The Winter Games Box Set

by Rebecca Sharp

  “You say that like they did it and then lubed them up with some non-nutritive food varnish,” he replied calmly, and I almost spit out my water at the Christmas Vacation reference.

  “I didn’t know you knew more movie references than Star Wars.” I smirked.

  “Much to learn, you have,” he countered.

  Rolling my eyes, I continued before he started trying to speak Wookie. “Both of my parents were semi-professional skiers and they passed their love and skill on to me. I’m sure if I wasn’t any good, I would’ve thought about doing something else. But I was good. Really good. So, I guess I’m still waiting for that moment when I have to think about what I’ll be when I grow up.”

  “Juice bar?”

  I looked at him through the corner of my eye. “Maybe.”

  “So how did that work growing up while travelling and training and competing?”

  “We didn’t travel much when I was really young. It was only in high school that staying in school became a problem so I ended up doing a mix of homeschooling with my mom and online classes.”

  While I spoke, he devoured his burger. I’d probably been asked these questions a thousand times, mostly by reporters or in interviews, some by people with genuinely good intentions, and just as many if not more that were looking for a story, especially after what happened to Evan.

  “What about friends?”

  Speaking of…

  “I had a few close ones like Marissa and her brother. We were all kind of in the same boat for a while and spending so much time on the mountain together, they were like family. It was hard to imagine any future without them.”

  And that was why it had seemed so natural for Evan and me to start dating. Because who else was I going to marry? Who else knew what my life was like? Who else would be able to love and appreciate it and me?

  Funny how sometimes the puzzle piece has all the edges that you need and the colors that match, and yet, when you stick it in the spot, it turns out to be completely wrong.

  “What happened?” He wiped his mouth and set his napkin on his empty plate. “You’ve mentioned them before, and I’ve met Marissa. What happened with her brother?”

  That cold sticky feeling of being on trial began to creep up my spine, slithering out from my bones to remind me

  “Jac.” My name drew my focus back to Kyle. “You don’t have to tell me.”

  Right. I knew that. But I wanted to. I needed to because it was fear that was holding me back. Fear that led to anger, to hate, and to suffering. I pushed on the outside; I hardened my shell to the world because I couldn’t let anyone see how the truth was eating away at me.

  But I didn’t want to be afraid anymore.

  “We started being more than friends right around the end of high school—or whatever that was for us.” My voice sounded a little numb, but it was there, fighting my fears. “It wasn’t much at first because we were traveling different places during the season. When I turned twenty-one, things began to take off—for me and for him.”

  I couldn’t look away from his eyes. They were like my life raft as I drifted through the stormy seas of my past.

  “All of a sudden, we were always in the same places, in the same competitions. It was easy… natural… for the two of us to find something more in the friendship that had been strong for years.”

  The waitress came and took away our plates but I didn’t break his stare. He pulled out his credit card without even looking and set it on the table, not even caring to look at the bill because his gaze was the only thing keeping me steady.

  “It was even easier when the press picked up on it and it became a thing for the media, always wanting the two of us together for photos, interviews, magazine spreads; we were snowballed into something that neither of us expected, I think. Add on the pressure of the sport and top it off with the steady levelling of his skill and career while mine continued to skyrocket, and you have a recipe for, well,” my voice finally choked off and my eyes fell to my lap. “It didn’t end well.”

  “I’m sorry.” He was about to say something else after it; my heart was ready for the question that naturally followed. What happened to him? But it didn’t come. The waitress returned his card and when he was done signing, he stood, his face tight and drawn as he slid my chair back for me.

  Who was I kidding? He probably already knew. It was like graffiti all over the papers. There was no reason to give him any more than that because to give him more would be to give him all. And aside from Danny, no one knew what happened the day of the fall, before his injury.

  Kyle’s hand stayed at the small of my back as we walked out of the restaurant, warm and supportive as he murmured, “Let’s get you home, yeah?”

  He didn’t let me carry any of it—not a single bag of mine or his out to his truck.

  I thought I’d be more upset about it than I was. Rather, I was just concerned that he was going to hurt himself carrying so much shit, but the look he gave me when I pleaded for him to just let me help was one I didn’t want to disobey. Not because I was scared of the consequences, but because I knew it would hurt him if I insisted.

  And I was starting to find that making him happy was more important than convincing myself—and everyone else around—that Jac Blanchard didn’t need anyone.

  For anything.

  Ever.

  HE THOUGHT HE WAS GOING to walk out of here with just a goodnight kiss.

  I smiled to myself. The thought of foiling his sweet but borderline ridiculous chivalry made my stomach tighten in anticipation.

  We’d returned to Marissa’s empty apartment, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize he expected our night to end here—with a kind gesture and a goodnight kiss.

  So, when he turned to see me blocking the door, I had to bite back a smile as confusion crossed his handsome face. There was a reason I might have excessively encouraged Marissa to stay at Shawn’s tonight even though she’d been hesitant because his family was visiting for the holiday; I may also have confessed I’d agreed to let Kyle take me to dinner. You’d think I’d agreed to try out for Miss America for how surprised she’d been.

  Maybe it really had been too long since I’d let anyone in…

  But no one had made an effort. Not like Kyle.

  “Were you planning on leaving?” I finally asked, leaning my back against the door.

  Hungry eyes flared as they held mine. “I think that’s a good idea, Princess. You need to sleep and if I stay anywhere near you right now, I can guarantee that’s not happening.”

  “I think I like that guarantee…” I said with a low sultry voice.

  “Not going to ruin your schedule, Jac. Not this close,” he said tightly.

  I rolled my eyes as I stepped close to him and put a hand on his chest.

  “Sometimes, you take the whole ‘charming’ bit a little too far.” I sighed dramatically as I began to slide my hand down over the hard ridges of his abs, feeling them tighten as I moved lower.

  “Jac…” he warned with a low, gravelly voice.

  “I know you want to fuck me,” I said thickly as my fingers closed over his hard cock that pulsed against the front of his jeans. He let out a hiss but didn’t move away. Slowly stroking it, I continued, “So, we can either continue this conversation with your dick inside me or you can leave and I’ll just spend the next hour with my vibrator—not sleeping. Whatever you want to do, it’s cool.”

  “Fuck.”

  I didn’t even get to add on the casual shrug that was supposed to complete the effect of calm nonchalance before I tasted his curse of defeat on my lips and was backpedaling into the door with the force of his kiss.

  My arms locked around his neck as I lifted my legs and wrapped them around his waist. This was what my body needed—to lose myself in him. To finally let go because I knew it was safe.

  My tongue was as ravenous as his as they fought inside the kiss for control. Crushed between the hardness of him and the less-steely door,
my hips found enough space to grind my core against him.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  “Fuck, Jac,” he growled against my cheek, his mouth biting along my jaw up to my ear. “I really should go.”

  Turning my head, I forced him to look at me.

  “I need you,” I whispered. “I need you to stay.”

  Whatever desire burned in his eyes turned molten. No matter what I felt, it wasn’t easy for me to say that. It wasn’t just lust or emotion of the moment. It wasn’t me needing a night of attachment-less sex. Those things I’d had before—those things I thought I could have with him.

  But I couldn’t.

  I needed him. I needed him more than my routine. I needed him more than my fear. I needed him because he was the only person who made me not want to be alone. And for me to say it didn’t come lightly.

  But of course, he knew that too.

  “Anything you need, Cinderella,” he murmured. “I’ll give you everything you need.”

  The old Jac—the cold Jac—would have laughed because believing things like that was a joke for her. But laughing now, when Kyle said it, would be like laughing at the law of gravity or the fact that the sun rose in the east and set in the west; I couldn’t laugh at something I knew to be undeniably true.

  I bit down on his lip and sucked it into my mouth, reveling in his hiss.

  And then the tension between us exploded.

  He ate at my mouth as my clothes were ripped from my body. Lifting me higher, the hot velvet brand of his tongue slid down to my breasts, swirling around one nipple. My back bowed off the door and I moaned when his mouth closed over my aching tit and sucked.

  Everything was the same and different as that first night. The intensity, the hunger, the need—it was all the same. Tonight, I acknowledged where it came from and that didn’t just make it different—it made it more. Beneath the desperate lust for this man, there had been a longing that I’d ignored. I wasn’t ignoring it anymore.

  His hips pinning me up, he worked to undo the buttons at my waist. My breast popped from his mouth as my feet drifted back to the floor so he could drop to his knees to tug down my pants.

  “Kyle!” I gasped his name as his lips closed over my sex.

  The hard pressure of his tongue delved into my pussy as he lifted one leg and then the other to free them from my jeans.

  Moaning, I stared down at my hands buried in his blond hair, holding him tight against my core. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, the need to come firing up my body just like the need to win.

  My feet inched forward until he was forced to tip back further and further until he fell back to the floor, his hands on my ass taking me with him.

  Panting and laughing, our eyes met before he licked his lips of my desire and pulled my pussy back down onto him. Sitting on his face, I threw my head back and ground my swollen sex against his obliging tongue.

  Without his hair to hold onto, my hands drifted from the floor to my thighs and then higher up.

  My eyes shot open as he growled ravenously against my pussy. This Prince Charming was a beast in the bedroom. Holding his gaze, my palms slid up to cup my breasts and I began to squeeze and knead their weight. The more I did, the more his tongue tortured me. The more he tortured me, the more my dripping cunt taunted him.

  His groans made me wetter, they made me hungrier, and they made me work harder for the release I felt coming.

  Seeing his lips coated with my desire made me desperate. I never thought seeing someone’s mouth devouring my sex would do this to me. It made me crazy for him. The way his eyes sparkled said he knew it.

  When I pinched my nipples, his lips tugged hard over my clit and I fell forward with the force of my orgasm that ripped through me unexpectedly. My moans vaguely echoed somewhere in the distance as I fought to breathe.

  It was really his moans I heard first as he lapped up my desire that leaked from my clenching core.

  God, it felt so good.

  Almost as good as feeling him.

  Gasping, he rolled over me, his shoulders making my thighs spread wide. Pulling one leg up against his chest, he began to kiss my calf and shin as his hands worked at the waist of his jeans.

  The steady pulsing from my release quickly U-turned straight into shocks of need as he pulled out his red, swollen cock.

  “Fuck,” he growled, bending over me to hook one arm under my back. “I should take you to bed.”

  I moaned as he picked me up, my legs sliding back around his waist as he stood. It was a nice thought. But his body looked like it wanted to fuck me raw right here and that’s what I wanted. His sharp hiss rushed over my skin as I shifted to let the tip of his dick brush against my slick entrance.

  “Jac…” he threatened. “Need you in bed and need a condom.”

  “I’m on the pill,” I whispered, feeling the spark in his eyes right down to my core. “And I need you inside me.”

  With a feral grunt, we spun and my back crashed against the wall in the entry hall as he slammed inside me. I gulped down gasps of air as the intense pleasure made my lungs seize so violently, I wondered if I’d ever be able to breathe right again.

  My muscles that were all wet and puffy reeled from the invasion as he sunk all the way against my G-spot and made me jerk against him. My body needed more. More of this. More of him.

  Just like all the thawed pieces of my heart did…

  “God, Jac…” he choked out as my muscles cinched around him. “God, you are so fucking perfect.”

  I wanted to remind him that he was Prince Charming, but I didn’t have time as his tongue claimed my attention. His mouth tore into mine as he shoved into me, banging my back against the wall several more times before realizing, with a curse, that the noise was probably echoing down the hall in the apartment building.

  Keeping himself locked tight inside my pussy, he shuffled us a few steps to where he could lay me on the table in the kitchen.

  Marissa was going to kill me…

  All thought was forced from my mind as he stood over me, bending my knees and spreading them wide so he could continue to drive all the way into me, filling every soft inch of me with every hard inch of him.

  This wasn’t Prince Charming. This was the hungry beast that he only let out for me and my body begged to be devoured by it.

  He filled me.

  His cock stretching my pussy. His words seeping into my mind. And his insatiable chivalry possessing my heart.

  Firm fingers gripped over my breast while his other hand pinned down in the center of my hips, holding me steady and allowing his thumb to toy with my clit.

  Tears pricked at my eyes as the onslaught of sensations ripped my body to shreds. I bucked against him, needing another release. Needing it now.

  “Kyle…” I choked out.

  He rammed inside me and I knew he was claiming me. Not just my body. Each time his body sunk into mine he was claiming all my frozen, broken pieces. Every kiss melted their prison and every groan and hoarse word of need and encouragement let those pieces find their way back together.

  He wasn’t saving me. He was letting my soul finally save itself.

  His body stretched me and healed me—just like his words and his compassion did. And it made the pleasure feel like it was going to swallow me whole.

  His hips moved faster, my wetness letting him sink harder and deeper inside me. I gasped his name, thrashing against the table as I felt another orgasm coming—one that wasn’t even in the same league as the first.

  My eyes locked onto him, my leg drawn up the length of his hard torso that glimmered in the faint kitchen light. I watched his thick cock disappear inside me, feeling the length stretch all the way up to that sweet spot that made my stomach jump and my toes curl. His hips thrust violently, without any sense of control, his jeans that he hadn’t fully removed sinking lower with each move. My sex clenched as the thought propelled me toward my orgasm.

  I liked my perfect prince. I also liked when
he wasn’t charming or controlled.

  And I liked when he made me come.

  I screamed his name when my climax overtook me. My eyes squeezed shut as I bowed against the table, my hips seizing in jerky, frantic movements as my pussy clamped down around him. I’d never felt my heart race so fast. Not skiing. Not with any other guy. Never. It raced like there was only one thing at the finish line of life worth almost dying for: him.

  With a roar that I felt echoed into my bones, I felt his cock swell even larger before it erupted inside me, gushing the warmth of his release inside my body.

  I hadn’t come apart with my orgasm; no, being with Kyle had held my body together while the world around me fractured and splintered into a million pieces. And as the minutes passed, slowly but surely those pieces were rebuilt.

  The single light hanging over the kitchen counter was the sole witness to this moment. My heavy breaths flooding the air like I was trying to suffocate the oxygen from it. Kyle’s teeth that were gently clamped onto my calf muscle released as he pressed a light kiss to the captured skin.

  He moved my legs around his waist and, once again, lifted me into his arms as though I wasn’t made of pure muscle. He stayed inside me until I felt the cool softness of the guest bed under my back. When he pulled out, I lost all strength and laid on the mattress like it could swallow me whole.

  “Holy shit,” I murmured, giving him a drunken half-smile as he cleaned me and then himself.

  “Yeah,” he chuckled hoarsely.

  I watched his very fine Jedi ass stroll back into the kitchen, most likely to clean any mess that we left on the table.

  His strangled groan jarred my eyes open. I must have drifted off for a minute.

  “Under the covers, Cinderella,” he said with a rough voice.

  I saw his semi-hard dick twitch and start to thicken again. And then I noticed his clothes in his hand and my eyes widened in fear.

  “Are you leaving?” I hated how pathetic it sounded.

  He glanced to his hand and then back to me before tossing his clothes on the chair in the corner and climbing over me until his face was just a few inches from mine.