A Heart of Stone Christmas (2 page)

“You know, it’s not fair that you have spies all over the city who report back to you about these kinds of things. I never had a chance to surprise you, did I?”

He shook his head and grinned. “Not really spies. Just Angelo, but he’s known everywhere as my shopper, so he hears things.”

I jabbed him gently in the ribs. “Next time I’m going to shop online.”

“As long as you don’t know your surprise, I’m happy. How are the kids today?”

“Down for their afternoon nap, and what do you mean my surprise? You’re not going to let me know what you got me now that you know what my gift is?”

“No way,” he said with a sexy smile. “I love surprising you. You know that.”

“I think turnabout is fair play here, Tristan.”

“I think I’d rather see your face when you tear off the wrapping paper on Christmas morning.”

He kissed me softly on the lips. “I’m going to check on the kids and get a drink. Say I meet you back here in a few minutes and we can relax for a while before they get up.”

Just then we heard two loud cries and knew our romantic rendezvous would have to wait for another time. I placed the gift under the tree and wished for a moment that we didn’t have to postpone our quiet time together, but this was the life of new parents.

Tristan held out his hand to take mine. “Let’s go see how those wonderful kids of ours are doing. I’ll tell you about the new hotel opening up in Bucharest on the way.”

I held his hand and listened as he told me about the opening of the newest Richmont on the site of the home his mother had fallen in love with all those years ago. The first of the new Richmont Villa hotels Stone Worldwide planned on opening up in the next year, it was particularly close to my husband’s heart because of the history attached to it. Just listening to him talk about all the details of the decorating and how much his mother would love the hotel made me love him even more.

“We’ll have to go there soon so you can see how it looks. What do you think of right after New Year’s?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with interest in his newest project.

“I’d like that. Will all six of us be able to fit in a villa, though? We’re like a baseball team now,” I joked.

We stepped into the triplets’ room, and Tristan picked up Ethan from his crib to calm his crying. Holding him in his arms, he gave me one of those sexy smiles that never failed to make my stomach flip. “I was thinking we might give Cara and the kids one villa and we could have the one next to it. That way we could have some time to ourselves at night.”

I took Tressa into my arms and rocked her gently. “I like that. You tell me when and I’m there.”

Tristan kissed our son gently on the forehead and winked at me. “Good. It’s a date.”

*     *     *

Six hours and three babies
in bed for the night later, I found Tristan lying in bed watching some Christmas special. Wearing only a pair of black silk pajama pants, he looked sexier than any father of three should. If only I looked that good as the mother of triplets.

I looked at the television and saw a Peanuts special. “Enjoying Charlie Brown and his sad Christmas tree?”

Tristan crossed his arms behind his head. “He never gives up, even when that tree of his gets all droopy. I can respect that.”

“I think it’s Linus who never gives up. Giving up is sort of Charlie Brown’s thing, if I remember correctly.”

Laughing at me, he said, “I just watch it to see if Charlie falls for Lucy and her football trick. There’s a barracuda in the making.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re the first person I’ve ever known who thinks of poor Lucy in those terms.”

He clicked off the television and waved me over toward him on the bed. “Enough with Charlie Brown and his droopy tree and women problems. Come here and let me show you how much I missed you today.”

Suddenly, my out-of-shape body made me feel self-conscious. Pushing my hair off my face, I shrugged. “I smell like baby food. Maybe if I’m not tired after getting shower.”

I knew that wasn’t the answer he wanted, but as he sat there looking like he should be on the cover of GQ and I stood there looking like a disheveled, overweight mess, all I could think of was hiding away in the bathroom. I’d been working out since I came out of the post-partum depression, but there was no missing that I was still carrying some baby pounds.

He stood up and wrapped his arm around my waist, refusing to let me go. Nuzzling my neck, he said in a low, sexy voice, “I don’t care what you smell like, but if you’re really needing a shower, count me in.”

“I’m a mess and—”

Turning me to face him, he tilted my chin so I had to look at him. “I know what this is about, Nina. For months you’ve been uncomfortable in your own skin. You don’t have to be. You look as sexy today as you did that first night we drove out to this house, and I’m crazy about every inch of you.”

His words brought tears to my eyes. “I feel like a stuffed pig. I still don’t fit into my clothes the right way, and then I see you sitting there looking all hot and buff and I can’t help wanting to hide away.”

Tristan kissed me softly and pressed his forehead to mine like he always did when he wanted to say something sweet. “I love you this way and the way you were before. How I feel about you and why I get turned on every time I lay my eyes on you isn’t because of how your body looks, Nina. I get hard just being next to you right now because you’re you, no matter what weight you gain or lose.”

I hung my head. “I just wish I could go back to the way I looked before. At least then I felt like you were only a few levels above me.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “You’re crazy. You’ve never been anything but the most beautiful woman in the world in my eyes. Now let’s get into that shower and rinse out all the mess from your hair.”

I looked down at the ends of my hair and saw the telltale yellowish-white stain that I always seemed to wear since we brought the babies home. I’d exchanged my favorite perfume for its sour scent for months. Nothing like dried baby formula to make a woman look her sexiest.

“See? I am a mess.”

“You’re my mess, and once you let me wash your hair and enjoy a hot shower with me, you’ll feel like a new woman. Now get in there and let’s get this shower going.”

I followed him into our bathroom and tried not to let my insecurities run roughshod over what could be a wonderful time with the man I adored. If he was a slightly overweight, pot-bellied man who was losing his hair, it certainly would have been easier. Not that I didn’t enjoy the benefits of being married to an insanely gorgeous man. I adored every inch of him just as he claimed the same about my body, except worshipping him seemed easier because of his washboard abs and toned pecs and arms.

Tristan stripped out of his pants and turned on the water before casually walking over to me wearing a grin. “This really works best if you take your clothes off.”

Rolling my eyes, I slipped my sweater over my head and pulled my yoga pants off to reveal my usual mismatched panties and bra. We had all the money we’d ever need, and I still couldn’t get my underwear to match. As if I could read his mind, I turned around to let him unhook my bra and said, “Still can’t buy the same color bras and panties.”

He nuzzled my neck and joked, “I like that about you. It’s one of those down-to-earth things that I hope will never go away.”

My bra and panties fell to the floor as he wrapped his arms around me. Turning toward him, I pressed a kiss onto his lips and slid my hands down his muscular back. “I guess if you can love me this way, I can too, so let’s get into this shower and get this stuff out of my hair before we get freaky, Mr. Stone.”

His eyes lit up and he smiled. “That’s what I like to hear.”

Tristan stepped under the water, and any hesitation I’d had about my body faded away at the sight of him glistening and wet. I could look at him like that forever. Just as stunning as the first time we made love, he was my very own sex god.

“Seeing anything you like out there? Come in and join me,” he said with a wink.

The ten shower heads streamed hot water over every inch of my body as Tristan pulled me close. His lips caressed the soft skin beneath my left ear as his hands slid down my body, driving me wild with desire. No matter how insecure I felt, my husband always knew exactly where to touch me to make me want him like I’d never wanted another man.

I pressed my palms to the tattoo on his toned pecs and slowly made my way to the V of his hipbones that pointed like an arrow to his already hard cock. Our gazes locked on one another, I watched his eyes close in ecstasy and heard a soft moan escape his lips when I slid my hand around the swollen head.

Softly, I whispered, “I love seeing you like this. When you aren’t worried about work or being a dad but just being the sexy man I fell madly in love with.”

He opened his eyes and smiled. “I’m not sexy as those other things?”

“You’re always sexy. I just like remembering those early days between us.”

Lifting me, he pressed my back against the wall as I wrapped my legs around his waist. “Remember the first time we made love in this shower?”

I looked into those deep brown eyes and let the memory of that first time here flow through my mind. I was in love with him by then, even though we’d only known each other for such a short time. Sexy and mysterious, he’d enchanted me that first night we drove out to this house and I was lost from then on.

“If I remember correctly, you pretty much changed my mind about shower sex that night.”

He nodded and covered my mouth with a kiss that made my legs weak. With one firm thrust, he filled me completely and just as he had that first time, Tristan took my body to heights of ecstasy I never knew before him.

Bucking gently against him, I reveled in the feel of his cock stroking in and out of my willing body, even forgetting how insecure I felt. I wanted to be the sexy woman he thought I was. To be that woman he’d fallen in love with in this very house. I wanted to make him feel as desired as he made me.

His hands squeezed my ass, and he pulled me hard onto him. “I’ve been dying to be inside you all day, you know that?” he said in a voice that hit me deep inside.

I moaned and said in his ear, “I do love you, Tristan.”

Holding me close, he thrust into me as he kissed me hard. “Good. I’d hate to think I was in madly in love all alone.”

This was why I loved him. How many men could make cute jokes while they made mad, passionate love to their wives?

As we inched toward our climax, I saw in his eyes not lust or even love, but adoration. Just like I adored him, he adored me, and no matter how I felt about myself, looking into those eyes and seeing the person he saw me as made me realize just how lucky I was.

Tristan

The winter sun streamed through
the bedroom window as I silently dressed for work, careful not to wake Nina since the kids were still sleeping. I slipped into my suit coat and straightened my tie in the mirror before I turned around to see her smiling at me.

“I love that shirt on you, you know that? Grey looks great with that red tie too. Very festive.”

“I didn’t want to wake you. The kids are still asleep, surprisingly, so I figured I could let you have a day to sleep in.”

Nina stretched her arms and shook her head as she got out of bed. “I have a ton of things to do today, so no sleeping in for me. Today’s Christmas Eve, Tristan. Did you forget?”

“No. Why?”

“Are you seriously making Michelle work on Christmas Eve? Sounds pretty grinchy to me,” she teased.

“She’s coming in so I can give her my Christmas present you so nicely picked out and then I promise I’m sending her home. I have a little work to do on the villa project, but I’ll be home by noon.”

Wrapping her arms around my neck, she stood on her toes and kissed me. “I hope she likes the bag I chose. I know she loves Gucci, but I wasn’t sure about the color. Do you think she’ll like it?”

“I think she’ll love it. And I have the note you wrote about the fruit basket she sent, so I’ll make sure to give her that too.”

“How did I get such a wonderful husband?”

“Luck of the draw, I guess,” I said with a chuckle. For all my moments of being wonderful, I knew I worked too much and still said too little too often for the woman I loved.

“So what time will you be home?” Nina asked as she fussed with the knot in my tie.

My instincts told me she was up to something, so I didn’t answer and just looked down at her, studying her expression to see if my gut was right. A blush covered her cheeks, and she looked down toward the floor for a moment, confirming what I’d suspected.

“I’ll be home by noon. Should I bring anything?”

“No. I’m going to run out for a little while this morning. I was planning to take the kids out today, but I think Tressa has the sniffles. Don’t want to make it worse for the holiday.”

I arched my eyebrow. “Going anywhere special?”

Nina tilted her chin up and grinned. “Don’t trust me, Mr. Stone?”

“Oh, I trust you. I’m just wondering if you’re planning to go buy me another Christmas present.”

Shrugging, she wrinkled her nose, a sure sign what would come out of her mouth next wasn’t the truth. It was her tell. “Why would I do that?”

I kissed her on the tip of her nose. “I don’t know, but I get the feeling something’s going on.”

“That’s crazy. Why would you think that?”

“Because you would be the world’s worst poker player.”

She narrowed her eyes to slits and shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing. I just want you to know that you don’t have to get me anything else.”

“Well, that’s good since I wasn’t planning on it.”

She was lying, which would have bothered me if she wasn’t being so cute about getting me a present she could keep a surprise until Christmas morning. “Well, now that we got that settled, I’m off to work.”

“You’ll be home by noon, right?”

The mischievous twinkle in her eye told me my wife was definitely up to something. Giving her a kiss, I smiled. “Noon. Will you be here?”