Piper stifled the giddiness that crawled around in her belly. “And what does that mean?”
“You know, like when Sailor Moon sees Tuxedo Mask? Like that.”
When Doc broke into a barking frenzy and skittered out of the kitchen, Piper knew that the others had returned. She followed the sounds of boots stomping off snow, and the exclamations of how good the house smelled into the hall.
Kol had his coat shucked off already, boots abandoned, and he was quick to slip around the others and right up to her. “Hi,” he said in a low tone, smile crawling up his face.
“Hi,” she repeated in a half whisper, and she held out her arms. He stepped into them, embracing her back, and then his lips touched hers before either of them realized what they were doing.
Piper had fantasized about kissing Kol all day, how she would surely have to construct some elaborate ruse to get him under the mistletoe again after brushing him off the day before, and yet it wasn’t complicated at all.
“So, PJs and Charlie Brown?”
Piper jolted out of Kol’s arms at her father’s question. “Pres, you know how to set that up right? Kol should be able to help you move some furniture.” She didn’t wait for an answer before she scurried back into the kitchen, brain and lips buzzing.
Piper grabbed Michaela to concoct hot cocoa while the others gathered their blankets and brought extra seats and pillows to the living room. Soon the kitchen was heady with bubbling chocolate, extra heat Piper probably didn’t need, but she loaded up a tray full of mugs anyway and delivered them to the others.
The living room was darkened, the tree’s lights gently glowing over sleepy cousins piled atop one another on the sofa and sprawled out on the floor. Michaela jumped atop her half-brothers who cried out with complaints, and then she cuddled up next to her father. Piper passed the tray away and stood at the back wall until Kol gestured to her from the corner. He’d managed to snag one of the bigger armchairs, though it was angled behind the others and tucked into the shadows. Plunky piano played and animated snow fell on the television screen as she made her way over to settle on the thick arm of his seat.
“You’re not going to sit there the whole time,” Kol whispered.
“Oh, sorry, I’ll sit on the floor,” she mumbled, standing again.
“Not what I meant.”
Piper gasped as she was tugged backward onto Kol’s lap.Oh, this can’t be what he meant either. He kept an arm around her waist, the other pulling a blanket over them.Or…maybe it is? She sat up stiffly until he nudged her stomach with his hand.
“Relax for once, Pipsqueak,” he rumbled into her ear, and both her insides and her spine went right to jelly. Piper sank backward, testing where she could lay herself as she tried to angle her weight off of him, but Kol had another idea, scooping her up under the knees and tucking her feet in beside him. “Is that comfortable?”
Way too fucking comfortable. She looked about, but no one else was paying them any mind, and then she peeked over at him, the glow of the television cool over his skin despite how warm he felt. “Uh huh.”
“Really?” He cocked a black brow.
“Last two! And look what I found.” Aunt Deb appeared at their side and offered them mugs along with a bottle—her father’s best barrel-aged rum. Piper was quick to accept, measuring with her heart into her mug, though Kol declined.
The spiked hot chocolate and Charlie Brown’s moping on screen worked their way into Piper’s veins. There was such a familiar comfort in the scratchy sound of the voices and music that soon enough she really was relaxing on Kol’s chest, each of his slow breaths rising and falling against her back. She was so relaxed that she almost didn’t notice his thumb rubbing across her thigh as his arm rested around her. That was…that was just friendly, affectionate maybe, but nothing more. Even though…though he had called her thoughtful, and smart, and beautiful…and he’d kissed her as soon as he came home.
Cocoa drained, she pulled her knees in a bit more just to see how cozy he would let her get. Kol’s gaze fell to hers as she peeked up at him, and he grinned, his hand squeezing her knee. She turned away quickly but couldn’t help the giggle that bubbled up out of her.
She focused hard on the movie then, watching Charlie and Linus at the tree lot tromping around the artificial, pink trees, but her giggle came right back when they found the little stick of a dying branch. “That’s you,” Piper whispered into Kol’s ear, pointing out Charlie as he lifted the saddest tree in the lot and half of its needles fell off.
Kol narrowed icy eyes at her, and then his hands found her waist, fingers tickling at her sides. Piper squeezed the blanket against her face and muffled the shriek that wanted to come out. “Stop, please, I take it back,” she hissed. “You have much nicer hair.” She threw an arm around his shoulders and slid fingers along the back of his head and up under his hat. “At least I think so—you never take this off.”
Kol cleared his throat lowly. “Better to not invite questions.” His hands rested more firmly on her, one around her hips and the other gripping her thighs.
Somehow her other hand wound up on his chest as she leaned fully against him, playing with the buttons on his flannel, tracing around one and then down to the next and the next. Piper’s other set of fingers had slipped around the back of his head, scratching lightly at his scalp until her touch discovered his hidden ear. Tracing the lobe, she drew a shiver out of him. Piper pretended not to notice, but she nuzzled deeper into his lap, hiding her grin away.
You don’t just touch a man’s ears, she remembered him barking at her, but this time there was no threat, he didn’t even shy away, his grip only tightened.
Then every alarm bell in Piper’s body went off as a touch skimmed up the underside of her thigh to the back of her knee. Breath shortening, her nipples tightened, and she squeezed her thighs together.Not fair, she thought but kept her eyes intent on the screen and Charlie Brown berating himself over “killing” his tree with a single ornament. Piper drew her nails along Kol’s ear again with increasing pressure, other hand walking itself down his chest beneath the blankets. She shifted her hips and brushed up against something hard.
That’s not a candy cane he’s smuggling away in his pocket.
With carefully masked intent, Piper sighed and shifted again, thigh rubbing against him.
She grinned, silently thanking whoever invented sweatpants, and let her hand fall to her own hip, grazing against his length. She never looked away from the television, watching Linus prop up the tree on screen, and as was tradition, her whole family recited aloud, “It just needs a little love.”
Kol jolted against her, and she snickered.
