By the time she joins me in the great room, the garment is finished. “Here,” I say, handing it to her. “For this evening.”
“Thank you!” She holds it up, turning it this way and that. “Gorgeous fabric. It changes color with the light! Now it’s green… and now it looks blue!”
“Just like your eyes,” I tell her. “Want to try it on now? In case I need to make any adjustments.”
“You never need to make any adjustments but I’ll try it on anyhow.” Tugging off the dress she put on after her shower, she pulls the new gown over her head. “Ow. The bite mark is still sore.” But there’s a smug little hum in the bond. Part of her likes the pain.
My adorable, submissive Omega. “It should heal completely soon,” I say. “In the meantime, tell me whenever it gets sore and I’ll make it better.”
“Just a sec.” She draws the hem down over her round hips and it drops to the floor. “Wow.”
“Don’t you like it?” I’m struggling to read her expression.
“No, I do, I love it! I just don’t think I’ve felt so… dressed… since I first arrived here! You can’t see through this material at all. It’s even got long sleeves!”
“The cold season is upon us,” I say. “Look.”
Her gaze follows the direction of my outstretched arm until she sees the thick flakes tumbling from the sky. “Is that… snow?” She rushes over to the window, almost tripping over the hem of her new dress. “Holy crap, that’s pretty. It’spurple!”
“The sand from a nearby desert gets caught in the wind and mixes with the flakes, giving it that color,” I tell her, leaning back in my chair.
“It’s white where I come from. Although it hardly ever snows in Texas. I never would’ve thought it would snow here.”
“It hasn’t for many years. The last time was when my mother was alive.”
She wrinkles her nose. “You don’t have regular seasons?”
I shrug. “We have fires in the summer and deep freeze in the winter.”
“So it’s either ice cold or burning lava hot,” Renee says, returning to stand before me.
“Yes.” I reach out and capture her hands. They’re always cold. I plant them on my chest and let my heart-fire heat her through.
“At least the snow’s pretty. Shame it dissolves in the lava.”
When her hands have regained enough warmth, she slides them up my chest and hugs my neck. “Thank you,” she murmurs. “For arranging the meeting.”
I turn my head and lick the bite mark to make it stop hurting. Renee shivers.
“That feels so much better, thank you.” To my amazement, she settles herself in my lap. “Not gonna lie, I was pretty mad last night when you dropped all that stuff on me and conked out. But you stayed with me until morning, purring until I fell asleep, keeping your arm around me—and now, making me this lovely dress, letting me meet Emma—”
“What’sChristmas?” I interrupt. I need to change the course of this conversation before she asks more about why I spent the whole night beside her. “You mentioned it the last time we talked about snow.”
“Oh. It’s this thing we have back home every year in winter. People put trees in their homes and decorate them with brightly colored lights and baubles and tinsel.”
“Tinsel?”
“Shiny, metallic stuff, usually gold or silver. Like thread? It glitters. It’s a type of decoration. The whole holiday is about bringing light to a dark time.About coming together and sharing warmth in the middle of a harsh winter. Spreading holiday cheer. People send each other cards, and give each other gifts. On the night before Christmas, they leave cookies and milk out for Santa, who comes down the chimney while everyone’s asleep and puts gifts under the tree for the kids.”
“Santa?”
“A jolly figure with a big white beard who wears a red suit and hat trimmed with fur, and lives in the North Pole with his elves.”
“How does Santa know what gifts to bring?”
“Kids either write him a list, or their parents take them to the mall. There, they sit in his lap—” she wriggles in mine, playing with the braids of my own beard, “—and tell him what they want. If they were good all year, he grants their wish.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Only if they were good? And how would he know?”
