by Jax Hart
“Please tell me you’re abducing me to have your wicked way with me?” My eyes open a crack to glimpse the handsome man above me.
“Oh shit. It’s just you.”
“Just me,” Dare drawls, shutting the door.
I sigh in relief as the overhead light shuts off leaving me in the blessed dark. He starts up the truck and carefully backs out.
“You aren’t going to be sick, are you?”
“I hope not. Tequila and I go way back. But it’s been a while.”
I catch his smirk in the rearview, noticing his cut jaw and kissable lips. Sighing again, I let my head fall back on the leather headrest. Dare is one hell of an alpha. I didn’t see it but damn tonight when he hauled that guy three inches off the floor, my eyes were glues to the muscles ready to pop out of his shirt.
Up close, when he stares at me…I see the darkness in the flecks of his eyes. He might dress refined and look polished minus the five o’clock beard that’s started to grow on his face, but that man is dangerous as fuck. Half of me wants him, is turned-on by it and the other half wants to pack up and run. When he admitted he’s attracted to me too, I played the defense by attacking. If he can’t stand me; he won’t be tempted to kiss me. Besides, I need to find Santa just because I’m curious. If I don’t see his face…I’ll never know who the man that turned me on like a light switch looks like.
The air is thick with silence as he drives along snowy country roads to our cozy inn not far away. “What’s your story?” I boldly ask.
He takes a minuet to respond, “It’s full of twists and turns, FB. Some too dangerous to go down.”
“I figured you for one of those corporate types, always glued to his cell or laptop…scoring the next merger or deal.”
“You finally got something right. I’m a CEO.”
“I knew it,” I snort, smacking the back of his leather seat.
“How about you…what’s a cougar doing hunting in our backwoods?”
“Did…did you just call me a cougar! I’m barely over thirty! You just can’t be nice can you, not even for a damn five-minute drive.”
“Maybe if you took that stick out of your ass…you’d have a sense of humor. Christ, you’re wound tight.”
“I am pretty tight.” I retort off handedly.
“F me, fur baby. We either gotta do this or Stay out of each other’s way. Which is it gonna be?” Our eyes meet in the mirror. I lick my lips. He hisses, slamming the brakes and we skid before coming to a stop and he puts the truck in park.
I yelp as the back door is ripped open. He stands there, staring at me crouching in the dark. Wondering. Waiting for him to make a move.
“Tell me no and this ends right here. I’ll shut the door turn the truck back on and pretend this thing between us doesn’t exist.”
I crook a finger, beckoning him closer. Instead he grabs my ankles pulling me out of the cab and into his rock-hard body.
“I’m cold.”
“How can that be, when I’m burning?” His lips find my forehead, my nose, my mouth. Hot damn, the man can kiss. Our tongues duel and dance. He grunts as I pull back panting for air.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m dizzy. From your kiss, from alcohol…probably both.”
“I knew you liked me.”
His smirk snaps me out of my lust-filled haze. I grab his by the fist and pull him back down to me. “This is pure animal attraction. Hormones. Pheromones. Whatever. Like has nothing to do with it; understand?”
“I couldn’t agree more,” he grunts, hooking my legs high around my waist and finding the side of my neck with his tongue. He nibbles, bites and licks his way to my collarbone then pushes my sweater up exposing my satin bra to his touch. He uses his mouth to push the fabric aside and find my aching bud waiting for his touch.
I moan, sliding back into a different dimension. One where nothing else exists but the way he’s making my body feel. He seems so familiar but, in my alcohol, altered state of mind I can’t figure out why. It’s like we’ve loved before. Touched before. Which is insane because I know we haven’t when I could barely stand to breathe the same air as him.
“Fuck. You’re sweet. Taste…feel so good,” he growls against my breast. He pulls back his lips wet from loving me and breathes hard.
“More.”
“No. You’re half drunk, cupcake. I want you fully admitting how much you want me inside you. I want to see that sassy mouth of yours beg for my cock, sugar.”
The icy air couldn’t sober me up but his cocky as fuck attitude sure as hell does. “Actually, You’re right. I can’t wait to sober up so I can fully enjoy watching you beg to feel my warm as a Dutch apple pie, fucking pussy clenching around said cock.”
He grins, “Damn baby. That mouth turns me the fuck on.” He moves a hand to the fly of his jeans, and cups himself not in the least embarrassed by the massive bulge beneath.
The throb between my thighs won’t quiet even though I feel like a won a round. I climb back into the back of the truck and pull my clothes back in place. Neither of us speak back to the inn. He parks and like a gentleman, opens my door. But as he extends a hand to help me out, he doesn’t let go. He hauls me back up in his arms, carrying me up the stairs and straight to the kitchen counter where he instructs me to sit. He opens the fridge, hands me a fresh bottle of water and orders me to drink. He stands with his arms crossed and his hawk eyes watch me swallow until I finish the last drop.
“Good,” he grunts, then turns opens a few cabinets and finds a bottle of Advil. Three pills are put down next to a new bottle of water and he gets busy taking out food. Soon, the kitchen smells like frying bacon and eggs. Toast and hash browns.
My buzz is still strong but it’s getting weaker by the minute.
“Eat,” he orders, placing a breakfast sandwich with a steaming side of potatoes on the counter in front of me.
I dive in, chewing and moaning like a starved woman. I pick up my fork, waggling it at him. “You’re being too nice. I don’t trust it.”
He sighs, at the sink where he’s washing the dishes and, in his jeans, —that ass of his is looking mighty fine. “I’m actually a nice guy. It’s just you who wants to paint me as a bad one.”
“HA! A nice guy doesn’t drench a stranded woman in a layer of dirty slush!”
“It was an accident!” He holds up his hands.
“Not buying it. What’s a CEO doing alone at a hotel in Springdale.”
“What’s a teacher who has way more money than a teacher doing in Springdale by herself?” He counters.
“I asked first,” I roll me eyes. “…and I’m not a teacher. I work in the guidance office.”
He rinses a pan; toweling drying it and puts it away before leaning on the opposite counter. “I grew up here. Rog is family. I pledged to Creed the second I turned fifteen. I worked at the Club cleaning bikes, cooking meals, doing laundry… hell anything to earn my patch. It wasn’t long after that I started doing other things.”
“What kind of things?”
“The kind that would give a sweet little piece like you nightmares.”
“That’s all I’ve been having lately,” I snort.
“Is that so? I thought you were having wild sex dreams.”
“I am…but then the man turns into you.” I admit, before I even realize I spoke out loud.
The kitchen’s quiet. My pounding heart and the old clock ticking away; the only sounds as the snow continues to fall, blanketing the world outside. He hooks the dishrag over his shoulder and walks around the counter. His big body stops behind my seated one. His large palms, come down on either side of me, resting on the cool stone. I wait.
The tip of his nose runs down the back of my head, to my neck and around. “Who knew hate could be such an aphrodisiac?” His meaty hands come off the counter to cup my full breasts. My gasp echoes in the dark as his thumbs swirl over my areolas. Round and round he worships them while his mouth sucks the side of my neck, giving me
tiny love marks that will stay with me long after this moment ends.
“Let’s take this upstairs?” I pinch myself, hating how pathetic I sound.
“What about him?” Dare’s hands still.
“Who?”
“The Santa you want me to find.”
“You’re right. He’s a better kisser. His package felt bigger too.”
My chair is yanked back. His handsome face is full of mischief as he picks me up and hauls me over his shoulder fireman style. He palms smacks my ass.
“Oww! I’m not into that Dom shit!”
He smack me again.
“You will be. You don’t have a clue what you’re missing.” The door to my corner room is kicked open and he puts me down.
“I’ll never be any man’s plaything.”
His eyes narrow. A devious grin appears. “Is that so?” He bears down on me, picks me up and throws me on the bed. His eyes glow hot as embers from the fire Sally lit in my hearth as he stares down at me while unbuckling his belt. His jeans drop.
“Oh my.”
“Is my package big enough?”
I gulp. How in the heck will that ever fit?
“Here’s what’s going to happen. We will establish rules. For as long as we’re both in Springdale you’re mine. Only mine. You got that, cupcake? No dates with men from Creed. No Santa. Just you and me. You will obey me in the bedroom. Call me Daddy if I ask. I’ll make you come so hard you’ll never forget my face not even when you’re a hundred and blinded by cataracts.”
I want to spit in his face. Tell him to go to hell. But I’ve already lost. I was lost the second my eyes landed on him in the airport. It just took my stubborn ass days to admit it. Besides, isn’t this what I came here for? To find a handsome stranger to make me forget my case of the holiday blues?
“Fine. But for the record I still hate you. No kissing or touching in public. This will be our dirty secret. After dark, I’m yours but when morning light comes…we’re back to being enemies.”
“You don’t make the rules. I do.”
“Says who?”
“The man who’s about to make you come, sugar.”
He snakes lower on the bed. Lifts my hips as he thus my leather leggings down and groans as his head rests on my stomach. I feel him inhale against my mound. “So, fucking good.” His tongue darts out, sneaking through the hole sin the black lace to lick a path down my slit.
“FUCK!” I scream as he moves my panties aside and his velvet tongue slides home. I struggle in his grasp but he just laughs against my pussy keeping my hands firmly locked in one of his,
“I hate you!”
“I know. You hate me so much…but you can’t stop wanting me.”
“Gah!”
I wiggle, but his hand presses my hip down into the mattress at the same time he captures my clit.
“Checkmate.” He rasps. Rolling the tiny nub between his teeth. It. Fuckin. Hurts. So. Good. The pain of his teeth and the healing sweep of his tongue work in a rhythm that his fingers join. “Dare! More! Please make me come!”
“With pleasure, darlin’.” He drawls, in the sexy slang the men from here use.
He’s the devil making me burn as continues to work me good. Round and round his mouth sucks and licks until I fall into the abyss, screaming for him. For the man I loathe in daylight but crave in the dark.
“That’s it sugar. Let yourself go. You’ll sleep good now, doll.”
“Hmmm,” I fall back against the pillows as he finally releases my wrists.
I watch through hooded eyes as he pushes up on his knees and stands. “You’re leaving?”
“My job here’s done.”
“What about you?” I arc a brow.
“I’m good. You needed the release more than I do. See I’m not such a selfish jerk after all. But I’ll warn you now. Don’t get drunk like this again. Not while you’re mine.”
“You have no say.”
“But I do. You agreed. This…,” he gestures to my body with a sweep of his hands, “is my property until the clock strikes midnight on December thirty-first.”
“January third. I’m not leaving until January third.”
“Even better,” he grins, taking a finger and running it down my curves. The bed moves after he lifts the weight of his knee. “Sleep. Because you won’t get a wink come tomorrow.”
He throws two logs on the fire and it flares. The embers cracking and popping into the rejuvenated flame. As soon as the door shuts behind him, I’ll get up and take a shower. But the door softly closes, and my post-orgasm coma pulls me into a deep sleep. Too deep to dream. And for the first night under this roof I sleep like a baby.
17
DARE
SHE WAS SNORING BEFORE my hand reached the door. They were cute, dainty ones. I couldn’t resist taking out my phone and recording it. I’d save that audio file for a later date and tease the fuck out of her with it.
I don’t know what in the hell just happened. All the blood rushed from my head straight to my dick, staying there for most of the night. Getting involved with her is going to be a mistake. But I can’t stop my hands from reaching out and touching her or my lips from wanting to fuse to hers. The woman drives me crazy. I want more. But at least neither of us have to worry about the other’s feelings. Love is not a part of this equation. How can it be? We only like each other when neither of us is speaking.
Too wound up to sleep. I grab my coat off the back of a kitchen chair where I left it, take off my boots, trading them for my waterproof ones and slip out the back door.
It stopped snowing and the midnight moon shines bright its light reflecting all around. I cup my hands to my mouth, blowing on them before shoving them deep into my pockets.
I’ve never seen the earth so still. The moonlight bounces off the snow lighting up the night. It’s quiet. Peaceful and I can finally clear my head.
My boots break through the snow, crunching down as I make my way across the back field and trudge under the ghosted trees covered in twinkle lights.
I’ve come so far from who I was the last time I lived in this town and yet…I’m lost in so many ways. I’m a fraud. It’s no wonder the woman I left sated upstairs saw right through my bullshit. I might hold a business degree and the title of CEO but underneath all that—I’ll always be a two-bit punk raised rough with the scars to prove it.
I want to do better.
I need to do better.
Freddie is just the first in a long list of things I need to do to rectify the selfish prick I’ve become. Locking my heart and keeping out love is no way to live. Maybe I’ll get Freddie a dog or cat. I’ll start slow, loving a pet before I learn to love a woman. Freddie’s going to need a momma, too. Especially with her teen years just ahead.
I picture Shiloh, with her flushed skin, dark hair, and sexy moans. I wouldn’t mind having her in my bed to legally fuck every night. She’s a teacher so that’s another plus. But then I think we’d never last a week and we both know it. A holiday fling is probably the most we can handle.
Fresh from a shower, I button up my navy flannel shirt. It’s tight. Rolling the sleeves to my elbows, I whistle Santa Claus is coming to town. Checking the watch at my wrist, my lisp curve. Nine hours. Twelve minutes and fifteen seconds till sundown. Will I strip her slow or devour her? Make her wait to come by edging her for hours or should I take her hard and fast from behind?
Decisions.
Decisions.
My feet match the jolly tune as I hum the rest of the tune as I follow the smell of bacon and coffee.
What. The. Fuck?
She’s in the silk shirt the one I’m going to rip apart. Maybe even tonight. But that’s not the problem. He is.
“…I just wanted to say Merry Christmas before I head north. The weather isn’t looking good so we’ll probably hang in Canada until the twenty seventh.”
Shiloh puts her hand on his forearm, “Be safe.”
“Always.” He pressed a kiss to her
cheek. I see red. The growl from my throat has them jumping apart, guiltily.
“I thought you left last night.” My eyes narrow and I stalk forward, yanking my girl behind me.
“I was supposed to. But the plan changed.”
“Put a robe on,” I hiss, turning my head.
“Why? I don’t belong to you.”
My jaw tics. I close my eyes and count to ten still seeing the shadows of her dusky nipple from beneath the soft silk.
Federico clears his throat. “Would you be my date for the New Year’s Eve Ball?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
We reply in unison.
“You said last night, that you weren’t into her.”
“He’s not.” Shiloh skirts from around me, daring me with her eyes to challenge her.
“I changed my mind. She’s mine. Get lost, brother.”
“But I haven’t changed mine. I’d love to go with you.”
I slam my mug of coffee down. Hot liquid splashes everywhere. Ignoring it, I walk up behind her and hook my arm around her waist, pulling her back against me. “I’ll spank you for lying. My tongue right here last night.” My hand lowers to cup her mound through the silk. Federico swallows hard without looking away. “This sweetbutt is mine.” I bend my head to her ear, “Do you like that he’s watching? Wanting you…getting turned on thinking about how you might taste?” She breathe sin shallow pants as I move my hand round and round then up her shirt to cup her breast where my fingers roll a nipple through the silk.
“Fuck, I envy you.”
“Good. Get out. Now!”
Federico doesn’t need to be told twice.
I turn my treasure in my arms, lift spread her legs and hoist her up only to let her butt fall on a cold granite counter.
“Don’t play with me again. You won’t like the punishment.”
She’s quiet which is a first. I quirk an eyebrow, nothing to say, sugar?”
“Sally’s coming.” I hear the feet on the stairs as well.
“So?”
My lips fall to her neck, giving her a nip. “Mine. We made a pact last night. Are you already backing out on me?”