Claiming Xana (Wildcat Graduates Book 2) Read online

  “Noel, did you pick up the list of things I needed at the store,” Grams calls out from the kitchen. She’s been baking and cooking since yesterday afternoon, and I think she may have just broken a personal record with how much she and Mom have whipped up for this little get together of theirs. Laughing at them both, I walk into the kitchen to see what’s going on in there.

  “Yes, ma’am, I did.” I look around the kitchen and see the many platters of snacks they have prepared, and I can smell the apple cider simmering on the stove. “How many people are coming over, Grams?” I ask her as she takes another tray of cookies out of the oven.

  “Oh, you hush now,” she reprimands me, placing the cookie sheet on the cooling rack on the table. “I’m not making that much.” Mom laughs when Grams smacks my hand away from the fresh out of the oven cookies.

  “Sure you aren’t,” I laugh at her. She takes another cookie sheet out of the oven and searches for a place to let it cool. Moving a tray of sandwiches out of the way, I place a pot holder down in its place for her to set the hot tray on.

  “Thank you, dear.” Grams pats my cheek after placing the cookies in the spot I have cleared off. “It may look like a lot, but I know how you boys like to snack, and I want to make sure you and your dad have plenty to last after I’m gone. And if anyone wants to take a few home with them, then there will be plenty.” She winks and walks back over to the oven to place two more trays of cookies in to bake, this time cookies of another variety.

  “I’m sure it’s no coincidence there are more than enough of a certain someone’s favorite treats.” I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the island as I watch Mom and Grams in action. Watching them reminds me of the time Xana went with us to Grams’ over Spring Break. Mom and Grams had her baking away in the kitchen with them a lot of the time we were there.

  Grams and Mom turn away from their tasks and look over at me. Mom has a huge grin on her face and Grams, looks a little indignant. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, young man. There are plenty of treats for everyone, but if she wants to take some with her, I have no problem with that.” Grams turns back to her pot on the stove and continues about her business. Mom and I share a smile and I head for the living room when Dad calls me to help him.

  Everyone arrived after seven o’clock, just in time for Grams and Mom’s dinner feast. They had the dining room set up like a buffet so everyone could help themselves whenever they liked. Cade’s whole family is here, and Stacy brought Xana with her.

  We’ve watched some television and a movie, everyone having a great time. Xana looks so happy, and I haven’t seen her smile this much in a very long time. It looks like she’s finally relaxed enough to be herself. She and Michelle seem to have hit it off very well, and Stacy’s personality only makes the three of them more hilarious to watch. I’m not sure Gramps has stopped laughing at their conversations for more than a few minutes at a time.

  The three of them are sitting across the living room on the floor by the fireplace. We’re watching a television movie special that gives us periodic updates on the countdown during the commercial breaks. I’m not sure what they’re talking about, but as long as they’re having a good time I’m fine with not having her beside me.

  “Xana, come help me in the kitchen, would you, dear?” Mom asks as she walks toward the kitchen. Xana smiles at me before getting up to follow my mom.

  They’ve been gone about thirty minutes before I realize they haven’t come back into the living room, so I excuse myself and head for the kitchen to look for them. As I get closer to the kitchen I can hear now they are talking, but can’t distinguish the words I hear. Entering the room, I find Mom and Xana sitting at the bar on the other side of the island. Xana is drinking a mug of cider, and Mom is sliding a plate of Grams’s sugar cookies in front of her. They both look like they were having an intense conversation before I walked into the room.

  Mom sees me in the entryway and smiles at me. Xana, wondering what she is smiling at, looks over her shoulder and sees me grinning at her.

  “Hey,” she says, and Mom stands up from her chair and walks over to me. She reaches up and hugs me, talking softly in my ear.

  “She’s worried about her PCOS. Just let her know you’re here to listen. She needs you, honey.” Mom kisses my cheek and leaves us alone.

  “Hey, baby,” I say, leaning over her shoulder to kiss her forehead. I sit down in the chair beside her and pull her chair in between my legs so she is facing me. “Everything alright?” She looks up at me and gives me the smile that I love to see.

  “Yeah,” she says softly. “Everything is great.” She places her hands on top of mine, which are resting on her knees, and squeezes them gently.

  I can’t control the urge I have to kiss her, so I lean in and take her mouth into mine, my tongue running along hers. I pull her legs closer to me, and she moves her hands to rest on my shoulders. She tastes like apple cider and icing, and I can’t get enough of it. My hands move on their own up her legs and stop on her hips. Xana’s hands grip the back of my neck and pulls me closer to her. Our lips move together in slow, sensual movements, and it takes all my will power to pull away from those lips of hers before we get too carried away.

  Xana’s forehead leans against my neck as we take a minute to gather ourselves. The smell of her Victoria’s Secret perfume, PINK, fills my nose, and doesn’t do anything to help me control my need to have her. “Stay right here, I have to get something.” Placing a kiss on her nose, I leave the room with Xana staring after me.

  I run upstairs to my room and grab Xana’s present off my desk and head back downstairs. She’s still looking toward the doorway when I walk through it and sit down beside her again. Seeing the present in my hand, her head jerks up in surprise.

  “That’s not for me, is it?” She frowns at me, her expression becoming a puzzled one.

  Handing the gift to her, I say, “Open it. I know we already exchanged presents this year, but I saw this and knew I had to give it to you.” She looks down and the box wrapped in blue and silver paper and hesitates before gently removing the paper and ribbons from it. I can hear my heart beating louder in my ears and I’m suddenly afraid I’ve rushed into things with giving her this so soon.

  Xana’s eyes go wide as she removes the tissue paper from inside the box and sees what is underneath it. “Noel,” she whispers as her fingers run over the pendant I chose for her. It’s a silver heart attached to a ring of silver, the two pieces separate from one another. The heart bears our initials, X & N, in a calligraphy-style font, and the outer silver ring says, ‘You will forever be my always’ and is surrounded by a single heart at each end of the saying. The moment I saw it when picking up a present for my mother, I knew it was meant for Xana’s neck.

  Tears are now running from her eyes, and I move to wipe them away with my thumb. “Don’t cry, Sweetness. If it’s too soon, I can keep it until you’re ready for it,” I tell her reassuredly, hoping this hasn’t been the worst time to give it to her.

  “NO,” she almost shouts. “It’s mine,” she informs me, her face clearly telling me that taking it away from her would be the dumbest thing I could do. She’s clutching the jewelry box to her chest with both hands as she stares me down. Seeing her so protective of that necklace makes me laugh.

  “Okay,” I give in, raising my hands in the air to show I won’t take it from her. “But you were crying. I didn’t want it to upset you, or things with us, that’s all.”

  “I. LOVE. IT,” she says before throwing herself at me, and wrapping her arms around my neck. “It’s perfect,” she whispers in my ear. Holding her in my arms, I breathe a sigh of relief that this was indeed the right time to give it to her.

  “It’s almost midnight, a new year, and I wanted us to start the year out together. The right way,” I tell her, my hands running up to her cheeks. I pull her away from my chest and kiss her softly on those sweet lips of hers.

  “Will you help me put it on, Noe?
” She hands me the box and I take the necklace from it. Turning around, she holds her hair out of the way for me. I place the necklace around her neck and close the clasp. Xana drops her hair and turns back around to look at me. Her hand takes the pendant in her hands and looks at it.

  “10. 9. 8…” I can hear everyone in the living room counting down to midnight, and I take her in my arms and pull her chest to mine.

  “It’s almost midnight,” I say, smiling at her.

  “6. 5. 4…”

  Xana grins before saying, “Yeah, it is.”

  “Happy New Year, Sweetness.”

  “2. 1…”

  “Happy New year, Handsome,” Xana breathes as she crushes her lips to mine and wraps her arms around my neck tightly.

  The living room is filled with sounds of my family and friends ringing in the New Year, but the noise soon fades away, and all I can hear are the little noises that Xana makes as our tongues do a dance that they haven’t done in a long time. I can’t imagine a better way to ring in a new year.

  We haven’t kissed nearly long enough for me when Xana slows our kiss and pulls her head away from mine. My pants are so tight right now, I’m not sure how much longer I can sit in this chair and be comfortable. Xana looks at me, and the sight of her face flushed and lips swollen makes my jeans even tighter.

  “As much as I could sit here and kiss you all night, I think we’d better go back in there before they come looking for us. I can see Stacy catching us and letting everyone know what we were doing,” Xana laughs as she moves to stand from her chair. I want to pull her back to me and continue where we left off, but I know she is right, so I stand and take her hand in mine.

  “I love you.” I wanted to say that one more time before we’re not alone anymore.

  “I know. You show me that all the time. Even when I didn’t realize it,” she says and leans up to kiss me on my chin, before dragging me into the living room to celebrate with our family.

  Xana and I spent the next hour talking with my parents and grandparents, since Cade and his family, along with Stacy, left shortly after midnight. My grandparents talked her ear off, but Xana was never bothered by it. She kept up with everything they talked about, even telling Gramps her own stories. It was just about one o’clock when Xana started yawning, and Grams and Gramps excused themselves to bed. They hugged her and told her to come back over before they left so they could say goodbye. I even heard Grams tell her she would send me over to her house tomorrow with her own special batch of goodies. Gotta love Grams.

  Xana and I sit in my car for a little longer after I park in her driveway. At least I don’t have the same worries about her parents or Mike coming out to ‘check on’ us when she doesn’t immediately come inside. Even with all of that, I’m not dumb enough to keep her in my car for too long.

  Xana crawls over into my lap once I put the Mustang in park. I only have to move my seat back a little to accommodate for her jacket. Wrapping one of my arms around her back, the other slides inside the front of her coat and under her sweater to rest on the small of her back. Xana’s arms wrap around my neck, and her fingers run through the hair at the nape of my neck. Her back to the door, she leans into me so that her lips are barely touching mine.

  I can feel her breath fan out across my face and I can’t wait another moment to taste her. Our lips come together with a force that has our teeth clashing and tongues tangled with one another. She presses her chest closer to mine while the hand at her back slides into the waistband of her denim jeans and under the hem of her silky underwear. Her skin is warm and soft, and I would love nothing more than to feel more of her skin on mine, but we aren’t ready for that yet. My brain knows that. I just wish my body knew it as well.

  The kiss that started out highly intense turns slow and gentle as our mouths move in tandem, enabling both of us to convey our feelings to the other. She tasted so sweet in high school, but the taste of her on my lips now, peppermint hot chocolate, tastes even better than I could have imagined. My free hand slides to grasp the back of her neck as I grasp her bottom tighter with the other. I move from her mouth to place long, slow kisses across her jaw and down the side of her neck to the collar of her sweater. Moving it aside with my nose, I continue to kiss my way along her shoulder where I take my time exploring her soft skin.

  The moans coming from Xana urge me to move lower until I reach the top of her breasts. She tightens her grip on my hair, holding my head to her body, and arches her chest closer to mine.

  “Noel,” she whispers and moves my head up to hers where she takes my mouth in hers. She draws out our kiss so slowly that we are pulling away from each other before I realize what is happening. The illumination from the street lights and the light on her porch shows me her swollen, pink lips and rosy cheeks.

  Instinctively, I reach and push the hair away from her face and tuck it over her shoulders so I can look clearly at her. We stare at each other for so long, I almost lose track of time before she tucks herself into my embrace, her head resting in the crook of my neck and her hands lying on my chest. There is so much I want to say to her, but I am not ready to break this moment quite yet. We’re sitting here, unguarded and exposed for each other, simply enjoying just being together. I close my eyes and experience a contentment that has eluded me for over a year.

  When I open my eyes I see Xana holding the pendant in her hand, running her thumb back and forth across it.

  “It’s true,” I tell her quietly, leaning down to kiss her hair. She raises her head enough to look me in the eyes.

  “What’s true?” she asks, her brows pinched in a frown.

  “What that necklace says.” I nod toward the necklace in her hand.

  She looks down at it and I continue, “You will forever be my always.” She crashes her lips to mine and I can taste her tears as I lick her bottom lip, biting it slightly before pulling away to wipe the tears from her face.

  “You make me so happy, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, Noel. The past four months have been so hard, it’s hard to believe that it’s over. That we’re here together, finally. What happens when we get back to school? What if it gets all messed up like before? I can’t do that again,” she whispers as she looks down at my chest to avoid seeing my reaction to what she just said. It kills me to see her so scared and unsure of things.

  “Hey,” I say, tilting her chin up so I can look into her beautiful eyes. “Listen to me, okay? We are going to go back to school together. We’ll go to our classes and be together whenever we can. We’re going to talk to each other about everything. I won’t let you shut me out, and you won’t hide things from me because you don’t want to bother me with what you think is trivial stuff.”

  “Okay,” she says quietly. “Together,” she gives me a small smile.

  “Together,” I confirm. “One day at a time. We’re not Xana and Noel anymore. We’re US. Understand?” Holding her face in my hands, I wipe away the last tear from the corner of her eye with my thumb.

  “One day at a time. Just us,” she repeats back to me, then leans forward to rest her head on mine. I kiss her lips gently and pull her away from me.

  “We’d better get you inside. I’m not going to push my luck with your parents this early in the game,” I laugh. Xana laughs with me and moves over to her side of the car.

  “You’re right. No need to test my Dad already,” she giggles as I exit the car to go around and get her door for her.

  Reaching in for her, she takes my hand so I can help her stand up from the car. Linking her fingers with mine, I close the door and walk her to the house. We stand in an embrace, neither wanting to leave the other, until we can no longer avoid saying goodbye.

  “I’d better go.” Xana steps away from me and looks toward the door.

  “Goodnight, Sweetness,” I tell her and kiss her forehead, then walk to my car and leave. I always say that to her before I leave because I want my words to be the last thing she hears before she goes inside. I wa
nt them to stay in her memory when she goes to sleep since I can’t be there with her. Yet.

  We go back to school this coming week and Xana and I have decided to go shopping and use some of the gift cards and money we got for Christmas. It’s the first time we’ve been completely alone since I got back from Texas. We have so much to catch up on it seems like I’ve been gone for months and not days.

  I was so worried about her when she had those cysts rupture again. Not being there for her really killed me. She’s always been there for me for as long as I care to remember, and if it weren’t for Cade being there to keep me updated, I would have driven home by myself and left my grandparents in Texas at my aunt’s house for the holidays. She really hasn’t told me everything about it, but I intend to remedy that problem today. She just doesn’t know it, yet.

  “What’s up girl?” I say as she climbs into my green Dodge Dart. It’s not much, but has served me well over the past few years. Besides, she’s my favorite color, so how can I go wrong with it?

  Xan shuts the door and leans across her seat to wrap me in a tight hug. “I’ve missed you so much Stace,” she says then releases me to buckle up her seat belt. “I’ve needed my Stacy time, so let’s get this car on the road and hit the mall,” she exclaims and laughs at herself.

  “Damn, if I knew you’d be this happy to see me, I’d stay away longer more often.” I laugh at her amusement and pull out of her driveway. She looks more relaxed than I’ve seen her since, well before school started.

  “No you won’t. You’d miss Cade too much.” She removes her shoes and coat, and adjusts her seat. She really is like a hen making her nest when she travels.