“And I don’t know why you called, but if it’s about a woman and she’s got your head all fucked up, then sounds like she might be just what you need. If you don’t trust anything else, trust what feels good.”
“Yeah aight.” I smirked. “Is that why you still have rotations?”
“That’s exactly why. My rotation feels damn good.”
I chuckled. “I’m gonna go but I’ll make sure you see me soon.”
“Yeah, do that.”
I would. I missed my brother and he was right, it was just us. Figuring my shit out meant disconnecting from the life that no longer felt good and that wasn’t fair to him, no matter how necessary it was for me. We were close, had always been.
“Love you, Ro.”
“Love you too.”
I ended the call and decided to take my brother’s advice and trust what felt good. Right now that was Reece, and until the feelings changed, I would go with it.
I stoodin the living room of Reece’s house with a big ass reindeer mug in hand. One she insisted on me using, ignoring my protests. According to her, it set the tone. Her cute ass was not trying to hear anything other than the game plan she set in place for the rest of our day. I enjoyed being the reason she was smiling, so I was down for whatever she was about to make me suffer through.
My eyes moved around the room and I groaned, knowing this was about to be some intense shit. I had never in my life seen so many Christmas decorations. Well, not all in one place and for one tree, that was. My mother’s collection would put Reece’s to shame, but in her defense, they were for the entire house of three trees. All this, according to Reece, was for just this one. I had no idea how she would make that work but I was rocking with it.
She had shit everywhere. Clear containers stacked on the massive square coffee table that sat at the center of two sofas and a love seat situated in a U shape. Boxes were lined up against the wall on both sides of the fireplace and another stacktowered up the wall beside where the tree was stationed. Those were barely making it. I was ten seconds from reorganizing them so they didn’t crash land and ruin her moment, but didn’t want to get yelled at. Reece was serious about this whole thing. She explained how the decorations were organized by stages and tree sections, so I left it alone so she could do her thing.
What I didn’t want to leave alone was the woman in question, standing in the middle of everything wearing a green and white pajama short set with big ass ornaments as the buttons down the front. While she was focused on sorting and digging through the boxes, I took my time enjoying the curve of her calves and the smooth cocoa brown skin of her thighs that the cotton shorts had on full display. My mind went to thoughts that weren’t going to help my current situation, like being between them.
After that kiss last night, it was hard not to travel down that road. Then there was the conversation with her friend. She was very much sober this morning when she complained about missing out on sex after we left the bar and how she was kicking herself for crashing on me. No matter how many times I told myself we weren’t going to take it there, we were. The sexual tension between us had been potent all day and it was worse now, at least for me.
I dragged my eyes to safer territory but hell, the struggle was still there. Reece was beautiful, so her face was just as distracting. The way she kept pulling her lip between her teeth and toying with it while deep in concentration or when she fucking smiled and them pretty lips curved just right had me locked in. As she moved from box to box, I got the perfect view of her ass, soft and round, jiggling with each subtle movement, barely contained by the cotton fabric. All of which was a whole problem.
The mug she handed me made it to my lips so I could enjoy the liquor based hot chocolate she’d made. I needed totaste something to erase the memory of her lips from last night. Everything about this woman was sexy.
But at the moment, watching her like this was cute as hell, and I fucked with it. Unlike earlier today when we were tree shopping, her hair was set free from the braids she had tucked under her Jaxon, and already flopping in her face, shading those pretty brown eyes. I walked back to the sofa and took a seat, assuming this was going to be more watching than working. I was cool with that because the view was very fucking nice.
“You’re sitting and supposed to be helping.” She glanced over her shoulder, dragging bundles of lights from a box.
“I’m moral support. You don’t want me messing that up.” I glanced at the tree and she sucked her teeth. My dick appreciated the sound.
“You’re supposed to be here to help.”
“Aight then, I’m helping. Consider this supervising. I’m focused.” I lifted my mug and she turned to me, dropping her hands to her hips, which brought my eyes to them before my gaze lowered to her legs.
When I made my way back to her face, Reece’s eyes rolled but she smiled before digging into another box. “You drink, you work. That’s how this goes.”
“I put the tree in the stand. That was helping.”
Her eyes swung around the sea of destruction before she grabbed a bundle of lights, unwrapped them, and held them up. “These go on first. The lights are the foundation and they have to be perfect.”
She smiled so big there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about hiding mine. She really had me on some simp shit but I fucked with it.
“Perfect? It’s not life or death, Reece.” I was just messing with her because I knew how serious this was. Even if it wasn’t that deep to me, it was to Reece, and again, so damn cute.
“This is constructing the perfect Christmas tree, cowboy. It’s not life or death but pretty damn close. You mess this up, you die,” she warned, pointing the string of lights at me before she turned toward the tree. “You can’t just throw them up there. You have to weave them in and out of the branches so the entire tree glows inside and out.”
I angled my head, checking out her legs and ass again before I had my fill then focused on her working the lights throughout the tree. Her teeth sank into her lip while she concentrated on getting the lights how she wanted them, lifting onto her toes to reach the high branches. By the time she was on her second set, she pointed to the pile on the floor.
“Let’s go cowboy. You’re up. I need you to get these up there and I hope you were paying attention because you better get this right.”
I placed my mug down and moved where she needed me after grabbing a string of lights. Once they were unwrapped, she plugged the end of mine into the end of the one she’d just finished. “You’re gonna have to move or I can’t get around the tree.”
