She pulled her legs up, leaning a little on her side to face him better. “When I was younger, my dad flew me in to stay with Auntie Rose to get me away from the fighting for the summers, I guess. I got the job at the summer camp just for fun and something to do. But that summer, my mom dragged me out to prove to my dad she had won. By eighteen, I was done with the fighting and being used as a pawn in their divorce. Besides, they both had new families and new kids, and I don’t really fit into the mold of their new lives.”
He didn’t like what he was hearing. And suddenly, he began to wonder what going through that experience would do to a woman’s heart? “So that’s why you came back here after all this time away?”
She nodded. “Maisie demanded I come when she heard I’d be spending Christmas alone.”
He liked Maisie Carter. She was a little bit like Penelope, a free spirt, only slightly less free, since she didn’t get the police called on her for skating on a fountain. “You’re close, you two?”
“We were the best of friends when they lived in California.” She tossed a grape into her mouth. “It was kinda heartbreaking when the family picked up and moved here after their grandfather got sick. But that’s why my parents sent me out here for the summers. I loved it here.”
He watched the fire a moment, still coming to grips that it hadn’t been his fault she’d left after he kissed her. He’d thought for years that it had been because he’d told her he wanted to kiss her forever. He still couldn’t believe he told her that. He took a long sip of his coffee to gather his thoughts and then turned back to her. “Where does your family live now?”
“My mom still lives in Cali, and my dad moved to Portland. When they divorced, I think they both wanted to rediscover themselves, so I moved out and traveled across the US working odd jobs, until I could bartend, then I worked in everything from pubs, to resorts, to dive bars, to tourist traps, and even some night clubs along the coast.” She paused to shrug again. “My parents’ new families are just…different. I don’t fit in.”
“You’re strong and a free spirt,” Darryl stated, somehow feeling the need to point out what assholes her parents were. “That can intimidate people.”
She grinned, leaning forward, staring at him deeply. “Does that mean I can intimidate a big, bad cop like you?”
Christ, the heat she brought in a single second blew his mind apart. One second, nothing. The next, her whole being seemed to light up with desire. In that regard, Penelope hadn’t changed one bit. She still made him hungry very easily. He had to fight the pull of his body to lean forward and find out what would happen if he played with that heat a little. “You could try.” He grinned some of the need back at her.
Her lips parted in an invitation, and it took all of his strength not to claim the kiss she was offering him. She was trouble. That he knew for a fact. He needed to be squeaky clean until Christmas was over, since everyone in the department was looking at him for his possible promotion. But his promotion wasn’t here in his house with them right now; all the worries he thought of before now were gone. It was just him and her, and he was slowly beginning to think she might be the right kind of trouble.
Chapter Three
The night crept up fast, and Penelope almost regretted that. She’d enjoyed the day with Darryl, far more than she originally thought she would this morning, considering she was hungover and embarrassed to her bones. Darryl had a lot of stories, funny ones, and they’d watched two movies and talked throughout both. She guessed this was what people did during the holidays. Relaxed, spent time with friends and family, and stayed cozy inside by the fire. She hadn’t spent a day like this with anyone for a really long time. Most of the time, she worked all night long and slept through the daylight hours or traveled. And after her low-key day with Darryl, she wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about that. Had she been missing out on life?
They had sandwiches for lunch and played a game of cards. Then they’d made lasagna for dinner, and she’d been washing dishes when Darryl’s back porch caught her eye. He’d ventured off to the washroom, and when she finished the dishes, she hurried out the door, grabbing the warm blanket on her way. She slipped into Darryl’s big winter boots, and like some kid, she dragged her feet through the snow until she stood in middle of his backyard.
She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders tight to keep out the brisk air and tipped her head back, opening her mouth and letting big snowflakes fall on her tongue. The light from the porch spilled out, and the night was quiet and peaceful. There wasn’t a speck of green or brown anywhere. White coated the world; a cold, bitter night that was somehow the most beautiful thing she’d seen in a while.
“Here.”
She glanced next to her, finding Darryl offering her a mug of hot chocolate.
“You keep little marshmallows in your house?” she asked him.
He shook his head with a dry laugh. “I have these hot chocolate packages for a Christmas event that’s coming up. Figured you might like one.”
She took a tiny sip of the piping hot chocolate, steaming up in the cold air. “I do, thank you.” She turned back to the evergreen trees around his yard, with its branches dropping from the heavy snow. “It’s so beautiful out here.”
“It’s also freezing,” he said, zipping up his coat.
“But pretty too,” she countered, unable to look away at the glistening snow. “I’ve been traveling around so much that I think I forgot how pretty the snow really is.”
“You don’t have a home base?”
Penelope glanced sideways at him, finding his gaze soft. She shook her head. “I haven’t for a really long time. I get antsy whenever I stay somewhere too long. I like the wind in my hair and the adventure that awaits me.”
“Sounds like a fun way to live.”
“It is.” But even as she said that, it seemed like a half-truth. At one time in her life, she loved picking up and going anywhere. She lived for the adventure. Now, she wondered if there would ever be a place that would make her stick. “Did you join the force right after college?” she asked before taking another sip from her mug.
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Yup.”
“Kinda one of those always-knew-what-you-wanted-to-be types of things.”
He nodded. “My father was a lowlife. I didn’t want to be like him, so I made sure I was the exact opposite.”
She’d never known anyone who escaped a bad situation just to prove he could. This guy was born from some other material than all the people she’d ever met before. “You are a strange breed of human,” she told him.
His brows furrowed. “In what way?”
“You have all sorts of integrity, and you share personal shit really easily.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, that was one of the good things to happen from my divorce. I don’t keep stuff inside so much. It is what it is. You asked. I answered.”
“That’s probably the cop in you, you know, all honest and brave,” she said with a soft laugh.
“Probably.” He winked.
She drew in a long, deep breath, embracing the cold air sliding through her lungs. “Most people I meet are like me.”
“Wild?” he offered.
She laughed. “A little untamed, sure.”
He rocked back on his heels. “Well, this Christmas, let’s hope skating on a fountain is as wild as you get, sugar.”
An odd sense of warmth slid through her that had nothing to do with the hot cup of hot chocolate she held. “Sugar, that’s a new one. You call every girl that?”
“Just you.” He winced, a blush tinging his cheek.
Interesting. She paused to cock her head. “Just me, huh? Why is that?”
A slow shiver slid over her when he leaned in close and inhaled deeply, his eyes fluttering shut. “You smell like my mother’s Christmas sugar cookies.” His eyes reopened, and he gave her a look so warm that on his tough exterior, it seemed surprising. “It’s a smell that brings back good memories for m
e.”
A little rattled by his nearness, and his truth, she cleared her throat. “Your mom doesn’t bake cookies anymore?”
He shook his head, glancing at the trees now. “My mom passed away a few years back from a heart attack.”
His expression was closed off, a mask of strength for sure, and yet there was something tender there, too. “God, that’s awful, Darryl. I’m sorry. Maisie never told me.”
“I was really sorry for a long time too.” He turned to her, the light from the porch highlighting the hard masculine lines of his jaw. “Christmas is a hard time for my sister, Ashley, because our mom died on Christmas Eve.”
Penelope didn’t know what to say, so she gently asked, “Are you close with your sister?”
“Very close. She calls every few days and texts the days she doesn’t call.”
“Lucky you,” Penelope said, letting a little honesty out herself. “I always wanted a sister. Well, like a real sister, not a stepsister I never see who thinks I’m her nemesis.”
He smiled. “Life’s a bitch like that, really. You never do get the shit you want, do you?”
“Sure, you do,” she countered. “You just have to go and grab what you want by the balls until it’s yours.”
The strands of his hair covered in fallen snow fell over his brow. “Is that what you do in life, Penelope? Grab things by the balls?”
She shrugged. “I mean, you could go with the whole ‘lick it’ and then it becomes yours, if you like.”
“Now that I can get on board with.”
The heat in his voice made the chill in the air all but vanish, and instinctually she found herself turning to him, just like she had at summer camp. For those five days, he had been the guy she couldn’t stop looking at, flirting with, giggling over. But she wasn’t a kid anymore, and neither was he. Darryl’s gaze was on hers, all warmth and strength. Things she simply was not used to. She dated surfers, wild adventurers like herself. Not a small-town cop who lived life on the straight and narrow, and never left home. Especially a cop who had taken her in because she’d been a drunken idiot last night.
And yet…and yet, there was a pull there. An impulse for her to jump on this adventure. She’d never been the type who didn’t listen to that voice in her head, and she wasn’t about to stop now. That voice had led her up and down the West Coast and had given her unforgettable memories. That voice allowed her to find a place in this world when she didn’t seem to fit in anywhere. That voice had led her to River Rock this Christmas.
“Penelope,” Darryl said softly, almost a warning.
She stepped closer until she was pressed against him, noting that he did not step away. “Yes, Darryl?”
“This might not be the best idea,” he said, taking his hands from his pockets and sliding one along the small of her back, pulling her in nice and close, even as his voice rang with hesitation.
“You’re single, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
She could feel his resistance in the tightness of his shoulders. Yet there was only heat, desire, and need in his smoldering gaze. “I leave after Christmas day for a job on a cruise ship.” That was the next adventure, cruising along the Caribbean, bartending on the open seas. She pressed herself against the hardest part of him. “I can feel that you want me in a big, bad way, so what’s the hold up?”
He stared down at her, gaze flaring. Hard. His jaw muscles working overtime.
“I get it,” she added when silence greeted her. “You’re the good guy. The one who does the right thing, all the time. But here’s the thing: I’m not the good girl. I’m the fun girl. And this girl wants this good guy in hot, hot ways. So, let’s make a deal. We’ve got tonight, then if fate intervenes again, we’ll have a few more nights. I hate Christmas, and what would make this Christmas better is a whole lot of sex with you.”
Darryl’s head tilted just a little as his heated gaze fell to her lips. A wild shiver danced from her fingers to her toes when everything changed about him, all the clean-cut, upstanding citizen stuff was gone. Here stood a man who wanted and needed things that were not going to put him on the nice list. “You. Are. Trouble,” he said, dropping his mouth closer to hers.
She stood on her tiptoes and placed her hands his square chest, feeling the hard thumps of his heartbeat. “I know you don’t know this, yet, but that’s what makes me fun.”
Frozen solid, not only from the icy air, but from Penelope’s lips sliding against his, Darryl moaned, pulled under by her spell. A spell that most people wouldn’t understand because Penelope didn’t seem to be his type from the outside. Sure, she was beautiful, but her personality seemed to be at complete odds with his. In fact, he had no doubt, even as his tongue danced with hers and his lips moved over hers, that somewhere along the way, she’d cause him—hopefully only mildly painful—aggravation.
Yet when she leaned away and asked, “All right?” he knew right then, there was no chance he’d walk away from her.
He took the mug from her hand and tossed it into the snow drift next to him. “Yeah, I’m all right, sugar.” He needed her heat again. Years had gone by since he felt anything remotely close to what Penelope made him feel with one kiss. Want.
She planted another kiss on him, harder this time, offering a little bit more. And he took all she had to give him, putting aside that she could become a complication. Fate had brought her back into his life, and he needed to feel this with her. Plus, her taste, her smell…he threaded his fingers into her hair, tilted her head and deepened the kiss, taking it where he wanted it to go. To a much dirtier place. She moaned, and that sound sent his muscles flexing. He gathered her in his arms, and she wrapped her legs tight around his waist as he led them back inside. He kicked the door shut behind them, and he caught a quick flash of beautiful hooded eyes before he pulled the blanket off her shoulders and pressed her back against the wall in his kitchen. He kissed her deeper now, letting out the intensity he felt the night he’d given her that first hot kiss.
Passion, desire, it’d all felt dead inside him for so long. This woman brought that back. And Darryl wasn’t thinking repercussions when he carried her up the staircase and entered his bedroom. Nor did he think what may happen after this, when he lay her out on the mattress. He reached for his coat and shrugged out of that before taking his shirt over his head and tossing it aside before lowering his body onto hers.
She arched up into him, grinding the junction between her thighs against his hardened length. Her hands explored him, her fingers sliding across every groove of muscle along his chest and stomach, and he shut his eyes, reveling in how good touch felt. Her lips returned to his, and she gave all of herself in her kiss. And he demanded even more after that, threading his fingers into her hair, thrusting his tongue deeper into her mouth, urged on by her sexy moans.
When need drove him wild, he ground his throbbing cock against her, circling his hips, and felt the heat of her, the need. He reached for her T-shirt, removing that until she lay in her bra. He flicked the hooks free, then he kissed his way along her shoulders where he slid off her bra. He open-mouth kissed along her collarbone then to her breasts where he took one in his hand and squeezed until he sucked a nipple, and she arched into the pleasure.
Paying attention there, he teased her taut buds, sucking, biting, swirling, until her hands came into his hair, pinning him there. He groaned, his balls aching when her hands slid between their and she began shoving off his pants. When she had those and his boxer briefs down below his ass, a hot tremor ran through him as her hand wrapped around his cock and stroked him. He bit her nipple lightly and she shivered, giving a moan for more. Damn. He’d give her whatever she wanted…anything she wanted, as long as she didn’t stop stroking him. Her hand squeezed tight, circling the tip and running down his shaft.
Blinded by the pleasure, he reached between them, sliding his fingers over her yoga pants, feeling her dampness through the thin fabric. “So wet, Penelope. You want me.” He squeezed her
sex, then gently tickled his fingers across her sensitive flesh until he had her squirming, wanting his touch so badly that she angled her hips up, begging him for it.
“Yes.” She gasped. “Darryl!”
“Ah, but what if I like you like this?” he asked her. “Seeing you out of your mind?”
Her nails dug into his arms and her chin titled back. “Darryl, I’m about to come already.” A little fact about Penelope Carter occurred to him, then. She may be wild, but not with her body. Either she’d been longing for him, or she hadn’t been with anyone in a while.
Heat spiraled to his groin, making him desperate to bring them both something good this Christmas. One night. That’s what they had. He planned to take his fill. He lifted his hips a little, placing his weight on one arm. “Is this where you want me?” he asked, stroking her warm sex.
“Yes.” She gasped again, chin pointing up now.
Rich masculine satisfaction flooded him. A sensation that seemed so foreign until it returned now. He slipped his hand inside her yoga tights, instantly connecting with her wet, shaved pussy. He stroked her hard clit, pressing and circling the bud until she was barely kissing him anymore, her mouth open with her moans. That’s when he slipped one finger inside her heat, then another.
Her body shook. “Jesus. I’m….”
“Going to break apart for me.” He thrust harder and faster, until her body stiffened. Until her moans became loud. He didn’t stop thrusting his fingers until she arched off the bed, her toes pointing out, and she shuddered and screamed her pleasure.
He smiled, all for himself, and squeezed her sex with each hard tremor she gave. Damn, he still had it. Something he’d wondered for a long time.
When her quivering stopped and her body relaxed, he slowly removed his hand from her pants, and she eventually opened her eyes and gave him a smile, promising delicious sex. She wiggled out from under him, and with her beautiful round breasts all for his viewing pleasure, she shimmied out of her yoga tights. “Condom?” she asked, breathless.
Meet Me Under the Mistletoe Page 3