“My room. I already called your dad. His is a little… occupied.”
She groaned and muttered, “Damnit, Dante!”
I chuckled and opened up the door to my room, which had been Lucky’s but he’d retired from the club. He and Moira had moved out someplace in South Carolina something like six or seven years back.
“He’s not your problem, sweetheart. Not tonight.”
“Thank God for that,” she murmured. “I’m too tired.”
She slipped in ahead of me and I found her a clean one of my tees and handed it to her.
“Here, get ready for bed. Open up the door for me when you’re ready and I’ll tuck you in.”
She looked up at me a little bewildered, and curiosity swept through her gaze. I shut my clubroom door on that look and sighed. I could hear a faint rustling after a few moments of silence as she moved around to change clothes. I took my hand off the knob and tucked them under my arms, across my chest, trying really hard not to let my imagination run away with me.
She was a beautiful girl. I mean, all the girls were but there was something about Eden with those bright red curls and those liquid brown eyes of hers. Deeply bronze, soulful and… shit. The girl was an old soul. There wasn’t any pretending on that. She looked into my eyes and I fell into hers – I always had. It felt like if I looked too deeply into her gaze that I would fall through time itself, through the ages, and find myself in ancient Rome or some shit.
Ever since she was able to talk, everyone had said it. Eden was an old soul, so mature for her age, and she was – I would give her that. She was like my sister, Maren, in a lot of ways that way. She just hadn’t had to go through so much tragedy to make her that way.
Her mom wasn’t crazy. Red was actually kind of fucking amazing – supportive, a quiet almost rock of ages when it came to their family. Meanwhile, Rev was more outgoing, more dynamic, and definitely the more hotheaded of the two. Mandy was perfect for him. They balanced each other out, and most importantly, unlike my parents, they were still together.
My mom died in a nuthouse, my dad had died of cancer. And Maren? Maren had held us together despite what an ungrateful little shit I’d been.
The door creaked, and I jumped as it opened a crack.
I stared at the crack in the door for what should have only been a heartbeat but with how hard and how fast my heart was pounding, I probably fit in three. I pushed open the door and slipped in. She stood by the bed – striking, beautiful – everything I could ever want. I wasn’t sure anymore if I should keep denying myself.
It was as though I saw her with new eyes in that moment and I didn’t know what to do.
“You okay?” she asked quietly, and I nodded dumbly.
“Yeah, I’m good. Come on, let’s get you tucked in.”
“I’m not a child,” she said with a smile that held some serious sadness to it.
“It’s hard,” I confessed.
“What is?” She cocked her head, the thick braid she’d tortured her curls into, slipping back over her narrow shoulder over the gray tee I’d given her. I went over and pulled the blankets back and ushered her into my bed with a wave of my other hand.
She sank down onto the edge of the bed and gripped the hem of the tee to keep it down and from riding up any further on her shapely pale legs.
I tried not to think too hard about that. She had enough of a chest, and her torso was long enough that the tee barely came down past her ass, barely covered the apex of her thighs. I knew she was wearing panties, I’d glimpsed the black material, but I was trying really hard not to think about that either.
She scooted in, and I lowered the blankets over her lap and urged her to lay down. She gripped my wrist to stop me and I paused.
“What’s hard?” she asked, swallowing hard. “Stay with me, Sage. Talk to me…” the intensity, the low pleading in her voice… I sank down onto the edge of the bed, my back to her, and considered her request.
Stay with me… easy. Talk to me… now that was hard as fuck. I wasn’t meant to burden anyone with my problems. Least of all her… but she is your problem, that little voice in the back of my mind, the one that betrayed every pure intention I had when it came to Eden, whispered out of the dark.
I took off first one boot, then the other and got up. I went to my door and shut it. I could swear I heard her voice woosh out with relief.
“I’ll stay,” I said. “Just until you’re asleep.”
She nodded and scooted down beneath the blankets, moving over just a little more to make ample room for me on the bed.
I went to her, tucking the blankets around her firmly and sitting myself on top of them. I eased down and pulled her against me. She just fit so well against my side, her head on my chest, and God, it was even more perfect than the cuddles in the dark of the home theater we had set up here.
“Talk to me,” she cajoled. “What’s hard?”
My dick, for one, I thought to myself, but fuck if I was going to say that out loud. I felt it keenly then… that I was in the presence of a lady and that was a tough one for me.
“I want to keep seeing you as that adorable little six-year-old,” I confessed. “But every time I came back, she was getting further and further away and in her place? This beautiful girl sprang up.”
“Girl?” she asked softly, and I looked down at her, my hand rising unbidden to caress the side of her face. She closed her eyes and leaned into that touch and the whimpering sigh that escaped her… I’d heard a similar sound out of myself before. Any time I stepped off the bus and I’d come home. That’s exactly what it sounded like. Like she’d come home and to be honest that scared the fucking shit out of me.
“Woman,” I said softly back, voice strained. She opened her eyes, and I fell in, falling through the ages, falling through time all over again. The same way I did every fucking time she looked at me.
I caught myself leaning forward too late, and before I knew it, I didn’t care anymore if I fell. My lips touched Eden’s, and I was lost in the silken feel of her soft mouth beneath mine.
8
Eden…
He kissed me. Sage lowered his mouth to mine, grazing my cheek lightly with his knuckles and his lips met mine and time just… stopped. Everything stopped. My breath was stolen, my heart seized in my breast and every fiber of my being held onto this golden moment and never ever wanted it to end.
It was still almost two weeks away and yet it was Christmas, with all the joy, elation, and magic that the holiday could bring.
Tears sprang to my eyes with the sheer beauty of the moment as his hand left my cheek and his arms went around me and pulled me close. I kissed him back. My lips moved against his slightly chapped ones, my hands balling in the front of his shirt as I pulled myself just that much tighter against the front of his body.
He grunted, a surprised yet supremely satisfied sound, and I flicked my tongue against his bottom lip, opening for him, begging for him to come into me more fully, begging to take this further. Even just a little.
He took the invitation, tongue sliding against mine and kissing me deeply, the salt and hops from his popcorn and beer a not unpleasant assault on my senses before those flavors faded and I was left with just the intense, wonderful, woodsy masculine scent and flavor that was just him, just my Sage.