Page 2 of Home for Christmas
I come back through the house and start taking the stairs two at a time. Maybe she’s in her room with her music up so loud she can’t hear if someone comes in on her. Not going to lie, the thought of that makes me a little angry.
Marley’s young - too young for me to be thinking about her the way I have even before I shouldn’t have- and drop-dead gorgeous. She’s the fucking reason I didn’t come home last year. She turned eighteen and I knew if I came home and caught her with someone else, I would spend my holidays in jail for beating the shit out of him. Not to mention stealing her away and keeping her handcuffed to my bed. Pretty sure Ruby would have my head if that happened.
Marley has always been…mine. In my head at least. It didn’t start as a sexual thing. It started as wanting to protect her and take care of her but over time things changed. Any time there was even the slightest chance she might be with some boy I made myself scarce. Spending both her junior and senior prom at my cousins. I spent my proms there as well. No way was I taking some other girl.
I realize if I see her with someone… the monster Marley makes me will come raging out and destroy the kid for being around what is mine! And that isn’t going to help anything.
I go to her room. I know exactly which room it is, having been in it enough. I crack the door open and spot Marley. Asleep on the bed.
The first thing that hits me is how beautiful she looks laying on the dark sheets, her hair fanning out around her. She’s not wearing anything but an oversized sweater that skims the tops of her thighs and wool socks giving me an excellent view of her legs.They seem long but I know they aren’t. She only comes up to just under my armpit…if that.
Even in the sweater, I can tell her breasts are generously round, the same breasts that have haunted me no matter how far away from them I go. My palms itch to reach out and cup the weight of them in both hands. And don’t even get me started on that ass. Marley looks great walking to me but she drags my heart out of my throat when she walks away and that ass sways side to side in the most tempting way. All I can think about is peaches when I see it. In fact, I used to call her Peach and she never understood the reason why.
Yeah, looking at Marley laid out in front of me, I realize what a good decision it was to not come home last year. She was barely legal, and I would have fucked her six ways to Sunday after slaughtering whatever little shit she had as a boyfriend. She would have already been a mother by this time if I had come back last year.
“Marley,” I say her name softy, not really trying to wake her. “Marley? You alright, sweetheart?”
I come closer and spot the earbud in her ear and feel my temper rise. This beautiful, sexy woman fell asleep in nothing but a sweater with earbuds in…and the damned door open so that anyone could walk in on her! And she can’t pretend ignorance since I am more than well aware of the fact she watches all those true crime documentaries like they’re Saturday morning cartoons or the most relaxing soundtrack to drift off to sleep to. She doesn’t have a good excuse.
I should back out of the room and turn around, walk down the stairs, and wait for her mom and mine to come home. But the more I stare at those sexy legs and that hot ass and thosetempting breasts and the soft, sweet face so innocent in sleep, the more I lose my mind until I am acting without thinking.
Chapter Three
Marley
I am having the most beautiful dream that mirrors the latest book I am reading. A tall mystery lover has just taken me in his arms and is about to declare his undying love for me in front of the entire ballroom full of mafia bosses and their ladies. I don’t bother with the fact he looks just like Tannen, only different. This hero is a little more… rugged or dangerous somehow but I can’t quiet put my finger on it as his face kind of shimmers in front of me, never really giving me a good look.
I can’t help but smile up into his eyes and hold my breath as he opens his mouth to tell me all of the things I want to hear when…he flips me over on his knee and smacks me on the ass in rapid succession in front of everyone.
I jerk awake only to quickly realize I’m not dreaming. Well, not completely. A scruffy-looking Tannen is standing over me… fucking spanking me!
“What the hell? Tannen! What do you think you are doing?!” When the hell did he grow his facial hair out and why does it make him ten times hotter -something I did not think possible?
“Teaching you a lesson!”
I squirm away from him noticing that he’s pulled my earbuds from my ears at some point during all this. Who the hell is this guy who looks so much like the one I’ve been crushing on for so long but completely different? The Tannen I know would nevertalk to me like that. Teach me a what now, what does that even mean? And Tannen would never be all…handsy like this hot as fuck imposter. Right?
“Have you lost your mind?” Have I lost my mind? Maybe I’m still dreaming.
“Have you? You are in an unlocked house, half dressed with your hearing impeded so you couldn’t hear if someone came in to attack and hurt you! I could have done anything I wanted to you, and you would have never realized what happened!”
I slide off the bed and pull my sweater down further, trying to cover more of my legs. He doesn’t seem to be doing what any of my dream Tannen’s would do.
“Hello to you, too. Why are you in my room exactly?” I think about what he said about the unlocked door. “Why are you in my house first of all?”
“Your mom told me to come over so we could catch up.”
Mom?
“My mom told you to come over to catch up with me and you…what? Decided the best way to do that was to creep into our house, wake me up by spanking me, and berate me about what I’m wearing?” Nothing makes sense anymore. “Which is perfectly acceptable by the way! Especially in my own home.”
“It’s acceptable,” he agrees with me, “if your door is fucking locked. Otherwise, it’s a fucking invitation.”
What an asshole? When did my Tannen become such an asshole?
“Do you walk around outside dressed like this?”
I look down at my sweater that reaches my midthigh. A lot of girls wear much shorter dresses and shorts in the summer. There is absolutely nothing wrong with what I am wearing -even if I did take my jeans off before I laid down, so I wasn’t really just wearing a fucking sweater. He still doesn’t have any right to call me out on it.