All I Want for Christmas: A Kinnison Legacy Holiday novella (2 page)

She waved away his concern. “You two will be the best thing that little tyke needs right now. Your Uncle Jed would be so proud.”

Rein stepped out into the wintry dusk. Snow had begun to fall by the time they’d said their goodbyes to Ellie and pulled into the home that he and Liberty had designed. It had been built in record time with the help of the entire community. After Rein’s and Liberty’s tumultuous beginnings—including a sizzling summer affair, a fire that partially destroyed the old main Kinnison home, Liberty having to testify against her gangster ex-boss in Vegas, and Rein’s gunshot wounds--they’d married the day the trial had ended.

By then, Rein’s brother Wyatt had already started construction on their home located on the Kinnsion property. It was a short drive to the ranch, where Aimee and Wyatt now lived with their daughter, Grace. Dalton, the next oldest in line, and his wife, Angelique, also lived on another area of the extensive Kinnison land, closer to the mountains they so dearly loved. A true native to the area, Angelique’s Crow culture flowed through every facet of her and Dalton’s life with their daughter, almost nine, and a new baby boy, Sawyer, born this past June. The three men were raised together solely by Montana rancher Jed Kinnison after tragedy had struck each of their lives when they were teens. Wyatt and Dalton had been adopted after their mother abandoned them, and Rein had come to live at his uncle’s ranch after his parents had been killed in a car accident—his mother had been Jed’s only sister. Together, Rein, Wyatt, and Dalton had created a strong, unbreakable bond that had thus far weathered a multitude of storms. With families of their own now, they furthered that bond with the tradition of rotating Sunday family dinners at each other’s houses.

Rein turned off the ignition and glanced back at the boy strapped into the new car seat. They had researched dozens before deciding on this one—one they felt was safest for his size. A strange yet familiar tug pulled on his heart. Was this how Jed must have felt when he looked at the three misfit teenage boys fate had bestowed on him?

Liberty followed his gaze. “Are you okay?” she asked. “You haven’t said much on the way home.” Together they paused, watching the slumbering child. Outside the snow fell in soft, giant flakes. “We should probably get him inside. I don’t think freezing him is wise.” Liberty patted his shoulder.

He grabbed her hand and leaned over to kiss her. “I love you.”

She cupped his cheek. “Hold that thought. You get Cody, I’ll get his bag.”

Rein loved how effortlessly they seemed to work together as a team to get the sleepy child ready for bed.

Liberty plugged in the small lamp with a muted light so if he woke, he wouldn’t be afraid of the dark. On the nightstand were two framed pictures—one of him and his mom in better days, and a smaller one of Rein and Liberty with their dogs.

Liberty bent down and brushed a wisp of hair from the child’s forehead before placing a kiss there. She then joined Rein, who stood at the door waiting for her. “Do you think I need to sleep in here tonight?” she asked him.

A low, mournful hoot—that of an owl—sounded from outside the window.

Rein chuckled. “Jed’s keeping watch.” He rubbed her shoulders. “Come on, I’m still hanging onto that thought like you asked.”

A few moments later, he lay in bed and watched Liberty go through her nightly routine—she washed her face, brushed her teeth, would start to climb into bed, have an afterthought and go back to check the bedroom window to be sure it was locked—everything she’d done nightly since they’d married. Tonight, he couldn’t put his finger on the odd emotions playing inside him as he watched her checking the locks. “Darlin’, you know that Antonio and his men will be locked away for a very long time, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She folded her arms, tossed him a glance, and looked back at the snowy night.

“What is it, sweetheart?” He climbed out of bed, walked up behind her and pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her.

“It feels right…having him here.” She leaned against him, holding his arms to her. “Is that weird?”

He gave her a quick squeeze. “If it is, then I must be weird, too. I think he fits right in.”

“What if he wakes up and gets scared?”

He kissed the top of her head. “We’ll hear him. That monitor you bought has both sound and visual. Now, come to bed,” he whispered as he nuzzled the sweet, warm curve of her neck.

“Maybe we should shut the door.”

Rein thought a moment, shrugged, and complied with his wife’s wish. He agreed that he wasn’t yet ready for that talk. He was halfway back to the bed, where Liberty had dropped her robe and lay in her next-to-nothing gown. He’d been thinking for the better part of two hours of how he’d peel it off her.

“Wait.” She pointed to the door. “Maybe open it a little…so we can hear.”

Rein eyed her, finding this new side of his wife—usually uninhibited when it came to their lovemaking—quite interesting.

With a sigh and a definite semi, Rein returned to the door. “He seemed pretty zonked to me, sweetheart, but if it makes you feel more at ease….” The matter of how wide to leave the door open was the strangest foreplay Rein had ever experienced. “How about there?” He’d positioned it according to her instructions for at least the third time. He looked back at Liberty who now lay on her side. She had a wicked smile. It dawned on him then that she’d been playing him with the dexterity of a maestro.

He narrowed his gaze, hooked his thumbs in his boxer briefs and stripped, pleased when her eyes widened at his already firm erection. He crawled over the bed, and she accepted him with a kiss unlike any they’d ever shared. He was about to take things to the next level when Liberty’s hand came between their lips.

“Sssh, did you hear something?” Her eyes searched the ceiling as she lay beneath him.

“Probably the wind,” he spoke through her lovely fingers. His mouth barred from her face, he chose to focus on another set of his wife’s best features. He felt her body relax, succumbing to his touch, pressing her hips to his. He revisited her mouth, never tiring of the sounds she made in her throat when he gave her pleasure.

“Baby,” she whispered in his ear.

He braced on his elbows. “I didn’t hear anything.”

Liberty chuckled as she drew back the covers. “That was meant for you,” she purred, trailing her finger down his chest.

Wasting no time, he found his way under the covers. The freedom of not having to concern themselves with protection was some of the best sex he’d had with Liberty—and after their whirlwind, erotically-charged summer affair, that said a lot.

He lifted her hips to meet him, her sighs tripping his heart as he entered slowly, pausing to relish the sheer connection they shared.

“Do you think we should shut off the light? Just in case?” she whispered, her hips already moving in languid rhythm to his.

Rein had already begun the descent into sexual bliss. “No time,” he said, groaning softly as he plunged deep, and began the syncopated dance as old as time. “You feel amazing, sweetheart.” Rein’s body was tight with need. Part of him delighted in his fantasy of seeing her belly swollen with his child. The idea made him horny as hell and that fever produced an adrenaline-driven passion that nearly consumed him at times.

Her fingers clawed the flesh of his ass. Her face upturned, holding his gaze, as though willing conception to happen. Daring the universe not to ignore this pure love between them.

Her mouth dropped open with what was usually followed by a loud and seductive mention of his name as she reached her climax. He pressed a finger to her lips and smiled, replacing it with a fierce kiss that toppled both of them over the edge in a duet of soft groans and muted sighs.

“I’m thirsty.”

Rein rolled to his side, making certain they were covered. “Uh, okay, buddy. We’ll get you some water. How will that be?”

The small boy stood in the open doorway, his tiny fist rubbing at his eyes. Rein realized his boxer briefs lay on the floor where he’d shimmied out of them. He shot a look at Liberty for assistance.

“Just a sec, I’ll help you,” Liberty said.

She tugged her gown around her hips and he realized how intense their lovemaking had been. She reached for her robe draped at the end of the bed.

Rein made a mental note to stick a pair of fresh skivvies under the mattress for just such emergencies.

Crisis averted. The young child didn’t seem to be shocked or traumatized.

Unlike Rein.

He released a sigh, checked the door to make sure the two had gone before scrambling out of bed and wiggling back into his underwear. He dove under the covers just as the pair returned. Liberty carried a small glass of water and a book.

“Okay, get up in there.” She put the glass on the nightstand.

Rein watched, unsure how he felt about this. After all, this wasn’t his kid. Cody giggled as the mattress bounced and he crawled to Liberty’s pillow and lay down.

“Uh…” he managed to get out before the little boy turned to him with a wide grin.

“Wrestling is fun. I’ve seen it on T.V.,” Cody said.

Rein caught Liberty’s smile.

“Just one story,” she remarked. “Then it’s back to bed.”

“Can we wrestle?”

“No,” he and Liberty replied in unison.

“What we mean is, you are too young—” She looked to him for support.

“And we have a very busy day tomorrow. You’ll need your sleep if you want to see the horses.”

Liberty puffed up her pillows and sat on the bed, crossing her ankles. She drew Cody under her arm.

“What is this story?”

“Well, it’s about a little boy. Only he’s a baby. It’s called
A Cowboy’s Christmas
, and it’s one of Mr. Mackenzie’s favorite books from when he was little.”

Cody looked over Liberty’s arm at Rein, his expression indicating he couldn’t envision Rein ever being small.

Rein turned on his side, tucking his arm under his head as he listened to his wife read the timeless story that Jed used to read every Christmas at the holiday parties he gave at the Kinnison ranch. Though he’d been older than Cody, he cherished those times, tucking them deep inside. Many years had gone by after Jed’s death when the tattered book sat on a shelf in his uncle’s library. Fortunately, the book was spared any damage from the arsonist’s fire that nearly claimed Liberty as well as Wyatt’s then-pregnant wife, Aimee. It had been Liberty’s quick thinking, her fierce loyalty to her newly found stepbrothers—Wyatt and Dalton—that had given her the courage to go back to Vegas and testify against her former boss at a club where she’d once danced. At first, Rein hadn’t trusted her. She was different than any woman he’d known. She’d worn her dark hair streaked with neon blue and coated her eyes in heavy makeup. Her goth look was only exceeded by her snarly, independent attitude which he would come to understand after hearing about her childhood.

Their courtship—as it were—had been rocky, akin to a made for TV movie or perhaps a juicy novel. But all had turned out well and now, after two years of married bliss, both were ready—more than ready—to start their family. Having been an only child, he wanted a big, boisterous, chaotic family. He was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of Liberty’s voice.

“What you do for the least of them, you do unto me.” She paused. “The end.”

Rein’s lids drooped heavily. He started when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Can you carry him back to bed?” she mouthed.

Blinking a few times to awaken his brain, he gave her a quick nod.

Pulling the boy from where he’d snuggled in next to his wife, Rein marveled how little he weighed. He tucked him in his arms, cradling him against his chest. Cody’s little body felt so small, so vulnerable. How could someone, especially a mother, disregard such a precious gift?

The little boy yawned as Rein tucked the covers around him. He’d made the bed himself, slightly lower to the ground to accommodate short legs. He’d used a cattle brand to burn the Kinnison logo into the wooden bed frame.

Cody turned on his side and snuggled into his pillow.

Rein started to leave.

“Is it okay if I call you daddy… just while I’m here?”

The voice with its whisper-soft request stopped Rein in his tracks. He glanced back, meeting the blue eyes looking up at him. Rein kneeled by the bed. His heart squeezed when the boy's tiny hand darted from beneath the blanket and touched his.

“Cody, you understand I’m not your father. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be proud to be your dad.”

The child seemed to ponder his words. “I’ll only do it when I’m here. Miss Ellie likes it better when I call you Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie.”

Rein nodded. He didn’t want to upset the protocol Ellie had implemented, but this was his home. “Tell you what--around here, you can call us mom and dad, okay? Would that make you feel better?”

Cody nodded.

He ruffled the little boy’s shaggy brown hair. “Okay, pardner, it’s time to sleep. Horses don’t take kindly to grumpy little boys.”

Cody grinned.

Rein got to the door and looked back. “G’night, Cody.”

“Night, Dad.”