Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(115)

He could say that again.

I smiled at him and whispered back, “Merry Christmas.”

He touched his lips to mine, and then said, “C’mon.”

I was given no choice but to “c’mon.”

I was out of bed, on my feet, and he was tossing me his tee.

I put it on and thought we’d go to the bathroom and begin to face the day then make coffee, put on Christmas music, open presents, and after, shower and get ready. After that, as planned, we’d go over to Mom and Andy’s, where we would open more presents and share the rest of the holiday with my family.

But when I had his tee on, and he’d yanked on a pair of jeans commando, we did not go to the bathroom.

He took my hand and guided me to the empty bedroom with Nanook dancing beside us (not with his need for breakfast or to be let out, I knew, because I felt Core leave me to take care of these things before he came back and woke me for our Christmas fuck).

There was a big red bow tied to the door handle of the empty room.

“Open it,” he said.

Okay, this meant he wasn’t hiding my presents in there, it meant my present was big.

I was trying to figure out what it would be, and decided it was the rug that I ran into while Christmas shopping. A rug I thought would be perfect under our bed, so I showed it to Core. Core didn’t jump on buying it like he did everything else because I told him not to. I said I’d find something similar, since that rug was made of silk, and it cost far, far more than any rug should.

Still, it was the bomb.

And I knew it was in that room.

It was crazy-generous, but sweet, and totally would bring the room together, which was why I was grinning at him when I opened the door.

It was early, still dark outside, so he reached in and flipped the light switch.

Nanook ran in, howling with excitement, then came to me, still howling.

I stood statue still in the doorway.

Core didn’t buy me the rug.

“You said you wanted a home office.”

I did.

And there it was.

Set to the side so I wouldn’t have the window at my back, there was an attractive large black table desk facing two comfortable chairs, all of this on top of a kickass zebra-print rug. The desk chair was black leather and chrome, and the desk lamp was also chrome.

Behind the desk was a long, black credenza that ran the length of the room and was topped with some decorative vases.

And on the wall above the credenza were six large black-and-white pictures framed in black with a wide white matte. They were set three and three in two rows.

Top left: Me and Liane as little girls, hugging in front of Li’s birthday cake with five lit candles on it.

Top middle: Mom, Andy, Archie, Elijah, Li and me, a formal portrait taken on Mom and Andy’s wedding day.

Top right: Mom, Li and me not too long ago, hanging in Mom’s she shed.

Bottom left: Marcy, Kyra and I drinking shots at a party during college.

Bottom right: Me working at my desk at the office (Xanthia must have taken it).

And bottom center: Core and me walking Nanook in the park (he must have arranged for Kyra or Marcy to stalk us, because it was a candid, and I had no idea it existed until that moment).

It wasn’t overly decorated, so I could put my stamp on it.

What it was, was beautiful.

“There’s a printer hidden in the cabinet,” Core was saying.

Dazed, I looked up at him.

He was gazing down at me. “Kyra helped me.”

I said nothing.

He started to look uneasy.

“Do you like it?” he asked.

“I love it,” I said softly.

He smiled.

“I don’t…I don’t…” I stammered. “Sometimes I don’t know what to do with how much I love you.”

He stopped smiling.

Nanook woofed.

And then I was on a biker’s shoulder, this right before I was on my back in our bed and that biker was on me.

I was all for round two, but I grabbed his face and called, “Core.”

“Later,” he growled.

And it was going to be later because he kissed me.





It was later and I was tangled naked with my man.

I studied his face as I stroked his cheekbone, his jaw, sifted my fingers in his hair, and I confessed, “My feelings are so big right now, I don’t have words.”

“I just paid for it,” he shrugged it off verbally. “Kyra designed it.”

“I love her for that, but you know.” I flattened my hand to the side of his head and pressed gently. “You know what that means to me.”

“I know,” he murmured.

Excruciating care.

“I worry that I don’t give you as much as you give me,” I admitted.

His lips curved. “Baby, you’ll be rolling in the dough before either of us can blink.”

“I don’t mean that way,” I replied.

He took my hand from his head, curled his fingers around it and pressed both to his throat.

None of this prepared me for what would come next. Not even the expression he was wearing. My feelings were too big to fully process anything.

Even if I had processed it, I wouldn’t have been prepared.

“I had one foster dad who thought my ass was his for fucking because he put a roof over my head and food in my stomach, both of which he was being paid to do.”