Christmas With Nathan Read online

  Christmas with Nathan

  An Untwisted Series Seasonal

  Short Story

  Alice Raine

  It is now three months after the birth of their son William, and time for Nathan and Stella to spend their first Christmas together as a family of three.

  The trouble is, Nathan hasn’t touched Stella sexually since the birth, and she’s starting to worry that something might be wrong between them.

  Can Nathan soothe her fears and give Stella a Christmas to remember, or is fatherhood just a step too far for the formerly closed-off Dom?

  Note to the reader

  This novella can be read as a standalone story, however it is best enjoyed as part of the Untwisted series and does contain spoilers relating to the characters Nathaniel Jackson and Stella Marsden. If you are reading this as part of the series then it is highly recommended that you read it at after book 4, Enlightened.

  Enjoy!

  Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Alice Raine: The Untwisted Series

  ONE

  STELLA

  As I gazed down at my baby son sleeping peacefully in his cot, I couldn’t help but grin proudly to myself. Even at his tender age of just over three months, William was a handsome little man, taking after his daddy with his bright blue eyes and hair so blond that it almost seemed to glow even in the dim evening light.

  It was Christmas Eve already, the time since his birth seeming to have passed incredibly quickly. Another smile curled my lips as I tried to imagine what William would be like as he grew up. Probably a charmer like his dad, although hopefully not quite as much of a handful, I thought, as I envisaged some tricky teenage years looming in our future.

  Just then, I sensed Nathan entering the bedroom and coming up behind me. Warmth encased me as two strong arms slid around my waist, joining over my stomach and pulling me gently against the strength of his chest. I loved how safe and secure his touch made me feel.

  ‘He went out like a light then,’ Nathan observed beside my ear, gently rocking us in a relaxing, swaying motion as we watched Will, his little fingers bunching and relaxing against his face.

  ‘He did. I think visiting Nicholas and Rebecca today must have worn him out, they spoil him rotten with attention.’ And wasn’t that the truth! Nicholas and Rebecca were the most doting aunt and uncle any baby could ask for.

  Pulling me against him even tighter, Nathan’s lips began to nudge through my hair until he found the sensitive skin of my neck and placed several hot, open-mouthed kisses there. Hmm … that felt so good that a little shudder of pleasure ran through my body and a moan left my lips as I allowed my head to drop backwards against his firm chest to give him better access.

  Perhaps it had just been meant as a quick ‘hello’ kiss, or maybe he’d sensed my rapidly growing arousal, because Nathan suddenly stopped and lifted his head, resting his chin on my shoulder as he joined me in looking at William.

  Disappointment settled in my belly as I sensed him pulling away from me again. Not physically – his arms were still firmly wrapped around me – but it seemed that sexually, Nathan had removed himself from me once again, just as he had done ever since I’d given birth.

  A small sigh escaped my lips and my eyes briefly flickered shut as I tried to get a grip on my tumbling emotions. It had been nearly thirteen weeks since I’d had William, and Nathan hadn’t made love to me once in that time. It wasn’t just full sex that he was avoiding either – apart from sharing some relatively chaste kisses, we hadn’t done anything sexual at all. Nothing. And this was Nathan, Mr I-need-sex-at-least-five-times-a-week Jackson that we were talking about. And five times had been on his decidedly slower weeks. Before I’d gotten pregnant I’d been used to almost daily attentions from him.

  Simply put, my man had the sex drive of a rabbit on Viagra, yet he hadn’t come near me since the birth. Another heavy sigh slipped from my lips at that depressingly accurate summary of our physical relationship.

  It had gotten to the point now where I was starting to worry that he’d gone off me. Maybe watching me squeeze his son out of my body had tainted Nathan’s view of me somehow. Unfortunately, his actions tonight were in no way helping to ease my concern.

  I couldn’t even blame his lack of interest on me being fatter either, because thanks to baby yoga, regular walks with Will in his pram, and my four weekly swim sessions, I’d now dropped the majority of my baby weight and was even back in most of my pre-baby clothes.

  Obviously, in the first few weeks after having William I hadn’t exactly been up for sex either, but Will had been quite a small baby, and my birth had been relatively easy in the end, miraculously with little tearing down below, and after about eight weeks I’d started to feel quite in the mood for it again.

  Unfortunately, Nathan had not.

  Whenever I mentioned my desire for us to make love, Nathan just slowly shook his head, stating adamantly that he wasn’t going to push me into anything too quickly. But this wasn’t too quick, and he was in no way pushing me. In fact, it was decidedly bloody slow, and even when tired from feeding Will at night I was still so horny that I seemed to be on a constant simmer of arousal. But no matter how much I had insisted I was fine to have sex again, Nathan had refrained to the point where I now felt almost sluttish for keeping on asking.

  It was probably just my post-baby hormones making me paranoid, because Nathan and I had maintained our intimacy since the birth by snuggling, cuddling, and showering together pretty much daily, but recently, although I’d been getting needier during these times and trying to steer it towards more, Nathan had resolutely held back. No matter how attentive he seemed, his continued reluctance for us to make love was starting to make me distinctly twitchy.

  Deciding to push my luck again, I took advantage of our position and wiggled my hips backwards against Nathan’s groin, grinding my bottom several times until I heard him growl softly, then slide his hands to my hips and gently shift me away from him.

  Disappointment coursed through my veins at the distance he was once again putting between us. ‘Nathan, please …’ I was well aware that my voice came out sounding whiny and a bit pathetic, but I couldn’t help it – sex had been such a huge part of our relationship until William had come along that I was really missing that side of our connection. Surely a man as innately sexual as Nathaniel Jackson was too?

  ‘No, Stella. It’s too soon.’

  My eyes narrowed at his firm words as a horrible little thought wound its way into my brain … was there a possibility that he was getting his release elsewhere? This idea had needled its way into my consciousness a few weeks ago, and was now a constant, poisonous niggling that never seemed far from my thoughts. Nathan had always had a high sex drive, a really high sex drive, so the possibility that he had gone for months on end without releasing it seemed almost impossible to me.

  Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I felt my brows lowering in concern. Maybe he was visiting Club Twist without me? There were always single people there looking for a safe one-night stand or an hour or two of fun in one of the many private rooms. My stomach churned with acidic jealousy as the thought began to fester in my brain.

  ‘Shhh. Come on, I built a fire earlier, let’s go and sit by it,’ he murmured, taking my hand and gently dragging my reluctant body from the bedroom.

  I was following him with my body, but my mind was still stuck on thoughts of the hot, heady, sex saturated rooms of Club Twist. There had alway
s been plenty of women glancing lustily in Nathan’s direction whenever we had visited in the past … Was it possible he was going there to slake his sexual needs and then coming home to William and I satisfied, calm, and acting like the perfect daddy?

  God, the very thought made me feel physically sick to my core, and as we reached the lounge I came to a decision – my paranoia had gone on long enough, I needed to confront him, and I needed to do it now.

  As Nathan led me past our gigantic Christmas tree and tried to guide me to sit on the sofa facing the roaring fire, I dug my feet into the carpet, drawing us both to a halt, a move that caused him to turn to me with his brows dipped in surprise.

  Ignoring the slight challenge I saw twinkling in his blue eyes, I pulled my hand from his, drew back my shoulders, and stared up at him.

  ‘I don’t want to sit in front of the fire. I want you to talk to me,’ I replied petulantly. Crossing my arms over my chest I sucked in a deep breath and decided to go a step further. ‘In fact, I don’t want you to talk to me. I want you to fuck me, but you don’t seem to want to touch me with a bloody bargepole.’

  I didn’t swear a great deal, so my crude outburst caused Nathan’s blond eyebrows to rise into his hairline in a stunned look before his expression softened and he stepped towards me to pull me into his arms. Relaxing against him for a second I absorbed the familiar warmth and smell of his embrace with a small sigh.

  Lowering his lips into my hair, he kissed my temple. Even this small movement sent hot tingles of lust shooting directly from my scalp to other, far lower parts of my body. ‘Stella, sweetheart, I’m trying to follow the doctor’s advice. He said to wait six months, so that’s what I’m doing.’

  Pulling myself from him in frustration, I raised my head and glared at him. ‘He didn’t say that at all! He said it was a personal decision and some couples choose to wait as long as six months. That doesn’t mean we have to.’ The doctor had also said that some couples only waited a matter of weeks before having sex again, but it seemed that Nathan had chosen to forget about that.

  I forcefully pushed myself away from him and decided to get it all out in the open, throwing my deepest, darkest fears at him. ‘Have you been getting it elsewhere? Because before Will came along you could barely go twelve hours without sex, Nathan, let alone twelve weeks. I know what you’re like, you’re insatiable, you must be fucking someone, and it certainly isn’t me.’

  The soft expression that had graced his brows moments earlier fell from Nathan’s handsome face, quickly replaced by a dark, foreboding scowl; his lips forming a straight line so tight that they began to lose their colour and turn a snowy white, and he ground his teeth together so firmly that several muscles jumped just below the surface of his skin.

  Unfortunately, in my hugely paranoid and wound-up state, I didn’t register the warning flashing in his eyes, instead allowing my tongue to continue its accusatory rampage. ‘It’s not like you’re short of opportunities or offers, is it? Most of the women in Club Twist would drop their knickers for you in the blink of an eye if you asked,’ I spat, my throat starting to hurt from the strain of my vicious words. ‘Maybe when you’ve been telling me you’re at the building site, you’re actually fucking someone else,’ I accused bitterly as an end to my tirade. Nathan had been spending several hours each week at the building site for the house he’d designed for us, and he was so excited by the project that I knew deep down my words were ugly and false and only thrown at him because of my own frustrations.

  As my brain finally caught up with precisely how furious Nathan looked, I swallowed hard, wincing as I realised exactly what I had just been yelling. Oops. I may have gotten just a tiny bit carried away …

  ‘Think very, very carefully, Stella, before you continue to scream at me,’ he warned, his tone low and deceptively soft, instantly sending a trail of goose pimples running up my arms. ‘Do you really think I would do the things you are accusing me of?’ he murmured ominously, his stance suddenly becoming far more imposing as he spread his legs and crossed his arms over his broad chest. Gosh, he looked absolutely gigantic. I think I’d grown used to his muscular build – a result of his strict personal training – but tonight his arms looked thicker somehow, and his chest broader … could it be a trick of the shadows, the flicker of the Christmas tree lights? Or perhaps it was my heightened senses from our angry words that were making me really see him in all his glory. And he really was glorious. Even when he looked as irate and dissatisfied as he did, there was no hiding Nathan’s classically handsome features or impressive stature.

  As stupid as it was, even though we were in the middle of an argument, this glimpse of his dominant side immediately flicked my switches and had me aroused within seconds. Gosh, the way his trousers hugged his thighs and groin when he stood like that was really quite spectacular and completely distracted me … why had I been yelling?

  Raising one blond eyebrow, he pursed his lips, his face remaining intent and serious. The purposeful expression vaguely nudged my arousal down a little, reminding me that I had yet to answer him, so I engaged my focus on his words again. ‘If the shoe was on the other foot would you be running off to get it elsewhere?’ he continued, his voice dropping so it was more of a growl.

  Sensing that I may have overstepped the mark with my hormonal, horny outburst, I decided that now wasn’t the time to push him with a glib reply. Immediately shaking my head in response, I bit my lower lip nervously, a movement which merely caused his eyes to narrow further. Shit. I’d gotten myself so wound up in my strop that I’d totally forgotten about the not chewing on my lip rule. Nathan, however, was now glaring at my mouth, and quite obviously still held his dislike of me chewing on it. And his dislike of me nodding. Bugger. I’d just given him the double whammy of annoyances. And to top it off, I’d yelled at him rather impolitely too, I thought with a guilty flush. All in all, these past few minutes hadn’t exactly been my best.

  His dark gaze alone was enough to make me cease the lip-chewing and lick along the abused flesh in way of silent apology. ‘No. Of course I wouldn’t,’ I murmured, hoping that might make up for the lip-chewing, nodding, and yelling fiasco.

  I almost bent over to offer myself up for a punishment spanking. It was probably the least I deserved for my petulant outburst, but at the last minute I held back when I saw Nathan’s commanding eyes cloud over.

  Letting out a gigantic sigh, he dropped his head for a second, his broad, tense shoulders rising and falling as he drew in several breaths – he was probably doing one of his calming countdowns – before he raised his eyes and stepped toward me. Remaining silent for a second, he lifted a hand to my neck and rubbed one finger along the necklace that never left my throat. The thrill of his contact had me tilting my head to give him better access, but I resolutely kept my eyes on his, trying to work out what he was thinking.

  ‘You remember what this stands for, Stella?’ he asked as he began to lightly tug on the metal, his fingers gently brushing across my skin and sending a flood of warmth to the area as my eyes fluttered closed from the pleasure.

  I wasn’t sure why he was asking me such an obvious question – of course I remembered the necklace’s significance. It was the lockable chain Nathan had given me over nine months ago as a symbol of our commitment to one another. There was only one key to the clasp, kept in Nathan’s safe, and he had taken great pleasure in locking the chain to me before guiding me across his lap and having his wicked way with me to seal the deal. For Nathan, a man who had lived his life as a no-strings attached sexual Dominant before he had met me, this necklace was as close to his version of a wedding ring as I would ever get, and I absolutely treasured it.

  Apparently I had paused too long in my answer, because Nathan took a step closer and used his thumb to gently tilt my chin up so my eyes re-opened and our gazes met, the force of his big blues causing my breath to hitch a little. ‘I’m waiting, Stella,’ he murmured, his burning stare focused solely on me.

  Ah
yes, as well as an extreme dislike for lip-chewing, nodding, and yelling, Mr Punctuality did not like to be kept waiting. Especially when he was being all commanding like this, so I swallowed to moisten my throat and quickly answered. ‘It shows I’m yours,’ I whispered, finding myself sorely tempted to add a ‘Sir’ on the end, even though I hadn’t used that title since well before William was born. I only used ‘Sir’ on rare occasions in the bedroom when we scened together as Dom and sub, but seeing as we hadn’t had sex for months the need hadn’t arisen.

  To my surprise, Nathan shook his head at my reply, his strong jaw moving slowly back and forth and accentuating the lightly stubbled angles as he rejected my answer. A hint of a smirk touched his lips as he continued to watch me carefully before he tapped the necklace twice with the pad of his forefinger.

  ‘No, it does not just mean that you are mine, Stella. This necklace represents us. Both of us, and the commitment and love we share. The chain signifies you, twining through my heart, and the lock characterises me, binding us together. It is the most important gift I have ever given or shall ever give in my entire life.’ Once he had finished laying that stunner on me, Nathan cleared his throat as if he was embarrassed by how deep he had just been. I have to say, I was stunned into silence by the raw sentiment too, and immediately felt tears welling at the back of my eyes. Blimey, that bit about the chain signifying me twining through his heart was poetic enough to go inside a greetings card, and I hastily tried to commit it to memory.

  ‘You are mine, Stella, but I am just as much yours, and as such, there is no way I would ever, ever, want, or need, to go elsewhere for sex.’

  Once he was finished, I stood there gazing up at him, unable to do anything other than give him a decidedly shaky nod as my eyes swiftly filled with tears. Thankfully, he didn’t chastise me for the nod this time. Instead, his domineering façade melted away at my pathetically drippy look as he graced me with a soft, sweet smile.

  Stepping closer, he cupped my face gently and lowered his lips to mine, capturing my mouth in a kiss so tender but somehow passionate that I immediately melted into his arms, tears flowing down my cheeks as I gave up my mouth to the exploring pressure of his tongue.