A Maverick Under The Mistletoe

by Brenda Harlen

“Forrest and Angie are home, but Clay and Antonia stayed in Thunder Canyon,” he clarified. “And no, it wasn’t awkward at all.”

  “This, on the other hand, is starting to feel more than a little uncomfortable,” Paige noted. “Can’t you be gracious and welcoming to a guest I’ve invited to join us?”

  “There really isn’t room for another chair at the table,” her mother said primly.

  Paige was stunned, as much by the dismissive tone as the blatant lie. “We’ve never had trouble squeezing in one more in the past.”

  “I didn’t put the extra leaf in the table this year,” Ben spoke up in support of his wife.

  Her brothers, who had always been friendly with the Traub boys, said nothing. Paige wasn’t sure if their silence was a deliberate decision to remain neutral or a result of the fact that they were too focused on their dessert to care about the conversation. Her sisters—especially Lani—always had something to say, but even they were quiet. And while Paige would have appreciated some support for Sutter from their corner, at least they hadn’t joined the fray against him.

  Paige had to take a deep breath before she could speak again. “Then I’m sure you’ll all appreciate the extra elbow room since I’m not staying for dessert.”

  “Don’t,” Sutter said, touching her arm. “I didn’t come over here to cause a scene.”

  “And you didn’t,” Paige assured him. Then, to her family, she said, “Happy Thanksgiving.”

  Ben scowled. “You can’t just leave.”

  “Actually, I can. And right now, I think it’s better that I do.” Then she turned and walked out the door before she said something she knew she would regret.

  “I’m sorry,” Sutter said, when he led her to his vehicle.

  “Why are you sorry?”

  He opened the passenger door for her, helped her up. “Because I put you in an awkward position by showing up the way I did.”

  She shook her head. “I’m glad you came by.”

  “You’re glad I caused dissension between you and your family?”

  “You didn’t cause it,” she denied. “They did.”

  He went around to his side and climbed in. “They’re your family, Paige. And I know, probably better than anyone, how hard it is to be at odds with family.”

  She nodded. “You’re right. But aside from the fact that they’re being completely unfair, they have to stop trying to control my life and my choices.”

  “Are you choosing to be with me?”

  “It seems that, at least for today, I am.”

  “What about tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Right now I’m afraid to look too far ahead, because when I do, I see you back in Seattle.”

  “My business is in Seattle,” he agreed. “Not my life.”

  She felt hope swell inside of her chest. “When did you come to this realization?”

  “Sometime between the night of the election, when I kissed you as the snow fell around us, and yesterday, when I was talking to my brother.”

  She didn’t need to ask—she could tell by the tone of his voice that he meant Forrest. “How did that go?”

  “Much better than I expected.”

  She reached for his hand, squeezed it. “I’m so glad.”

  “Me, too. And one of the things I decided after talking to Forrest was that I wasn’t going to waste any time going after what I wanted.”

  “And you wanted…me?”

  “I’ve always wanted you,” Sutter told her. “Even when I was five hundred miles away, I wanted you. Even after five years, I never stopped.”

  Wow—that was a declaration she hadn’t expected. And she didn’t quite know how to respond. She could tell him that she felt the same way, because it was true. But she was wary about opening her heart so completely when she wasn’t sure that there was a future for them, and if there wasn’t, he would break her heart all over again.

  On the other hand, he’d taken the first step in coming to her tonight—he’d stood firm despite the disapproval of her family and he’d put his feelings on the line. He hadn’t professed undying love or promised her forever, but she wouldn’t have trusted either of those claims if he had. She’d been in love with Sutter before and she knew there were no guarantees. What he was offering her now was honest and real, and she wasn’t going to turn him away.

  He pulled into her driveway, put the vehicle into Park. She waited for him to turn off the ignition, but he didn’t. She looked at him, silently questioning.

  “I’m waiting to see if you’re going to invite me to come inside,” he told her.

  It seemed like a simple response, but she somehow sensed that there would be no going back if they went forward from here. She could go into the house alone and he would drive away. Or—

  She drew in a deep breath. “Would you like to come inside?”

  He turned off the ignition.

  * * *

  Paige led him into the house. Now that they were inside, alone, she suddenly felt nervous. It wasn’t the first time she’d invited him into her home, but it was different this time because they both knew he wouldn’t be leaving tonight.

  “Can I get you anything? Beer? Soda? Water?”

  Sutter shook his head. “No, thanks.”

  She took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water, more because she needed something to do than because she was thirsty. She took a few sips and tried to put her scattered thoughts into some semblance of order.

  He pried the glass from her fingers and set it on the counter, then he put his arms around her and drew her close. “I can almost hear you thinking, but I don’t have a clue what’s going through your mind.”

  “I’m not sure I do, either,” she admitted. “I guess I’m just wondering, when you said you wanted me, did you just mean for tonight? Or are you planning to stay in Rust Creek Falls?”

  “I haven’t made any firm plans yet, but I’m hoping to stay here—with you.” He brushed his lips against hers. “If you want me to stay.”

  “I want you to stay,” she said, and kissed him again.

  She was sure there were more questions she should ask, but right now she couldn’t think of any of them. She couldn’t think of anything while he was holding her and kissing her, except how much she wanted to be with him.

  “Is your mother going to wonder if you made it home safely?”

  Paige sighed. “She might.”

  “Why don’t you give her a call to preempt any interruptions?”

  She did so, and was grateful that Travis answered so she could leave the simple message and hang up. Then she turned back to Sutter.

  “No more interruptions,” she promised and, taking his hand, led him upstairs to her bedroom.

  “This is the second time you’ve brought me up here—I hope you know what you’re doing this time.”

  “I know exactly what I’m doing…and who I’m doing it with,” she said, and brought his mouth down to hers.

  She might have initiated the kiss, but he was an avid and equal participant. He kissed her again, deeply, hungrily. She pressed closer so that her breasts were crushed against his chest and the rock-hard evidence of his arousal was against her belly. Desire pounded through her veins, pulsed deep inside her.

  His hands slipped under her sweater, and she quivered as those rough, warm palms scraped over her bare skin. He zeroed in on the clasp at the front of her bra and released it. Then his hands were on her breasts, and her nipples immediately pebbled in response to his touch. His thumbs circled the rigid peaks, moving slowly and teasingly closer to the aching nubs. She sucked in a breath when his thumbs finally brushed over the hypersensitive tips, and her knees actually trembled.

  Because she wasn’t entirely sure her legs would continue to support her, she drew him toward the bed and pulled him down onto the mattress with her. His brows winged up, but that was his only response before he captured her mouth again, nibbling on her lower lip as he continued to play wi
th her breasts, driving her ever closer to the edge.

  Her fingers were trembling as she worked at the buttons of his shirt, but finally she parted the fabric and touched him. Her hands slid over the ridges of abdominal muscles to his chest, admiring the smooth skin stretched taut over hard muscle. He was a man of so many contrasts. He had the strength to effortlessly control a thousand-pound stallion, the gentleness to bottle-feed an orphaned kitten—and the heart to do so. And when he focused his attention on a woman, he had an uncanny ability to make her feel safe and cherished even as he systematically obliterated any doubts or resistance.

  Not that Paige was resisting—or ever had. Because she’d given her heart to Sutter long before she’d ever offered her body, and he was still in complete command of both. But she knew his body as well as he knew hers, and she stroked her hands over him again, moving down his torso. She unfastened his pants and slid one hand beneath the waistband of his boxers. Here was another contrast: steel encased in velvet. She wrapped her hand around him and was rewarded with a throaty groan.

  He pulled back, tugged her sweater over her head and tossed it aside. His shirt followed, then her bra, so that they were both naked from the waist up. She shivered, not from the cold but from the heat in his gaze. And everything inside of her quivered, not with fear but anticipation.

  He unfastened her skirt, then shifted back on the mattress so that he could tug it over her hips and down her legs. His eyes followed the progress of the garment, and his lips curved when her silky lace panties and thigh-high stockings were revealed. He traced the lacy edge of the stockings, then his fingertips skimmed over bare flesh to trace the edge of her panties. It was a feather-light caress that arrowed straight to her core.

  His eyes lifted to her face, watching her as he traced the same path again. This time his thumb brushed over the thin barrier of lace between her thighs, and she had to bite down on her lip to keep from crying out. He touched her again, and she did gasp now. His lips curved in a slow, satisfied smile. “You’re ready already.”

  She could hardly deny it—and didn’t see any reason to. Everything inside her was throbbing, aching, wanting. “It’s been a while for me.”

  “For me, too,” he told her.

  “More than three years?” she challenged.

  “No,” he admitted. “But it’s been more than five years since I’ve been with someone who mattered.”

  And her heart, already precariously perched, toppled over.

  “Be with me now,” she said, reaching for his pants.

  But he caught her hands and gently lowered them back to the bed. “We’ve waited too long to rush it now.”

  He tugged her panties down her legs and added them to the growing pile of clothing on the floor. He shifted farther down the mattress, stroking his hands along the outside of her legs, then circling her ankles and sliding her feet back so that her knees were bent and wide. Then he lowered his head between her thighs and zeroed in on her feminine center. It only took one touch—one slow stroke of his tongue—and she shattered.

  She cried out, shocked by the immediacy and intensity of the sensations evoked by his touch. The pleasure was so incredible. So overwhelming. It was simply…too much. The release was as much emotional as physical, and as her body was still shuddering with the aftereffects, she felt a tear squeeze from her eye.

  But Sutter wasn’t nearly finished yet, and he was already driving her toward the next peak. With his lips and his tongue, he nibbled and stroked, deliberately drawing out her pleasure. He’d always known how to take his time, how to extend the enjoyment of lovemaking for both of them. But right now she wanted him so badly that the pleasure was almost painful.

  “Sutter…please.”

  This time she flew. One minute she was lying on her bed, the next she was miles above it, high up in the sky, soaring on the razor’s edge of exquisite sensation.

  As she floated slowly back toward the ground, his mouth moved up her body. He trailed kisses over her belly, between her breasts. His lips skimmed over a nipple, his tongue swirled around it. And new pleasure started to build all over again.

  She reached between their bodies, wrapped her fingers around the hard length of him and stroked him slowly, enticingly. His mouth found hers again, and his tongue slid deep into her mouth then withdrew. A teasing advance and retreat. She arched her back, tilted her hips, wordlessly begging for the completion they both wanted, needed.

  “Tell me you want me,” he demanded.

  “I want you, Sutter. Now.”

  Always.

  But of course she didn’t say that aloud. She was going to enjoy what they had together here and now without worrying about tomorrow. There was no past and no future—there was only the present.

  He stripped away the last of his clothes and quickly sheathed himself with a condom. Then he rejoined her on the bed, parting her thighs and entering her in one hard thrust. Sex with Sutter had always been good, and she knew that was incredibly rare. He’d been her first love and her first lover, and they’d learned a lot together. While their initial couplings might have been a little hesitant and awkward, they had never been disappointing. Sutter had always been thoughtful and patient, more concerned with her pleasure than his own.

  Obviously that hadn’t changed. He gave her a moment to catch her breath, then he began to move inside of her. Slow, steady strokes that started the tension building all over again. Long, deep strokes that seemed to touch her very core. Then harder and faster, until their hearts were pounding in tandem and they were racing together toward the ultimate pinnacle of pleasure.

  * * *

  Somewhere in the midst of the sensual haze that had descended on his brain, Sutter heard something chime. For a moment the sound was completely foreign to him. It sounded again, followed this time by an elbow in his ribs.

  “Your phone,” Paige mumbled sleepily.

  With sincere reluctance, he shifted so that he was sitting up in her bed and reached down to the floor for his pants and the phone that was tucked in one of the pockets.

  When he pulled it free, the illuminated screen informed him that he had three new messages. Three? He scowled at the phone, but immediately scrolled to his in-box to check the messages.

  His annoyance shifted to concern when he realized that they were all from Jenni.

  Please call as soon as you get this message.

  Need to talk to you ASAP.

  Dammit, Sutter, this is important!

  He touched his lips to Paige’s forehead before he eased away. “I have to make a phone call.”

  “‘Kay,” she said, but she didn’t move from her facedown position on the bed.

  Her hair was spread out over the pillow like an inky spill over pale blue cotton. Her skin was paler—the color of fresh cream, the texture of finest silk. He drew the covers back a little farther than was necessary so that he could admire more of that pale skin, the line of her shoulders, the slope of her spine, the twin dimples low on her back, just above the sweet curve of her buttocks.

  She’d always been beautiful, but the skinny girl he’d first fallen in love with had grown into a very shapely woman. A very passionate woman. And though he sincerely wished the flood had never happened, it was hard to be sorry when it was the event that had brought him home—and back to Paige—again.

  “Cold,” she murmured.

  He tugged the sheet up over her again; she sighed contentedly.

  He moved toward the door to have his conversation in the hallway so he wouldn’t disturb Paige. He punched the familiar number and the call was answered on the first ring.

  “What’s going on, Jenni?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jenni?

  Though she was admittedly half-asleep and Sutter’s voice sounded as if it was coming from far away, Paige had no doubt that she heard him speak another woman’s name.

  She strained to listen to what he was saying, but he’d closed the door so she could hear the murmur of his voi
ce but wasn’t able to decipher any specific words. But she knew that he was on the phone with Jenni—the woman who worked as a trainer at his stables and who drank margaritas. Which proved that their relationship wasn’t strictly that of employer and employee.

  Not that he’d denied it. In fact, he’d admitted that they were friends, but that description was both vague and open-ended. Especially considering that she’d told her family that she and Sutter were friends—and now she was naked in her bed after tangling up the sheets with him.

  She rolled over onto her back and let out an exasperated sigh. She was being ridiculous and she knew it—Sutter wasn’t the type of man to take her to bed if he was romantically involved with anyone else. And she’d never been the jealous type. Of course, she’d never had reason to doubt Sutter before. He’d always been the one person she knew she could count on, the one person who would always be there for her. And then he wasn’t.

  But he was here now, and she wasn’t going to spoil what had been a wonderful evening with irrational questions or unfounded accusations. She couldn’t deny her curiosity, though, and when he returned to the bedroom, she kept her tone light and asked, “What was that about?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” he admitted, snuggling up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. “Jenni was kind of vague on details, aside from the fact that I’d better fix things or start looking for a new trainer.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I guess I’m going back to Seattle to fix things—whatever those things are.”

  “She just calls and you go running?”

  “It’s my business, Paige. My responsibility.”

  He didn’t even talk to her about it, or ask for her opinion or input. He just made the statement matter-of-factly, as if it should be of no consequence to her. She swallowed. “So when are you going?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  She didn’t want to ask, but she had to know if he’d meant what he’d said when he’d promised to stay in Rust Creek Falls. “How long will you be gone?”