Off The Market (5 page)
Authors: Magan Vernon,12 NAs of Christmas
ANDREW
I
woke up to the other side of my bed still warm. I opened one eye hoping to see Etta still sleeping next to me, but she wasn't. I frowned. Had she left me on Christmas morning? I rolled over to the other side and saw that Etta was standing in the kitchen, a huge grin on her face while she whisked something in a mixing bowl.
"Good morning, beautiful," I said, getting up off the bed and adjusting myself. Morning wood was one thing, but it was even w
orse when I saw a beautiful woman in my kitchen, half naked and cooking.
"Good morning to you, Andrew," she practically sang.
"Are you cooking breakfast?" I asked, peering over the counter.
"Uh, huh," Etta said, pouring the mixture into a frying pan. "Pancakes, just like your mom used to make us on Christmas morning."
"You remembered." I grinned. Etta may have not been allowed to spend the night, but she was there all night on Christmas Eve and was over early the next morning to open gifts. It was like she couldn’t get enough of my family during the holidays.
ETTA
I COULD BARELY sleep the night be
fore. I tossed and turned all night. I wanted to be able to sleep in Andrew's strong arms, but something just didn't feel right and when dawn approached I finally realized what it was.
I watched the mixture bubble and carefully flipped it over to the other side. I had found a box of mix in the cabinet that was just short of the expiration date. I was surprised that he even had it, but it could have been something his mom bought. She loved baking and may hav
e tried to get her son to try. "I could never forget the famous Marion Lawson pancakes and I could never forget your Christmas gift."
"My Christmas gift?" Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Did you sneak out to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night and pick me up socks or something?"
I shook my head, flipping the pancake on to a waiting plate. "It is wrapped right under the closest thing I could find to a Christmas tree in this apartment." I pointed a finger at the green lamp near the front door.
A
ndrew walked over to the lamp. Underneath it sat a box wrapped in the morning newspaper. The only thing close to wrapping paper that I could find. I didn’t want to snoop too long and wake him up. I could barely sleep anyway when I thought of the idea. I thought about running out to Wal-Mart and picking up some paper, but I settled for the morning newspaper and what I could find in his apartment.
"But I didn't get you anything," he said, holding the box in his hand and bringing it over to the counter.
"You opening the gift from me will be a present enough," I said, flipping another pancake onto a plate and walking around the counter to where Andrew stood. I saw his eyes graze over my body. I was still just wearing the Powder Puff shirt and nothing else. I could also tell by the bulge in his pants that it was on his mind. There would be plenty of time for that after he opened his gift.
"If you say so," he said.
Andrew ripped the paper back slowly to reveal one of his old shoe boxes he kept in the hall closet. I found it there with batteries in it and dumped them into a cabinet in his kitchen. I still couldn’t believe he slept through all of that. I watched his eyes widen as he pulled out the papers from the box. The papers that I had printed at my office to draw up the offer on the Pine Hill house.
"You are giving me back my own
papers?" he asked, dropping the shoe box on the counter and holding up the small stack.
I
pointed a finger at the bottom line on the first page. "Sign your X on the line, Andrew."
I watched him
look where my finger lay and right next to the X was my name signed next to his. I was going to make the offer with him on the house.
"Are you sure about this?"
He looked up, his smile as wide as I’d ever seen it.
I took the papers from him, setting them on the counter
, and then wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing my body to his. “I think it’s time that we take the house off the market. And for you to take me off the market as well. I want to live in that house with you. I want to spend as long as it takes by your side, fixing up that house for us and our future.”
And with those words I
kissed Andrew. All the years I’d spent thinking of what our lives would have been like if we hadn’t broken up and now I was finally able to take myself off the market.
Want to Read more from the 12 NA’s of Christmas? Check out their other novellas!
About The Author
Magan Vernon is a Young Adult and New Adult writer who lives with her family in the insurance capital of the world. When not writing she spends her time fighting over fake boyfriends via social media.
You can find her online at
http://www.maganvernon.com
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Wanna Get Wild?
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Valerie Wilder doesn't do serious relationships. She also doesn't usually wake up in Vegas next to a male stripper....
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If my pounding headache wasn’t enough to wake me, then the shifting on the other side of my bed was.
Shit.
How much did I have to drink?
I had not hooked up with a random since college and now I could feel whoever it was moving. I guess that’s what happens when your work sends you to a conference in Vegas and your co-workers convince you to go to a strip club.
I wondered if tha
t’s where I picked up the guy. If it was, I hoped he was at least hot because I didn’t remember a damn thing from the night before.
Slowly, I opened my eyes and turned toward the other side of my bed.
Damn
. For being a Vegas hook up he was about a hundred shades of sexy.
The random was on his back with his arms propped up behind his head. His arms rippled with muscles and tattoos snaked down one of them
. God I hoped I licked the hell out of those. And the hoops in his nipples
. I always thought pierced nipples were meant for drunk college girls, but this guy with the toned pecs had me rethinking it.
He moaned, turning to his side before he opened his eyes; a gorgeous set of blue eyes that could have lit up the whole freaking Vegas strip. Blond spiky hair and blue eyes, it was a freaking wet dream.
“Mornin’, Valerie.” he said, taking in a deep breath and stretching out his arms. An accent. The guy had a southern accent. I was about to turn into a panting teenage girl right there.
“Uh, morning.” I blinked. Shit. I had a tanned God of a man laying next to me and I had to be a hot mess with my makeup on from the night before and my breath, which had to reek like ass, since it sure tasted like it did. And I also had absolutely no idea what his name was.
“Last night was something else,” he said, sitting up and dropping the blanket. It stopped where his treasure trail ended and there was definitely not any sort of underwear line. He was naked. In my bed. And I didn’t remember a damn thing about it.
“Definitely.” I sat up, trying to appear confident, but there was no way my body looked half as good as his, so I kept the blanket over my giant boobs.
“Want to get breakfast?” He was grinning from ear to ear with his blue eyes locked on me. Wasn’t this the moment in which he tried to get out of my bed as quickly as possible? That’s what most random hook ups did. At least that’s what mine did. Guys didn’t mind screwing me, but to be seen with the curvy chick? Nuh uh.
“No, that’s cool. You can go...um...home?” I arched an eyebrow. I wasn’t sure if he was another person there on business or really anything about the guy. He could have worked at the casino for all I knew.
He crept over to my side of the bed and I gasped as he lifted the blanket up before he slowly straddled my hips with his toned thighs. His cock was pressed practically against my belly button and ready to go. “Now, darlin’, why would I leave when I have my beautiful bride in bed with me?”