“How are you doing, honey?” Her grandmother pressed a soft hand to her arm.
“Great!”
Grams chuckled in that knowing way of hers and then pointed to the Baby’s First Christmas ornament hanging closest to them. “You know, when Presley was born, your Uncle Russ called him ugly, and you punched him right in the knee.”
Piper giggled. “Did I?” She knew, of course, because she’d been told many times about how she’d defended her infant brother’s honor at just three years old, but she loved to hear anything her grandmother had to say. They chatted about more benign things until she was asked about her job. “Oh, it’s nice to have a seasonal break, you know? Hey, you’re out of tea, want me to go get you some more?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever said no to a cup of tea, honey.”
Another thing Piper knew for a fact, and she jumped up to trot off to the kitchen.
Kol was coming from the opposite way, just leaving the basement stairwell. “What else I can do for you, Pipsqueak?” he whispered, a brow cocked. “Need a mountain moved or a river diverted?”
Piper clicked her tongue as she slid to the side to get around him. “Speaking of rivers, you could jump into the Abenaki if you want. I don’t think it’s frozen over yet, but if it has, even better.”
Kol leaned in close. “Anything for my wonderful girlfriend.”
“Hold it, you two!”
They both came to a halt as Aunt Mindy jumped up from the ground where she’d been playing with her daughter. She pointed to just above their heads.
Piper’s gaze slid up to the arch she and Kol were standing under. Mistletoe.Damn it.
Kol’s frosty eyes had found the plastic bit of winter lore too, but he was grinning viciously.
“Well, goon,” Aunt Mindy urged. Piper took back every kind thought she’d ever had about the woman—she had bad taste and even worse timing.
Kol’s wide grin shifted, lips coming together, brow cocking even higher.
Any fight Piper might have had left was tied up in a big, red ribbon and stuffed under the tree much earlier in the day. Squashing their closed mouths together was all just part of the ruse anyway.
Kol was still bent toward her, so even with his height and constant poking at the lack of hers, it was easy to push up onto her toes and get close, just not quite close enough. She took him by the collar, squeezed her eyes shut, and tugged him down so that their lips met.
It was meant to be a chaste peck and barely one at that—a nothing touch of one face to another, hopefully obscured just enough to hide that their noses made more contact than anything else—but Kol had apparently been surprised, and his mouth fell open.
Before Piper could pull away, Kol’s mouth closed over her bottom lip, and there was a soft pull, urging her to stay. She meant to release him, but her fingers curled tighter around his collar and held him there.
It had been a long time since Piper had been kissed, so that was probably it. It wasn’t that Kol was an exceptional kisser, and itdefinitelywasn’t because both of them were much more eager than either realized, but hell, that had been good.
So good, that Piper did it again.
She didn’t tug on him the second time—she didn’t have to, because he stayed right there and tipped his head just enough. Their lips met again, and Kol returned the kiss she gave him, gently raking teeth over her lip when they finally pulled apart.
Like when he had taken her by the wrist that morning, her body tingled with the intimacy of a touch she hadn’t felt in so long—maybe not ever like that. He was a stranger, sure, but when his fingertips slid over her pulse, it was like he knew exactly how to light up her skin, and his mouth did the same, passion deeply seated in his kiss but with a familiarity, as if he’d been giving them to her for a lifetime.
Aunt Mindy squealed, Aunt Deb hollered, and then the lights for the tree came to life all at once, strobing furiously on their repaired string between her father and uncle. In the frenzy of the broken moment, Kol straightened and stuffed his hands in his pockets. Heat prickled along the back of Piper’s neck, and she remembered suddenly that she had tea to make and swept away from him.Thank God for Grams.
The evening carried itself on, dinner was a simpler spread of meats and cheeses Piper put together, and she would have relaxed if she could keep herself from being caught in Kol’s gaze. She could have stopped looking at him, of course, but she had to keep track lest they find themselves under the mistletoe at the same time again.
It didn’t help that when she licked her lips, she could still feel the softness and heat of his. Relief should have come with shuffling off to sleep, but that only meant a shared bed awaited them. Silently climbing the stairs together, eyes averted, they finally settled beneath the duvet, even more room between them than the night before.
Piper stared at the skylight, willing herself to not look at him, the kiss replaying in her mind. He hadn’t said a word to her since, so maybe he was angry about it, but what little she knew about Kol told her that, if he were mad, he’d just say so. It was much more likely she had done such a poor job she’d given him secondhand embarrassment.
Piper flushed all over again and squeezed her eyes shut, no longer capable of standing the silence. “Thank you for your help today,” she croaked out.
“Oh, I didn’t…do much.” Kol’s voice was a throaty rumble.
She dared to peek at him, but he was staring intensely upward, those lips she missed the taste of drawn into a frown. “But you did,” she said. “You carried boxes and you,”—kept up the ruse? Faked it for me? Suffered through kissing me?—“you helped with my family.”
