HOT MEN: A Contemporary Romance Box Set

by Ashlee Price

  “Stay here,” Lacy ordered and quickly skipped down the stairs. I heard her downstairs and then she was back, having flipped off the overhead lights. The room was absolutely devoid of light; I think you could have developed film in there. I could hear her soft breath as she approached the bottom of the chair where I lay exposed. I waited with excitement to see what she had planned.

  Suddenly there was an icy cold sensation on my right nipple. “Don’t let it drop,” she ordered, and I knew it was an ice cube, melting from the heat of my skin. There was a click, and then the sounds of Wagner’s Parsifal filled the room so loudly that I could no longer hear her movements, impeding my ability to anticipate what she might do next. As the gradual build-up of the heavily emotional strains permeated the rafters, the cold water began to drip down my pecs and onto my belly. I knew eventually it would reach my groin, and then I’d be done for and miss out on what I hoped would happen.

  Lacy placed another cube on my other nipple, and chills made me shudder. It was all darkness, and I had to focus on my skin’s sensitivity to anticipate which muscle to flex to hold the cube in place. Inspired, I tucked my chin, sucked one cube into my mouth and spat it on the floor. It was immediately replaced with another as her warm hand flicked across my skin, locating the naked nipple. I let the next cube stay as I racked my brain for a solution.

  While I was thinking and shivering, Lacy began laying a trail of ice cubes on a path beginning at my knees and moving upward toward my groin.

  She knew exactly what she was doing. She’d exposed my greatest vulnerability and challenged me to protect it, all without lifting a finger. The reward was her naked body so close to mine, and yet unavailable. I was forced to maintain absolute control. The best, or worst, was yet to come.

  I felt Lacy kneel between my spread legs on the end of the tantra chair. The music soared as a spotlight appeared from the flashlight she held between her teeth—and trained on my cock. I wanted to watch with fascination, but I knew if the icy water beat her to it, I’d be deflated and out of action. Suddenly, there was a flash from the light as she produced a pair of sharp scissors. Inserting her finger into the leg of my boxer, she pushed the scissors toward me and began to snip, snip, snip closer and closer toward my attentive cock. Her closeness was making me hard and erect, and my anxiety about the impending danger was deflating it almost immediately. The effect was unbelievable. It was a constant cycle of stimulation and revulsion, and it drove blood to the area, swelling my cock until it throbbed, wanting release. All the time, the cold, wet trail was nearing.

  Lacy was relentless, spreading her legs and shining the spotlight on my waving cock and then training it on her own pulsing pussy. I wanted to look, but each glance was a risk. I couldn’t move—not because I lacked the strength, but because the movement would deflate me.

  She completed the rending of my shorts and then began creeping her face toward my groin, her tongue extended toward its hungry tip. She flicked it like a snake, which made me run hotter yet. She kept the light on my cock as it strained to reach her mouth.

  Finally, I couldn’t stand it another second. In one lunge, I sat up, flicked the ice to the floor and snapped the tape around my wrists open. I pulled it off my mouth and reached for her startled body. In a flip, Lacy was beneath me, her legs pushed to either side of the chair, and I knelt and kissed her pussy lips before parting them with my frustrated cock.

  I heard her expel a sigh of relief as I dove into her, the chair molding her body into exactly the right angle. I pushed hard, withdrew slowly, and when I heard her breathing grow faster, I put my hand below her ass and inserted a finger into the back of her. With the other hand, I lifted her upward. My cock in her pussy aimed for my finger in her ass, and I knew she felt impaled. I’d taken back the control, and she was loving it. She was gasping beneath me, a willing and complicit partner in heightening each of our reactions.

  She’d dropped the flashlight, and the utter darkness heightened the inner awareness. I pushed into her every crevice, angling so I would leave no millimeter of her juicy female flesh untouched.

  “I love you, Riker!” she screamed, and I echoed her words with a machine gun repetition of fucking that brought us to a simultaneous climax. I’d never experienced anything like that before. It reverberated through my body, and I convulsed as though electrocuted. When it finally eased, I lifted her into my arms and lay down on the tantra chair, holding her hard against my body. Her skin was damp from the exertion.

  “Where did you learn that trick?” I whispered.

  “I had a good teacher. He told me once, ‘It’s all about the anticipation.’”

  I chuckled, and when the chill cooled our bodies, I carried her downstairs in my arms and put us both into my bed.

  Epilogue To His Secret Baby - Lacy

  I awakened in Riker’s bed that morning as a changed woman. I’d lost my fear of intimidation and learned that I had the power to stand up to anyone I chose, all by myself. Riker would be in my life, as well as Justin, and they would be treasured towers of men, but I could stand strong between them.

  Riker and I were married on the beach at sunset. It was January, and the waves were frozen ornately above the water’s surface. Thousands of tiny lights reflected off the ice, making the scene surreal. We had heated tents and a catered dinner of colorful foods. I called it my designer dinner: platters of brightly-colored, exotic food against the background of arctic ice.

  Justin was only on hand for a few moments for people to admire before Abby whisked him back inside and put him to bed. Due to the weather, the reception was shorter than normal, but it made up for it in originality. Melanie was not invited. Nor was Mrs. Pettibone.

  I did, however, have a number of clients who came, and my creativity was inspiring to them. Before they left, they begged me to call them as soon as I settled into married life. They were anxious to have me do projects for them—and I was anxious to begin my new career as a wedding designer. Odd how those things happen in life.

  Jonas came for the ceremony, but he took just one look at the reception and muttered, “Cool,” before he left with a wave to meet his girl. I think he meant that literally.

  When Riker and I got back into the house, Abby met me in the living room. “I have a gift for you, but it’s not something I can wrap,” she said. I looked up at her, curious.

  “You see… ever since I met Mrs. Pettibone, I’ve been trying to figure out why I was reading her the way I was. There was something sneaky and unwholesome about her. You know I’ve told you—I have a way of reading people.”

  I looked at Riker and back to Abby. “Yes, I remember,” I smiled and nodded for her to go on.

  “So, I did some research and tracked down a former high school classmate of hers. Then I went to have a talk with Mrs. Pettibone, and I’m happy to say she won’t be saying anything else negative about you. You see, it happens that Mrs. Pettibone was Mary Grace Kowalski before she married the much older, very homely but very rich Mr. Douglas Pettibone. She wasn’t terribly picky at the time, since she was three months pregnant by a boy three years her junior who came from a very poor family. She was just over eighteen when it happened, and his family threatened to have her arrested for statutory rape if she pressed the issue. She decided to marry the unfortunate Mr. Pettibone instead.”

  Riker was snickering, and I was laughing so hard I could barely sit straight. “That may be one of the best gifts I could have ever gotten, Abby. Thank you!” I hugged her and then went to change my clothes. Riker and I had a plane to catch.

  Abby was going to stay at the cottage with Justin while Riker and I flew to Ireland for a week. On our return, Justin and I would be moving into his house. We’d keep the cottage for a summer retreat. Abby had met a man in town who wanted her to move in with him, so she wouldn’t be needing it anymore. It seemed that everyone had finally found what they were looking for. Everyone—except Melanie and Mrs. Pettibone.

  ~The End~

  My Pro
tector

  A Firefighter Secret Baby Romance

  By Ashlee Price

  Chapter 1

  “Ohhhhhh-oo-oh, sweet child of mine,” Jenna belted out with every drop of passion she could muster. Every song on her playlist was one she saw herself performing on a stage… that is, if she could actually hold a decent note. For the time being, she’d simply stick to her car-seat concerts and the occasional shower show. Her makeshift karaoke also kept her mind focused on the drive. While the music blasted, the wind blew through every open window. The sun sat high and bright as she flew down Interstate 76 toward Doveport, PA. Her bachelor’s degree was completed and she was finally free. And freedom always brought her home.

  Jenna Ferris had just spent the last week and a half emptying out her campus apartment and making countless trips to UPS to ship her things home. So by the time she finally hit the road for the six-hour drive, she was happy to leave her undergraduate life behind her. The craziness of finals, cram sessions and study groups, coupled with the mixed emotions of seeing people she’d gotten to know over the last four or five years disappear into their futures, was enough for Jenna to miss Doveport.

  “Yes, home sweet home,” she sighed, turning down the music and glancing at a highway sign that read DOVEPORT 8 MILES. Her pale blue eyes peered into the rearview mirror toward the road behind her, and she reflected that she was glad to leave it all back there.

  Thoughts of her college experience should have been chock-full of laughs and memories she’d never forget. They should have been about midnight coffee and Red Bull runs to push through that 12-page paper due at nine o’clock in the morning. However, there was a gap in Jenna’s memories. Not just a gap, but a chasm of pain, chaos, and every other crappy emotion she could think of as she pushed down on the gas pedal just a little harder so she could get home just a little faster.

  Pulling off the highway, Jenna was surprised at how much the town she grew up in had changed. There were gas stations and fast food restaurants right off the exit ramp. The one major road, which ran from one edge of town to the other, was now lined with towering street lights, and there was even a billboard that drivers could see as they cruise controlled down the Interstate. But the further she drove away from the highway, the more it began to feel like home.

  She knew the clock in her car was a few minutes fast, but she stared at it anyway as she wondered if she should take a left or a right at the intersection she’d stopped at. To the right would take her toward tree-lined blocks, white picket fences, and every other residential area of Doveport. If she headed left, she’d run into more stores, a few municipal buildings, and more importantly, her father’s bar. Everyone had gotten a kick out of the place’s name when her father revealed it would be called The Wheel. It was her mother’s idea, and that in and of itself made her smile. So she turned to the left.

  The bar was on a piece of land to itself, sitting like an island with a parking lot wrapped around it. There was a tire and mechanic place to one side, a vacant office building to the other, and the parking lot backed up against the rear of a building whose entrance was on the next street over.

  Pulling into the empty lot, Jenna knew it wouldn’t be open yet, but waiting around for her father to get there seemed like a much better idea than rushing home to unpack. As she rounded the building, she noticed that she wasn’t alone. A large white truck with blue stripes and utility company insignia was parked diagonally across several spaces, aimed toward the back of the building.

  Jenna rolled her eyes as she watched a man with a clipboard and a blue hard hat walk back and forth from the electric meter to the truck. All the utilities in town were run by one company, and this one company had been a royal pain in the ass for her family. She hated everything about them. So after parking her car, she grabbed her phone and keys and got out to find out exactly what was going on.

  “Hey!” she shouted.

  The man in the hard hat looked up but didn’t say anything as he put his head back down into his paperwork.

  “I’m talking to you! This is my daddy’s place!” Jenna shouted, marching up to the man. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?!?”

  “Sorry, ma’am, but I’m under orders to shut off the power to this facility for non-payment,” he mumbled, neglecting the social courtesy of looking at her when he spoke.

  “Non-payment? How much is it behind?” she asked, pulling out her phone.

  He consulted his clipboard. “Says here the total amount is 854 dollars and 62 cents. But I don’t know the ins and outs of what’s due at the moment. I can only tell you that this was a place on my list that I had to come out to for today, ma’am.”

  Jenna thought of calling her father, but he’d only bring a shotgun and frustration to the situation. The power would still get shut off, and he’d have to spend a night in jail. So instead she looked up her banking information. The chunk of change she’d been saving was earmarked for a little Labor Day weekend getaway with some college buddies before they headed out into, well, life. But it seemed life had gotten ahead of itself.

  Fighting back anger and the urge to cry, she called up the utility company and paid off the balance. Then she turned to the man, who’d taken off his hard hat, to tell him, “You can leave now. It’s paid. Make sure that whatever you touched you put back like you found it!”

  “Will do, ma’am,” he nodded, and got to work turning the power back on.

  “I know you, don’t I?” she asked him, cocking her head to the side and letting her dark brown hair cascade over her shoulder.

  The face was familiar, but the body wasn’t. She was staring at a guy who could pass for forty with a beer gut and receding hairline. His eyes were squinting as he shrugged his broad shoulders. “I think we may have been in Oakwood High together, or something like that.”

  “That’s right!” she said excitedly. Jenna was hardly ecstatic about the utility worker coming to shut off her father’s power, but she couldn’t help being pleased that she’d been able to recognize someone after having been back in town for only a few minutes. “Um, RJ, right?”

  “Yeah, but I go by Rick now,” he smiled, “Listen, I’m sorry about all of this, too. Jenna, right?”

  “Yep, that’s me. So how ya been?”

  “Not bad, just working, you know? Got a baby on the way and whatnot. I mean, what else is there to do in Doveport other than work, shop, and make babies, right?” he laughed.

  Jenna chuckled a bit, but she could sense the sadness in his voice. There were tons of other things to do in Doveport… but even as the thought crossed her mind she laughed at herself. “Well, congratulations, although that seems like a very limited selection of things to do. I bet you can still find a good party out here, right?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I guess. It ain’t like when we was in high school. There’s no place for us to hang out and let loose. We gotta go all the way to Glendale just have a good time, but who’s driving 40 minutes each way to party?”

  “Yeah, I guess not,” Jenna sighed. “Well, I’ll be here for the summer until I decide what my next step is going to be. Why don’t you come on by, out of that dang uniform, with some of your buddies and let loose here?”

  “Tried that,” he huffed, shifting his weight against his truck. “Your dad don’t like it getting too rowdy inside. It’s like a bar for librarians in there most nights.”

  “I’m here, and that’s all going to change,” she beamed. “Come down Friday night and you’ll see.”

  “Okay, if you say so. I’ll tell the fellas down near the plant too,” Rick told her, moving toward his truck. “It was nice seeing you, Jenna. Not like this, but still nice.”

  “Nice seeing you too, RJ.” She waved as he pulled back from the building and drove out of the lot. But as she turned back toward the bar, anger consumed her once again. She’d told her father too many times to keep on top of the bills, but it wasn’t his style. It made her wonder if going off to grad school was sti
ll a viable option. She couldn’t leave her father to run things for another two years, only stopping home a few weekends per semester while getting her master’s degree. The bar would go belly up if he kept doing business the way he was.

  She unlocked the back door and let herself inside. There was a long hallway that led past the private bathroom and the office. A decent layer of dust rested on the brass doorknob as she turned it to step into the small room. A wave of sorrow washed over her as she looked at the two desks, side by side. One was a mess of paperwork, while the other one was pristine. It was the cleanest spot in the entire bar, and that was only because her father took the time to make it so. Jenna’s heart sank as she pictured her old man wiping down the desk with tears in his eyes.

  Overwhelmed with grief, she turned away from the memorial to stare at the storm of bright, threatening red-lettered papers piled up on her father’s desk. While she didn’t want to touch anything and disrupt his system, his system clearly wasn’t working. His checkbook was opened to a check that was half filled out to the electric company. Right next to that was the carbon copy of the check he’d actually completed and signed. The words Graduation Dues in the memo line ripped through her heart.

  Even though she wanted to scream at him, it was clear to her that her father had made a choice. Pay the electric company or pay for her cap and gown. Not to mention him taking the drive, by himself, to watch her walk across the stage and shout from the top of his lungs to everyone who could hear, that she was his baby girl.

  “Stubborn old goat.” She shook her head, choking back tears, and decided that she’d had enough of her emotions tearing through her body for the moment. She was ready to go home. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she’d be back later that night, but right then, all she wanted to do was snuggle with her father before he left to come open the bar.