Hardin Scott has been madly in love with Tessa Young since the moment he first laid eyes on her, but there's no way she could ever see him as anything more than a friend. After all, he's a bad boy with a promiscuous past and she's a sweet and innoce...
"Yes?" he asks as he looks at me with hopeful eyes.
"I love you and I will marry you... someday, but not right now."
"Oh," he says, disappointment thick in his voice.
"I'm sorry," I apologize, feeling really awful for hurting him.
"It's okay, Tess."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I was just being selfish by asking you to marry me now when I already know how you feel. You deserve to have the wedding of your dreams with beautiful flowers, the tallest wedding cake and the most gorgeous dress."
"Hardin..." I breathe.
"For now, I'll just be grateful you agreed to marry me at all."
"I love you for being understanding." I give him a small smile.
"It's better this way, anyway. Now I'll get to carry you over the threshold in your wedding dress before tearing it off you and making you wake the neighbours."
"That actually sounds pretty perfect." I laugh. "I love you, Hardin. That doesn't change, whether we're married or not, okay?"
"Okay, my sweet, beautiful girl," Hardin replies before kissing my forehead.
"How do you want to spend the rest of Christmas, now that it's just the two of us?"
"I have an idea... But first, we need to shower!" Hardin gets out of bed, scoops me up in his arms and carries me to the bathroom, where we have a long, relaxing shower together.
After our shower, Hardin heads straight to the kitchen and begins to get out bowls and measuring cups.
"Hardin, what are you doing?"
"We are going to bake Christmas cookies, Tess!"
"We are?" I ask, a little surprised.
"Yes. Now get your sexy ass over here and help me."
"This is definitely not what I thought you had in mind." I giggle.
"I'm full of surprises," he says proudly.
"So, where do we start? Do you have a recipe?"
"Nope. It's all up here," he says as he playfully taps his head. "My mum taught me to make these cookies when I was young. It's one of my few good childhood memories."
"Oh," I say sadly. "Well, I can't wait to learn." I smile up at him. "Apparently I need help in the kitchen," I joke and stick my tongue out at him.
"Don't worry, baby. You're in good hands. I'm almost as good in the kitchen as I am in the bedroom." He laughs.
"And there's the Hardin Scott I know and love. I'm surprised there's enough room in this kitchen for you, me and that ego of yours." I giggle.
"Just wait until you taste my cookies. You won't be picking on me then, Theresa. You'll be begging for more." He chuckles.
"These better be the best damn cookies I've ever tasted!" I tease.
Once Hardin has all the ingredients out and we each have our own mixing bowl and spoon ready, he shows me what to do, step by step.
Hardin is definitely a pro in the kitchen, while I somehow manage to get flour all over the counter, floor and my clothes.
"Oh, baby..." Hardin quietly laughs.
"What?" I ask cluelessly.
"How did you get it in your hair and on your face?" He laughs and then wipes my cheek with the towel.
"I'm never going to make a good wife. I can't even bake cookies!" I pout.
"The Tessa I know doesn't give up. Now, you probably won't have as much cookie dough as I will, since a lot of it's everywhere else except in the mixing bowl, but let's just keep going, okay?" He smiles and I nod, continuing to mix my cookie dough.
Eventually, I finally finish with mixing my dough and Hardin and I roll it out and start to cut it with Christmas cookie cutters.
As the cookies bake, Hardin and I clean up the dishes and the mess we made. Well, the mess that mostly I made.
"Okay, baby, time to take them out of the oven," Hardin says eagerly. Hardin removes the cookies from the oven and smiles proudly. "Look, Tess, they're perfect and not even burnt."
"Yeah... That's because you were in charge of the oven and timer. I probably would have burnt them." I pout.
"Cheer up, baby. Next comes the fun part! Let's make the icing while the cookies cool and then we can decorate them." Hardin smiles.
"I love seeing you this way." I smile back.
"What do you mean?"
"You're being so sweet and patient with me. It's really very sexy." I blush. "There's just something about watching you enjoy teaching me how to bake cookies that turns me on." I giggle.
"You know, while the cookies are cooling I could just lift you onto this counter and fuck you. Or bend you over the table if you prefer." He smirks.
"Let's just stick to decorating the cookies, Mr. Scott."
"Fine..." He chuckles.
Hardin and I make a huge bowl of icing, separating it into smaller bowls and adding different colours.
"Hardin, you made too much! What are we going to do with all this extra icing?" I ask, referring to the left over icing in the huge bowl.
"Don't worry about that. Come on, let's decorate!"
As we decorate all the different shapes of cookies, Hardin makes fun of my artwork, so I eat a few of his beautifully decorated cookies as punishment.
We take a tray of cookies into the living room, curl up on the couch and watch a Christmas movie.
After the movie, Hardin and I are too full from eating so many cookies, so we skip dinner and just stay curled up on the couch for a little while longer.
"Thank you for the best Christmas ever, baby."
"Thank you, too, Hardin. I had so much fun today. And you were right. They were the best cookies ever."
"I know. No one can resist me or my cookies," he jokes.
"Well, you're all mine. And no sharing your cookies with anyone else either!" I tease.
"Okay, deal." He chuckles. "Just think, next year we could have a little Tessa or Hardin playing in front of the Christmas tree."
"Hardin! Don't start with that now!" I warn. Changing the subject, I ask, "So... what do you want to do for the rest of the night?"
Instead of answering me, Hardin gets up off the couch, grabs the throw blanket from the back of the couch and places it on the floor in front of the fireplace.
"Oh..." I say and pull my bottom lip between my teeth. I get up and rush over to him.
"Don't forget to grab that extra icing," he says seductively and gives me a devilish grin.
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