A Christmas Wish: Dane (4 page)

Dane looked at Charlotte and watched her cheeks flush with color. She still wasn’t comfortable with displays of affection, no matter how small, in front of Jayden.

“That’s gross stuff,” Jayden said, scrunching his nose. “I don’t want to hear about love and crap. I want to hear about the gold. Did Cole find it?”

Dane unfolded the square of brown parchment that had been stuck between the pages.
The paper was worn along the creases, but the paper was thick and oiled, unlike paper used in modern times. The ink was faded black, but it was still legible enough to read.

“Cole made a map of where Riley told him the gold was hidden. He told Grandpa MacKenzie he wrote it down just as Riley told him
, but he said he never found it. He thought Riley might have been delirious from his wounds and unable to give all the directions to where he’d hidden it. That didn’t stop my grandpa from looking for it himself though, just as his father had when he was a boy.”

“We used to camp out in the area when we were kids and search for it,” Cooper said. “The original MacKenzie house burned to the ground a long time ago, but the rubble is still there
, and all of the landmarks on the map are easy to find. We thought for sure we’d be the ones to find it. But we never did.”

“Maybe I’ll be the one to find it,” Jayden said. “Maybe you just need fresh eyes.”

Dane laughed and wanted to ruffle his son’s hair, but was afraid he’d pull away from him again. Jayden had been sitting close to him for the past hour and that was a first for both of them.

“Maybe so. I can take you out one day and show you the area. There are a couple of creeks and a waterfall you need to be careful of
though, so you’ll want to go with one of us until you know the area. And there’s always the chance you could run into a bear den, but I can show you the signs to look for so you can steer clear.”

“Can we go tomorrow?”

“How about we get through Christmas first and talk it over with your mom?” Dane would have promised the moon to keep the disappointed look off of Jayden’s face, but he noticed Charlotte’s apprehension at the first mention of the word danger.

Dane turned a couple of the pages
of the Bible carefully until he came to the family tree that had been documented for generations, written by different hands at the births and deaths of every MacKenzie for more than a hundred and fifty years.

“Look here,” Dane said, hoping to distract him
from disappointment. “Here’s Cole and his wife, Elizabeth, at the top. They had a son and four daughters, but the Bible was passed down to the one who carried the MacKenzie name.”

The tree snaked down through each generation of MacKenzie until it got to Thomas and Anne MacKenzie, Dane’s grandparents.

“Grandpa only had two sons, but between them they had nine children, so he started two more pages so each of his sons could record their own families into the bible. It belongs to all of us now. “

Dane ran his finger down the page until he reached his own name. His brothers’ names were all recorded next to his, and he recognized his mother’s handwriting.

“I guess we need to add another name,” he said to Jayden. “Yours should go right here.”

Jayden got still and stared at the place where
Dane said his name was supposed to go, and then he got to his feet and backed away.

“It’s getting pretty late,
” he said. “And the sooner I go to sleep the sooner Santa will get here. So good night.”

Jayden ran down the hall to the room that had been given to him for the night, and Charlotte stood to go after him and realiz
ed a room full of MacKenzies were staring at her with different expressions on their faces. She couldn’t deal with that now. Her only concern was Jayden. 

“I’ll just go tuck him in,” she said, and fled after her son.

Dane lay in bed wide awake for what seemed like hours. He was at a loss for what to do, and he’d never felt so unsure about himself or the future.

Everyone had dispersed to their own rooms shortly after Jayden had left, and he’d
shrugged off an invitation to have a beer and play cards with his brothers, so they’d left him alone.

He’d
waited for Charlotte to come back into the living room and talk to him but she hadn’t returned, so he’d finally given up waiting and gone to bed. Not that he was getting any sleep. He needed to talk to her and he wouldn’t rest easy until he did.

He was just about to throw back the covers and head to her room when t
he door creaked open and then shut softly. Footsteps padded on the carpet, and his body tightened with arousal as he recognized Charlotte’s scent in the dark. He leaned up on one arm and waited for his eyes to adjust. She was bundled in her bathrobe and her dark hair fell in loose waves over her shoulders.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey yourself.” He sat up and leaned against the headboard. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. He didn’t want to talk about it.” She shrugged and he could see the hurt on her face.

“Come here,” he said, scooting over and holding his arm out so she could snuggle up beside him.

“It’s fine
. I’m okay.” She ignored his outstretched hand and paced back and forth across the floor. “I figure he’s getting to that age where he doesn’t want to tell me everything anymore.”

He figured she wouldn’t wind down until she’d said everything she wanted to
say, so he settled back and got ready to listen.

“You saw him tonight. He’s getting used to having a big family. Of having the two of us
there to love him. But I think he’s afraid that could stop at any moment. Afraid that if he starts to love everyone back that it’ll all go away.”

“We’ll just have to show him otherwise, because none of us are going anywhere.
We’re his family. He’s stuck with us.” Dane watched her for a few seconds and realized what was worrying him. “What about you? Do you think I’m going to go away too? Is that why you keep putting the wedding off?”

“No! Of course not.” But the way she said it made him think she wasn’t being completely honest.

“The best way for Jayden to know that this is permanent is for
us
to make it permanent. We’re so careful not to show too much affection and love around him because of what he’ll think, but he needs to see that we love each other.
I
need it too. I want the world to know that you’re it for me. MacKenzies only love once, you know.”

“So I’ve heard.”
She smiled and finally came to join him on the bed, crawling up to him and straddling his hips. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him softly. But she didn’t respond to his plea to change things, and that worried him more than anything.

“Char—“

She cut him off with another kiss, and he felt his blood begin to heat and pool in his lap. As a distraction, it was a hell of a plan. Her laugh was like a siren’s song as she felt him harden beneath her, and her fingers fumbled with the ties on her robe.

“I came in to wish you Merry Christmas. It’s after midnight.” Her robe gaped open and he saw she was naked beneath it.
“Aren’t you going to unwrap me?”

“God, Charlotte.” His hands came up to touch. He couldn’t help himself. Her breasts were full and swollen and her nipples puckered into tight buds when his fingers caressed them. “So beautiful.”

She nipped at his lower lip and he dropped his hands and fisted them in the sheets to keep from flipping her over and taking her the way he wanted to. All the pent up frustration and anger he felt kept building inside of him, ready to spew like lava, and he closed his eyes and breathed deeply to get himself back under control.

“Don’t you want my Christmas present?” she asked, her voice husky with desire.
She moved her hips against him and he could feel her heat through the cotton sheet.

“I’m actually a little tired.
” He gritted his teeth and bit back a groan when she cupped her breasts and held them up like an offering. “Why don’t we just go to sleep? We have to be up in a couple of hours to play Santa.”

“A little tired?” Her lips twitch
ed and she pulled the sheet back and reached down to find him hard enough to drive nails. “I don’t think so.”

She squ
eezed him tight and he sucked in a breath, his hands fisting even tighter into the mattress. He trembled as she tossed her robe to the floor and then kissed her way down his chest and stomach.

“I could be wrong, but I think this part of your body is wide awake.”

Her hair brushed across his thighs as she leaned down and licked the tip of him, tasting the salty essence that beaded at the end of his shaft. He groaned and his hips came off the bed
involuntarily, probing at her mouth until she opened and took him in. There was no use holding back. He’d never been able to where she was concerned.

“
Last chance, Charlotte,” he said.

Her tongue swirled around him like a dare and he snapped.

His groan was low and long. “Fuck it then. Take me in. All of it.”

Her laugh was triumphant and she
did as he demanded. Her mouth surrounded him like a wet glove and he lost control. His fingers threaded through her hair, holding her still, as he gave short thrusts into her mouth. Her nostrils flared and her cheeks hollowed, and his cock glistened from her moisture. Her tongue flicked the tip of him with every stroke, and the pleasure was so intense he thought he’d lose himself then and there.

Charlotte’s hand disappeared down the front of her body and he knew by the way she tilted her hips and the way her mouth tightened around him that she
was pleasuring herself even as she pleasured him.

But he wanted to see. Wanted to taste. And if she kept going as she was he’d spill himself down her throat instead of in the depths of her womb
like he wanted.

He tightened his grip on her hair and pulled her back, and
she let him go with a soft pop. Her lips were swollen and red and her eyes glowed bright with arousal. His balls drew up tight and he knew he could come just by looking at her.

“I don’t want to stop. Come in my mouth.”

The temptation was great, and he growled as she leaned back down to take him again. But at the last second he flipped her to her back, ignoring her gasp and the sudden reversal of power. He shouldered her thighs apart until his lips were just a breath away from the swollen folds of her sex. The scent of her arousal was potent and he took his cock in his hand and squeezed tight to keep himself from coming all over the sheets.

Her juices gleamed on the bare folds of her sex and he pushed her legs up
high, so her heels rested on his shoulders and she was completely bare to him. He licked slowly, lapping up her cream and avoiding the plump bundle of nerves that would shoot her over the edge.

“Touch your breasts. Let me see you play with your nipples while I taste you.”

She groaned and her hips lifted, searching for his mouth, but she did as he asked. Her hands skimmed up her stomach until they palmed her breasts and her fingers toyed with her nipples.

He watched her out of hooded eyes and then put his mouth against her
fully, giving her open mouth kisses that had her writhing against him, and then finally licking and lapping at the sweet bud at her center. The taste of her exploded against his tongue as she came and he dipped his tongue inside of her and felt the flutter of her release.

“Oh, God. Please. It’s too much.”
She moaned and her breathing came faster and faster, her hips pushing against his face while her hands squeezed at her breasts.

“You can take it. Go up for me again.”

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can.”

He spread her legs wider and pushed a finger deep inside her while he flicked his tongue furiously over her clit. He added a second finger and found the bundle of nerves deep inside her that had her hips pistoning off the bed and mewls of pleasure escaping from her lips. Her internal muscles clamped around his finger and her flesh quivered beneath his tongue. Her mouth opened wide to let out a scream and he clapped his hand over it to mute the sound.

Dane tasted her cream as it
slickened her folds even more and he knew he couldn’t wait another second to be inside her. He removed his hand from her mouth and moved up her body until her legs were draped across his thighs and his cock pushed at the entrance of her pussy. He sat back so he could watch her. So he could see every moment of her pleasure as he entered her.

Her hand moved down between her thighs and her fingers skimmed across his cock before they settled over the taut bud between her folds.

“That’s it, baby. Touch yourself for me. Let me watch you.”

He pushed inside her slowly, and every time her fingers flicked across her sex he felt her muscles clamp around him tighter and tighter until he was gritting his teeth with the effort not to come.

“Ah, hell. It’s no use.” He slammed home, all the way to the hilt, and his mouth silenced her cry with a kiss that was deep and carnal. Her silken flesh trembled and tightened around him and his balls drew up so tight it was almost painful. Her heels dug into his hips as he pumped hard and deep inside of her, his semen coating her inner walls. She arched against him as she came again in a long silent shudder.

His orgasm left him wrecked. Their skin was slicked with sweat and his muscles were limp and useless. He rolled to the side and realized they’d somehow ended up at the opposite end of the bed.
He didn’t care. He could die like this and he’d be okay with it.

He dropped his head down on his arm because the weight
of it was too much to hold up, and he realized he’d never gotten the reassurance from her he’d needed—for her to tell him she believed him when he said he’d never leave again. That she trusted him to stay and be everything she needed him to be.

Dane looked over to ask her
the question again and saw she was dead to the world. He sighed and pulled her close before he joined her in sleep.