Wicked Winters: A Collection of Winter Tales

by Lucy Smoke

  I chuckled involuntarily.

  “You little minx!” Cody harrumphed angrily.

  That was it, I lost it. I laughed against Dex’s chest, my shoulders shaking and my eyes watering.

  “That was not funny,” Cody said.

  “Says you.” I reached up to wipe under my eyes. I shivered again and unintentionally burrowed closer to Dex. Man, he was like a space heater and as each minute went by the room seemed to get colder and colder.

  “Try checking your phone,” Dex suggested. “See what happened. Maybe the storm knocked out one of the power lines.” I looked up and was met with the underside of Dex’s jawline. His arms were wrapped around my sides, his hands rubbing up and down my back in slow, soothing motions. It was a little odd. I’d never been so close to him before. It was kind of nice. He had a wide chest and his hands were warm as they roved over my spine.

  “Oh, right.” Cody words as he fumbled across the table, looking for his phone, jerked me out of my thoughts and back to the present. When Cody found his discarded cell, half hidden under a stack of papers, he turned the screen on, illuminating his face so that we could see him. He blinked down at the brightness. “I got an alert from the school,” he said. “I must’ve not noticed it when it came in.” He grimaced as he read. “You were right. It says that the snowstorm knocked out the power for most of campus, and they’re trying to get someone out to fix everything, but it might not be until morning.”

  Dex sighed, his chest heaving against me. I glanced up at his face, shrouded in shadows. I bet if he looked at me with those deep, blue eyes, they would look just as beautiful up close as they did from a distance.

  “If I had to guess,” he replied, “I would say they have generators for the dorms and maybe even the student union.”

  “But they might not for the library?” I asked hesitantly.

  Dex looked down, and much to my regret, I could barely make out the color of his eyes. “Likely not.” He shook his head.

  “Darren said they might though,” I said, hopeful.

  “Yes, but he hasn’t been working here for long. A couple of months max,” Dex replied. “I doubt he’s ever had to deal with something like this. He probably doesn’t know, but we’ll find out for sure when he comes back.”

  A realization struck me. “Without power, there’s no heat.”

  “Wait.” Cody lifted his head. “The doors to the library are automatic. They just put those in, didn’t they?”

  “They’ll open though, won’t they?” I asked.

  Dex nodded. “Yeah, even in an emergency, those doors can be pulled open. There shouldn’t be any problem.”

  Cody glanced back down at his phone. “The snowstorm looks like it’s gotten worse since we drove over here,” he relayed. “The alert tells us to stay indoors and not to leave buildings unless absolutely necessary. The roads are probably covered completely in black ice by now.” He grimaced before looking back at us. “Honestly, it was getting pretty bad when we drove over here. I drove like a grandma.”

  “You always drive like a grandma,” Dex replied. “But if you’re right, then that’s not good. Black ice is bad for walking and driving. It’s dangerous.”

  I gently pulled away from the warmth of Dex’s chest with a sigh and grabbed a chair, shivering. I sank into it as Cody turned his phone off and tossed it onto the table, grabbing a chair as well.

  “There’s no point in trying to call out for help,” he huffed. “We’ll probably have to wait until morning anyway.”

  Dex turned and leaned a hip against the table in front of me and crossed his arms. My eyes narrowed on the stretch of fabric over his shoulders. He was always so studious, but I knew now there was some hard muscle beneath that fabric. It made my mouth water. Dex splayed his thighs, kicking his legs out so that each one was on either side of my chair and I was smack dab between them. I tried everything I could not to let my gaze wander. I failed. My eyes drifted down to his jeans. They pulled tight across his hips and made me wonder what was beneath it.

  “See something you like, Jamie?” Dex teased.

  Blushing hotly, my eyes widened as I yanked my head up his long body to his handsome face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I was thankful that my even tone didn’t betray my wandering thoughts.

  Cody groaned and thumped his head back against the wall behind his seat, drawing our attention. “This sucks,” he whined.

  I didn’t reply, but as my eyes flashed between them, I couldn’t agree or disagree. Stuck in the library with four hot guys for an indeterminable amount of time. It was going to be both heaven and hell on my mind and body.

  Dex shrugged in response. “Might as well take a study break anyway, right, Jamie?” Those dark, midnight eyes focused on me and I had a strange feeling he wasn’t too unhappy about our predicament. Dex always struck me as a studious, but possibly sinister man. Heaven and Hell, I thought to myself. Heaven and fucking Hell.

  5

  Floorboards creaked outside of the room several minutes later. A beam of light hit the door frame as Darren and Taylor strode back through. All three of our heads—Cody, Dex, and mine—turned toward them.

  “What did you find?” Dex asked.

  “We can’t get to the breaker,” Darren replied. “And we need to in order to turn the generators on—they don’t just come on automatically, not for the library, at least. Usually there’s someone here with the keys, but I was a replacement and I haven’t worked here long enough to get those yet.”

  Cody sucked in a breath. “Damn, that sucks. It’s supposed to get even colder tonight, and I doubt this storm is going to let up any time soon.”

  “Cody got an alert on his phone,” Dex informed them. “There’s no power anywhere but the dorms across campus. Snowstorm took it all out except for the major generators.”

  Darren cursed under his breath. “Yeah, the library isn’t considered major,” he said.

  “So, what?” Taylor asked, moving around him and further into the room. “Do we just wait it out here, then?”

  I shrugged, realizing too late he probably couldn’t see me very well despite the uncovered window. “Pretty much,” I said aloud. “It’s too dangerous to try and get back to the dorms.”

  Taylor groaned before plopping down in a chair across from us as Darren pulled one around and sat down as well. I scooted closer to the table and propped my elbows on the surface, pushing away my books and laptop. I couldn’t even think about studying now.

  “What are we going to do until they can get to us?” I asked no one in particular.

  “What about a game of truth or dare?” Taylor piped up.

  I blanched. “Er … how about a game of just truth,” I offered instead. Something told me his dares would be far from appropriate. “It might be dangerous trying to do dares in the dark,” I offered as a lame excuse.

  Taylor chuckled. I had no doubt that he knew exactly what I was trying to do.

  “Now isn’t that the name of an interesting party,” Darren mused. “Dares in the dark.”

  There was a soft grunt as I watched the shape to the side of him reach out and punch his shoulder. “Nah, Jamie’s right.” I was shocked to hear Taylor agreeing with me. Maybe he hadn’t been trying to pull anything after all. “It’s a fucking waste if I can’t even see you guys making a fool of yourselves.” He laughed at his own joke, and I shook my head.

  “Us?” Cody replied. “Doubtful.”

  Taylor ignored him, and I watched the outline of his face as he turned toward me. “Alright, Jamie, do you want to go first? A game of truth, right?”

  “Um … sure, I guess. But we really don’t have to if no one else wants to. I was just kidding.”

  “I think it’s a good idea,” Dex said. “There’s not much else to do here and we should conserve our phone batteries in case of an emergency—which means no playing any games.”

  I sucked in a shaky breath. How bad could an innocent game of truth be? Really, I was
just being a pansy. Just ask a question, Jamie, I urged myself. “Can I just ask anyone?” I clarified. “I’ve never actually played just truth before.”

  “Yeah, asker’s choice,” Taylor said.

  I wracked my brain to think of anything interesting. “Dex,” I began. “Why’d you come to Winthrope?”

  “Such an innocent question,” Taylor teased.

  I ignored him and focused on Dex—or what I could see of him.

  “I actually got a football scholarship,” he admitted.

  My eyes widened in surprise. “But you don’t play,” I blurted.

  He shook his head. “Nah, I had an injury early on in my freshman year that took me out.”

  Immediately, I felt guilty for singling him out. What I thought had been an innocent question—as Taylor had called it—now made me feel like an intrusive bitch. “I’m so sorry,” I said.

  In the dark, I watched the outline of his shoulders lift and fall, and when he spoke, he didn’t sound particularly upset. “It is what it is,” he said. “Life throws you curveballs and you just have to deal with it and figure out what to do. I decided to focus on my studies—traded my football scholarship in for an academic one. It wasn’t easy. Had to write a dozen essays to a dozen different applications.”

  I groaned in sympathy. “Everyone says there are so many scholarships available,” I replied. “But they don’t tell you that you have to jump through a dozen hoops not to even get it, but just to submit it.”

  Dex chuckled and nodded his head. The glimmer of moonlight from outside—what little of it there was peeking in through the haze of the snowstorm—illuminated half of his face for the beat of a second and my lips parted when I realized he didn’t seem to be having any trouble seeing in the dark because his eyes were focused solely on me. They burned into my face with an intensity that felt off putting.

  I shifted in my chair, jerking my head to the side. “I think it’s admirable, though,” I said, forcing the words out to calm my racing heart once more.

  “What is?” someone—I think Taylor—asked.

  “A lot of people would’ve given up,” I answered. “And just quit school completely, maybe taken a break—and no one would’ve blamed them.”

  “Well, I’m not going to say it didn’t crush me for a bit,” Dex replied. “The first month after my injury, I was just plain pissed.”

  “I remember,” Darren commented. “You were a total bear.”

  “More like a lion with a thorn in his paw,” Taylor said with a chuckle. I didn’t know how they could joke about their friend’s life-altering injury like that. I mean, he’d come to Winthrope on a scholarship and in one bad move, one game, he’d lost his ability to play for the long term and his scholarship. It was understandable. But when Dex spoke again, I started to get it.

  “I know, man,” Dex laughed at himself. “I couldn’t stand to be around any of you. You all seemed to have something that I no longer did.” Dex leaned forward onto the table, his head turning and his eyes locking with mine again. “It was actually a friend of mine,” he confessed, “that gave me what I needed.”

  “Which was?” I inquired.

  “He whooped my ass,” Dex replied.

  I gasped. “After you were injured?” I couldn’t believe it. My hands shook with such molten fury. How could anyone call themselves a friend and—

  “He gave me what I needed,” Dex repeated again, cutting off my internal outrage. “He showed me that my life didn’t have to end because I couldn’t play football professionally anymore.” I blinked at his tone. There was no bitterness in his voice, no bemoaning the fact that he couldn’t play anymore. Just facts and acceptance. “Besides.” He sat back again. “I think I’ve done pretty well for myself. Now, I’m finally getting away from the dumb jock stereotype.” He paused meaningfully before snorting. “Unlike some people I know.”

  Taylor scoffed. “Bullshit,” he replied. “You’re just a conniving motherfucker. Once a jock, always a jock.”

  “Says the poster boy for the jock stereotype,” Cody taunted.

  Taylor laughed and then reached down and lifted up his shirt. Never in my life had I wished for something as ridiculous as nocturnal vision as he laid a firm slap to what I was sure were rock hard abs. The sound of his hand smacking into his skin made me wonder just what he looked like completely naked. I shook my head. That was a ridiculous thought.

  “I don’t hear any of the ladies complaining about these babies,” Taylor retorted.

  “Your fat rolls?” Darren asked with feigned innocence.

  “Fuck you!” Taylor snapped, but even as he cursed, I could tell he was trying not to laugh. A fact that became even more clear when, a beat later, he burst out laughing.

  “Who’s turn is it next?” I asked, struggling to withhold my own laughter.

  “Dex’s,” Taylor said automatically, turning back to the man. “Since you were asked a question, you get to ask someone a question,” he announced.

  Dex didn’t hesitate. “Jamie,” he said.

  I jumped. “Y-yes?”

  “Do you have a boyfriend?”

  I snorted. “What do you think?” I muttered back.

  His eyes flashed in the darkness of the study room. A dangerous glint and on the side of his face that was illuminated, I watched as the corner of his mouth hooked upward. “That’s not an answer,” he said.

  Would I be here right now if I had a boyfriend? I thought about saying, but the point was moot. I didn’t have a boyfriend—or even a friend—that would give a shit where I was right now. I was almost grateful, though, to be here rather than back in my door room, trying not to listen to Stacey fuck her latest boytoy as I agonized over my test.

  “No,” I finally said. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “Why—” Dex began, but I quickly cut him off.

  “It’s my turn,” I said quickly, flipping to one of the others. “Cody,” I called out. “What’s your favorite color?”

  He didn’t even hesitate. “Blue,” he replied just as quickly as I’d asked the question.

  “Why—”

  “Ah ah,” Taylor tsked. “You only get to ask one question. It’s Cody’s turn.” I didn’t say anything more, but I watched as Taylor tipped his head toward me. Even though I couldn’t see him well, I would have bet anything that he was smirking at me right then.

  Cody’s hand slid over the table, catching my attention. He turned toward me and remained quiet for a moment—as if he was trying to think of something. “Have you ever been kissed before?” he finally asked.

  What the actual fuck? I thought. Were they all intent on asking me the most embarrassing questions? I needed to get the speculation off of myself and onto something else.

  “Yes,” I replied quickly. “My turn,” I said before anyone could say anything. “Why is blue your favorite color?”

  “Because it’s the color of your eyes.”

  My jaw unhinged as it dropped open. I stared at the outline of his head in shock. Because it was the color of my eyes? I pressed my lips back together and then parted them again only to repeat the process. I was glad that the lights were out because I was one-hundred percent sure I looked like a gaping fish. My brain was trying to come up with a response to his answer, but I couldn’t manage to form one.

  “Can I ask another?” Cody inquired, leaning closer. My chin tipped up as I tried to meet his gaze through the shadows of the study room. There was something about the dark—a sensual deprivation of all the other senses—that made me both afraid and very aware of everything around me. And right now, I felt like the center of all of Cody’s attention.

  “That’s up to her,” Taylor answered Cody’s question when it became obvious that I couldn’t. “Though, I’d say that counts as one.”

  “She won’t hold it against me,” Cody replied. “Will you, Jamie?”

  I turned my cheek one way and then the other, an answer to his question, though for all I knew he was asking me if I
knew how to fly an aircraft. I felt struck stupid as the heat of his breath washed over my face.

  “Where have you been kissed?” he asked, teasing.

  I stiffened and tried to regain some control of my own body. My hands tightened over the arm rests of my chair and I sucked in another ragged breath. “What kind of question is that?” I demanded.

  “One that you’re obligated to answer,” Taylor commented lightly. “You did allow him another question.”

  I considered my options, but there weren’t very many. “O-on the lips,” I said, haltingly.

  “Where else?” Cody demanded.

  “You only get one question. It’s my turn,” I reminded him, and I certainly wasn’t going to ask him another right now. I needed a break. I turned back to Dex, hearing Darren chuckle next to Taylor as I did so. I shot him a look out of the corner of my eye. He continued to chuckle quietly. I cleared my throat. “Dex, what do you want to do when you graduate?”

  “I’d like to get a job as a sports physician,” he replied. “Just because I can’t play football doesn’t mean I don’t want to be around it. I like handling things I can control.” That corner of his mouth tilted up again as he smirked at me.

  He would be the guy who liked control, I thought snidely. The thought reminded me of my mom’s old romance books. With shirtless well muscled men dragging fragile looking women close to them on the covers. Sometimes, they’d been in period clothing and sometimes, they’d been more modern, but the modern ones had showcased more devious types of romance—some with ropes and chains and handcuffs and other things. I could picture Dex like that, now. A firm hand. Controlling. Hot. Wicked. I resisted the urge to clench my thighs together, breathing through my nose as I tried to work through the sudden burst of arousal without letting them know what I was feeling.

  Before Taylor could tell him it was his turn, Dex looked at me and repeated Cody’s question. “Where else have you been kissed?” he asked.