Mischief and Mistletoe (5 page)

“I’d be better if you went faster,” she moaned.

He wanted to, Lord knew he wanted to. “I don’t want to hurt you.” He’d rather die than do that.

“You won’t. Please. I’m not fragile. Take me. Or do you want me to beg.”

“I don’t want you to beg.” He picked up his speed, finally moving at a tempo they both craved. “You just have to come.”

Tamara gasped loudly and she dug her nails into the quilt. Her pussy clenched hard around his cock, milking his turgid length a thrust at a time. “Don’t stop, don’t…”

Russell sped up his thrusts. The slapping sounds of their flesh was overridden by the low moans coming from Tamara’s mouth. The more he fucked her, the louder she became, and although there were very few things in life he loved more than making his woman scream, they weren’t exactly in the right place for this.

Russell cast a quick glanced over at the door. “Shh, baby.”

“I can’t. I can’t. Fuck!” She reached out her hand toward the top of the bed where the pillows were. Unfortunately for her they were just out of reach. “Help me.”

Russell growled and paused just long enough to get her the pillow, but as soon as it was in her hands
, he went right back to do what he loved most—making love to his wife.

Tamara used the pillow wisely and shoved the corner between her lips to muffle her moans. She used the other hand as leverage to push herself back on
him, so she was meeting him thrust for thrust. Wanton that she was, she began to give as good as she received, rocking back against him, taking what she wanted from him with no apologizes.

She was a sexual, sensual being and she was all his. Her growing desire spurred on his, causing him to love her harder and faster in search of what they both needed. Wanting nothing more than to feel her come undone, Russell reached around her hip and beneath her tummy to delve between her splayed thighs. He zeroed in on her clit and rubbed his fingers against the sensitive bundle of nerves. It wasn’t a slick move, forcing him to shift a bit to find a new rhythm to move inside her while frigging her, but it was completely worth it to hear her cry out his name.

“Oh God, yes.” Her words came out in a gasp.

Her cries of passion had his balls tightening and his hips bucking as he sped up.

Screaming her release into the pillow, she arched her back and thrust against him as she came. The feel of her body contracting around him was the final stepping-stone to his own release. As much as he wanted to prolong his pleasure, his body would not be denied. Unable to hold out any longer, he closed his eyes and surrendered to the onslaught of pleasure. With a savage-like groan, he pushed into her one last time, going as deep as he could as he came.

He dropped his head against her damp
, shivering back, biting down on his lip to keep his own cries of passion at bay. While he couldn’t care less if Ty and Charlotte knew what they were up to, he’d hate to have to explain it to the little bit.

Exhausted, he remained leaning on her while he tried
to catch his breath. Tamara wasn’t in any better shape. She lay trembling beneath him, still clutching the pillow as her pussy fluttered with gentle aftershocks around his cock. Once his breathing regulated and he finally had feeling in his limbs again, Russell eased up and pulled gently out of his wife. He stumbled back a few feet and breathed in deep, trying to still his racing heart. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Tamara rolled over to her side and rested her hand on her belly. “Just give me a minute.”

“No problem.” Russell slipped into the connecting bathroom and cleaned up a bit. When he was finished he dampened a washcloth and brought it with him to the bedroom.

He walked to the edge of the bed and
gazed lovingly at Tamara. Unlike his wife, he tended to avoid taking pictures, but right now he would kill for a camera. Tamara was beautiful. She was curled up on her side, with her top leg stretched out over her bent lower leg. Her deliciously dark skin was flushed and damp with perspiration, and her bare breasts rose and fell with every breath she took, and as usual, her hand was cupping her belly, cradling their child even though it was snug inside her womb. She looked motherly yet sensual all at the same time. She’d never looked lovelier.

Russell gave Tamara the towel and she freshened up. When she was done, she pulled the covers back and climbed into bed. After putting the towel back into the bathroom, Russell returned to the bedroom and climbed into bed behind Tamara. As he
had begun to do since the moment she told him she was pregnant, he placed his hand on her belly and pulled her into him tightly. “If we lie here for too long, we’re liable to go to sleep.”

“And that would be bad, why?”

“Well, wasn’t part of the big brouhaha about you being over here for Christmas Eve Dinner and Christmas day.”

Tamara snuggled deeper into her pillow. “Always talking about the past.”

“That was just this morning,” he reminded her dryly.

“
Shhh…” Tamara reached absently behind her and patted him on the head. “Live in the moment. I’m just happy to be here with you and our friends. Nothing else matters as long as we’re all here together.”

For once, Russell couldn’t have agreed more.

Chapter Three

“Hum, hum, hum, hum, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum,” Charlotte mixed and mingled one of her favorite Christmas songs as she put the finishes touches on dinner. She wasn’t much of a singer, but she could hum the hell out of a song, which made the “Little Drummer Boy” the perfect song for her. For the words, she’d just hum, and for rat-tat-tatting, well, she’d just rat-tat-tatted. It really was the perfect song for tone-deaf singers. “Hum, hum, hum, hum, hum, hum, pa-rum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum.”

“On my
drum
,” Tamara sang, coming in right on key as she entered the kitchen with a smile on her rested face. “Man, I love that song.”

Charlotte shot her an answering smile. “So do I. Sleep well?”

“Too well.” Tamara raised her hands over her head and stretched. “I almost didn’t make it out of bed.”

“You should have stayed in bed and rested.”

“And miss all this?” Tamara gestured around her. “Not on your life. I’m here for holiday fun, not for holiday sleep. So point me in the right direction and give me orders, boss lady. What can I do to help you finish anything up?”

“Umm
…” Charlotte looked over the dish-covered island carefully, making sure she had exactly what she needed. “I think I got it all done.”

Tamara’s breath caught and her eyes widened as she took it all in. “All of it?”

“Yes, you were sleeping for like three hours. Heck, I was kind of hoping you would just sleep until morning. You need it.”

“No, what I need is to spend time with my family. I missed it all, didn’t I?” Tamara began to tear up. “I missed everything.”

“T.” Charlotte walked over to her friend and wrapped an arm around her much larger waist. “You to need rest, babe. That’s more important than the stupid list.”

Tamara crossed her arms over her breasts. “I love that stupid list. I look forward to that list every year.”

“It’s a good list.” One they came up with together when they first moved in together so many years ago. Growing up, neither one of them really had much of a home life. Tamara’s dad was a no-show, and although her mom was great, her three staples in life had been work, church and bingo. That didn’t leave much attention left over for Tamara. Charlotte’s parents, on the other hand, had divorced when she was younger and she’d been trafficked back and forth between them right up to her high school graduation when she decided to step off their crazy train and started to make a life for herself. She didn’t talk to them much now, but to be fair she didn’t talk to them much when she lived with them so she didn’t feel a need to change things at this point.

Instead she and Tamara decided one day to come up with their self-made family traditions, which included The Christmas Eve List
to End All Lists. Despite its epic name, the list wasn’t that big. It just consisted of things they would do once they had families of their own, and now since that occurrence had come to pass, they’d begun to incorporate the list every Christmas since Candace was old enough to use cookie cutters.

Still pouting, Tamara pulled out a chair at the small table they had in the kitchen and sat down. “So what have we crossed off so far?”

“The popcorn and the cranberries are ready to be strung but we haven’t done that yet. The boys and Candace did the gingerbread houses but note I’m using the term,” Charlotte made air quotes, “
house
very loosely.”

“Please tell me they used the hot glue this time?”

Charlotte shook her head and smiled. “Nope.”

“
Oy.” Tamara rolled her eyes. “Why won’t they listen?”

Now that was a question to end all question
s. Why didn’t men listen? “Because they’re a couple of guys.”

“If they would just glue the house together first it wouldn’t end up looking like a haunted melting mansion.”

“I know.” Charlotte shrugged. “You and I’ve been saying this for three years now and they still refuse to listen.” Much to her amusement.

“So how did it turn out?”

Charlotte reached into the top of her dress and pulled her cell phone out of her bra then handed it over to her friend. “They caved in under the weight of the frosting, turning their gingerbread houses in to gingerbread teepees. In the end, Candace decided to make a gingerbread Pocahontas to go with them. If you could have seen the look on the guys’ faces when she did a war chant around the teepees, you would have died laughing. It was really quite sad.”

Tamara shook her head and smiled as she scrolled through the photos. “My
Native ancestors did not die for this.”

“They really didn’t.” Charlotte walked over to her cabinet and pulled out two wineglasses. She s
et them on the counter, then filled one with red wine and the other with sparkling grape juice before bringing the glasses to the table.

“Thank yo
u.”

“My pleasure.” Charlotte took a seat, picked up her glass and let out a
small sigh. She was feeling a little tired herself. “So anyway, you really didn’t miss much. That was the only thing we did off the list. We still have lots of Eve to celebrate.”

“Thank
God. I was really beginning to think that I totally sucked. I was supposed to be a help, not a hindrance.”

“First of all…” Charlotte covered Tamara’s hand with her own, and stared her friend directly in the eyes. She didn’t want the other woman to miss any of the words she was about to say. “You, my friend, are many things.
A headache, and a pain in my tooshie on the rare occasion, but never, ever, are you a hindrance. I didn’t want you here to help. I just wanted you here.”

A heavy burden seemed to lift from Tamara’s shoulders at Charlotte’s words and she smiled a bit. “Well
, being here is obviously all you’re getting from me because I can’t manage to stay awake to save my life. I’m so freaking tired.”

Charlotte eyed her friend’s belly, which appeared a bit lower to her than it had earlier. “You know your body does that when it’s getting closer to the time.”

“Well, junior better slow his roll.” Tamara crossed her hands over her belly. “He’s not due to arrive for another week.”

A due date hadn’t meant a hill of beans to Candace. Their little angel popped out when she was good and ready
, and Charlotte was willing to bet Tamara’s tiny tot was going to follow suit as well. “Babies come when they want to, plus,” she lowered her voice and leaned in closer, “I hear sex helps to induce labor.”

“What sex?” Tamara batted her eyes and smiled all innocent
-like.

Charlotte snorted. She wasn’t buying that at all. “I’m talking about all that dirty sex you had in my guest room that put your ass right to sleep and had your husband strutting around here for an hour like
a rooster.”

Tamara tried to suppress her laughter but failed. Big time. “He. Did. Not.”

“Oh, he so did,” Charlotte teased. “From the way he was walking around here you’d think that man invented sex.”

“I’m not so sure he didn’t. Some of the things he does…
ohhh.” Tamara raised her hand in the air like she was in church and was about to testify. “I swear before the Good Lord Jesus himself, should be a sin. Besides I’m trying to get laid as much as possible before junior gets here. Because rumor has it once you have kids your sex life disappears.”

“I wouldn’t say disappear
,” Charlotte replied a little too disgruntled. “More like it hides from you like it owes you child support. If I’m lucky, I’ll see it on the first and the fifteen.”

“Damn.”

“Exactly, but hold up.” Charlotte stood and went to the counter and grabbed the bottle of wine and brought it back to the table. She refilled her glass then scooted closer to her friend. “I may not be hitting it like a piñata but you are so you need to give up some details. I want all the nitty and the gritty.”

Tamara frowned and pulled back a bit. “You want me to talk about my private martial sex life with you?”

“Uh…yeah.”

Tamara turned her nose up as if she smel
led something sour. “That’s so low class. Who does that?”

Charlotte snorted as she eyed her friend up and down.
She heard pregnancy changed people, but this was a bit bizarre even for wacky hormones. “We do, bitch, that’s who.”

“Right!” Tamara laughed
, dropping all pretenses. “I could barely say that with a straight face.”

“Don’t be playing with my emotions. Get me all worked up. You better tell me something,” Charlotte ordered jokingly. “And make it good.”

Tamara looked around the big empty room teasingly then leaned in a little closer so they were just inches apart from one another. “Here’s a little naughty detail for you. Russell…”

Charlotte licked her lips and said, “Uh
-huh.”

“Goes down faster than my
Wi-Fi coverage.”

“Girl.” Charlotte jerked back a bit. She wasn’t prepared for all that.
“Stop.”

“I cannot because I speak nothing but the truth. That man stays downtown. Lives there. Has a condo. Hell
, he’s thinking about running for mayor and shit.” Tamara shivered a little bit as if she was having flashback. “I mean just. Yes! Everything about it yes. Can I get an Amen for the man who likes to eat at the Y?”

Charlotte fanned herself with one hand and raised the other skyward in praise. “Amen. Amen. Amen.”

“Yes, Lord, Amen. When I tell you my baby knows how to smack it up, flip it, rub down…”

“Oh
nooo…” Charlotte finished the hip-hop lyric, then took a drink to cool herself down a bit before she combusted in her newly decorated kitchen.

“You better believe me,” Tamara finished. “And in all honesty, if I would have known white boys could throw down like this in high school…I might have made a couple of different choices growing up. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

Charlotte empted her glass and reached for the bottle again. She needed another drink after that conversation. “You said it all.”

“And here I was thinking she said too much.” Russell’s deep voice rang out from behind them.

“Jesus!” Charlotte screamed, yanking her hand back to place it against her pounding heart as she spun around in her chair to see not only Russell in the kitchen, but Ty and Candace as well.

Candace tugged on Ty’s hand, forcing him to look down at her. “Daddy
, I’m confused,” she said with a frown. “Why is the baby smacking, flipping and rubbing it down in T’mara?”

Tamara covered her face with her hand and just started laughing uncontrollably
, and Charlotte couldn’t blame her. She was doing her very best to keep her laughter at bay…but it wasn’t going to hold for long.

“Jesus be a fence,” Ty grumbled as he ushered his daughter from the kitchen to the door. “Go into
Daddy’s office, princess, and get on the loud speaker and tell the men in the bunkhouse it’s time to eat. Okay?”

“Yes
, Daddy.” She took off like a shot out of a gun, and the second the door closed behind her, Charlotte let loose. She laughed so hard she damn near peed herself. Being Candace’s mom was the highlight of her life. Nothing even came close to the joy she received just from spending time with her little girl.

Ty
, bless him, gave Charlotte a few seconds to gather herself together before he turned on her. “See, this is why you two should never be allowed to hang out unsupervised.”

“Man.” Tamara stood. “You guys might want to think about putting a bell on baby girl’s neck. Or she’s going to end up traumatized
, rocking herself back and forth somewhere in a corner.”

Russell came up and wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Am I the only one who isn’t upset about this conversation? Best thing I heard in a damn long time. I’m going to be the Mayor of
Pussyville.”

Tamara elbowed him. “See
, you went too far.”

“That’s not what you were saying upstairs.”

“Okay.” Charlotte loudly cleared her throat. “Talking about it when you guys aren’t here is fun, talking about it when you guys are here is slightly scummy. So yay. Conversation over.”

“Fun spoiler.”

“Whatever, Mayor of Pussyville.” Charlotte grabbed a bowl of mashed potatoes off the island and handed them to Russell. “Take this out to the dinning table.”

Ty grabbed the ham platter and paused next to his wife. “You do realize this is exactly why we don’t get invited to other people’s houses for the holidays?”

“I know, right. Isn’t it wonderful?”

Ty leaned in and pressed a quick kiss across her lips. “No, you’re wonderful. I love you
, crazy lady.”

“You better.” She smacked his ass and sent him on his way. When the men were gone
, she looked over at her friend and smiled. “Do I even have to say it?”

“Nope.” Tamara walked over and took a dish as well. “God is good and so are our men.”

“Amen,” Charlotte sighed. “Amen.”