Page 29 of Baby, It’s Hot Inside

Ginger comes to her feet. "You sure you're still up for the cookie exchange? You know how my mom and all her friends can be?"

"Do I get to bring cookies home with me?"

"Of course. That's the point."

"Then let's go. Mama needs some cookies." I follow Ginger out of my house thankful that I won't see Kris there. The men never show up to these parties. But I will have to contact him. I guess I'll send him a text and see if he can meet me later for a chat. So much for our no-strings night.

chapter seventeen

Kris

The amount of noise a group of can women cause is kind of astounding. And the party hasn't even started yet. Mom has me here helping to move chairs into the main living area for her big annual cookie exchange. At least I get my pick of the baked goods before I'll be exiled from the house.

And at least I don't have to worry about racing out of here before I see her. Annie is Jewish and doesn't typically join in for the Christmas festivities that my parents insist on hosting. Year after year. Ugly sweater parties. Cookie exchanges. Secret Santa’s. Ornament making. Gingerbread house building. It's a never-ending celebration of red and green and enough to make me fucking hate Christmas.

Okay, I don't actually hate the holiday, but I don't love it like the rest of the Starr family. As a kid, I’d loved it, but back then I just got the end result…the presents, the cookies. The planning for all of these events starts in like June. My mom just goes all out. My dad has a big light show that's actually choreographed to a local radio station. They're insane people. I love them, don't get me wrong, but when you've spent more than one Christmas sweating your balls off in the desert hoping you don't lose anymore friends to IED's, you sorta lose that holiday spirit.

I wish I could get it back, but it’s so damn hard when it feels like I have no clear path forward. No direction. No fucking idea what to do next.

I'm in the midst of hauling one last-minute folding table into the living room when I see my younger sister walk by. I pause, table in hand, and lower myself to kiss her cheek. "Ginger."

"Kristofer." She passes by me and heads to the room my mom has just called her.

Then I still because I know she's here. I've spent an entire month trying to forget the precise scent of her. So the moment I smell that subtle perfume I know she's behind me. I turn my face and my breath catches. She's so damn beautiful. Her black hair is tousled in soft waves around her face and as best I can tell she's free of make-up. Just naturally so pretty.

I swallow. "Annie."

I instantly want to pull her into my arms. To kiss the hell out of her.

She takes a deep breath. "Hey Kris, I actually wanted to talk to you about something. Do you have a minute?" Her hands are clasped in front of her and she's twisting her fingers together nervously.

Maybe she's been thinking about me as much as I've been thinking about her. About how our one night together wasn't enough. "Yeah, let me just set this table up for my mom and then I'm all yours."

I do just that and then find her just where I left her, standing awkwardly by the front door. I grab her arm and pull her with me into my dad’s study. "We should be able to talk in here." I'd like to bring her to my bedroom, but I don't want to be presumptuous, plus I still don't have a place of my own yet so I'd be bringing her up to my childhood room. At least I no longer have basketball posters lining my walls.

I slide closed the pocket door, saying, "I didn't think you'd be here today."

She frowns. "Why is that?"

"Aren't you Jewish? You don't actually celebrate Christmas, right?"

She chuckles and her smile is blinding. "Yes, I am Jewish and no I don't officially celebrate Christmas, but I'm also not a savage and I do celebrate all things cookies. So here I am." She opens her arms up as if presenting herself.

And I can't help myself. I cup her face and kiss her.

She tenses momentarily, then slides her arms around my neck moaning into my mouth. It is all the encouragement I need. I walk us backwards to the leather sofa and sit down, pulling her into my lap.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about this," I murmur as I kiss and lick down her throat. “About you. The way you taste. That way you feel when I’m deep inside you.”

"Me neither."

"Perhaps we were premature making a rule about just one night." I fondle her tit as I gently suck on her neck.

“What are you saying?”

“That I fucking want you, Annie. That I’m not done with you yet.”

“But I have something I need to tell you.”