Winter Kisses (A 3:AM Kisses Novella Book 2) by Addison Moore Page B

through the walls.
    “I’m more than ready,” she assures, pulling me forward as if she were looking to get this over with, and, truth be told, I couldn’t blame her because so am I. The next stop after this is Heaven, and I can’t wait to plunge inside those pearly gates.
    I pull her in for one last embrace before we descend the gates of, for a lack of a better word, hell.
    “Let’s do it.” I don’t bother knocking, we just head on in, and the sound of holiday music and laughter goes up several octaves. The scent of fresh cut pine and cinnamon infiltrate the air, and the hint of something delicious and far more packed with protein is layered just beneath that—prime rib. “You want to grab a bite?” I’m already pulling her toward the buffet.
    “I’m not that hungry.” She looks around at the crowd, and you can practically see the nerves jumping in her eyes. Figures. Laney can perform to a crowd of thousands, and yet the thought of being in a room with my mother has her crawling out of her skin. “Maybe we should say hi to your mom first?”
    “You always were the smart one.”
    “Says the one who runs a multi-billion dollar company.” She gives my hand a squeeze.
    “Not quite, but someday.” It’s true. I’ve been grinding the gears down at the farm since middle school, and I know damn well how to make Capwell Inc. run like a fuel-efficient machine. In addition to that, I’ve bought and traded enough stocks and assets over this last year alone to create a nice financial cushion for Laney and me. A smile tugs at my lips at the thought of a future with Laney. I’m already living the dream.
    We spot my mother over by the fireplace with a group of investors. I recognize them from a meeting the other day. Dad is still in Japan, but he’ll be home tomorrow night, so Mom is flying solo this evening. She looks calm, cool, and collected. She has her fingers coiled around a glass of wine and a wide painted smile stretching across her face. It looks like a good time to catch her.
    The group she’s with shares a laugh before disbanding, and we come up on her quick before she’s pulled away by the crowd.
    “Look who decided to show up?” Her eyes expand as she gives a toothy smile, and I can’t for the life of me figure out if she’s thrilled or pissed. You’d think I would have decoded my mother’s many moods by now, but I’m not even close. Not sure I want to be.
    “It’s nice to see you, too,” I chime in.
    “Great party.” Laney marvels at the guests a moment. “And the decorations! Your home is to die for.”
    “It is a stunner.” She pulls back and examines Laney from head to toe. “And look at you.”
    I wrap my arm around Laney and wait for my mother to follow her observatory remark with something nice, but it doesn’t come. I think we both know that’s as close as my mother gets to doling out a compliment, she tiptoes to the border and ventures no further.
    “Oh, the chancellor from the auxiliary league is making her way to the door. I’ll catch up with you two later.” She zips off to tend to her guests, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
    “That went well.” Laney glances at the ceiling as if she were considering it. Come to think of it, she was probably posing a question.
    “How about you and me head over to that buffet now?” I nip at her earlobe, and she bucks and shudders beneath me. It’s like the public version of an orgasm—one I don’t mind gifting her right here under my mother’s uptight roof. These are the exact things I’ve missed this past year. The way her body responds to mine, her cute sighs, the sweet way she rubs my back when we’re in public. I’m addicted to it all.
    “Why don’t you go ahead? I see Baya and Roxy outside, and I want to say hello.”
    “You bet.” I crash my lips to hers for a moment. “I’ll be out in a sec.”
    She drifts off with a wave, and I make a beeline toward the food. It’s a holiday spread that only my mother’s