Perfect Christmas: A Paper Dolls Novel Read online

  Her body against mine was so strong, I feared she could sense me about ready to crumble inside of her arms.

  If we made love right now I would cry.

  For that reason alone, as much as I wanted her, I hoped we didn't make love right now.

  I held onto her loosely, allowing my body to completely lean into hers and be held.

  “Baby,” she breathed.

  She reached down and grabbed the back of my thighs, easily lifting me up onto the counter. The mugs clattered as my butt pushed them out of the way but they didn't fall.

  I wrapped my legs around her and she pushed into my upper body with hers so I was surrounding her. My fingers sunk into her hair and I breathed her in, loving her.

  “Hmm?” I breathed, entrapped by her. My breathing could be so loud when it was just us two and our secrets.

  “I'm just happy and I wanted to be closer,” she said.

  “You feel amazing,” I whispered, leaning back so she would have to lean forward into me and be close to my chest, drink in my skin. With the added closeness, my sex ached and tightened, loosening right after and causing little after-quakes of wanting for her.

  I played with her blonde locks, smoothed my palms up and back the soft skin of her neck.

  “You always say that but it still gives me butterflies,” she said.

  She pressed her face into my neck and relaxed there.

  “I haven't had a good Christmas in a long time and I know it can't be like it was when I was little. I’m tired of it being a shit-fest because my family fell apart. I've got one again and I want to be happy about it and celebrate,” she told me.

  I kissed her neck and nuzzled, breathing in the scent of her hair near her ear. “What are you searching for?” I whispered, learning her.

  Was it a feeling?

  I found my favorite spot to taste and indulged in my own lovesickness, dragging my tongue over the soft beating pulse in her neck, kissing her skin till my lips closed together and hopped someplace new.

  “I have no idea because I'm kind of distracted now,” Avery said.

  “Hmmm,” I hummed, kissing her carefully, making an invisible ring of very personal and involved kisses around her neck. “You should tell me what you want for Christmas,” I dazed.

  “I've got everything I want,” she said.

  “And yet you want more,” I teased and smiled at her lovingly. I shifted a little so she’d look up at me and meet my gaze.

  Her body between my legs was too perfect all on its own. But I lived to play with her, relished in these secret special times that were only ours and ours alone.

  “I always want more,” she said, giving me a secret smile.

  “That’s a dangerous way to live,” I flirted, being extra soft with her.

  “It's the only way to live,” she assured me.

  Her hands found their way underneath my shirt and onto the skin of my back.

  “Oh, I dunno,” I said. “I pretty much only want one thing…”

  I looked down on her and waited for what she'd say.

  Her hands on my body did much more than she probably knew.

  “Let me guess.” She rolled her eyes up and raised an eyebrow. “Oh. Is it me?”

  “No comment,” I said. Of course it was her. Everything in my mind was different when we had first met. My only crush was a wicked teacher and I had all these crazy ideas and multicolored dreams. “It's entirely possible, if I never met you, I'd be in some other country right now.”

  I let the fingers from one of my hands reach out and catch on the neck of her top, tugging it slightly down.

  She looked down her own shirt.

  “From the looks of it you're about to be in my country,” she said, glancing back up.

  I smirked breathlessly. Only Avery would say something cheesy like that.

  “No I can't,” I said, letting my fingers slide down the front of her soft v-neck. “It's your perfect Christmas time. It'd be rude of me to sully it.”

  “Christmas sex is the best,” she proclaimed.

  She shivered and I knew my touch was getting to her now.

  “Um, well that's interesting,” I said, pretending to think back. “I don't remember you and I ever having Christmas sex so this best sex you've had must’ve been with someone else. Care to tell me who?”

  I sat back up again and pushed my upper body into hers, hoping she'd get all gropy again.

  “Fine, you caught me. I was just saying that as an excuse to start a new Christmas sex tradition,” she said.

  “I'm afraid I don't believe you,” I said, pushing my center harder into her and hugging her body tight with my legs.

  She pulled me halfway off the counter and flexed her fingers so she was lightly digging her nails into my back.

  “Ah- fuck-” I breathed out, unable to help it.

  “How can I convince you?” She asked.

  Before I could answer she picked me up and walked through the living room and into the bedroom where she sat me on the bed and then pushed me back until I was laying down.

  She didn't crawl up with me though. She backed away a foot and made a show of taking off her shirt.

  She tossed it at me and it landed on my chest. Then, she did the same with her bra. She was naked from the waist up and slowly moving her hands up to cup her own breasts, pinching each nipple lightly.

  “Is this what you wanted to see?” She asked.

  “No, of course not,” I lied defiantly.

  “Oh, then I guess you better give me my shirt so I can get dressed,” she played.

  “Yea. I’ll not be doing that, thanks.”

  I took her shirt and tucked it behind my back so she'd have to fight me to put it back on.

  “Hmm, then what am I supposed to do? Go out half-naked so everyone can see?”

  “If that's what you want to do,” I shrugged.

  “Not particularly but I guess random people ogling my boobs is okay,” she said.

  “Are you gonna tell me who you had Christmas sex with or what?” I asked, side-stepping her attempts to get me to cave. “I'm not gonna forget you said that, you know.”

  “It was literally just a thing I said. I've never had Christmas sex,” she sighed, lowering her hands to her sides.

  “Oh,” I said, feeling a little guilty now for fucking with her. “Well, I'm glad you didn't have your best sex ever with someone else. That would've crushed me.”

  I moved to sit up and hold my wrist in my lap just for something to distract me.

  “The best sex I've ever had is with you,” she said.

  “Right, yeah, sure,” I said, nonchalantly, scratching the side of my neck.

  “You don't believe me?”

  “Um, I mean, I hope it's the truth,” I shrugged, smiling up at her nervously.

  “Olivia, seriously…” She was shaking her head. “You're the only person who has ever learned my body and paid attention to what I want. All I have to do is look at you and I get turned on. All of my best times have been with you,” she said, sitting down next to me.

  I was going to say something, possibly defend my foolish notions, but then I saw her looking down at her lap and I couldn't help it, I had to pull her face to mine and kiss her.

  My smile was probably something she could feel as I tasted her fiendishly.

  I kissed her again, breathing inside of her and making her so weak that I could easily push her back on the bed and straddle her.

  All the shopping and thinking wasn't good for me but this was.

  I rubbed my center into her jeans and struggled to keep her kissing me with both my hands tugging tight at her neck.

  She pushed back at me, getting closer and pulling at my shirt. She broke our kiss and took a few moments to breathe.

  “You have got to lose those clothes like now,” she growled, exciting a deep part of me.

  I leaned back up on her and held the hem of my shirt to try and pull it off. The buttons got caught on my hair and I start
ed to whine with my arms in the air.

  She stopped my struggle and carefully untangled the mess. When she was done she pulled my shirt the rest of the way off and dropped it. She hugged me, pressing her face into my chest and wrapping her arms around so she could unhook my bra.

  I slid my fingers into her hair, keeping her close and feeling her body against mine.

  No amount of Christmas could be better than moments like this.

  Chapter 5

  Avery

  Olivia was in some kind of mood and she had been for days. I kept trying to cheer her up with Christmas activities but she would smile and only be happy for a few hours before she was back to having that look in her eyes.

  When I asked her what was up she just denied anything being wrong. I thought we were past lying like that to each other. She always has a reason though. Today I was determined to get her to talk or at least stop making me want to scoop her up and cradle her all day.

  We woke up and showered like normal, starting off the morning with a little shower sex. That just made me more energetic. Part of her was amused when I got like this, going a million miles a minute and talking my head off for hours.

  I went across to the main house after that to set up the kitchen. It had double ovens where the guesthouse didn’t. We were about to make a ton of Christmas cookies and finish decorating the tree, then we had dinner with my parents eventually.

  Olivia came in as I was grabbing a huge mixing bowl and setting it on the counter.

  I set the bowl down and ran over, picking her up and spinning her around.

  “Finally!” I set her down and leaned in to kiss her before pulling back. “I missed you.”

  “Mmmm,” she savored my taste. “Where do you want me?” Her eyes were a bit glossy since she was still a little sleepy and a lot in love. She put on a tight black dress and she had walked across the patio barefoot being careful like she might step on some nonexistent glass in her extremely clean yard.

  “Um, that's a very loaded question but I'm going to avoid the obvious answer and say, right over here,” I said, moving her to the counter.

  I grabbed the milk out of the fridge and brought it over bumping her shoulder.

  “Which kind of cookies should we make first?”

  “Which kind do you want to eat?” Olivia wondered, looking back and up at me.

  She took the milk from my hand and set it down, finding measuring cups and getting ready to concoct.

  All seriousness for no good reason. Adorable.

  “I love you,” I said, grinning.

  “What?” She laughed darkly. “Why?” She wondered, confused.

  “You're so cute and serious like we are about to save the world by building some crazy giant weapon,” I effused.

  I leaned over and kissed her.

  Olivia smiled, a little annoyed with herself. She tried to relax a little as to not seem so into the procedural nature of things.

  “I'm seriously excited for sugar cookies with frosting,” I said.

  I grabbed sugar and started measuring.

  “You doing okay, babe?”

  “What? Yeah,” she said, eyebrows scrunching a little. Face getting all pensive again.

  She backed up and took her phone from the counter to play with it and lean back on the cupboards opposite the station I had set up.

  “Just checking. What’s on your mind?”

  “Not much,” she laughed. “Just a little weird being back.”

  “Why is it weird?”

  I measured out some sugar and poured it into the mixing bowl.

  “Why is it weird,” she repeated with a sigh. She cocked her head to the side and looked up at the lights in her old kitchen, the fancy fixtures. She thought a while and then finally shrugged. “I dunno,” she said, lost on the complexity of the feeling.

  “You know what's not weird?” I asked, leading into phase one of cheer Olivia up.

  “What,” she asked.

  “My dance moves,” I said.

  I busted out into some silly swaying from side-to-side and then moved my hips around and took it down to the floor.

  For an ultimate finish, I jumped up and did the running man. I only stopped when I felt like it was getting too ridiculous, whatever that meant.

  “You're crazy,” Olivia giggled. Her hand reached out and her fingers clutched the bottom of my shirt just to be close to me.

  “Yep and you married me so you must be crazy too or just really into the insane,” I said, sticking my tongue out and making a weird face.

  “Well, I've always known I’m different, so…” she leaned into me sadly, taking my hand and helping me to put another ingredient into my mix.

  “You don't know how amazing you are. Don't make me sing you a Bruno Mars song,” I threatened.

  “It's okay, you don't need to,” she said. I felt her body turn inward into mine as her arms wrapped around my waist from the side and she rest her forehead down against my neck. “I know you love me,” she whispered.

  She swayed against me and then kissed my skin with devotion and care.

  “Yeah, but you don't get what a great person you are and it's sad. I wish we could all have one day to live in someone else's head so we could see how others see us,” I said.

  Her nearness made me warm and fuzzy. The cookies were coming in second place to just being with her. She could distract me from anything.

  “You're sweet,” she whispered.

  “Maybe because I eat too many sugar cookies,” I said seriously.

  I cracked a smile after a second and cupped her cheek with one hand.

  “I wish I could give you your present now but I'm a traditionalist,” I mumbled.

  “It’s really not nice to tease me. You know I'm not good with anticipation, I just get upset.”

  She groaned and wiggled to move away toward the fridge and grab something to drink.

  “I didn't mean to tease you,” I said quietly.

  I went back to putting the last of the ingredients in the bowl. Mixing it with a big spoon. It was hard when I just wanted to be happy and make her feel the same way but I couldn't stop annoying her.

  Quiet seemed to be the best route so I concentrated on the cookies and got ready to roll out the dough. When I imagined this it had been more like the two of us laughing and having fun. Maybe throwing flour at each other and kissing while the cookies baked.

  I rolled the dough out and started using cookie cutters in different shapes to cut them out. There were Santa heads, candy canes, and reindeer. I could hear her moving around the kitchen but I didn't want to bother her so I kept working.

  After a little while I heard the back door open and realized she'd gone out to walk and sit by the pool.

  Someone had called and she'd snuck out to answer it.

  I finished with the dough and put the cookies in the oven but she wasn't back yet so I went out after her. She was sitting on one of the lounge chairs with her phone to her ear.

  I got closer and listened. The things she was saying gave me no clue about who it was so I went to sit in the chair beside her.

  The pool looked inviting. Swimming always made me feel better. It was a simple fix. Maybe I was just more simple than Olivia. She had the intelligence and complexity. It felt heavy at times like she was weighed down by her own mind.

  I was either up or really down but there was a lot more up these days.

  She hung up and I looked over to see her playing with her phone.

  “Who was it?” I asked.

  “Just my mom,” Olivia said. “She asked if we knew our plans, if we wanted to do something soon. Go shopping at the luxury outlets more inland or skating at White Crystal Lake.”

  Olivia laid back in the sun and rubbed her hand on her forehead a little, breathing deep, holding her arm across her stomach and shutting her eyes.

  “What did you say?” I asked.

  It all sounded fun but I wasn't about to say that.

  “I said I'd
have to ask you,” Olivia answered. “But that of course I wanted to see her. I'm not the one who left town before she arrived.”

  She swallowed her anger and sat up, making her way to walk back inside. “I don't want your cookies to burn,” she said, walking away.