by Piper Rayne
His sweet talk isn’t going to work this time. Polly gives him the same look I do, that he’s crazy.
“Excuse me,” I say before she has a chance to leave first.
I search for Juno or Phoenix to tell them I’ll be calling an Uber and going home. I find Juno at a table by herself and circle around to follow her line of vision. There’s Colton chatting and laughing with a brunette at the bar. My guess is that he doesn’t even know Juno’s here.
“Cleo.” Denver approaches us. “It was nothing. I was just about to text you.”
“That’s convenient.”
“What’s going on?” Juno tips back her drink and finishes it off with her gaze still glued on Colton.
“Looks like Denver and Colton found some women tonight,” I say bitterly.
“Jesus.” Denver groans. “That’s not even close to the truth.”
“I’m heading back to Lake Starlight. You wanna come?” I ask Juno.
“I’m taking you home,” Denver practically growls.
“No, I think I’m gonna stick around.” She slides off her stool, puts her fingers through her hair, and saunters over to a group of guys playing darts.
“This isn’t going to end well.” Denver sits down and pulls me into his lap. “Listen.”
I stubbornly look around.
His hands cup my cheeks and tilt my face toward him. “I don’t want Polly or any other woman in this bar. I’d been counting down the minutes until I could see you. If you don’t trust me, this is never going to work.”
I know he’s right, and I told myself when I saw him talking to her that it was nothing. He knows a lot of people. She could be a friend from high school. That’s why I approached them. But then his hand on her thigh threw me.
“She put her hand on me and I removed it. You happened to come over at the worst possible moment.”
“But—”
He shakes his head. “There’s no but. I’m crazy about you. This is strange new ground for me, but the last thing I would ever do is risk what we have for some bar chick. I couldn’t even get it up for anyone but you.”
I quirk my eyebrow, and he laughs.
“I’m dead serious, he was saggy until you arrived.” He takes my hand and puts it between his legs. Typical Denver. “Give him some time. He’s a little scared to come out right now for fear of his life.”
I can’t hold back my chuckle. “How come when we have a conversation, he’s always involved in it?”
“He and them”—he eyes my boobs—“are key members in this relationship.”
I nod. He puts up a convincing argument. “If you ever cheat on me, you do know there won’t be a ‘he’ anymore, right?”
“Duly noted.” He stands and towers over me. “Let’s go home and fuck and make up.”
I wind my arms around his neck and press my body to his.
“You have no idea how much I missed you and it’s only been two hours,” he says.
I laugh into his neck. I felt the same way when I was with the girls earlier. When they said they wanted to go check out The Merry Moose, I purposely didn’t tell them the guys were going there because I missed Denver and wanted to run into him.
“Come on. I have to tell the guys.” His hand slides down my arm, linking our hands, and we step away from the vacant table.
As we reach the back of the bar, the clear sound of arguing can be heard.
“You didn’t win,” Kingston says from beside the pool table in the corner.
“Fuck.” Denver sighs and lets go of my hand, venturing toward his brother.
“I did too.” Owen is right up in Kingston’s face now.
“You scratched on the eight ball,” Kingston says.
“I scratched on the four ball. How much have you drank tonight?”
Both of them are half drunk and arguing about who won a damn pool game. From what I understand, it comes from something so much more than that, but no one seems to want to address it.
“Come on.” Denver puts his hand on Kingston, and he pushes Denver off. “This isn’t worth it.”
Kingston sips his beer then sprays it all over Owen. “You’re a fucking asshole. Always have been.”
“Kingston Bailey, the jealous prick who couldn’t get the one thing he really wanted in Lake Starlight. You’ll never get over the fact that she wanted me.” Owen points at himself as though someone should slap a ribbon on him. Unless it says World’s Biggest Jackass, he doesn’t deserve it.
Colton appears out of nowhere, pulling Kingston away.
Kingston strains against Colton holding him back. “She dumped your ass. Don’t forget that fact.”
Denver pushes Owen back as he says, “I couldn’t give two shits about her. The fact is she picked me over you and that’s been eating away at you for years. How could she not want the fucking prince of Lake Starlight, right? The star shortstop. The Bailey brother.”
Owen pushes forward, and pretty soon Colton and Denver’s backs are pressed to one another.
“You think I’m jealous? You’ve been jealous of me our entire lives. You only went after her so I couldn’t have her. What kind of best friend are you?”
“She came to me, Bailey. Remember that.”
Colton gives one last push, and Phoenix and Juno help by each taking an arm.
“We’re leaving, let’s go.” Denver pushes Owen toward the door. “I’ll take Owen, you take Kingston, Juno.”
“Sounds good.”
Looks like The Merry Moose isn’t that merry for everyone.
“I don’t understand why we drove him home if we don’t like him,” I say from the front seat after we dropped off Owen.
“Because he’s like family,” Phoenix says. “Tomorrow he and Kingston will apologize and make up. It’s a messed-up cycle between those two.”
“Who’s the girl they were talking about?” I ask.
Denver glances in the rearview mirror at Phoenix.
“I don’t think you’ve met her yet,” Phoenix says. “Her mom, Selene, owns the Cozy Cottage B & B. Stella, her daughter, doesn’t live here anymore though. She went away to school and hasn’t returned. Most of us think it’s because she couldn’t handle the situation between the three of them. It’s the classic story of two best friends being in love with the same girl.”
“They’re pretty aggressive with each other for something that happened so long ago.”
“Alcohol and egos don’t mix. It’s better when Kingston’s smokejumping in the spring and summer and he’s not around Owen,” Denver says.
“I find that sad.”
Neither of them says anything. It seems like at the time, things were pretty bad, so I let the topic go for now. Minutes later we’re home and taking our shoes and coats off in the foyer.
“Goodnight, Phoenix, I have some groveling to do,” Denver says, taking my hands.
“Ew! TMI, bro.”
“Put your earplugs in tonight.” He laughs, dragging me up the stairs. When he gets me into his room, he presses my back to the door. “I think no more girls’ and guys’ nights out until we’re good and sick of one another.”
I duck under his arm and step into the room. “You’re gonna get sick of me, huh?”
He comes up behind me, and his hands slide under my shirt. “No, you’re gonna get sick of me.”
His lips scatter kisses on the back of my neck and I circle in his arms. “Did you say something about groveling?”
He raises my shirt over my head and tosses it on the floor. His mouth lands on mine, and his tongue slides inside at the same time his hands reach behind me and unclasp my bra.
“I’ll never get sick of these,” he says into our kiss, his hands grabbing my breasts.
We finish undressing and I lightly push him onto the mattress. By the look on his face, he knows what’s coming as I fall to my knees next to the bed.
He groans. “Not tonight, I want to bury myself inside you.”
“You can do that later.”
His hands slide into my hair, and he makes noises at the back of his throat that only stirs my arousal. I want him to masturbate to this memory next time. The live version of me sucking his cock. Not what he thinks I would do. Not what he imagines. But the reality of me getting him off.
I pump him as I suck and lick all over, deep throating him once more, I look up at him when he bucks into my mouth, a look of pure desperation in his eyes.
“Shit, baby.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.
Of all the moves I thought he’d do when I was giving him a blowjob, I never imagined something as intimate as that. I feel slightly foolish for not trusting him tonight. He’s done nothing to make me second-guess him. It’s only his reputation that scares me, but people change.
“I’m going to come,” he says, struggling to get the words out.
I continue swirling and pushing him deeper down my throat while pumping him. He grips my hair firmer and forces his hips up, his body tensing right before his cum spills into my mouth. I swallow, and he unleashes a long, satisfied groan.
Once he’s recovered, he grabs me by my arms and brings me to him on the bed. “Now it’s your turn.”
He kisses down my body, and I widen my legs, making room for his wide shoulders until I’m the one moaning and tensing and coming. I’m falling way too hard and too fast. As we slide into bed naked as we have every night since we started dating, I’m quick to realize, there’s no falling—I’ve already fallen.
Twenty-Nine
Denver
I walk into the office on Monday morning and lean on the doorframe, studying the changes. Cleo laughs.
“His and hers desks, huh?” I ask.
When we returned from our trip north, she’d already had Nancy clean out all of Chip’s stuff. Nancy, being Nancy, had taken it upon herself to do more cleaning than asked. She somehow even got out the smell of stale cigarettes.
But this is different. Now there are two desks facing one another. Hers white to my dark gray. A vase with flowers sits on the corner of hers and a clock on mine. The walls have been painted a light gray, and Chip’s old map of the Denali National Park is framed and hung on one wall. The new logo is on proud display on the back wall.
“Here’s your muffin, you schemer.” I bend down and kiss her.
“I heard there was a big rush on muffins this morning,” she says to my pressed lips.
“When Sweet Suga is doing a buy one get one, I’d say so.”
She laughs and puts her arms around my neck. “I did as much as I could. Thank Nancy, because she painted and got the pictures framed. Phoenix recruited Kingston, and they came by and put the desks together yesterday. So all I had to do was decorate a bit this morning.”
“And was it worth not having your morning orgasm?” I kiss her again, which is worth the strain in my back from bending over.
She looks around me at the clock. “It’s still morning.”
I kick the door shut and pick her up, placing her on the desk. “Let’s hope Kingston put your desk together, not Phoenix.”
Her legs part to make room for me. My lips descend on her neck, my hands crawling up her shirt. I can’t wait for the warmer weather to come so she’ll wear less for me to take off. My fingers are on the clasp of her bra when the phone rings.
Nancy must pick it up, so I continue my quest to christen the new office. Our office. All the pieces are coming together. Decorating the office must mean she’s staying for good, that Dallas is no longer an option on the table.
The phone on Cleo’s desk buzzes, and she presses the button. “Hey, Nancy.”
My chin hits my chest in disappointment.
“Cleo, Selma is on the phone.”
I lean back, and Cleo looks at me as if we’re about to find out the result of a pregnancy test. This is it. The moment we find out whether we can save this company.
I sit in her chair and pull her into my lap.
“Send her through,” Cleo says, and she kisses my cheek. “If not, we’ll find another way.”
I nod. I’m glad she’s optimistic, but I’m not sure we have the option of staying open if this doesn’t come through. We need this money to run some ads and upgrade some equipment, offer new services.
Having her this close will make it easier to take this bullet.
“Selma?” I answer on speakerphone. “How are you this morning?”
“Hey, guys, we’re good. I have Tommy and Glen on with me. You both there?”
“Hi, guys,” Cleo says.
They say hi in return.
“Well, let me start by saying we were surprised by the news that you’re now a couple. Although it usually makes for better television, you guys are a new couple, which means you’re pretty amicable on the camera. You’re in that sweet phase and the camera shows it. How attentive Denver is to you, Cleo, and how you look to him for guidance before doing anything. That’s great and all, but it doesn’t usually make for good television in the long run.”
Cleo’s lips dip and she leans her head on my shoulder.
If it’s the show or Cleo, I’ll take Cleo, hands down.
“We showed the focus group though, and they had the opposite thinking we did. They thought you two were adorable and loved the interview portion with Griffin. You did an amazing job, Cleo.” Selma inhales and exhales. She must be smoking.
“So did we get it or not?” I ask.
Cleo bites her lip.
Silence falls over the receiver for a moment. “You got it.”
Cleo and I whoop and hug each other.
“Five more episodes?” Cleo asks, her body practically buzzing.
“Actually, Zeke set you up for thirteen. A full season.”
I think Cleo’s eyes are as wide as mine, and our mouths hang open.
“You do accept, right?” Selma clarifies when we say nothing. “We want to start filming immediately, because most guests are going to want to do it in the nicer weather. We’re going to try to get some more people who are on the public’s radar to go on these excursions with you. Kinda like we did with Griffin.”
I look at Cleo. We aren’t just agreeing on the show—we’re agreeing to be part of each other’s lives for the foreseeable future. She nods.
“Of course we accept. We’d never say no,” I say.
Cleo straddles me in the chair and presses her tits into my face, a huge grin on her lips.
“Great. I’ll email you the details and the contract. Have your lawyer look them over. We’ll be in touch with the recording schedule once we firm up some details on our end.”
“Thanks, Selma, bye,” Cleo says, leaning back and ending the call.
Cleo screams and I pick her up, circling us around.
“Congratulations,” I whisper before capturing her lips.
Her moan and firm thighs wrap around me. When I lay her across our desks, she wiggles and pulls a stapler from under her waist.
I press the button on the phone. “Nancy, take an early lunch.”
“But it’s only—”
“Lunch, Nancy.” I click it off and my hands slide up Cleo’s shirt.
She gets up on her elbows and unbuckles my pants. We not only got the money to keep Lifetime Adventures going, we’re christening our office with what I’m positive will be the first of many early lunches for Nancy.
We walk into Terra and Mare that evening. Since Monday is one of the days the restaurant is closed, it’s family only for our impromptu celebration of Cleo and my good news about the show.
Cleo kisses my cheek but heads toward Harley and picks up Dion. She spins him around and nuzzles her face into his. He blows saliva bubbles as he smiles at her. Can’t blame the kid. His thighs are massive, but Harley took great offense when I mentioned it before, so that topic is off-limits. I mean, I was only complimenting him, like he��d be an awesome wrestler or something.
“Beer?” Kingston hands me a bottle.
I quirk an eyebrow because I haven’t talked to him since The Merry Moose.
“Sorry,” he mumbles.
“You and Owen should really just part ways. You aren’t healthy together.”
He’s already shaking his head. I hate being the one to give Kingston advice. He and Austin are so far apart in age that they’ve always had a more father/son dynamic, but I’ve remained faithful to the big brother role.
“He’s my best friend,” he says.
“Is he really?” I ask.
He shrugs and downs more beer. “This is why I like spring and summer. I like not being here.”
I nod. That’s a conversation he should have with Rome, because he wanted to get out too. I never did. Even if I drove five minutes out of my way to avoid passing the cemetery, I never contemplated leaving Lake Starlight. This is where our memories exist, some of them as painful as they are. The problem with Kingston is his tortured memories aren’t only of our parents. They’re of Stella. He thinks no one knows, but I do. I’ve just kept my mouth shut because it’s none of my business.
“Why don’t you get a place in Anchorage for the winter?”
“What about Juno?”
I scour the room, finding her in the corner with Colton. She’s laughing and his eyes are on her as if he’d give up his life for just one kiss. How is my matchmaker sister so blind? “She’ll land on her feet eventually.”
After taking a pull of his beer, Kingston says, “You know that night of the fight, Colton slept on the couch instead of going back to his place.”
“Why?”
Kingston eyes me like ‘You know why.’ “He said Owen could come back, and he didn’t want to chance anything happening to Juno.”
“But you were there.”
Kingston nods. “Exactly.”
I shake my head, but then I hear Cleo’s laugh from across the room. She’s with Brooklyn now, and they’re looking at her phone. Dori walks over and kisses Cleo’s cheek before heading toward Calista. Rome walks in from the kitchen and places some food on the table, nodding hello to me.
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