Chapter 10

Ten

" W here are we going?"

Ivy could barely hear her own voice over the rip of the snowmobile's loud motor. The wide headlight beam cut through the forest as Damon dodged the machine around felled trees and suspicious-looking hillsides that looked like trouble spelled with a huge freaking capital T. She didn't dare look back so she couldn't say for sure. Besides, she had her glasses tucked inside her jacket and blissfully let him steer them to wherever they were going. Since he detoured away from where she knew he had parked the truck, she leaned forward and asked again.

"Are we lost or what?" With only a small headlight from the snowmobile, it was possible.

A warm rumble of laughter carried through her hands. It was the only sign she had that he actually registered what she had said.

Darkness rapidly swallowed up the space immediately behind the bright spotlight like a headlight and all she could see to the sides and rear of them were massive pines, their branches hung low like craggy arms reaching for them through the night. She shook herself mentally. After the events of the night she was waiting for a hoard of cloaked men to jump out.

"We're almost there," Damon shouted and she squeezed her arms around him to signal she heard.

They crested a ridge and came to a sudden stop before continuing down the slope at a slower pace. In the distance, she could make out the rooftop of a cabin that took all of three minutes to reach. Damon killed the engine and helped her dismount.

"Trust me. Follow me."

She didn't have a choice. Ivy followed his steps as they slowly rounded the edge of the cabin. Damon led them to the top of the porch. In seconds he had the key pulled out of some hiding spot above the door and them inside.

He made fast work of loading the fireplace as she found the light switches.

"Amazing they still work with how hard it's coming down out there."

"One thing about Alaskan homes, they are sturdy and can take a beating."

"I know the feeling. It takes a sturdy anything to survive out here." Soft lighting filled the open space that held a dining room table, rustic and a little worn, a couch pushed to the middle of the room to face a large window set to overlook something she bet was spectacular in the daytime. She twirled and peeled off one layer of clothing after the other as the heat built from the roaring fire.

Down to a single sweater, a pair of gloves and her snow pants and boots, Ivy made herself useful by fetching more wood from the wood box by the front door. "Here." She passed four more logs over as Damon tossed each onto the growing blaze. "I don't really think you can make it too big, do you?"

Damon laughed and stole a kiss.

"Hey, that was unfair."

"I know. But delicious. Love the taste of fresh snow on your lips."

"That's beside the point, Damon Savage."

"Then what is the point, angel?" he asked as he stood and nailed her with a look that said it was time they got things out in the open.

Fine. "I'm leaving as soon as the storm lets up."

The small crease lines at the corners of his eyes and between his brow deepened and she knew her words caught his attention. "Oh yeah? Wanna make a bet?"

Fact: she might have met her match in stubbornness.

Heat swelled through the small cabin, and she peeled off the last sweater over top her pullover long sleeve and mimicked his posture. Crossing her arms over her chest drew the cotton material tight across her breasts and made the Santa face iron on look wide-eyed. His eyes shot to her cleavage poking out from her V-neck. He might as well have reached between them and pinched her nipples into tight little berries. They puckered the second his gaze roamed over them and now she couldn't release her arms if she wanted to. No way she'd give him an ounce of ground if she was to win the standoff.

"Don't think I didn't see what you did tonight. Or last night as it were. You can't go around canceling people's flights whenever you fancy."

"And you can't take it upon yourself to think you know how to handle yourself in a blizzard, my little Texan angel. I'll make a thousand calls and wake the fucking Archangels of Heaven if it means making sure you are safe."

Damn, he was good, she'd give him that. When he wanted to make a point he made it. Leaning forward, he gazed at her from beneath heavy-lidded eyes. Golden light bathed every crevice of the living room but nothing matched the brightness of his irises. Shot through with anger and a mixture of fear, they caught her gaze and refused to let go.

He dropped his arms and she lifted her chin in defiance. The last of what she had left zinged through her blood and held her in place, when what she really wanted to do was fall into his arms and let him kiss her with the promise of passion she knew he held.

"Damon. I don't know what to do anymore."

He shook his head softly and lowered his voice to a gravelly baritone that raked over her and eased some of the tension wrapped around her heart. "Have you thought about asking for help? Letting someone close enough to help you every once in a while? You're not alone, angel. There are people in this world that love you."

She brought her head up. "Love? Like actual love and falling in love? That doesn't exist for me. Or at least I never thought it did." But the conviction she once felt wavered and she caught the second he noted the change in her tone.

"Doesn't it? I felt the same way before you came into this town, but now…can't you feel it? It wasn't just sex between us, Ivy."

Featherlight fingers dusted across her mind cheek where he brushed away a strand of hair. Her eyelids drifted closed, and for a brief second everything silenced. All the worry and all the concern around what her future held drifted to the back of her mind and all she could feel was peace. Standing here with Damon with the snow falling like fairy kisses from the sky just beyond the window.

It all seemed so magical. But was it real?

She sensed Damon shift closer, and her eyes sprang open. "What am I feeling? No medical book describes what I'm feeling."

A slow grin spread across his face. "Love, angel. What you do to me every time you look at me, what you make me feel every time you're in the same room. What you're feeling isn't in a textbook."

He ate up the last of the space between them and scooped her into his arms. Her gaze lowered to his lips.

She should resist. Go back to Houston. Finish her degree and be happy.

Her resolve was fast giving out.

Fact: she was happier right here on the cusp of something so life-changing she was afraid to move.

She dipped her head, and her heart nearly doubled in size as the warm press of his lips against hers stole every ounce of air from her lungs. She buried her hands in his silky hair, the ends still damp from the melted snow, and let the last of her control slip to the floor with her clothes and his. This Christmas would be different. This Christmas held hope for her.

"Take me, Damon, long and slow this time. Make me feel what love is. Let it be a Christmas gift. Let it be our beginning."

His hand moved from the back of her head and glided to palm her ass as he hauled her to straddle his waist. The thickness of his shaft rested between her folds and she rolled her hips. Pleasure had her head falling back, the ends of her hair like angel kisses on the globes of her ass.

He wound the long lengths around one hand as he lowered her to the plush couch. Warm and velvety, the large cushions accommodated them perfectly as Damon kneeled over her. He peered down at her, and she brought her hands between then to roll her nipples between her thumbs and forefingers. He watched hungrily, his eyes ablaze with the desire she felt thrumming between their connection.

"Is this how it will always be?" Her question was a husky version of her voice, thick with lust and need. Without her glasses there was a hazy outline but even she could see the precum that wet the bulbous head of his long, very thick and utterly beautiful dick.

She squeezed her eyes shut and arched as he bent over her and wrapped his warm lips around a sensitive nipple.

With her hands buried in his hair, she pulled him up and gasped as he pulled hard before letting her nipple slip from his mouth. Every nerve between her pussy and tits heated beyond bearable and she loved the delicious burn across her senses.

"I want to taste you," she demanded. But just barely. It seemed every thought was hard to come by at the moment as he captured her other nipple and repeated the heavenly torture.

Heavy breaths pulled from her lips and she cried out from the sudden burst of pleasurable pain to her nipple.

"Damon," she begged and he paused, his cock teasing her clit.

"Yes, angel?"

She didn't need to say the words when actions would speak louder.

Pressing her palms to his chest, she pushed him until he kneeled on the couch in front of her with one leg over the side for balance. She gathered the heavy weight of his cock in her hands and licked her lips.

"Oh, sweet angel, you're killing me."

She eased down and moaned as the first salty taste of his come hit her tongue.

He pressed a gentle hand to the back of her head and she took all of him until the thick head hit the back of her throat and she swallowed.

"Best fucking Christmas present ever."

She moaned and the muscles of his thighs quivered beneath her palms as she balanced herself.

He threaded her hair around his hand, pulled the long locks to the side and she could feel the heat of his stare on her as she devoured every inch of his shaft with her mouth.

He trailed a finger over the blackened swirls of her tattoo where it rode high on her lower back before dipping around her hip. She shuddered and applied a little more pressure with her suction which earned her a growl of appreciation.

"Your lips are so sweet, Ivy. Don't stop. Not yet."

Need swelled in her core and pressed against her clit with a force that had her legs pressing closed. She slid a finger between her fold and the second the pad of her finger brushed against her the pleasure nub she cried around his girth and everything moved in a blur.

Damon released her and turned her around so fast the room spun. Panting and desperate, she splayed her legs when he nudged her open from behind.

"I would love to see you masturbate for me, angel, but tonight I need to claim every single orgasm from you."

He slid his hands over the round globes of her ass and pulled them apart. This time she didn't flinch but craved any attention he desired to give her body.

Leaning over her, he pressed her chest into the soft cushions and brought her ass higher in the air.

Warm air brushed over her folds and her veins filled with unquenchable fire. Then he licked her from clit to pussy and she nearly came undone from the very magic that held them together.

Love.

Slowly he repeated the action as his fingers explored every inch of her including her anus. With gentle strokes he teased her pussy then trailed the juices over her flesh to circle her back entrance as his tongue did wicked things to her clit.

"You make me wild, baby," he crooned as he bent over her, his cock replacing the area his tongue lashed into a frenzy of need.

"Damon! You can't stop now." Heat crept up to her cheeks as a wicked thought came to mind.

"I don't plan to. We have all night, and baby, from the size of that storm we might be snowbound for more than a night."

Using her left hand for balance, she brought her right hand between her legs and dipped a single digit into her channel and moaned then pressed another inside, stroking the silky confines once. Twice.

She drew her hand away and looked over her shoulder as she slipped both fingers between her lips.

His eyes became impossibly bright.

A week ago she would swear nothing like this existed in life. Hell, thirty minutes ago she still doubted. But now? Now she felt and she couldn't deny the depth of emotions that sunk so deep in her mind and in her heart nothing could happen to erase the feeling.

"Oh angel, you shouldn't have done that." He gripped her curves and pressed his cock to her tight newly fucked pussy.

In one long stroke he seated himself in her channel until she felt his balls smack against her clit.

She screamed. The tight walls of her cunt stretched and widened to fit his thick, throbbing shaft.

He pulled out slow and steady. Warmth from his body wrapped around her as his arms wound around her waist.

Holding her close, he drove back in. Light kisses against her shoulder sent a shiver every place their body touched.

He withdrew only to thrust back in so wickedly hard the smack of his thighs against her filled the room.

Cracks and pops from the fire drifted to the background as her cries rang out, drowning the sound of the storm still raging beyond the large window.

He pulled out slowly and turned her around to lie under him. Looking into his eyes, she reached between them and guided his cock back to her entrance. He pushed forward and her eyes rolled shut.

"Look at me."

She complied.

"You're the gift I never expected but I can never live without now. Crazy as it sounds, I need you in my life, Ivy."

Using languid strokes, he maintained the steady build of pressure as he rose over her and watched as her body accepted him time and again.

A light sheen of sweat glistened on the planes of his abs in the firelight, and she raised her gaze until their eyes connected.

Love poured out of him, and she didn't need to hear him say it when it showed in the way he held her and made love to her like she was his treasure. Every cell in his body radiated the fact he loved her like a beacon in the night to guide her home.

Home. Could it be true? Could she finally have found a place in this world she could call home? Not just another place to live but a home with people that loved her.

"Yes," she whispered and Damon slowed to a stop. "I want this, I want you. I know it's crazy but there's no way I can deny what I feel. I don't think I could live without you either."

It was scary accepting that fate sometimes had a hand in a person's life, but it could slap her in the face only so many times before she had to listen.

"And angel?"

"You're going to make me say it, aren't you?"

He fell forward, bracing himself on the couch arm as his other arm came to rest by her head.

"I need you to be sure."

Her channel tightened around his cock, and his eyes closed. He pulled out enough her swollen lips wrapped around the tip and teased him back into the depths of her pussy. Where he belonged.

She palmed his face, caressed the rough stubble of his jaw, looked into the depths of his eyes and whispered, "Will you marry me, Damon Savage? I fell for you the second you complimented me on my pink long-johns."

Shock widened his eyes. "You never cease to amaze me." He sank his length into her and brought his other elbow to rest by her head. "As long as I shall live I will love you. I can't question fate or how the universe brought me such a tender and kind soul."

"The girl that always wants answers begs to know why but this once, perhaps when it matters the most, I willingly let fate carry me through. I can't deny the love you feel for me as I feel the same love for you."

Damon's hands sunk beneath Ivy's ass. He leaned back and let out a deep long roar then pulled out and drove in with a delicious slap of his pelvis against her clit.

"Damon, don't stop." Her ragged plea drove him harder, faster.

With a hand to the back of her head and another around her waist, he hoisted her off the couch and brought her to meet his thrusts. Braced above the cushion and in his arms, her chest rose and fell as the ugliness of her past slipped away, replaced with pure harmony. She buried her hands in his hair as a fiery heat tore through her core.

He rocked into her once more and the ribbons magic that brought them together on Christmas and landed her snowbound with her mountain man laced around them, this time thicker, stronger. Invisible to all but them.

They spiraled down to twine around them and they didn't stop until it had them tied together.

He watched her with his whiskey eyes, the fire in them so hot lava looked like ice in comparison. His muscles bulged and flexed beneath her palms. Everything stilled as the hot ribbons of his come filled her pussy. So much so it slipped out and wet her thighs making her sticky with his release.

Her breath came ragged and she could barely form a complete thought much less draw words from any of the jumbled thoughts that flitted across her mind.

He eased her down as he kissed a trail across the planes of her stomach, over her highly sensitive clit and all the way down to her toes.

When he finished, he pulled her close as he came to rest behind her. Tenderly he brushed several kisses over her marred skin.

"Is that a yes?"

A low rumbled laugh eased her the small spike of worry in her of him saying no. She didn't know what came over her, why she asked, but it was out there and she wanted an answer.

"Yes, angel."

Soft pelting sounds lent the illusion of seclusion from the outside world and any of the problems reality brought. She rose and settled into his arms. "I think I would like a winter wedding."

"My little Texas angel loves the snow, huh?"

She lifted her head from his shoulder. "I love you, Damon Savage."

"And I love you."

She sighed. "I could stay right here forever."

"Glad to hear you say that." Damon ran the length of his nose along the crook of her neck and she melted into his arms.

"I don't ever want to be alone again."

"Never for both of us. Come here—I have something for you."

He pulled her to sit up with him and wrapped them both in a warm blanket. "There might not be a Christmas tree," he started.

"Don't worry about. I'm used to it."

"Those are words that will never be spoken again as long as I live."

She smiled and turned in his arms to press a kiss to his cheek. "I happen to think you're the best Christmas present." She nudged him with her elbow.

He rose and went over to where he tossed aside his pants and took out something, but she couldn't see what. He sat back down beside her and gathered her hand in his.

"For the most part I've lived a good life. One filled with family and friends. I've loved and I've lost. I've traveled and seen horrors while on the job I care nothing to relive, but one thing in life has always kept me sane. I knew I had a home to come back to."

Three tiny keys dangled from his hand as he held it up and tears threatened to blur everything, but she wrangled back some control and managed not to look like a sappy crybaby. "When I was on the phone and Reaper showed up, it was not to Drake but it was with my sister. I was thanking her for getting these for me." He pressed the set of newly minted keys into her hands and closed her fingers around the cool metal. "Ivy Kennedy, wherever fate takes you in this world you will always have a home. With me, with the family, and maybe one day with our own little family. The bakery, the bar, and our homes upstairs are never locked to you."

Home.

Ivy huddled deeper into the blanket and let the word settle in her mind. It held so much power yet meant nothing without the man beside her.

She had so many things she wanted to say so many things to share. "Thank you. I don't know what to say." It was safer that way and let her emotions do the talking.

"There's nothing to say, angel, but I do have one more thing."

"Oh?" She sat up, a little eager. What other surprise could he possibly have?

"While a set of keys are nice and convenient for, you know, unlocking doors, there's one more thing you hold the key to."

Her brows pinched. "Really? What are you up to, Damon Savage?"

"This."

Firelight glinted off the edges of a golden key. An intricate weaving pattern molded into a large heart graced the top with tiny diamonds and sapphires of the bottom half.

She turned around as he clipped the golden necklace around her neck. "And now you hold the key to my heart."

She threw her hands around his neck and smothered him in kisses. Not because of the jewelry but the impossibly sweet words that filled the splintered cracks of her heart and helped seal away the ugly past that controlled her for far too long.

"I love you, Damon Savage." She softly shook her head, peering down the length of her nose at him. "Who knew such a burly grizzly bear of a man could be such a teddy bear."

"Don't you ever breathe a word of that to my brothers. They'll never let me live it down."

"Lips are sealed forever." She stood and let the fleece blanket drop around her feet. "Since I didn't get you anything for Christmas I think I should see to it that you get another kind of present."

"Angel, I have you. It's all I could ask for."

"Shh, baby, and take me one more time by the fireplace."

"You never have to ask."

Who knew from something so ugly could come something so incredibly beautiful. Being snowbound with her Christmas mountain man wasn't so bad after all.

He sat back and the heavy veins of his shaft were already flushed with need and his cock long and hard. She eased onto his lap and lowered herself until her sticky wet dripping channel swallowed every inch of his hard cock.

He gripped her hips and moved down to the sofa to better allow her free movement.

She set the rhythm and before long they were both breathing, the key to his heart nestled between her breasts.

She pressed her hands to his shoulders, and as she sank down onto him he met her halfway, the force building the pressure within her core.

Intense and overwhelming, every nerve in her body lit with a renewed energy, everything in her wanted everything in him, and as she toed the edge, he pushed them over with a final thrust, their orgasm hitting at the same time. Her lips parted and she joined him in a cry of release. Long seconds passed while they caught their breath.

Finally, he said, "Earth-shattering and so damn good."

She raked a hand through his hair and raised his gaze to meet hers. "Merry Christmas, my mountain man."

Merry Christmas, my angel."

Fact: nothing was stronger than fate, not even her stubbornness. Except for love. Love healed. And another fact she knew, love existed if you opened your eyes to the gift of a Christmas miracle.