“Does that mean you want to take things further?” he asks huskily.
“Do you even have to ask me that?” I reply.
His hand presses against the small of my back, pushing us closer together, letting me feel him…allof him. “I feel like a damn kid saying this, but Celine, I’ve got a very important question to ask you. Before you answer, just know this will be the best Christmas gift I could possibly receive.”
For a moment, I think he’s hinting at a proposal.
That would be way too fast.
I want him, need him even, but we’re grownups and this is the real world. We have to be realistic.
He brushes his lips across my cheek, warm breath shivering over my ear. “Will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?”
I laugh as delight bubbles up inside me. “That would be a hell to the yes!”
He laughs, spinning me around into another kiss.
Julian returns, an ear-to-ear smile on his face despite the bandage on his arm. I rub my eyes to make sure I’m seeing correctly.
He’s holding the Christmas edition of Monopoly in his hands. His eyes are as bright as baubles. “Ready to lose, suckers?”
“Oh, it’s on,” I say, turning to the coffee table to clear it.
“Ho ho ho,” Damian says, chuckling.
EPILOGUE
DAMIAN
One Year Later, Christmas Day
“Thank you so much for dinner, Mariella,” I tell Celine’s mother.
Mariella beams at me, Thomas smiling too, his arm wrapped around his wife as he sees us to the front door. When Celine’s parents returned from their holiday trip last year, I was terrified they’d scream at me to get away from their daughter.
They’ve known me all my life. Helped me after my parents’ crash. There are almost fifteen years between Celine and me. But once they saw the love that touches every single part of us when we’re together, they wouldn’t deny it.
We were made for each other.
“I love you,” Celine says in the car. Reaches across and takes my hand, weaving her fingers between mine.
“I love you too,” I reply, voice husky. “But you’re driving me nuts…”
“Oh, really?”
I swallow, studying my girlfriend. She’s wearing a silly green Christmas dress, ornaments shaking each time she moves, green pantyhose to match. Staring at her thick legs in those tight pantyhose almost made me feral, even while Thomas was carving the turkey.
We drive through the snowy city toward my house. No longer rundown on the outside. I’ve had it renovated, the modern and bright inside matching the outside.
I wrap my arm around Celine as we walk up the pathway to the front door.
One year has made me a new man. Cracked me open and flooded me with warmth and love and belonging. One year has even made me a Christmas lover.
I’m taming the mob, making the city a better place. And Celine is working her ass off to progress in her career and save lives.
In the entranceway, she turns to me, her cheeks flushed and beautiful. “This is where we first kissed, remember?”
I press another kiss against her lips. Love the way she sucks in a frantic breath as though she can’t take it for long or she’ll melt into slick and ready lust.
