Read Online All I Want For Christmas Is You by Jessica Scott - Free Book Online

time lost, too many hours spent working and not nearly enough time tending to the thing that had drawn them together to begin with. They’d simply grown apart, and now? Now here they were, trying to figure out who these two strangers in a room were.
    Strangers who shared the only daughter Patrick would ever have.
    “You could have told me,” she said quietly.
    He shrugged and the gesture felt empty. “It never really came up. Hard to fit ‘oh, by the way I got blown up and my balls got rewired’ with ‘where’s your spaghetti recipe,’ you know?”
    Her response was not what he expected.
    She laughed. She covered her mouth and laughed until she doubled over.
    Patrick stood there, not sure what to do or what he’d said that was so damn funny.
    “I guess my emergency neutering is funny. Okay then.”
    She straightened, tears running down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. It’s not funny. It’s just the way you said it and…” She doubled over again, laughing until she slid down the wall and covered her face with both hands.
    He watched her, amazed at the sound of her laughter. In that moment, he realized that she hadn’t really laughed in… He couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed like this. Slowly a matching smile spread over his lips, and he stood there and simply savored the moment.
    It was something he’d forgotten. Something that had slipped away as the distance between them had grown wider and deeper.
    He’d enjoyed making her laugh once upon a time. A thousand memories surfaced and tormented him with the pleasure of her laugh. God but he loved the way she used to smile.
    She swiped at her eyes, looking up at him from the changing room floor. “I’m sorry.”
    “For laughing at my neutering or my being neutered?” he asked lightly, holding his hand out to help her up.
    “Both.” Her palm slid against his.
    He gave a gentle tug and she was on her feet, close enough that he could see the moisture sparkling in her eyes. “It’s been so long since I heard you laugh,” he murmured.
    Her mouth was a breath from his. Warm air brushed against his skin. He could almost taste the laugh on her lips.
    She smiled ruefully. “There hasn’t been a lot to laugh about lately.”
    Her hands came up, braced against his skin. Her palms were cool on his bare shoulders, sending a shiver through his veins. It had been so long since he’d touched her. Since she’d touched him. This. This was opportunity.
    In a perfect world, he could kiss her then. Rock her world and remind her of all the things that had once been right between them.
    But this wasn’t a perfect world. This was a flawed and damaged world.
    But it wasn’t hopeless. No, he hadn’t given up hope yet.
    He stood there for a moment, his eyes locked with hers. Her lips were parted, the slightest space. He wanted to nibble on her there, to suck gently until she sighed.
    Instead he lifted his hand. Ran his thumb gently, so gently over her bottom lip. She was soft and smooth and warm. It was meant to tease them both. It was meant to control the situation, to keep himself from deviating from his game plan of trying to lure her out of the darkness and shadows where she’d been for too long.
    Instead, Sam took over.
    She’d never been a passive lover. Her tongue slid over the bottom of his thumb. A gentle rasp of heat on heat. It was warm and wet against the roughness of his skin.
    So long. So fucking long since he’d touched her. That single gesture drove his resolve away, turning his plan on its head and sending him headlong into the abyss of sensation. She slipped her tongue around the tip, swirling a teasing pattern, her eyes never leaving his. She sucked him further into the warmth of her mouth and he gave himself over to the sensation.
    This. This was always good between them. This was always right.
    He backed her up against the wall, his thumb slipping out of her mouth with a soft pop. It was just them, alone in the bright lights of the