A Snowbound Scandal

by Jessica Lemmon

  The heat in his eyes banked as reality took a hard hold. Then his eyes sank closed and he muttered a devastating, “Shit.”

  “No.” It was a weak plea to the otherwise cruel universe. How dare fate bring him to her and strand her in his house only to leave them moments shy of intense sexual satisfaction?

  “Wait.” His eyes flew open. “I had this house stocked before I came here. Fully stocked.”

  “Yes. I saw a bottle of Windex in the garage,” she said, clinging to any scrap of hope that whoever thought to buy a bottle of Windex had also tucked a box of condoms into one of the medicine cabinets. It was a thin argument, but she’d take it. “Tell me they thought of everything.”

  He said nothing. She lost the warmth of his body a fraction of a second later when he stood.

  “I’ll help you look.” She sat up.

  “Don’t move. I mean it.” The shake in his arm when he pointed was almost comical. Almost. She wasn’t laughing. She was too worried about there not being condoms in the house.

  Please, God. Do me this one favor.

  Before she could rationalize for or against praying for condoms, Chase stuffed his legs into his jeans and set off on a search of the house.

  Fourteen

  “Eureka.” Chase had checked three of the four bathrooms before hitting pay dirt in the one near the downstairs bar. Good thing, too. He was freezing, which wasn’t helping the situation due south.

  Foil wrapper in hand, he started up the stairs before he thought better of it, turned back and grabbed the entire box. He’d need to keep these close for what he planned to do with Mimi tonight.

  His feet like ice, he jogged upstairs and prayed she hadn’t changed her mind. If she had, he wasn’t above begging. He arrived in the living room and found her resting on her side, hand propping up her head, blanket covering her lower half. She’d waited like he told her. Triumph swelled in his chest.

  Her dark hair flowed in waves over her back, a back he had full view of since she wasn’t facing him. His eyes traced her smooth skin, all of him vibrating to life in an instant. He wasn’t cold any longer.

  “Found ’em.” He tossed the box of condoms onto the coffee table, keeping one within reach. She peeked over her shoulder and smiled, a drop-dead gorgeous still-frame he wouldn’t soon forget.

  He hastily undid his jeans and pushed them halfway down his legs. She rolled to her back, letting the blanket fall to the side, and revealed her small, perfect breasts. They’d tasted as good as she looked and he hadn’t yet had his fill of those rosebuds.

  “I was afraid you’d lose interest,” she teased, a sparkle in her eye.

  “That’s my line,” he teased back.

  “I’ll do the honors, Mr. Mayor.” She swiped the condom packet from the table and tore it open with her teeth. His erection gave a happy bob. “But first...” She sat up on her knees, eye-to-eye with his...

  Sweet mercy.

  She took him in her mouth, softening her lips and opening wide to accommodate his girth. His hips tilted and thrust and she encouraged each pump by holding on to his thighs as she dove in again and again. One hand resting on the back of her head, he let out a harsh gust of air. His mind melted into a glob of indistinct thoughts for...he didn’t know how long. When she finally robbed him of her mouth, he was hard as granite, his fingers tightly wound in her hair.

  “God Almighty,” he murmured—comically breathless.

  Her eyes turned up to him, she licked her lips and took her time rolling the condom down his length.

  “Where do you want me?” she purred.

  He didn’t hesitate. “Stand up.”

  She stood, her long, slim figure and subtle curves gliding along a narrow frame. He grasped her biceps and gave her a light squeeze.

  “You’ve been working out.”

  “If you call working outdoors working out.” She lifted her hands to his bare biceps. “Let me guess. From a gym?”

  “And a personal trainer.”

  “Worth it. You’re sexier than you used to be.” She let out a soft laugh. He intended to show her exactly how much sexier he’d become by breaking her down, orgasm by orgasm, in a feat of animal, carnal lovemaking.

  He cupped her nape and tilted her face, bending to kiss her lips. The kiss started tentatively but finished deep—their tongues tangling. Panted breaths burst from her lips as she rubbed her lithe, naked body against his.

  His hips surged forward, his brains scrambling.

  This woman.

  No one unraveled him like she did.

  He bent and lifted her until her legs wrapped around his hips, and then pressed her back to the nearest wall. She shrieked on contact.

  “Cold!” Her nipples pebbled as goose bumps sprang to the surface of her skin. He bent and took a breast to task at the same time he positioned himself at her entrance and drove deep.

  Her shriek of annoyance from the cold wall faded into a long moan of pleasure. One that he rode into the next thrust and the one after that.

  Arms around his neck, she clawed at his shoulders, bucked in response to his driving need. He buried himself not only in her body but in her scent, the soft strands of her hair sticking to his five o’clock shadow. Her blunt nails leaving marks on his skin.

  “Come for me, honey,” he said between labored breaths.

  “Chase.”

  “I have you. I won’t let you go.” By that he meant he was supporting her and wouldn’t let her fall, but the second it was out of his mouth it was obvious that where they were concerned, it had another meaning.

  He’d said something similar to her ten years ago before he brought her home to Dallas.

  I won’t let you go.

  He had, though. And now he’d been given a second chance, but he wouldn’t make that promise again—he couldn’t afford to break it again.

  He tilted her hips and plunged into her again. She dropped her head back, her hair a messy tornado spread over the wall, her shoulders pressed flat, perky breasts begging for attention.

  Attention he gave them.

  It wasn’t an easy move, but he managed thanks to his height. And it was that very move that sent her over, tumbling her into orgasm as she screamed his name with wild abandon.

  Over and over she called, “Chase. Chase. Chase!” until his name faded into a contented sigh. Once she spent herself riding him, he allowed himself to let go of his own release, spilling inside her as his mind went blissfully blank.

  Nothing mattered—not the past or the future—apart from the woman in his arms.

  * * *

  Miriam’s limbs tingled like she’d been plugged into an outlet. Chase had her pinned to the wall, his forehead resting on her shoulder as his powerful back expanded with each ragged breath he took.

  She was still impaled on him, loving the feel of him inside of her, his woodsy scent surrounding her. Loving his reaction when she’d taken him into her mouth before they’d started. His legs had shaken under her hands. The way she’d shaken when he took her against the wall.

  I have you. I won’t let you go.

  She squeezed her eyelids closed to shut out his words. What they had was only physical—only an itch they’d chosen to scratch. Mimi and Chase were not “Mimi and Chase” of ten years ago, but adults who had agreed to sex and nothing more.

  But the former her—the her who had loved him with everything in her twenty-three-year-old being—wanted to hold on to those words. To tuck them away because they made her feel warm and wanted.

  She unhooked her legs from his waist and he pulled out, setting her feet on the ground. She sagged against the wall, her knees wobbly.

  “Thanks, Mr. Mayor.” She kept her tone cheeky and was pleased when her comment drew a dazzling, if tired, smile out of him.

  “Does this tick a sexual fantasy box for you, M
imi?”

  “Several.” She counted them off on her fingers. “Wall sex. Mayor sex. Mansion sex.”

  His smile didn’t budge.

  He stole a quick kiss and he took a moment to visit the half bath. She watched his firm butt flex as he walked, reminding herself to send a note of thanks to his personal trainer. He reemerged as she was settling in front of the fire, pulling the blanket around her body.

  “I failed at warming you up,” he said.

  “You ignited me. It wore off.” She held out her palms, soaking in what little heat was coming from the embers.

  He tossed another log onto the fire and stoked the flames before sitting with her. “Do you approve?”

  “I would think that was obvious.”

  “I was talking about the fire, but I’ll take that compliment.” He opened his arms and she nestled into him, his hands warming her through the blanket and making her toastier than the fire.

  “How are you this hot?”

  “So many ways to answer that question.” He ducked his head to kiss her, a long, heady slide of his lips along hers. “Next time, we won’t rush.”

  Next time.

  Those two words swirled around her mind for a second. He thumbed her lip and pulled it out from under her top teeth.

  “There will be a next time. I didn’t mean for it to be over so soon, but it’s been a while.”

  “A while?” She regarded him with raised brows.

  He let her go, lying back on the floor with his hands behind his head. She admired the strong line of his body, the muscles along his torso and abdomen, the way his cock, even at half-mast, hadn’t lost any of its appeal.

  “Define a while.”

  “Longer than a jiffy.” He winked.

  “Har har.”

  His eyes closed and she watched the firelight play on his long dark lashes. Was it true? Was this powerful, gorgeous man single? Was he lonely? She sure as hell had been. Even when she’d dated, she’d suffered from bouts of deep, unmoored loneliness. The senselessness of her being lonely here and Chase being lonely there resonated in her chest. What could’ve been...

  Is better off left unexamined.

  “I’m starving. Coffee didn’t cut it this morning.” She’d said it partially to keep from asking him if he’d been lonely, and mostly to keep from talking about “next time.” Ideas of “next time” made her hungry in an entirely different part of her anatomy.

  “I like that smile.” He tapped the edge of her lips. “I must’ve done well.”

  Was it her or had his Texas drawl taken hold again?

  “Shameless begging for compliments will not get you any. But I will make you breakfast.” She moved to stand, but he caught her arm with one hand and gently pulled her down.

  “Brunch. It’s almost eleven.”

  “We don’t have brunch in Bigfork. It’s breakfast and sometimes we eat breakfast for dinner.”

  “I remember.”

  Those two words settled in the air, simple but heavy. Proof that he knew her. Proof that he hadn’t been a mirage. And what they’d just done together was proof that she hadn’t imagined how good the sex used to be—dare she say it’d been better?

  “You made pancakes one night.” His smile was reminiscent, his gaze soft. “Slathered them in peanut butter and called it dinner.”

  She smiled at the memory. “You thought I was crazy.”

  “No.” He looked at her, his smile fading some. “I was crazy about you. You could have fed me anything on those pancakes and I’d have eaten them.”

  “We were crazy.” She shook her head. The days they hadn’t spent in the lake or on the beach or outside soaking in the summer sun, he’d been in her apartment—both of them wedged onto her twin bed against one wall of her bedroom. “My roommate complained so much about the noise we made, she was relieved when I followed you back to Texas.”

  “I remember that, too.” His smirk was one of pride. He’d always loved being complimented on his prowess.

  “Well. I promise no peanut butter pancakes. And eggs are out since you don’t have them.” She wrinkled her nose. “How can you not like a cheesy omelet?”

  His mouth turned down. “Yuck.”

  “You sounded like my five-year-old niece just then.”

  “I have one, too. My niece is—” Pride pulled his lips into a smile. “She’s amazing. So small and beautiful and...just amazing.”

  “How old is she?”

  “Eleven months and change. Her birthday’s on Christmas Day. We were in the middle of a family Christmas, complete with ugly sweaters when Zach’s wife, Penelope, went into labor. I’ll never forget Olivia’s wide eyes and tiny fingers. Worth waiting for hours in the hospital for her to arrive.”

  “Pretty name.” Miriam returned his smile. “My sister-in-law endured seventeen hours of hard labor and I spent most of it camped out in the cafeteria or the waiting room absolutely dying to know if she’d had a boy or a girl.”

  “She kept it from you.”

  “From all of us. It was brutal. But then I held Raven for the first time and felt this overwhelming...joy.”

  “I bet you’re a great aunt.” He pushed a lock of hair from her face.

  She’d bet he was a great uncle. Pride mingled with protectiveness in his eyes.

  Proving further that he took his job as uncle seriously, he said, “I told everyone that Olivia’s gifts had to be wrapped in birthday-themed paper and not holiday wrapping paper. It’s a big deal to have a birthday on Christmas. I mean, she shares it with Jesus. It should stand out.”

  An effervescent giggle shook her shoulders. This was what she’d fallen for when she’d first met Chase. His reasoning. His involvement. Just...him.

  “My sister’s girlfriend’s birthday is on Christmas and Wendy reminds us every year that there’s absolutely no cheating on the wrapping paper.”

  “I’ve decided if it’s pink and makes noise, I’m buying it for Olivia. Serves Zach right for being a pain-in-the-ass little brother for most of my life.”

  She could imagine Chase hauling in loads of bubble-gum-colored glitter wrapping paper and stacking it around his tiny niece.

  “Raven is a terror but I love her. And now I won’t see her again until Christmas.” A dart of pain pinched her chest. “They live in Virginia.”

  More snow fell outside, reminding her that she wasn’t going anywhere soon.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” She’d called last night to check in on everyone. Her mother said they had “a dusting” of snow, but nothing that would trap them indoors. Miriam then spoke with Ross’s wife, Cecilia, and Raven, and finally, Kris.

  Kris had whispered hold on and Miriam had listened to light footfalls as she ran up the stairs. A few seconds later, after she’d escaped the family, Kris let Miriam have it.

  What happened! Did you sleep with him yet? Are you in love with him again?

  Miriam had answered a stern no followed by a sterner seriously? She’d also asked her sister if she’d recently taken up day drinking. Before they hung up, Kristine issued one last warning.

  Don’t let yourself get towed in by a sexy guy in a suit, Meems...but if you do, and who could blame you, make sure you enjoy yourself. No guilt allowed.

  No guilt allowed.

  In this moment, in front of a cozy fire with a naked, sinfully sexy man sprawled on the floor next to her... Snowed inside a luxurious mansion with anything and everything she could want... Yeah, it was safe to say her reigning emotion wasn’t guilt. She had no problem taking what she wanted—what she’d needed.

  Chase was stroking her arm, silent and thinking his own thoughts—whatever those were. She had a pretty good idea what they weren’t. He wasn’t thinking of the past or the future. His concern probably didn’t extend beyond him enjoying himself and maki
ng sure she enjoyed herself in the scant amount of time they had left.

  “You know, I have frozen waffles,” he said, taking her hand and weaving their fingers together. “And maple syrup and bacon.”

  “And peanut butter?” She grinned.

  “I’m a bachelor. Of course, I have peanut butter.” He stood and pulled his jeans on and Miriam watched the way he moved, thinking he might be the devil in the flesh for all the temptation he offered.

  “Can I help?”

  “No. I need you to stay naked and save your strength. I can think of another use for the peanut butter besides slathering it onto waffles.” He snagged his shirt off the floor.

  She rolled her eyes but couldn’t deny that she could think of another use for it, too.

  Fifteen

  “How come you’re not married with a few of your own kids running around?” Chase asked.

  “Excuse me? Did you just make a barefoot-and-pregnant reference about me?” Her eyebrows rose in offense.

  “No.” The word was outlined with patience. “I asked a question. We already covered the easy stuff. Time to answer a few hardballs.”

  She’d stayed naked like he’d requested while they ate waffles, but they’d since slipped back into their clothes, lounging on the couch after he threw another log on the fire. They’d chatted about college and the jobs they’d held after graduation. They talked about their siblings and their parents—he and Mimi were both close to their families. He hurt for her when she mentioned missing her late father. Chase knew too well how it felt to watch a parent have a close brush with the Other Side. He wished he could make a deal with the universe to keep Rider and Eleanor Ferguson immortal. His siblings, too. Hell, everyone.

  The worry over his father’s heart attack had eaten Chase alive, and if his dad had met his maker that day rather than coming out of surgery like the trooper he was, Chase didn’t know what he’d have done. He’d steered them from that topic back to work. Mimi had spoken about the community as it applied to her working for Montana Conservation Society and he had discussed what it was like being mayor of a huge city. Like he said, easy stuff. Now the gloves were off.