Red-Hot Santa

by Tori Carrington

And there was absolutely no way he could disguise the fact that he did. The requisite groan, giveaway stiffness and telltale jerking filled out the picture, putting him solidly back in that truck cab.

  Only it wasn’t a Pearson twin he was with, it was Max.

  He collapsed against her, his face buried in the bedding over her shoulder, in a state of shock. Hell, she had to think him either a complete dork with no experience, or selfish beyond compare.

  He felt her hands on his back, then heard her quiet giggle in his ear.

  Jackson raised his brows as he slowly tested his arms and lifted himself back above her. Giggling? Max didn’t giggle.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled.

  Her smile was undeniable. “Don’t be. I’m flattered.”

  She rubbed her ankles against the back of his calves, causing her slick muscles to contract as she did so. “Now if you were drunk, it would be another story altogether.”

  Damn, but she was beautiful. The Max he knew, as well as the one he was coming—quiet literally—to know. Her sense of humor disarmed his horror at his quick draw…and her subtle shifting worked wonders on other areas of his anatomy.

  Testing himself, he slowly withdrew. But when she might have rolled out from under him, he replaced the condom and thrust back in to the hilt, satisfied at her gasp and the way she arched her back.

  He waited a moment for her to open her eyes. When she did, his grin was what greeted her.

  “What?” he asked, leaning in to kiss her. “You didn’t think that was all there was?”

  Her breasts trembled as he leaned in to take one of her pouty nipples into his mouth, then the other, swirling his tongue around the stiff nubs and then suckling them deeply, the control he was used to slipping gratefully back into place.

  Oh, yeah. Now he was back on track. He kissed Max breathless and then stroked her both inside and out. This time he fully planned to be thorough about bringing her to orgasm, again and again and again…

  5

  MAX WAS SORE in places she hadn’t known she had. But rather than frowning, she had to fight to keep from grinning. In the company of her mom and aunt, it wasn’t wise to look too cheerful. They’d know something was up for sure and wouldn’t stop until they uncovered what. And Max didn’t plan to say anything to anybody about last night. Criminy, she was having a hard time convincing herself it had really happened…

  It was midmorning and Jax had driven her home a few hours ago, well before her relatives had gotten out of bed so the story she told about Patience driving her home hadn’t sounded any alarms. That was a good thing, because in the years she’d been away from home her mom and aunt had become even nosier than they’d been before, grilling her for details on every aspect of her life…up to and including sex. It was a new approach that had left her slackjawed on more than one occasion since she’d returned home five days ago.

  She sat at the old Formica kitchen table, running her fingertips over her extra large mug of coffee and staring through the window in the direction of the Savage farm. She couldn’t see it from where she was sitting, but she gazed toward it anyway, wondering if Jax was up yet and whether or not he’d left to return to the city.

  The old farmhouse Max grew up in had once belonged to her great-grandparents, who had built it plank by torturous plank (as her aunt told the story). Her aunt Theresa had inherited it twenty-five years ago, not without a little flack from family members, including Max’s mom. But Theresa had stood fast and laid claim to the house as her inheritance, seeing to the upkeep and leasing out the surrounding land to local farmers to help toward the upkeep. Some people in town said it had cost her her marriage, but Max knew better. Of course, it didn’t help that her cousins, Theresa’s two adult children, bought into the rumors. It was more than the distance between Aunt Theresa and Denver that kept them from seeing each other more than once a month.

  Max’s mom Cindy had lived at the house on and off ever since she’d left Max’s father twenty years ago, but mostly “on” for the past eight years, ever since Max had enlisted and been out on her own. Cindy had said she wanted to keep down expenses. Max suspected it was more for the company.

  Cindy worked part-time at the feed/general store and part-time at the diner, while Theresa partially owned the only beauty shop in town and worked there. Neither of them left the house in the morning until they looked their “absolute best.” You never knew when opportunity would come knocking (her aunt still told the story of a hunky UPS delivery man who showed up first thing one morning. She was convinced she’d missed out on the love of her life because she’d opened the door in her ratty bathrobe, her hair in curlers. The delivery man was said to have raced from the driveway so quickly, it had taken ten minutes for the gravel dust to settle).

  The two women were the biggest reason why Max never really made an effort to look feminine…or anything except presentable for that matter. For one thing, she’d found it next to impossible to get into the bathroom, since one or the other of them was always in it. But mainly, she hadn’t wanted to be like them. Over the years, she’d gone to great lengths to sabotage any of their attempts to dress her up when she was a teen by dyeing everything black and tearing stylish goth holes in anything she classified as “cute.” Which was just about everything they’d ever bought for her.

  Sometimes it seemed that all the two of them ever did was talk about their exes and how bad they’d had it, gossip about other people’s love lives or gush about a guy they’d met, were dating or would like to date.

  You’d think the sun rose and set on their romantic aspirations.

  Max smiled and sipped her coffee, her mind sliding back to Jackson and last night. Wouldn’t it be amusing if she discovered she wasn’t really that different from her family after all?

  “I know that smile,” her aunt said, coming into the kitchen.

  Both the words and her own thoughts nearly caused Max to choke.

  Theresa poured herself a cup of coffee and then took the chair opposite her. Her mother looked up from where she was reading a gossip rag to her right.

  “Well?” her aunt asked, not about to give up.

  Max put her cup down. “You’re the one who said you knew what it meant, so why don’t you tell me? Because I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.”

  Her mother folded the paper back to where she’d left off. “Oh, yes. You’re right. How could I have missed it? Theresa, dear, I do believe our darling Maxine has gotten laid.”

  Holy shit!

  Okay, time for her to go.

  “Whose car do I get today?” Max asked, desperately trying to change the subject.

  They exchanged a look and then a smile of their own Max wasn’t sure she liked. Actually, she was positive she disliked it.

  “What time are you going to be back?” her mom asked after offering her car.

  “I don’t know. I’m going into town to see about a job. Afterward, I’m checking into that truck Julie told me was for sale.”

  “No rush,” her aunt said, watching her as she sipped her coffee.

  “Where’s the job?”

  “I’ll let you know if I get it,” she said, hightailing it out of the room as quickly as possible. “See you later. Text if you need anything…”

  She slammed the door on one of their responses, shrugging into her coat once she was outside and then closing her eyes and taking a deep breath of the frigid air. She’d wanted to shake off the aggravation brought on by having two overly curious women in her life. Instead, she found herself smiling again. Extra wide and likely much like a neon sign announcing what they’d seen: she’d gotten laid.

  Only she hadn’t merely gotten laid. She’d slept with Jackson Savage.

  She tossed the car keys up into the air and caught them on the way to the nondescript sedan her mother drove, wondering when she might be able to sleep with him again…

  JACKSON STEPPED OUTSIDE the front doors of Pegasus Security and blinked against the bright winter sun even a
s he took out his cell phone. Wasn’t it ironic that on the heels of signing an employment contract with the rival of his brother Jason’s company, his brother would call?

  “Hey,” he answered after deciding to accept it. He was due back inside in ten minutes for a meeting on an assignment he’d been given. “What’s up? You still in town?”

  “Yeah. I head out tomorrow. You want to have lunch?”

  Jackson shot a glance over his shoulder at the squat building that looked like it had once been a warehouse and whose interior told him it hadn’t been all that long ago.

  “Sorry, can’t.”

  “Why? What’s up?”

  Well, so much for sitting on the information for a while. “I just signed up with Pegasus.”

  “What? You can’t be fucking serious?”

  Jackson grimaced and paced away from the door when someone else came out. “Serious as a wart after a one-night stand.”

  The reference made him think of last night.

  His brother filled his ear with profanity. “Yeah, well, quit. I don’t like the thought of you working for that half-assed son-of-a-bitch.”

  “Yeah, well, you don’t like the thought of me working for another half-assed son-of-a-bitch, either. That’s exactly the reason I’m here.”

  “To prove a point?”

  “No, to work in the profession of my choice.”

  “What’s up with the bar?”

  “Last night was the end. Slinging drinks at The Barracks wasn’t exactly where I saw my career going. It was only a stopgap measure until you came to your senses.”

  “You could have owned that joint. Turned it into a restaurant—”

  “Look, I’m not in the mood to hash all this out with you again…”

  The sun glinted off the windshield of an old sedan pulling into a spot some twenty-five feet away. He watched as Max got out.

  Holy shit.

  He grimaced. “Look, I’ve got to go. Have a nice trip back to Baltimore tomorrow. Tell Jordan I said hey.”

  His brother started to argue but Jackson pressed the disconnect button and pocketed the cell, watching as Max walked toward Pegasus. He squinted at her, feeling even more confused. The way she looked now, well, this was the Max he remembered—hair back, face devoid of makeup, loose-fitting khaki and flack jacket the name of the game.

  Outside of a couple of obvious differences, she looked like one of the guys.

  He swallowed hard, remembering that last night she’d been anything but.

  Oh, hell, was he ever in trouble…

  He knew the instant she realized it was him standing there. Her face lit up in that way it always did, but his reaction to it was vastly different.

  “Hey,” she said, stopping in front of him.

  “What are you doing here?”

  His words were out before he had a chance to check them.

  She laughed. “You told me last night that this place was hiring. Remember?”

  Oh, hell, he had, hadn’t he?

  He not only remembered passing on the word at the bar when she asked if there were any job openings, but had held no qualms about doing so.

  Until now.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  Her smile disappeared. He discovered he was fixated on her mouth, remembering something else entirely. Like how mind-blowingly fantastic it had been to kiss it.

  “Nothing.”

  She gestured toward the door. “You going in?”

  “Yeah.”

  He motioned for her to precede him in, wondering why in the hell he had never noticed her ass looked so damn good in khaki…

  Then he realized he had noticed. He just hadn’t thought he’d ever have a chance to taste it.

  Good Lord, what had he gotten himself into?

  He caught the door she opened. The bigger question was how in the hell he was going to get himself into it again, and again…

  6

  MAX HAD NO SOONER walked onto the premises than a confidentiality agreement and employment contract were being thrust at her, and she was being ushered into a room with fifteen others to be briefed on an assignment.

  The quickness didn’t allow her the time she craved to digest Jax’s reaction when she approached the building. He’d appeared pleased, giving wings to what seemed like birds in her stomach…then one flew up into her throat when she thought she’d seen disappointment in his eyes. While she hadn’t expected a hug and hot kiss…well, some sign that last night had happened would have been nice.

  Something, anything other than disappointment…

  Now, she tried to focus her attention on the man at the front of the room. She’d been introduced to Lenny Storehouse and welcomed aboard. Jax stood somewhere behind her, but she forced herself not to look. Truth was, she was afraid of what she might see reflected on his face.

  She didn’t have a notepad on her so she paid close attention to what the team leader was saying. Problem was, the forty-something guy with a crew cut didn’t seem to be making much sense.

  Was he really suggesting a transport would be taking them all to coastal Africa within a few hours?

  Oh, she was confident in her own abilities, and knew she was up for the job—which was briefly outlined as a covert military operation to aid in the recovery of three Navy Seals who had been taken captive, along with the targets they’d been sent in to retrieve (a vacationing retired couple with ties to the first family who had been taken hostage by pirates)—but there was no way Pegasus could know that about her with little more than a scan of her resume. Not a single call had been made, not one fact check performed.

  She looked around her. What did that say about the others in the room? Most appeared to be around her age, save for two or three who might be in their thirties. All of them faced forward, looking a little too confident for comfort.

  Jax stepped to her other side. “This guy is a whack job.”

  She forced herself not to look at him. “I’m afraid evidence is weighing in that direction, yes.”

  “Recruit? You have something you want to share with the room?” the drill sergeant wannabe stopped his monologue and asked her.

  “Sir, no sir,” she said.

  Jax cleared his throat. “Actually, I have a question if we’ve reached that portion of the briefing.”

  “We have.”

  “Who’ll be leading the team?”

  “I will.”

  “Shit,” he said under his breath so only Max could hear. “How long have the other recruits been employees of the company?”

  Max found everyone in the room looking at them.

  “As long as they need to be. Are you questioning my qualifications as team leader, Savage?”

  Max looked at her boots. Hell, she was. This was a private company, not a branch in the military. In the Marines, she’d not only trained with her fellow soldiers, she knew they were at least as capable, if not more so, than her. She trusted she could count on them as much as they count on her.

  She looked around the room. She didn’t even know the names of these people…

  “No, sir,” Jackson said. “I’m not. Merely looking to educate myself.”

  The two men stared at each other and Max resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the dick-measuring contest.

  “Anyone else?” Lenny asked, turning toward the rest of the group.

  There were a couple of questions about gear and end game.

  “Good, if there isn’t anything else…”

  “Life insurance?” Jackson called out.

  Brushhead glared at him. “It’s explained in the employment agreement.”

  “It’s thirty days before it goes into effect. Which means that if something happens now…well, families see nothing.”

  There was some conversational noise in the room, as Max suspected there would be.

  Holy hell. Were all of them new recruits?

  She met Jackson’s gaze. It was a smart way to uncover the information as well as point ou
t an important caveat.

  “Reasonable compensation should match risk factor,” Jackson said to Lenny.

  “Second,” a recruit called out.

  “Third,” said another.

  The room went silent.

  Finally, Lenny said, “Fine. Papers on full benefits will be prepared for you to sign before the transport leaves. Dismissed.”

  They began filing from the room, Max and Jackson bringing up the rear. Once they were in the hall, he grasped her arm.

  “I want you out of here.”

  She blinked at him. “What?”

  “I have to be here, but you don’t. Go to Jason’s place—Lazarus. You’ll get a job there, no problem.”

  “Why aren’t you working there?”

  “Question of the day.”

  “I’m not following you.”

  “It’s a long story. And it doesn’t matter right now. What does, is you need to get out of this place as fast as your boots will carry you.”

  She squared her shoulders. “I signed a commitment.”

  “That they won’t enforce.”

  “What? You don’t think I’m up for the job?”

  Lenny came out of the room, paused slightly to glare at Jackson, then continued down the hall.

  “No, Max…I don’t think they’re up for the job.”

  “Then come with me.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment.

  He was so handsome, she thought, taking in his intense expression. His dark blond hair needed a trim but was combed back neatly, tempting her fingers. His deep blue eyes were clear and heart-stoppingly beautiful, even given the steely determination they now held. His mouth…

  She swallowed thickly.

  “I can’t,” he said.

  Max cleared her throat and looked away, searching for the thread of their conversation she’d apparently dropped.

  “Well, I can’t, either.”

  She began to turn and he grasped her arm again.

  Her heart skidded to a stop at the touch that was everything but intimate.

  “What’s with the brotherly concern all of a sudden, Savage?” she asked, purposely using his surname. “I don’t recall you ever trying to push me out of the way before.”