by Karina Halle
“It’s magical on the outside. I can’t guarantee the same for the inside. It will be a full house tonight.”
“Good,” she says, flashing me a wicked smile. “I like a little chaos with my dinner.”
Well, chaos it is because we go inside and, even though I thought we were a bit early, everyone is here and apparently waiting for us.
Riley stands beside me in the doorway as my grandpa gets off his chair and barks. “Shut the damn door, John, were you raised in a barn?”
“Pretty much,” I tell him, and then gesture to Riley who is smiling broadly at them all and not appearing to be self-conscious or shy in the slightest. “This is my co-worker, Riley, she just moved to North Ridge from Aspen and is the newest member of our search and rescue. Riley, this is,” and then I introduce her to my grandpa, my father and Jeanine sitting at the table, Vernalee who pokes her head out of the kitchen, and then Fox who is having a beer with Del on the couch.
When introductions are all done, Rachel comes over to take Riley’s coat and then Del brings her a glass of white wine. It warms my heart a little to see these girls being so friendly to her. I know that Riley puts on a tough face sometimes and doesn’t care what people think, but I remember what she said about loneliness and it’d be good for her to have some girlfriends in this town.
Everything goes smoothly and the only chaos is from having so many different people in the room together, but it’s a chaos that works. My grandfather is both the philosopher and the joker, alternating between bouts of wisdom and pulling your leg. Vernalee is crass at times and hard to like, but her sense of humor usually puts everyone at ease. My father is tough and perpetually a grumpy old man, and aside from asking Riley the occasional question about working the mountains of Wyoming or Colorado, he doesn’t say much, and we’re all fine with that.
Jeanine is quiet and soft-spoken and makes you feel like you’re the only person in the room when you’re talking to her. Del is very similar to her mother, though louder and endlessly curious. She asks the most questions of Riley, and when she asks if she had anyone special in Aspen, Riley is quick to brush that under the table with a smile.
Shane is more of an observer, listening and watching but rarely offering anything up himself. Rachel is more likely to ask questions and she seems just as fascinated by Riley as Del is. I don’t know what it is, maybe those girls are getting bored with people in the town, or maybe they secretly harbor dreams of being some adventurous, tattooed tough chick.
We eat really well, roast beef and roasted root vegetables that Rachel and Vernalee probably spent all day on, followed by cherry pie. A lot of wine goes around the table, but I watch what I have since I’ll have to take Riley back to her place later.
Then, when everyone seems sufficiently loose for a Sunday evening, music starts playing and the girls all start dancing, while Jeanine and Vernalee wash up in the kitchen.
I can’t take my eyes off of Riley. She called herself klutzy at one point but I’m sure it’s all in her head. There’s a difference between klutzy and goofy and if she’s anything, she’s the latter. In fact, she’s dancing like Mike Meyers in Austin Powers and laughing her ass off as she goes.
The feeling I have in my chest is completely unfamiliar. It’s like a combination of a warm bath and someone dropping a toaster in it. It’s both calming and electrifying and there’s no other way to explain it, but I have both those feelings at once when I’m looking at her. And fuck, I don’t want to stop.
“She’s a real spitfire,” my grandfather says as he eases himself into the chair next to me at the table.
“Riley?” I ask, playing dumb, as if my eyes have left her for a second. She’s currently holding onto Del’s hand and making her twirl around, taking the lead.
“Don’t play dumb, boy,” he says and then points directly at her. “That one. There. Riley.”
I gently grab his finger and push it away. The last thing Riley needs is for us to be pointing at her, though I also think she probably wouldn’t care.
“Okay, I get it,” I tell him.
“I knew a girl like her once. Before I met your grandmother. I sure did have the biggest darn crush on her, eh? But she couldn’t give a pig’s snout about me.”
Pig’s snout?
He goes on. “She was beautiful, long legs. All the boys in the class were always trying to get a look under her skirt.”
“Grandpa,” I admonish him, teasingly.
“I didn’t say I did it,” he says defensively, then thinks about it for a moment. “Anyway, trying and doing are two different things. Point is, this girl was a heartbreaker and in the end, she wasn’t interested in me and that spared me. I found your grandmother instead. But the boys she did date, oh did she ever break their little hearts.”
My eyes are still on Riley, thinking this over as Fox approaches her and asks her to dance. Del looks put out again, but she still smiles and moves out of the way, while Fox dips and twirls Riley around. The music is like 90’s R&B, it’s not really dancing music, and yet there they are. Both of them seem to be enjoying themselves and I’m sitting here with a hot coal of rage and jealousy slowly building inside me.
“You see,” my grandfather says, nudging me on the shoulder. “She’s a heartbreaker.”
I take in a long, deep breath and look away. If I stared at them any longer, I would have gone up there and broken them apart, and what kind of brother would I be then? I don’t have the right, even though every cell in my body is telling me she’s mine and mine alone.
I cough and say, “She’s my colleague, grandpa. She’s part of search and rescue. She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Baloney,” he says. “That doesn’t mean a thing.”
“There are rules,” I say, voice harder. “Rules about that kind of thing.”
Now my grandfather is laughing. “Rules? Rules? Oh, John boy, you have never been one to follow rules. And you’ve been better off for it.”
He pauses and gets that wise owl look to his weathered face. “Do you remember when you were younger and we told you that the river was off-limits? And you said, ‘yes sir,’ and pretended to obey us, but you still went down there and you still played by the river. And then one day you saw a fawn that was caught in an eddy, drowning. You went right in and saved that fawn. Next thing I know, you’re holding the shivering, wet thing in your arms at the front door. We asked you what happened and you didn’t lie. You broke the rules, but if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have saved that fawn.”
I remember very well. They didn’t want me by the river because of my mother, but that’s exactly why I went every day after school. I wasn’t playing—I was paying respect. It was like visiting her grave. But that one day I did see the fawn and I went into the river to rescue it. I wasn’t afraid, I just knew I was at that place for a reason. The damn fawn was orphaned after that, and we took care of it until it was old enough to return to the wild. Sometimes the fawn would follow me into the house, wanting the bottle, and Jeanine would get so fucking mad.
“Anyway, John boy, you’re a rule-breaker at heart. No point changing that now.”
Except when my career is at stake.
Thankfully, the dance party doesn’t last for too much longer with my father complaining of a headache and then it’s time to take Riley home.
She’s drunk and funny and goofy and leaning on me all the way to the truck.
“Your family is so fun,” she says, holding onto my arm. I have to fight the urge to put my arm around her, even though it feels like the most natural thing to do.
“I’m glad they behaved for you,” I tell her, opening the passenger door for her and ushering her inside.
She’s quiet on the drive back to her place, but not in a bad way. She seems contemplative and she keeps stealing glances at me.
I end up asking, “Penny for your thoughts?”
“I don’t think you want to know,” she says in a low voice.
I take her word for it.
/> We pull up to her house and for the first time, things feel awkward. She’s drunk on wine and I’m just trying to keep my head on straight. Too many things are rushing up inside me, threatening to erupt like a volcano. That sharp, tangible and irrefutable feeling that she’s mine and she needs to know it.
She unbuckles her seat belt and turns to face me and whatever resolve I have inside, that thin one that tells me to play by the rules, to play it safe for once, I feel it weaken.
She is just so beautiful. The full, sex-soaked pout of her gorgeous lips, the way they contrast with her innocent blue eyes. Her hair as it falls softly around her shoulders, begging to be touched. Everything about her is brimming with lust and intensity. Every inch of her is begging to be touched.
I swallow hard, my nostrils flaring as she leans over and puts her palm at my cheek, her skin warm. I freeze, afraid to move. I can only stare at her as she shuffles over, getting closer until her face is right in front of mine.
“What are you so afraid of?” she whispers, staring at my lips.
It takes a moment for me to speak, my heart is beating so hard in my chest it’s like a fucking jackhammer. “You,” I tell her honestly.
I expect her to smile but she looks dead serious.
“You know I can keep a secret,” she says.
Then she climbs on top of me so she’s straddling me, thighs on either side of mine, her crotch pressed against my stomach, her ass into the steering wheel.
Before I can do or say anything, she reaches down and grabs the hem of her sweater and pulls it over her head. Her full breasts are pushed up by a lacey pink bra that matches her lips, her skin like cream, inches away from me.
“I bet you can keep a secret too,” she purrs, running her thumb down over my jaw, then my lip. She pushes her thumb in and my mouth opens, sucking gently. Her eyes close and her lips open and the softest moan escapes them and I am so fucking hard I think I’m going to burst right through the fly of my jeans.
She removes her thumb and stares at me, her lids heavy, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep it together. I am a fucking weak man in the end.
“You can touch me, you know,” she says softly, and she takes both of my hands and places them at her waist. It’s so small, so smooth, I feel like I could wrap my fingers all the way around her. I press my palms against her, holding on tight, not because I want to—because I do—but because I’m afraid of moving them elsewhere.
She leans in closer and places her lips at my neck. A small kiss, but a long kiss. I shut my eyes and groan. I can’t help it. My grip tightens around her waist. My erection is so hot and tight and hard and I’m just fucking sweating, trying to hold out. “You can do whatever you want to me.” Her lips move against my skin as she speaks, wet.
“I can’t,” I manage to say. My voice breaks with lust as I say it, my blood running hot and loud in my head. “You know we can’t. Riley…please.”
She pulls back for a moment and smiles. She knows she’s wearing me down. God, it’s going to feel so fucking good when I finally let go.
“If you could do anything to me, what would you do?” she whispers in my ear, her breath hot and sweet, her voice dripping with sex. “Pretend there are no rules and tell me everything you’d do to me, right here, right now.”
Oh, fuck.
But before I can open my mouth, my phone buzzes.
It’s Jace, at the office.
It’s a call.
I clear my throat, needing to answer the call, but at the same time, reluctant to move Riley off of me. I’m too terrified to move my hands. I know if I touch another section of bare, soft skin that I’ll lose complete control and then I won’t need to tell her what I want to do, I’ll fucking show her.
But Riley quickly moves off of me, slides her sweater back on and hands me my phone.
I nod my thanks and spend a few seconds clearing my throat, trying to calm my racing heart, before I answer it.
“Mav here.”
“They found a backpack on the mountain but no sign of the skier,” Jace says. “RCMP wants to do an aerial search in the morning, but figures we can get a head start.”
“Might be too late by morning. We’ll need everyone,” I tell him, adrenaline over the search starting to course through me, competing with my hardened lust for Riley. “Get the team, I’ll put out a call for volunteers.”
“Will do.”
He hangs up and I exhale loudly, trying to get rid of all the sexual frustration.
“Should I get my gear on?” Riley asks, her demeanor back to business.
“We’ll get enough volunteers, you don’t have to make this one.”
Her brows knit together. “Mav, it’s my job.”
“It’s your day off. And you’ve had wine.”
“It’s your day off, too. And I’m pretty much sober. Are you trying to keep me safe, or do you think I’m too distracting? Because if it’s the latter, you know how I am on the job and if it’s the—”
“It’s neither,” I lie. “I just wanted you to have the night off if you wanted. You had a nice dinner, you shouldn’t have to rush out there.”
“It’s my job,” she says again and opens the door. “Now give me a few minutes and I’ll be right back.”
She runs off around the back of the house to where the basement suite door is. I stare at her for a few moments before I thump the top of the steering wheel with my fist.
“Fuck!” I yell. I need to get it together, but damn it feels good to yell. I do it a few more times, trying to rid myself of all the tension, how close I fucking got to whipping out my cock and impaling her on it.
By the time she comes back out, dressed in her rescue gear and carrying her pack, I’ve got myself back under control.
We drive off, colleagues again, ready to search and rescue.
9
CHAPTER NINE
Riley
“Hey, hot stuff.”
I roll my eyes hard and turn away from the map I was studying. Micropenis Neil just walked into the office, which means, oh fucking joy, I’m spending this Wednesday working with both him and Jace. Jace who is sitting in the corner of the room and watching the two of us with a suspicious look on his face. Which, considering he’s Dr. Emo, is extra suspicious.
“Hi,” I say, turning my back to him. I try and play it nice with Neil, but every now and then he starts getting inappropriate and all leering and shit.
Then again, I’m not one to talk. I still don’t know what the hell I was thinking the other night after dinner at the Nelsons. I’d had a lot of wine, but my head was still on straight. I just…I saw the way Maverick was watching me as I was dancing and I saw that anger flare in his eyes when Fox came over. I know he cares. I know he wants me. And I just want him to fucking give in and fuck me already.
Or hell, kiss me. Touch me. Anything. I’ll take anything that man has to give me and I’ll take it with gusto.
But no. We got called into a rescue before anything could happen. And maybe that was for the best. I don’t know. It definitely sobered me up. We ended up finding the skier in the wee hours of the morning, but there were a lot of us there and Mav and I haven’t discussed what happened since. It’s been a few days now and we’ve been working like normal.
Although I don’t know what normal is anymore. Is normal wanting to jump someone every waking moment? Is this the normal for the rest of my days here? Me, just continuously hitting on and crushing on my boss? No. Something has to give. We’re either going to succumb to what I hope is the inevitable or…fuck. He could tell me to knock it off for good. I don’t want to think about that.
“So, what are you doing this weekend?” Neil asks. It’s Thursday. We don’t always get weekends.
“I’m working,” I tell him quickly, hoping he doesn’t ask me to do something, because that’s what it sounds like.
“I saw your schedule,” he says. “You’re not working Sunday. Neither am I.”
I grumble in response
, reading over the same word, “Chairman’s Peak,” on the map over and over again, waiting for him to give up.
“I thought maybe we could go see a movie,” he says.
Jace clears his throat but doesn’t interject.
Finally, I turn around and give Neil a look that should make him shrivel up and melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.
He stares back at me with full confidence, as if there’s no way I would ever say no. Someone with a micropenis shouldn’t be this cocky, especially if he doesn’t care to make up for his shortcomings.
“I believe that would be inappropriate,” I tell him.
“Going to the movies? Jace and I go all the time.”
I look at Jace and he looks confused, which has me doubting it’s true.
“Besides,” he says, “you went to dinner with Mav to Ravenswood Ranch. That’s something.”
“He didn’t invite me,” I point out. “His brother Shane and his fiancée did. I was their guest.”
The door swings open and Maverick appears, like we conjured him up out of thin air. He’s breathless, a dusting of snow on his shoulders, and looking between the two of us with narrowed eyes. “What’s going on?” he asks.
My heart flips around in my chest. Not just at the fact that he’s here and that’s what my heart always does around him, but because he looks so damn bothered that Neil and I are talking about something. I love it when he goes caveman, even if he denies it.
“Neil invited me to the movies and I said no,” I say with a smile.
To Neil’s credit, he doesn’t flinch when Mav fixes a steely, murderous gaze on him. “You what?”
“To be fair,” he says, clearing his throat. “She didn’t say no. She said it would be inappropriate. So Mav, do you think it would be inappropriate if two colleagues were to see a film together? I mean, Jace and I go all the time.”
This time Jace sighs, shaking his head, and he turns around to go back to work.
Mav wiggles his jaw back and forth for a moment before he looks to me. “Riley, it’s up to you.”