“I wish you could have told the pack about your abusive mate,” Laurel said.

“I wish we could have had some resolution as well.” Clarinda came over and gave each of her nieces a hug. “But in the end, this is all that matters.”

Chapter 24

Everyone had such a wonderful time, Laurel vowed they’d do it again next year.

Once everyone had said good night and left, she was ready to slip into bed with her wolf. She wondered what he had gotten for her for Christmas. She had wrapped presents and placed them under the tree for him, but he hadn’t put one gift under the tree for her.

She hoped he hadn’t forgotten and ordered them too late. Despite knowing she should be in the Christmas spirit, she felt like withholding his gifts until hers arrived. “Tell Jake, if he’s agreeable, that we’d love to hang one of his beautiful photos of the Rocky Mountains on the wall where the letter C was. Ellie told me the letter is back.”

CJ shook his head as he turned out the downstairs lights and followed her up to bed. “I’ll tell Jake that you’d love to showcase one of his photos. He’ll be pleased. I have a question. You hired only men outside the pack to work on the place. Later, we learned it was because you were worried that one of the pack members might be guilty of your aunt’s disappearance. But why did you hire Jacob then?”

“He gave us such a great bargain on his electrical work, after we had gotten other estimates, that we just couldn’t hire anyone else.”

“Ah, okay.”

“And we still have to schedule our special dinner for winning the snowman competition.”

“A couple of days after Christmas?”

“Okay.”

“I saw Stanton slip a present to you. What was it?”

Laurel chuckled. “The first season of their ghost busters show.”

CJ laughed and pulled the covers back. “And your aunt?”

“A year’s subscription to a chocolates box-of-the-month club. She really is devious. She knows that will never be enough, so she’ll get me into the shop to see her more often. And buy. She also gifted the highboy and the blanket chest to my sisters to keep in the house where Clarinda had loved Warren.”

“I’m glad you have her in your life again.”

“Me too. She was so pleased to have her locket back with the picture of her and my mother in it.”

“How had she lost it?”

“She said it had disappeared when she went to run as a wolf. When I told her that Sheridan had it, she said it figured. He probably planned to use it as evidence to prove to John she was there, if she didn’t pay up.” Laurel began stripping out of her clothes. “Hmm, talking about sweets and subscriptions, and not having enough…”

As soon as CJ was naked and had climbed onto the mattress, waiting for her, she tackled him. She wasn’t sure why she felt compelled to launch an assault. Maybe because of the lack of Christmas presents for her under the tree. Or maybe because he’d beat her to it the last two nights and tackled her first.

He laughed as she took charge, licking and nibbling on his taut nipples, rubbing her naked body against his, arousing him fully. She ran her hand over his cock and said, “This is the only thing I ever want to come between us.”

His grin couldn’t have stretched any further.

Her hair dangled about his head as she leaned down to kiss his mouth, his hands cupping her breasts, massaging. Her knees speared the mattress on either side of his waist as she deepened the kiss.

One of his hands pulled her closer. Not expecting what came next, she was startled a bit when he moved his hand between her knees and started to stroke at the apex of her thighs. Straddling him made her feel more exposed, the craving for completion greater. With a hand on her thigh, he continued to stroke her. She arched back and gave into his fondling, coming unglued, ready to howl at the moon. To her shock, she was so close, so hot and wet and ready, that when he plunged two fingers into her, she screamed with release.

He quickly re-situated her on his cock, pushing in, penetrating deep, then guided her as she rode him hard. He smelled like musky, male wolf: her wolf, her mate, powerful, hot, and lovable. She couldn’t have chosen a better mate for herself, and she loved him with all her heart.

“Beautiful,” he said on a groan, and she didn’t know if he meant she was or this was, but it didn’t matter.

He was beautiful to her.

He pumped into her hard, and she saw the tension leave his face. She laughed when he growled and turned her so that she was on her back, and he was still connected, still thrusting until the end.

“I love you.” She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. “Forever and always.”

He smiled and kissed her mouth before he rolled off her and took her into his arms to snuggle. “You are the love of my life. I knew it that first time I greeted you and mispronounced your name.”

She laughed. “Who would be named after a tire?”

He smiled and kissed her again. “You were cute when your green eyes narrowed, and then they lit up and you bowled me over with that beautiful Irish lilt to your voice. I knew I was in love then.”

“I have to admit, when you turned fifty shades of red for mispronouncing my name, I had a devil of a time keeping my distance from you.”

“I know.”

She laughed. “You did not.”

“Yeah, I did. How would we have gotten here if it wasn’t so?”

“Hmm, your private ski lessons? I can’t decide if that’s when it really hit me, or when we were making the snow sculpture, and just in sweet fun, you kissed my nose. Or when we fell asleep on the couch watching A Christmas Story. But I knew then that keeping my distance wasn’t going to happen.”

He sighed. “I’ll second that. We were meant to be together. Merry Christmas, honey.”

“Merry Christmas, CJ.” She couldn’t sleep though. Well, maybe she dozed. She kept waiting for CJ to get out of bed and put her packages under the tree! But he didn’t.

Instead, he made love to her two more times.

* * *

CJ felt the mattress move, again, as Laurel slipped out of bed early the next morning.

“Where are you going?” As if he didn’t know.

“To see what Santa brought.”

“I’ve got a present for you right here.”

She glanced at his erection tenting the sheet and smiled. “You can give that to me later.”

He smiled as she slipped on a soft, robin’s-egg-blue robe, her red hair cascading about her shoulders, and then headed out of the bedroom. He couldn’t believe how many times she’d left the bed in the middle of the night to see if he’d tucked her presents under the tree. He’d thought she’d never fall asleep, though making love to her two times during the night hadn’t helped him carry out his Santa mission.

He groaned when he saw it was still dark out, then climbed out of bed, put on his navy blue robe, and padded down the stairs.

She was poking around at the presents he’d finally managed to put under the tree. Well, except for one.

She was crouched in front of the brightly colored packages, grinning. “What is this? It weighs a ton.”

“Open it and see.”

She opened the package and beamed at the blue-and-white ski boot. “You’re taking me skiing again, but this time I have my own boots.”

She was just like a little kid, and he loved seeing her excitement. Christmas had never been quite like this—and it was the best.

Then she rummaged through the packages to find the other. Inside the second ski boot was an envelope. She tore it open and smiled. “Free private and personalized ski lessons for a lifetime.”

He hadn’t even opened his first present from her when she came over to thank him. She leaned over to kiss him, her robe gaping enough for him to see her mouthwatering breasts. In the next instant, he was pulling her down on top of his lap; then she was pushing him onto his back, untying his robe, and spreading it wide like a blanket.