Page 19 of Unwrapping His Gift

“Of course I would, Daisy,” I reply. “And listen, I know what I did to you was wrong, and I know that friend of yours is telling you to be careful of me or whatever, but Daisy, I’d doanythingfor you.”

9

DAISY

Craig’s wordsrock me deep down to my core. I don’t even know how to process them.

First he shows up here completely unannounced, then he tells me he’s willing to help me with my mother, and now he’s just said something that only men in the movies say to women.

Am I dreaming? Am I actually dreaming?

“Pinch me.”

Craig’s beautiful eyes light up, and he laughs. “What?”

“Pinch me,” I repeat, taking his hand and pressing it against my cheek. “Because I refuse to believe this is actually happening.”

“I’m not going to pinch you, Daisy–”

I force Craig’s thumb and index finger to squeeze my cheek until it hurts, but he quickly pulls away. He doesn’t want to hurt me, and that just makes me like him even more. God, all those feelings I used to have for him back in high school are reigniting with such intensity. It’s like they’ve been simmering there just waiting for more fuel to be added to them, and now, with Craig’s return, they are absolutely raging like a fire ready to burn up the entire universe.

I didn’t even fully realize how much I missed him until he showed up again. I guess I’d put those feelings behind me, or beneath me –buried them deep inside me like I tend to do with everything in my life.

If I never saw Craig again, I probably wouldn’t have even let myself think about him more than a handful of times. But now, no matter what Marissa says, I’m absolutely falling for him again – more deeply than I ever fell for him before.

“Nope, still awake,” I tell him.

“Well, duh.” He smiles. “This would be a pretty specific dream if you actuallyweredreaming. I mean – me working as Santa doing office parties during Christmas time? If you were coming up with that out of nowhere, I’d be pretty concerned.”

We both crack up laughing. “That would be pretty random,” I admit. “But despite how shocked I was at seeing you that night – thinking back on it – youdidlook pretty damn good.”

“Yeah?” Craig smirks, flashing me that charming smile of his. “If you didn’t know me – if we didn’t have history – would you have come and sat on my knee?”

I can feel myself blushing. Why, though? Craig and I used to date. We slept together just last night. It’s not like I should have anything to feel embarrassed about.

“Maybe,” I reply bashfully, looking down at my knee. “Would you have believed me if I’d told you I’d been a good girl?”

I feel the warmth of his hand first before I feel the rough, callused skin touch my chin as he lifts my face to look at him. “I would hope you’d been a good girl. Because that would mean you hadn’t been with anyone else but me.”

Something about his words grips me. It’s like a set of chains have been draped over me, wrapping me up to connect me to him. Chains I never want to escape from either. Suddenly I feel like I’ve been bound to a home where I’ve always meant to belong.

“Craig…I haven’t,” I say softly. “I haven’t been with anyone but you.”

His expression changes, and his eyes fill with excitement and desire. “You haven’t? Are you telling me the truth, Daisy?”

“Of course I am,” I reply. “You know how hard it was for me to even date you, thanks to my trust issues with men, so when you left…that was it for me.”

Craig’s lips part like he’s going to respond, but he says nothing. Instead, he leans in and kisses me. My whole body goes pliant beneath him. I accept his kiss and lean back, letting him know that I am his, asking him for more and at the same time, telling him that he can do whatever he wants to me.

He presses his body down against mine, and I revel in the warmth, the weight, the musculature that traps me beneath him. As he applies more pressure, I instinctively lift my hips to grind up against him. My raw instincts are overpowering me now. I have no choice but to obey them. No reason to even think about questioning them.

I trust this man. I trust Craig.

I want him in my life more than anything.

I cry out as he grips my hips and flips me over onto my stomach. He does it with such ease it’s like I weigh nothing to him, and that just tugs at every feminine urge and instinct I have inside of me in a way I’ve never felt before.

In response, I tilt my hips up and glance back at him over my shoulder just in time to watch him, eyes full of lust, as he grabs my pants and pulls them down to my ankles, taking my panties with them.