Ethan

Emily and I stood in the back room of the store, warming up and getting a breather from all the chaos.

My phone was going crazy vibrating in my pocket as Jimmy forwarded photos that were forwarded to him from the art store giveaway I’d arranged. Basically, it was the same concept as what we’d done at the music store, only Conspicuous was the benefactor of that one.

We’d contacted a lot of people over the last month, orchestrating store buy-outs and “gift-aways” all over New York. In addition to the music store and art store we’d covered, there were almost a dozen more shops being bought out by celebrities and artists we’d enlisted for the cause.

Book stores, clothing stores, shoe stores, you name it.

What had started as me wanting to buy out my favorite art store and give everyone in line all the supplies they needed had snowballed into something massive and amazing.

The guys—after hearing my idea to buy the entire inventory of Peyton’s Palettes—wanted to do the same with the city’s largest music store. But we needed more than TotC and Conspicuous to participate, in case people started to connect the two, so we campaigned to every A-lister we knew.

Actors and actresses, news anchors, fashion designers, authors…they all jumped on board immediately.

I avoided the photos from the art store—saving them for when I was able to look at them in private—and instead navigated to the news websites, where floods of reports were coming in about the whole thing.

Emily gasped when I clicked on one of them and a photo of me with the young boy—who wanted to be a drummer when he grew up—filled the screen. He was such a sweet kid, I was so glad I went to talk to him. I signed his drum sticks and told him to bring them to next year’s Thanksgiving concert, show them at the gate, and I’d leave him a backstage pass.

And the first thing he said after thanking me was, “Do you think you could leave one more, so I can bring my big brother?” His voice was so timid, like he felt bad for asking for more than was offered, but he braved it to be able to bring his brother along.

Could I leave him another pass?

Damn right, I could.

I’d been so choked up, I almost gave him twenty.

And if I didn’t have reason enough to love the photo of me with the little boy…There, in the bottom right hand side of the photo were Em and Jared, embracing as they looked on.

It was officially my favorite picture ever.

My best friend comforting the woman I loved as they both looked over at me like I hung the damn moon.

I took a screenshot and cropped it in close, making it my background before dropping my phone back into my pocket.

“Come on, let’s go help them pass out the bags.” I held out my hand and she threaded her fingers through mine.

“Gladly.” She hadn’t stopped grinning the entire morning, not even when she was crying from seeing the overwhelming reactions of the people in line.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself.” I kissed the back of her hand.

She leaned into me as we walked and sighed dreamily. “It’s not every day you find out you fell in love with Santa Claus.”

I stopped and patted my stomach with my free hand, trying for a concerned expression. “It’s all that damn pie. I blame Dana.”

“You know what I mean.” She chuckled and rubbed my stomach, pushing my hand away. “I’m referring to your generous spirit.”

“It’s not just me. You saw the news sites. It’s all over the city.”

“Because of you. Because you wanted to make a difference for those artists, and it grew into something massive and beautiful. Just like your heart.”

“See, I don’t know if the word massive applies…unless you’re talking about my—”

She slapped my stomach. “Stop it, perv. I’m trying to have a tender moment here.”

“Sorry.” I laughed, slumping over and grabbing my gut like she’d hurt me.

“No, you’re not. You’re deflecting because you don’t want me to keep fawning over you. Guess what, drummer boy? Tough. Shit. I love you, and I’m going to fawn all I want because you’re freaking amazing. And you have to deal with it because you love me and want me to be happy, and gushing over you makes me happy. So shutty.” She made a lip-zipping motion.

I blew out a breath, trying to sound exasperated when in reality I was flying. Every time she said she loved me it was like a freefall. “I guess I’ll allow it, since you seem to enjoy it so much. The things I do for you, I swear.” I rolled my eyes dramatically. “You’re lucky I love you, woman.”

“If you think I’m lucky, wait until we get back to your place. We’ll see who gets lucky then.” She winked and dropped my hand as she strode into the main room, headed toward Aubrey, who was packing bags and tagging large items with the helper elves.

Just when I thought this day couldn’t get any better.

I suddenly couldn’t wait to get home.

* * *

“I should have snagged one of those elf hats with the pointy ears,” Emily said as she lay across my chest later that day. Clothes were scattered everywhere, the bed was stripped all the way to the bare mattress with only one corner of sheet still hanging on for dear life, and her hair was an absolute mess.

I’d never had sex like that in my life. It was so amazing that I was dumbfounded. Just lying there in fucking awe, until what she said registered, and I managed to shake my head at the visual it invoked.

“Um, no. I don’t think I could get it up for an elf.”

Her hand had been lightly skimming over my abs, but my words seemed to cause it to veer off course. Toward my cock. “You sure about that? I mean, aside from maybe wanting to use them to steer my head, how much attention do you really pay to my ears anyway?”

Her fingers trailed down my length, teasing my balls before sliding back up to swirl around the tip. She was trying to persuade me, but I wasn’t going to make it easy. “I don’t know about that. I mean, ears that pointy are hard to ignore. It could be distracting.”

She sat up, her hand still cupping my balls as she pressed her tits together and gave me an innocent look. “You mean they’d distract you from these?” Her fingers pressed together, tweaking one tight nipple.

She let go of my sac and straddled my legs, sitting low so that her breasts hung on either side of my erection. Looking up at me, she grinned and pushed them together with both hands, effectively enveloping my cock with them.

My hips thrust upward, and she looked down to watch the head peek out from between her perfect, full tits. Quick as a flash, she tipped her head down and licked it.

She kept her head there and continued to flick the head of my dick as I pumped. Soon, she stopped but didn’t look up. “Now, what color earrings am I wearing?”

“Huh?” I kept my hips up, watching as my swollen head protruded again and waited to be licked.

“If you’re so aware of my ears when we’re in bed, what color are my earrings?”

“Red?”

She looked up at me with triumph on her face, pushing her hair behind her ears so I could see for myself. Fuck. She wasn’t wearing any earrings. “I’ll be picking up my elf hat in the morning.”

I shrugged. “And I’ll be getting blown by the sexiest elf on earth shortly thereafter.” I thrust up a little more and she smirked, holding my eye as she twirled her tongue around my cock head.

“No need to make you wait until tomorrow though,” she said before scooting down my legs and taking me into her mouth.

Long after she’d sucked me dry and I’d taken her for the fourth time that day, we lay there on my rumpled bed and just existed together. Not talking about anything important or even at all most of the time. Just being. Touching. Embracing. Reflecting.

I’d never enjoyed a woman’s company like I enjoyed Emily’s. And not just when I was buried to the hilt down her throat. Every silly conversation and serious moment, every late-night dog walk and early morning coffee. It was all somehow more with her.

Extraordinary rather than ordinary.

Laying there that afternoon, when I should have been too tired to keep my eyes open, all I could do was stare at the fading light on the ceiling and reflect on how Ryan had been right.

When it hits you, you just know.

All you see is her.

Nothing will ever be the same.

And God, how lucky was I to have found her?