert his finger. I moaned when a second finger breached me, my body gripping against the invasion. I forced my muscles to relax, and he continued to stretch me. Each time he brushed over my prostate, the room temperature went up a few degrees. Soon, I was sweating and begging him to fuck me already.

He left a trail of wet kisses down my spine before finally granting my wish and pressing his cock against my entrance.

"I love feeling your slick inside me," I said, not caring how much I was babbling. I could have lied and said Ellie got her gift of gab from John, but no, that was all me. "You stretch me so good."

Miz snickered against my ribs. "You are such a dork."

"Nungh," I agreed as his cock slid against my prostate.

"What was that?" he asked. "I couldn't hear you."

"So good for me."

He grunted as he adjusted the angle and picked up the pace, nailing my prostate with each thrust. I grabbed his hips to help, increasing his rhythm to a punishing speed. I needed to feel him all the way inside me, imagining his cock could spear my heart, where my love for him was close to spilling over.

"Jingling fuckbells, yes." He pressed his body to mine, one hand flat between my pecs as the other reached for my cock. "I love you so much, Ryan."

Miz's breath was warm on my back as he dug his thumb into my cockhead, the pressure feeling exquisite against my sensitive skin. I cried his name as I came, jetting cum over the stack of pillows beneath me and then dribbling on the comforter.

Miz nipped between my shoulder blades as his hot cum spilled inside me. Not hard enough to mark me, but the pressure sent quakes of pleasure through my body.

Without Miz's body around me, my knot felt uncomfortable in the open air. Miz tried to protest when I laid him out on his back and straddled his legs.

"I did as you asked," I said. "You hid from me, but now it's my turn."

He nodded, his pupils blown from his orgasm, his gaze on my hand as I stroked my knot.

I needed both hands to worship him properly. I stretched out over him, nuzzling his neck and kissing his shoulder until he gasped beneath me and his cock poked me in the hip, as ready for round two as I was.

"I love your chest," I said, kissing from one side to the other, and then taking a nipple in my mouth. The spurt of hot milk surprised me. "You taste so good. No wonder the babies can't get enough."

"Stop it!" Miz batted at my head. I couldn't let his other nipple go without a little nip and a kiss, but no sucking this time. The milk was for our little ones.

I stuck my tongue in his belly button, making him squirm. I didn't linger, though, following his happy trail to the neat triangle of pubic hair around his cock. He was already leaking, dripping onto his belly. I stopped long enough to lap up the puddle before continuing to my objective, his almost hairless balls. I licked and sucked between them and behind, where his slick was forming a puddle on the comforter.

"I think it's time for dessert," I said, shoving his legs apart and canting his hips for better access to his hole. He cried out when I speared his entrance, his fingers spasming on my shoulders. He tried to bring my whole body closer so he could fuck my tongue.

That wouldn't be enough for either of us. I licked him clean and pulled back, sliding three fingers inside instead.

"I need your knot," he whined.

"No more babies, remember?" I teased. I rose up on my knees, my fingers still twisting inside him, angling for his prostate while I resumed stroking my knot-swelled cock.

"I want you to know what I see when I look at you," I said. "You're the father of my twins, and every change in your body reflects what you went through to bring them into the world. I love your stretch marks, your massive pecs, and your love handles."

He cringed a little more with each word, but he had to hear me.

"I love your body because it belongs to you, and you're the most wonderful person in the world. I love you, Miz. All of you. I know I can't make you see what I see, but I hope you understand that I don't see you the same way you see yourself."

He blinked up at me. "You really love all of this."

I nodded. "I do."

"I love you for it," he said. "I will try to love myself as much as I love you."

His earnest words made me smile.

His gaze darkened as I found his prostate. He rolled his hips to match my questing fingers, and I matched his rhythm on my cock.

I meant every word about loving the changes in Miz's body. Each one was a reminder that he'd brought two lives we created into the world.

Miz's body tightened around me as his cock spurted white beads onto his chest and abdomen. I leaned over him, adding my cum to the mix, painting him with white lines as I came and came.

I rested my head against his hip for a second to catch my breath. Finally, my knot went down. I kissed Miz's hip and flattened my tongue along his abdomen, cleaning him up the best way I knew. Together, we tasted sweet and salty.

He motioned for me to lie on top of him, his mouth hungry for a taste of our mutual release. We kissed until Miz laughed and pushed me off him. "I need to pump before bed, or we're going to be even stickier when we wake up."

"I can clean that up, too." I waggled my eyebrows at him.

"You will not." He shook his head. "I wouldn't have agreed to this night out if I'd known you were trying to steal our babies' milk."

We teased each other on the way to the shower. Afterward, I caught him staring at his reflection in the mirror.

"You really think I'm gorgeous?"

"As sexy as the day I first saw you." I kissed his cheek and pulled his back to my chest for a hug. "You may look a little different now, but still just as attractive."

"Thank you," he whispered. "That means a lot. I love you, too, you know."

I could have teased him more about fated mates, but I recognized his haunted look. He'd believed he was unlovable when he was kicked out of Christmas Village. He'd been so afraid I wouldn't love him back that he hadn't wanted to admit he loved me, even to himself.

"I know, and I'm so proud to be your mate."

Our kiss tasted like mint toothpaste and forever.