Page 126 of The Unhinged Christmas of a Cat Lady

“Five! Four!”

Jasper steps in closer, his other hand finding my waist.

“Three! Two!”

The noise around us starts to blur.

“One—”

Midnight.

I turn into his arms just as he kisses me. Soft. Slow. Certain.

The sparkler light flickers against his jaw, and the cold barely registers with the heat of his mouth on mine.

When he pulls back, his voice is low—just for me.

“I didn’t think my year would end with you.”

I blink up at him, heart thudding stupidly hard.

“But from now on,” he says, brushing his thumb along my cheek, “I want every year to start and end with you.”

There it is—that lump in my throat again. That stupid, perfect ache.

“Then you’d better stick around, Corbin,” I whisper.

He smiles—wide and open and all in.

“I’m not going anywhere, Princess.”