A Christmas to Remember
Rex
“It was stolen! It had to be!”
I tilt my head and study Gia, her pretty face twisted in outrage and worry. “It’s okay to just admit you lost it.”
Her expression falls slack and she parts those perfect lips so adorably I have to hold back from kissing them. Even in freak-out mode, the woman is fucking gorgeous. “I didn’t lose it, Rex. How can you even say that? I never take it off.” Her long slender fingers absently rub the spot on her neck where her necklace would lie. The single diamond solitaire I put there Christmas morning three years ago.
I toy with my lip ring to keep from smiling. “So, you’re saying someone slipped in late at night, bypassed everything else in our home that’s worth money, walked right past your jewelry box with all the other bigger and more impressive diamonds, and stole the one off your neck?”
Irritation fires in those dove-gray eyes and I have to shove my hands into the pockets of my jeans to keep from pulling her to me and stripping her naked. Who knew being in love would mean getting turned on by all her moods, even—or especially—her bad ones.
She tucks a long strand of her sleek, red hair behind her ear and moves a step closer, crossing her arms at her chest. My tongue flicks at my lip ring hoping it’ll help squelch the desire to run it over the creamy skin of her clavicle. Her delicate scent calls to me. The urge to dip into the valley between her breasts she has so prominently on display makes my mouth water.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Her voice is softer now, but there’s the underlying current of frustration lacing her words.
I lift a brow and run my finger along my lower lip.
“I’m serious.” She moves a step closer and I cup her neck, running the pad of my thumb up and down her throat. The rumble of her moan vibrates against my skin. “We’re supposed to be at the Slade’s in ten minutes.”
“We’ll be late.” They wouldn’t care, hell, they probably wouldn’t even notice, and even if they did, they’d understand.
Christmas is special to me and Gia. It always has been.
She closes her eyes for a few beats and when she opens them they shine with unshed tears. Oh, shit. Gia’s anger I can take. Her tears, I cannot.
“Baby, please…” I pull her to my chest and hold her tightly. “Don’t cry. It’s Christmas Eve, you cry and you’ll scare off Santa’s reindeer.”
She laughs against my chest and sniffs. “I lost my necklace, Rex.” Her voice is so tiny, so… broken. “I lost the promise you made to me.”
I bury my nose into her hair, breathing her in. “It’s just a necklace. The promise is what counts and that’s still in play.”
She shakes her head and sinks deeper into my hold. “I want it back.”
“We’ll get it back, Gia. I’m sure it’s around here somewhere. It’ll turn up.” Unable to resist her for another second, I pull back and bend to press my lips to hers. What starts off as innocent quickly turns heated until she’s nipping at my lips defiantly, enticing me to punish her in all the ways she loves.
“I’ll give you what you want, baby…” I suck her full upper lip and release it with a pop. “But I’m not going to give a shit about ruining your hair or makeup. And as much as I love you in this dress, the way I’m feeling, I can’t guarantee it’ll survive what I have planned.”
She sucks in a quick breath and gazes up at me, her eyes flashing with excitement. “Maybe we wait until tonight.”
I slap her ass and groan. “Tonight.”
A shadow of worry crosses her expression.
“We’ll find it, okay?” I run my thumb along her frown. “No more of this.”
“Okay, we should probably go.”
I reach for her jewelry box and pull out a kick ass ruby necklace I bought her for Valentine’s Day. She picks up her hair so I can drape it around her neck. After securing it, I run my lip ring along her bare shoulder. “I love you.”
“Love you too.”
Needing to get this show on the road, I snag her coat and meet her at the door. She moves across our apartment turning off lights and making sure the patio door is locked and I wonder if I’ll ever get tired of watching her. As the years pass she only manages to fascinate me more. We’ve been through hell, had our therapist dig so deep into our souls we thought we’d never come out the same, and managed to fall even deeper for each other.
She meets me at the door and I put her coat over her shoulders like I’m a regular fucking gentleman. Her lips curl into a grin, as if she can hear the direction of my thoughts, and I roll my eyes and slap her ass to remind her I’m far from gentlemanly.
Less than fifteen minutes later we pull into the Slade’s circle driveway that’s already filling up with trucks and SUVs.
“Fuckin’ hell, I should’ve brought my sunglasses.” I squint. “Looks like the Disney light parade barfed all over Jonah’s pad.”
Gia giggles. “It’s for Sadie. Raven said Jonah hired a company to come out and cover every square inch in lights.”
“The fuck is that?” I nod to a group of larger-than-life cartoon characters all lit up and in various positions around Jonah’s front fountain.
She sighs. “The one in the blue is Queen Elsa.” She points to the red head. “Her sister, Ana, the snowman is Olaf, the guy is—”
“How the hell do you know that?” I shut the truck off and stare at her.
“Babysitting Sadie. I’ve watched Frozen like six million times.” She shrugs and gets out of the Escalade.
I round the hood, grab her hand, and lead her to the front door. Pressing the doorbell, I cringe as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer chimes in place of what used to be a simple ding-dong.
“He’s lost his fucking mind,” I mumble.
She rocks into my side, smiling. “No, he’s just madly in love with his daughter.”
The door swings open to reveal my six-foot-five, two hundred and fifty pound, heavyweight champion friend, Jonah “The Assassin” Slade, dressed up like a fucking elf. “Merry Christmas!” He holds his arms out wide grinning so big both those girlie dimples dig deep into his cheeks. “I’m an elf.”
“No shit.”
Gia moves through the door, pulling me behind her, and Jonah grips my shoulder. “Good to see you, brother.” He hugs Gia. “Oh, Layla was looking for you earlier.”
She kisses my jaw and excuses herself. I can see she’s holding back laughter at Jonah’s ridiculous getup.
“Raven make you do this?” I nod to his fruity green and white striped… ”Are those tights?
He opens his mouth, but our attention is diverted when Sadie comes ripping into the foyer looking like a snowball in a dress so big all I can see is her frilly socks and her angelic face draped in chocolate-brown hair. “Unkie Rex!” She slams into my legs, and I scoop her up along with layer upon layer of silky white fabric.
“Hey, princess.” I pull back to look at her, but her arms are wrapped so tightly around my neck it’s difficult to see anything outside of her big blue eyes. “You look beautiful.”
“Daddy’s an elf!” She grins big, two dimples matching Jonah’s bursting free on her rosy cheeks. “Did you see?”
“Hard to miss.” I swing my gaze to my friend who is still grinning like a lunatic.
Note to self: Being in love makes you crazy. Being a parent makes you stop giving a single shit about pride, masculinity, or anything outside making your kid happy.
Her tiny fingers absently trace the tattoos on my neck. “You have to see our tree! Unkie Blake brought an ornament of a hotdog wiff a Santa hat on!” Her tiny eyebrows pinch together. “I fink it’s a hotdog, but it has no bun.”
For the first time Jonah’s smile falls. “Yeah, baby. It’s a hot dog.”
We head into the living room to see the giant space filled with people. Most of the Vegas-based UFL fighters, their wives, even Blake’s adopted daughter, Axelle, is here holding a squirming Jack who looks eager to get down and rip the place apart.
“Hey, bro!” I turn just in time to catch Raven in a tiny Santa dress before she wraps me in a hug. She pulls back, grinning at Sadie. “You think you could let your Uncle go so he can enjoy the party, or do you plan on having him hold you all night?”
Sadie’s arms grow tighter around my neck just as mine grow tighter around her. “No, Momma. I wanna be wiff Unkie Rex.” Her tiny chin kicks up in defiance. “I gonna maywee him when I’m big!”
I grin down at her. “Sadie, what about Gia?”
She shrugs and lays her head on my shoulder, her fingers now flicking at my lip ring. “She can come too. We can boff maywee you.”
Jonah swoops in and snags his daughter from my arms, throwing her into a fit of giggles. “Hey! I thought you wanted to marry me!” He growls into her neck.
“I do, Daddy! I do!” She laughs harder as Jonah carries her over to the miniature black Mustang topped with a big red bow in the living room. Early Christmas present, I guess.
I turn to see Raven’s eyes on me, a smile tilting her lips. “What?”
She feigns innocence. “Nothing.”
I pull her in for a side hug and whisper, “Thanks for helping me out with everything.”
“What are sisters for?” She jerks her head to the bar. “Come on, let’s grab a drink. You’re gonna need it.”
We move through the living room and I exchange fist bumps, back thumping hugs, and Merry Christmases with people as I pass. Blake, Layla, Cam, and Eve are all standing around the bar.
“Hey, Rex.” Layla pushes up on her toes to give me a hug. “Merry Christmas.”
“You too.” I eye Blake who looks like he’s holding in a secret. “What?”
Layla rolls her eyes. “He’s been telling dirty Christmas jokes all night.”
Blake grins and leans against the bar. “She acts like she hates it, but she doesn’t.”
“No.” I motion to the bartender for a beer. “I’m pretty sure she hates it.”
“Why does Santa only enter through the chimney?” He grins.
“Fuck, here we go,” Cam mumbles.
I shrug. “I don’t know. Why?”
“Because Mrs. Claus said he’s never gettin’ in the back door—Ow! Fuck, Mouse, don’t hit!” He rubs his shoulder.
“You’re an idiot,” she says, smiling.
He pulls her to his chest and drops a kiss to the top of her head. “Am not. Since I met you, got my daughter, and now my son, I’m a regular fuckin’ Mr. Christmas full of Yuletide cheer.”
She peers up at him. “You’re full of something.”
“I’d like to fill you with my Yuletide cheer.” He grips his crotch. “Ow! Don’t fucking hit!”
Eve giggles, earning a glare from Blake.
“Ya know, you’re a lot like Santa,” Layla leans into him and shrugs. “Except, ya know, Santa stopped at three ‘Hos’.”
Beer almost comes out of my nose at the force of my laughter. Even Blake laughs just before kissing his woman senseless.
Gia joins us a little later, her smile in place, but not quite meeting her eyes. As each hour passes I find myself getting more and more anxious. I’d usually drown my panic in booze, but I want to be sober for what I have planned.
Raven makes eye contact with me from across the room. Now is as good a time as any. I nod, and she scurries over to the stereo system.
I lean into Gia’s neck and whisper, “Hey, I wanted to show you something.”
Her bright gray eyes peek up at me and she grins. “Sure.”
I grab her hand and lead her to the over ten-foot tall Christmas tree in the middle of the room.
Her eyebrows pinch together. “You wanted to show me the tree?”
I dip down and press my lips to hers. “No, I wanted to show you—”
She gasps as the lights in the room go dark and all the partiers go silent. Her gaze swings around the room and when Perry Como’s voice croons Silent Night through the speakers her wide eyes come to mine.
“Our song,” she whispers.
I grasp her hands and hold them in front of me, loving how her touch instantly calms my nerves. “Gia, I know things haven’t been easy. The price you’ve had to pay to be with me is more than I could ever return.”
She shakes her head. “No, it’s not—”
I press my finger to her lips. “Shh… let me get this out.”
She nods and I go back to holding her hands.
“There’s a lot in my life I’m not sure about. I don’t know where I’ll be in five years, no clue when my career will end because of some stupid injury, or what’ll happen with my music. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this life it’s that there are no guarantees. But there is one thing I know. One truth that’s buried so deep in my soul it’s imprinted on my fucking DNA, and that is that I will never stop loving you. Even after my lungs stop breathing… after my heart stops beating… I will still and always be completely dedicated to loving you.”
“Rex…”
“So, on that thought.” I reach into the tree and pull out a small black box. “I promised you three years ago that one day I’d put this diamond on your finger.”
I drop to one knee and crack open the box. The room sounds with small gasps from the women and grunts of approval from the men.
“Georgia McIntyre, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Not only in this life, but through whatever awaits us in the afterlife, because I can’t go a day — let alone a single lifetime — without you.”
She drops to her knees in front of me and throws herself at my chest, wrapping her arms around my neck she whispers in my ear, “Yes. Always and forever, I say yes.”
Leaning away, I pull her left hand down from my neck and slip the single solitaire ring onto her finger. Cheers erupt and I kiss my fiancé as if we’re the only ones in the room. Our tongues tangle together and her hands dive into my hair just as my hands clamp down hard on her ass.
“Ahem…”
We rip our mouths apart to find Jonah and Raven smiling down at us.
“Congratulations, man.” My brother holds out his hand to Gia, helping her up as I push myself to standing.
I make a quick adjustment to hide the embarrassing hard-on that’s punching my zipper.
Raven and Gia hug, and then I give my sister a hug and thank her again. For the rest of the night I stay locked to Gia’s side while the party-goers hand out their congratulations. As nice as it all is, all I care about is getting my future wife naked and in my bed.
After too long I finally get her out and the second we’re in the car she slaps my bicep. “Asshole!”
My jaw falls open and I stare into the narrowed eyes of the most gorgeous woman in the world. “What the fuck was that for?”
“You stole my necklace and made me feel like I’d lost my mind because I couldn’t find it!”
I blink away my shock and a slow grin pulls my lips. “Sorry?”
She harrumphs and whirls to face forward, her arms folded under her chest, and a sexy as shit pout on her face. “Thought I was crazy,” she mumbles.
Laughter bursts from my lips so powerfully it shakes my body with the force.
“I can’t believe you’re laughing!”
My laughter dies instantly and I dig my fingers into her hair at her nape, forcing her eyes to mine. “I’m laughing because we are fucking crazy, baby. Ain’t no getting around that. But being crazy means we’re meant to be together and we’ll live out our days driving each other insane and fucking up all over the place. People are gonna talk, they’re all gonna know just how fucked up we are, and none of it’ll matter because we’ll be together. Understand?”
“No.” A slow, sexy, and dick-hardening smirk stretches across her face. “I think I need you to explain that.”
I pull her head back by her hair, tightening my grip until she whimpers. “Be good, Gia,” I growl in warning. She always knows how to push me to make me lose control.
“I don’t want to be good.” She licks her lips. “I want to be crazy.”
With a groan, I press a punishing kiss to her lips and fire up the Escalade. “You got it, baby.” Gripping her left hand I thumb her engagement ring. “Now and forever. Never forget.”