Double Mountain Trouble

by Katerina Cole

  “Trust me.” His voice deepened. “I’m saving you.”

  Damn it, he was stubborn.

  “Ok,” I whispered, taking a step closer. I trusted his words, but I also heard what his body had said. He wanted me.

  “What about kissing? Is this ok?” I asked, tracing the side of his face, pulling him to my lips, the sides of my shirt open as I pressed into his chest, making sure he felt my nipples graze against him. He exhaled.

  “Damn it,” he groaned.

  I brushed my hard tits along the ridges of his ribs. “Everything but sex?” My eyes lit to his.

  His lips crushed mine. The kiss was fast and hard. His tongue moved deeper in my mouth. He slid one hand along my back and the other roamed, palming my breast. I knew he wouldn’t be able to stay away. I moaned lightly as he twisted my nipple between his fingers. My mouth parting, sucking, and eager for him.

  I nipped at his lips. Within seconds Jake knelt in front of me, dragging my shorts to the floor with him.

  He breathed over my heat, sliding my matching lace panties over my thighs and off my ankles. I grabbed the back of his head as his tongue darted between my folds with feverish thirst.

  “Oh God,” I moaned, rocking into him, pressing my center into him without shame.

  “No sex,” he ordered.

  I nodded. “Ok, just don’t stop,” I begged, my hands urging more from his tongue.

  His eyes were locked on mine as he lapped at my juices, circling my clit before diving into my aching pussy with urgent strokes. He was hungry for me. And I craved every second of it.

  I couldn’t hold off like this. I was going to come in epic proportions. My core tightened before the anchor broke and the waves of pleasure spilled through me.

  I cried out as Jake’s tongue plunged inside me. My body convulsed with the orgasm as I tried to regain control.

  “Fuck,” he growled, looking up at me. He kissed the inside of my thigh as I started to breathe normally again. “You taste like pure sugar.”

  I sank to the floor, collapsing into his arms. I wrapped my hands around his neck.

  “I could watch you come all night.” He grinned wickedly with promise.

  “But I… what about y—””

  He dropped me to the floor with a gentle thud, canvassing my body with his hands until he was between my legs again.

  “Oh God,” I whimpered as his fingers pushed inside me while his tongue flicked over my clit.

  “I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do, darlin’.” He drew a long slow lick between my folds. “Come for me.” His eyes sparkled and I lost all control. My second orgasm dripping with a new intensity. “You’ve given me an entirely new mission, darlin’.”

  He managed to keep all his attention on me, and every time I tried to reciprocate he pinned my wrists over my head, teasing and torturing me with more pleasure. If he thought this made me want to have sex less, he was insane. I wanted it more than ever.

  The dread hit me when I heard the crickets on my alarm chirp. How much time had passed? Had we been on the floor all night?

  “Shit,” I murmured. My lips were swollen, and my legs unsteady from coming so hard. But I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to stop kissing him.

  A few seconds later, a second chorus of crickets started. “You too?” I looked at him.

  “Yep. Crickets.” He braced himself against the floor and played with my hair.

  “So, we found a way not to have sex all night long.” I giggled and traced his chest.

  He kissed me again on the mouth. “Looks like we did.” He closed his eyes. “What would my boss think if I called in sick today?”

  I laughed. “Uh-uh. No way. You kept me up just as much.”

  “Hey, would you mind if I jumped in the shower before work? Won’t be longer than seven minutes. I swear.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, sure. It’s right through there.” I motioned to the bedroom. We hadn’t made it past the kitchen wall last night.

  I wasn’t complaining.

  Nineteen

  Ben

  I placed beer bottles into the racks inside the walk-in fridge. It was forty-five degrees in the freezer, and since I didn’t get a cold shower this morning, this was doing the trick. I needed to be cooled to the bone.

  If I looked through the rows of brown bottles, I could see Chelsea at the register ringing up one of the beach customers. She was smiling at a mother and her three children loaded with plastic buckets and sandcastle molds. It looked like the kids were squabbling over who got to carry the shovels versus the sand pails.

  Last night was a first, an absolute first. A flat tire turned into something I couldn’t describe. The wine on her lips, the music floating off her tongue, took hold of me like I was a man gone crazy.

  I was going on three weeks at the campground. Maybe I couldn’t handle lonely like I thought I could. I tried to remember the last time I had spent the night with a woman and only made out with her. It was probably high school. I closed my eyes, and for a second, I felt her skin under my hands, warm and soft.

  “Son?” I jolted upright at the sound of a man’s voice.

  “Yes, sir?” I stacked empty boxes on the dolly. There were at least half a dozen more to unpack.

  “My daughter tells me you’re the new hire. Welcome to Davis.” I recognized the white-haired man Chelsea’s father, the owner. I stepped into the cooler to shake his hand.

  “Yes, I am. This is my third day.” I wondered why I hadn’t seen him before now. “You have a great business here. Thanks for having me on.”

  “I’m real surprised Chelsea was able to find someone so quickly. Where are you from?”

  I had been careful to dodge as many questions as I could, but I knew the more I immersed myself in Brees Island life, the more likely it was that people were going to keep asking normal get-to-know-you questions.

  “Originally from Texas, sir, but most recently I’ve been living in Atlanta.”

  “Is that right? I’ve always wanted to take a trip to Texas. Been to Atlanta before. What part?”

  “East Texas, a small town called Shiner. Funny, Brees Island reminds me of home a lot.”

  “How so?” Mr. Davis opened one of the cardboard boxes and started passing me a few of the beer bottles for the next section.

  I grabbed a handful to stock. “It has the same kind of small town feel. Everyone is friendly like back home.”

  Regardless of how standoffish I had been, the hospitality of the island wasn’t lost on me. Flo and Carl had been nothing but kind to me despite my two-week beer binge. Every one of those beers had been filled with a memory or a regret I needed to put behind me. They were necessary, but I felt like I had visited all my disappointments—some a few times too many.

  “Nice to know you like the island. There are a lot of good people here.” He smashed an empty box. “How long you thinking about staying?”

  “I have a place at the campground through the end of the summer. I haven’t thought much past that to be honest, sir.” I stopped the stacking process to look at him.

  “You know, we need to have you over for dinner.”

  “Oh, I couldn’t impose like that.”

  “No imposition. My wife loves to entertain. I’m sure we could convince Chelsea to join us for supper. How about tomorrow night?” He smiled.

  I knew when I had been cornered. “Sure. Sounds good. I appreciate that.”

  Mr. Davis turned. “We’ll see you at seven. And again, welcome aboard.” He saluted me and exited the cooler.

  The man I spoke to didn’t resemble the angry man I had witnessed the other morning on the docks. He seemed friendly and warm like all the other residents of Brees Island. It made me wonder why Chelsea disliked him so much. Then I thought of the unspoken rift I had with my father, and knew the layers in a family went much deeper than what anyone could see from the outside.

  Families were like glaciers, bound together from an original formation, but each f
amily member carrying unique layers. Those layers were deep and formed from the same storm, but even though one layer might melt for one person, it didn’t mean it melted for everyone or anyone else. The melting and healing was all up to you—how quickly you could face the sun and let it all go. I decided I wasn’t here long enough to get involved in the Davis’s family issues. By the end of the summer, I would be on my way somewhere else. I couldn’t stay on Brees Island forever.

  I finished unloading the beer and sauntered over to the register. I had the afternoon shift at the rental booth, but I couldn’t pass by without snagging one smile from Chelsea. I had, after all, gotten lost in those lips all night.

  “Hey.” I strolled to the counter. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

  She jumped and dropped a stack of magazines in her arms. “Shit.”

  “Sorry, hold on.” I hopped across the counter like it was the General Lee and I was one of the Luke boys. I dropped to the floor and shuffled the magazines in my arms.

  “I’m a klutz today.” She began collecting the dropped magazines in a pile. “Look at this garbage. Why do people even read this stuff anyway? I don’t get it.” She held up a cover of Celeb Watch.

  My throat tightened and I felt the familiar stabbing sensation under my lungs. Holy fuck. It was Becs.

  “I mean, really, do we care who Rebecca Campbell is dating? Personally, I’ve never seen any of her movies but I don’t care. It seems like there are more pressing issues going on in the world than her love life.” She rolled her eyes and continued to retrieve the pile she had jumbled.

  I knew the magazines were at the front counter. There was a line of them that came up to my knees, but I also knew not to look that low. I didn’t want to see. I didn’t want to know what was going on with my old Hollywood friends, especially Rebecca. Now those magazines I had been so careful to avoid were scattered at my feet.

  “Jake? Are you ok? It’s not a big deal. I know you didn’t mean for me to drop them.”

  I held the glossy photo in my hands. Rebecca had made the cover for the umpteenth time. Who could count that high? Her hair was blond again.

  Hollywood Heartache

  Campbell says she’ll do what it takes to get Baldwin back

  Under the picture was a broken heart with my face split down the middle. I blinked. Rebecca had done an interview with the magazine. I flipped open to page twenty-two.

  “I want Ben to know how much I love him. He has every right to be mad at me. I know what I did, but everyone deserves forgiveness. I know I broke his heart, and I’m going to spend every day making it up to him and showing him that I would give him my last breath.”

  I choked on my next inhale. She was insane. What in the hell was she talking about? We were done. Settled. And we were never in love. Son of a bitch.

  “Jake? Seriously, you look like you saw a ghost.” Chelsea reached over and rested her palm on my wrist.

  “Can I take a break?” I knew my voice was sharp, but I had to deal with this situation.

  “Sure. I guess so.” Her mouth formed a frown.

  “Ten minutes. I’ll be back to take over for Bertie in the rental stand.” I stood and shoved a rolled copy of the magazine in the band of my shorts behind the apron tie.

  “Doing a little reading?” She teased.

  “I’ll be back.” I turned on my heels and headed for the screen door. I kept my phone in the glove box of the Jeep. There wasn’t any reason to have it on me at work. I turned the lock on the compartment and pulled the phone out. I had Rick’s number up in two seconds.

  He answered after the first ring. “Hey, man. Good to hear from you. How you feeling?” Rick sounded happy.

  “Good,” I huffed. “No, not good. Rebecca did some kind of expose article on us for Celeb Watch. I need to know what her angle is.”

  “Celeb Watch? That rag’s a piece of shit. No one reads it, Ben.”

  “Yeah, well I read it. She granted them an interview, and it wasn’t because she’s in love with me.”

  “Maybe she is. She wouldn’t be the first, brother.” He chuckled on the other end.

  “Rick. Just find out. I need to know why she’s talking about us. Leave me a message if I don’t answer, ok?” I nodded at a fisherman walking in the store.

  “Got it, boss. I’m on it,” he reported.

  “Thanks.”

  “It’s good to know you still need me for something.”

  “Rick, you’re the best out there. Of course I still need your help.”

  I realized that my new career decisions would affect Rick and everyone else on my team. They were still on my payroll, and I wouldn’t cut them loose until they found other jobs. Their families depended on those salaries—on the income my name and fame brought to them.

  “Thanks again,” I added.

  “Sure thing.”

  I tossed the phone into the glove box and twisted the lock. I glanced around the parking lot before pulling the magazine out of my waistband. I leaned against the tail of the Jeep, opened the magazine, and picked up where I left off on the biggest web of lies I had ever read.

  Twenty

  Chelsea

  It was Thursday. My day off. I pushed off on the deck and drifted across the porch in my hammock. The problem was that on my one day off I couldn’t focus on the one thing I waited six days to do—write songs. Instead, my stomach was in knots thinking about dinner tonight with Jake and my parents.

  The dinner invitation reeked of my father’s manipulation. I had probably smiled a little too brightly when I described Jake to him. He was using that to get me to the house.

  Jake acted so weirdly at work yesterday that we didn’t make plans to get together last night. But we weren’t at that stage, yet. We weren’t at any stage. I sighed. Two make out sessions did not equal a stage status. I couldn’t very well let him go to dinner at my parents’ house alone. That would be the opposite of showing my southern hospitality. And let’s face it, I wanted to see him again.

  It didn’t seem to matter that he was leaving at the end of the summer. I was too. It didn’t matter that he was a practical stranger that appeared on the docks out of nowhere. It made him mysterious. Mysterious and hot.

  The other night in my kitchen I could tell he was holding back with me. There was a bad boy in there somewhere, and I was ready to know more about him. As soon as he was about to take me to the brink of something naughty and dangerous, he would pull back, leaving me breathless and wanting more.

  I stepped from the hammock with my guitar and today’s lyrics. With an hour before dinner, it was time to start bracing myself for a meal at my parents’ house.

  Most people would use their day off to fix their broken bike or run other normal people errands, but I readily accepted I wasn’t most people as I pulled up behind Jake’s Jeep.

  I looked down at my sundress with the deep V neckline and embroidered sailboats. It was an attempt to catch Jake’s eye. I hoped it would. There were a few ways I could rescue him tonight from the family gathering.

  “Hi, Mom.” I pecked her on the cheek, and inhaled the smell of Old Bay and shrimp. “We’re having shrimp tonight?”

  “Why, don’t you look cute? Spin around in that for me.”

  I obliged.

  “Where is— Where are the guys?” They weren’t in the kitchen or the adjoining sitting room. My parents lived on the cove, but their cottage was on the opposite side of the semicircle than mine. They only had a view of the marina near their house, but it was one you could take in from almost every room in the house.

  “Your dad already has that boy in the study. He’s showing off.”

  “Mom, he’s not a boy.” I hadn’t asked him yet how old he was, but he definitely wasn’t a boy.

  “You know what I mean. Jake, the new clerk at the store. They are looking at photos and heaven knows what else.” I watched as my mother dumped the pot of shrimp into a colander. “He’s got a captive audience, so they could be in there for ho
urs.”

  “Do you mind if I join them, or do you need me here?” I knew she had the kitchen under control, but I didn’t want to leave her without the customary offer.

  “Go, go, go.” She sprinkled an extra dash of the red seasoning on the shrimp. “Hey, he’s cute,” she whispered behind me as I darted down the hall in search of Jake.

  Something was up. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. The dinner, my mom’s comment—it made me uneasy, but I knew my guard was up the minute I stepped under the same roof as my father. Maybe it was my mistrust in him that made me feel this way.

  I stopped in front of the hallway mirror for one last touchup. The freckles on my nose were mostly covered with makeup, but I grimaced at them. You couldn’t avoid some things no matter how much sunscreen you wore.

  “Hey.” I rounded the corner to the study. They were standing in the center of the room. My dad pointed out a row of black-and-white framed pictures to Jake.

  “There she is.” My father moved across the room to hug me, but I dodged the advance.

  “Hi, Dad.”

  He cleared his throat. “I was just telling Jake about when your grandfather decided to open the store.”

  Jake smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkled with warmth. “Yep, I’m getting your entire family history.”

  “Oh great. He hasn’t gotten out my baby album, has he?” I checked to see if it was still in place on the bookshelf.

  “No, but I put in a request for that after dessert.” He laughed.

  “My mom will be thrilled.” I realized that once Jake started talking, I didn’t even notice my father was in the room anymore. It all faded away. It was that smile; everything was in his smile.

  “Why don’t I go check on your mother and let you two talk?” Apparently, my dad was still there.

  I turned to face him.

  “And I’ll take drink orders. Jake, what can I get you? Beer? Gin and tonic?”