One Warm Winter

by Jamie Pope

“You work for my father.”

  “Same difference.”

  “I don’t care. You are my equal.” She kissed his lips. “I want you.”

  He groaned. She was going to be his downfall. “No sex.” He unhooked her bra, taking his time to look at her. The last time he had seen her naked, her body was dripping with water as she swam in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. It had been the most erotic moment of his life. He wanted her then and he wanted her even more now. “You’re gorgeous, love.”

  He ran his fingers across her collarbone and then pressed his lips there. He almost didn’t know what to do with her. He felt like a boy again, overwhelmed by the fact that he was actually getting to be with her. His boss’s daughter. The woman he was sworn to protect. He wasn’t protecting her now. In fact, he felt guilty for what he was about to do.

  She reached for the hem of his shirt, pulling it off his body. She kissed his chest. “You’re much tanner than you were a week ago. I think island life agrees with you.”

  Did it agree with him? He had never felt more conflicted in his life, but it did feel different being here. This place was always his escape, but he wasn’t sure he could ever return here without thinking about her.

  “Kiss me.”

  He sighed as he obeyed her wishes. He couldn’t just give her a simple kiss. He couldn’t kiss her without getting swept away. He backed her to the bed, pushing her down on it and pulling off her underwear.

  He paused to look down at her. It was a mistake. She wasn’t just gorgeous, with her curvy body and her hair spread around her on the bed. It was the way she looked at him. There wasn’t just arousal in her eyes, there was something more. Something he couldn’t name, but she gave him a shy smile and he felt his heart slam against his rib cage.

  She was going to take a piece of him when she left. He crawled onto the bed and covered her body with his. She welcomed him, curling her arms around him, her lips finding his again.

  She wrapped her legs around him, rubbing herself against his erection. He was harder than he had ever been. He wouldn’t survive like this. He pulled himself off her. She groaned. But he didn’t leave her for long. He kissed his way down her body. He had to keep himself controlled. She wasn’t like the usual women he slept with. She was more important. More precious.

  He flicked his tongue across her nipple. She gasped. He never recalled taking so much time with anyone. But he liked going slow with her. Hearing her moans. Seeing the change in her face when he did something she liked.

  “Cullen . . .” She grabbed his hair and gently pulled. “Is this how you get people to tell you all their secrets?”

  “What?”

  “You’re torturing me.”

  “I’m not torturing you. I’m pleasing myself.”

  “Let me please you. Take your pants off.”

  “No sex.” He shifted his body lower, placing his head between her thighs.

  “I can’t believe you’re being so stubborn about this.”

  “Deal with it.” He touched her between her legs, her wetness coating his fingers. She was ready for him and it took all his strength to stay where he was. This night was not about his pleasure, but hers. He opened her lips and licked inside her. She moaned and her entire body tightened. She tasted sweet. She smelled even better. He licked her again, this time placing two fingers inside of her. She cried out his name and a troubling thought filled his mind. He didn’t want anyone else to see her like this. He didn’t want anyone else to touch her like this. A powerful sense of ownership overcame him. She wasn’t his. She could never be his and yet he knew he would kill anyone else who tried to touch her.

  He took his time with her, sliding his fingers inside of her, sucking on the most sensitive part of her. It was more for him than for her. He wanted to see what she liked, experiment with caresses and speeds.

  He could imagine himself inside her, so tight and wet. Her legs wrapped around him, her lips near his ear, moaning his name, feeling her breath against his skin.

  He felt as if he were about to explode. Her fingers curled into his hair and she started to shake as orgasm overwhelmed her. He couldn’t miss out on this moment. He got on his knees, unzipped his shorts, fisted himself and pumped to completion, his climax hitting her belly. Shame immediately filled him. He had lost control. But she seemingly could read him. She grabbed his hand and pulled him down next to her. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed the side of his face. “I don’t want to leave you right now.”

  “Stay.” He knew he should send her away, but that would seem cruel. Plus, he didn’t want her to go. He felt surprisingly raw in that moment.

  He placed them beneath the blankets and gathered her close.

  “Do you know why I don’t want to leave you?”

  He looked into her eyes, his heart beating a little faster. “Why?”

  “Because I can’t. My legs don’t work. You turned me to mush.”

  He grinned at her. “Stop it.”

  She kissed his shoulder. “I’m not sure I’ll ever walk again.”

  He laughed and pulled her closer. She was trouble. And for the first time in a long time he wanted to be in the kind of trouble he couldn’t get out of.

  Chapter 9

  Wynter woke up when the sun streamed through the windows. She slept through the night. That hadn’t happened since she had left D.C. almost two weeks ago now. It could have something to do with the warm man who was wrapped around her. She turned in his arms so that she could look at him. His hair had grown out since they had been there, his skin darkened from the sun. He was the most beautiful man. She lifted her hand to touch his slightly bearded cheek. She wasn’t sure what the hell she was doing. She was in his bed. She had been more intimate with him than she had been with any man in years.

  He was her bodyguard. Rationally, she knew this couldn’t go anywhere, but her life had been turned upside down and their relationship had been turned upside down as soon as she stepped foot on this island.

  She didn’t want to be rational right now. She just wanted to feel good. She wanted to touch and be touched by a man she was incredibly attracted to. She had promised herself that when she returned to her normal life, things were going to change, that she was going to live her life instead of simply being a witness to it. But why wait until she got back to D.C.? She was going to live right now.

  “Good morning, lass,” his said in his deep, sleepy voice. His soft accent made her insides turn to liquid.

  “Good morning.”

  He touched her hair, wrapping a curl around his finger. “I like your hair like this.”

  “Do you? My mother would never let me wear it like this when I was a child. She used to straighten it herself. It was one of the few things she did for me herself.”

  “She wasn’t around much?”

  “No, it wasn’t that. We had servants to do everything else. My mother grew up the daughter of a maid and a groundskeeper. She hated that her parents had to serve people for their entire lives. People who weren’t even kind to them. She swore she would never be like them, and when she met my father he was just a kid starting out in the tech industry, but she saw that he was going to make something of himself and she rode it out. And now she lives the life of a queen. I wonder if she thinks the wealth is a trade-off for my father never being there.”

  “She loves him. Sometimes people will overlook some things to be with the people they love.”

  “You sound like you know that from experience.”

  “My mother stayed with my father when the world thought she should have left him. He could barely support us. Too angry or lazy or drunk to keep a job. My mother had to work two jobs, taking in people’s washing and working nights at the local pub. Plus, raising us lot. We would have been better off without that noose of a father around our necks, but she stayed with him. One time, when she cried over not being able to pay the rent, I asked her why she was still with him. All she could say was that she loved him. And I
thought love just wasn’t enough.”

  She felt sad for him. Sad for what his childhood must have been like. Sad that there seemed to be no love at all for his father.

  “I want to say I wouldn’t put up with anyone’s shit, but I can’t say that for sure, because I’ve never been in that kind of love before.”

  “No?” His eyes widened a bit.

  “Why do you seem surprised by that? You know what kind of life I live.”

  “Yes. I see the way men look at you wherever we go.” His fingers traced the line of her jaw. “They can’t take their eyes off you.”

  “That’s not true.” She often felt invisible. Or maybe she tried to be invisible for all these years. Her father always sought the light. She shied away from it whenever possible.

  “It is.”

  “Then why haven’t I been asked on a date in a year?”

  “Maybe because I won’t let a man anywhere near you.”

  She was surprised by his admission, but she didn’t want to read into it. “You’re the reason for my lack of orgasms.”

  “You could always give them to yourself.” He grinned at her. “In fact, I’m hoping you do.”

  “What other choice did I have? Should I have called you?”

  “You barely called me for anything.” He pressed his lips against her bare shoulder. “You wouldn’t let me drive you to work. You wouldn’t even let me pick up your damn takeout.”

  “I felt bad.”

  “Why? I’m supposed to work for you around the clock. I didn’t feel like I was earning my pay.”

  “I bet you feel like you’re earning it now.”

  “No,” he said and she could see the guilt in his eyes. “I feel like I should turn in my resignation. Being naked in bed with your principal isn’t a part of the job description.”

  “Who says you can’t have fun at work?”

  “We can’t do this anymore,” he said as he pressed his lips to hers. “When we get out of this bed we go back to the rules we had before. You can only touch me in front of my friends. When we’re alone we keep our hands to ourselves.”

  “How can I agree to that when you are running your hands all over me?”

  “I can’t seem to stop, Wyn. And that’s the problem.” His hand slid down her back, cupping her behind.

  “Why is it a problem when it’s what I want?”

  “I have my integrity. How am I supposed to maintain objectivity? How am I supposed to speak to your father if I’m carrying on with you behind his back?”

  “I don’t give a damn about my father.”

  “I’ve always done what’s right. I’ve always been professional. I can’t slip anymore.”

  “After today, right?” She pushed herself closer to him, feeling his erection against her thigh.

  “After we get out of this bed,” he said, right before he gave her the hottest kiss of her life. Her entire body caught on fire in that moment and she knew that no matter what he said, that this wouldn’t be the last time they would be here. It wasn’t just one-sided. He wanted her. And the longer they were together, the harder it was for them to stay apart.

  He slipped his hand between her legs, groaning when he found her slick with desire again. This morning she wasn’t content to lay back and be touched. She wanted to touch him too. She reached out and wrapped her fingers around his thick manhood. She couldn’t get the image of him from last night out of her head. The way he looked at her as he knelt over her, his hand pumping furiously. He wasn’t pleasuring himself, he was relieving the intense pressure that built up inside him. She didn’t want that to happen today. She wanted to share in this moment together.

  His eyes focused on hers and a question appeared in them.

  “You need to let me touch you,” she told him.

  Why should he give to her and not receive any love in return? She slid her hand down his shaft and he seemed to relent, his entire body relaxing. He closed the gap between their lips and kissed her as he began to stroke her in slow circles. There was no frenzied rush. He had told her as soon as they left this bed they would be going back to normal. It was what Cullen told himself he wanted, and Wynter would respect that, but right now she was in no rush to get out of bed and it seemed that he wasn’t either.

  They kissed and touched each other’s bodies, but as much as she wanted to make this feeling last forever, his fingers were too efficient and she found herself shuddering with climax. He followed soon after her and for a few long minutes they just lay wrapped up in each other, neither one of them wanting to move.

  “I know you said that we would go back to normal as soon as we left this bed, but how about we go back to normal as soon as we leave this room? You promised me a bath last night and that tub is big enough for two.”

  He thought about it for a moment, but then kissed the side of her face. “A promise is a promise.”

  * * *

  Cullen wasn’t sure what to make of the scene before him. Jazz and Wynter were sitting together at the patio table with bottles of nail polish before them. They were laughing. Together.

  “This looks like a five-year-old has done this,” Wynter said, looking at her hand.

  Jazz glanced down at her own fingers. “I can’t do my right hand either.”

  “Yours looks way better than mine.”

  “I don’t think yours looks so bad. The nail polish is old. I haven’t bought any in forever.”

  Wynter reached for the nail polish remover. “You want to get a manicure and pedicure with me?”

  Jazz looked absolutely stunned by the invitation. “Really?”

  “Yeah.” Wynter’s eyes lit up. “And maybe a massage? Is there a spa around here?”

  “I’m sure there is. I’ve never been to one before.”

  “No? I was pretty sure you’re the kind of woman a man likes to pamper.”

  “She is,” Cullen said. “But Jazz doesn’t allow anyone to take care of her.”

  “I take care of myself.”

  “Taking care of yourself requires more than money. You have to do some self-care as well,” Wynter said to her.

  “You’re one to talk. When’s the last time you’ve done something for yourself?” Cullen asked Wynter. He had been with her nearly every day for the past year and he had never seen her indulge at all.

  Wynter looked up at him, her head tilted slightly to the side, a smile in her eyes. A little mischievous smile played around her lips. “You’re the thing I do just for myself.”

  He couldn’t help but to grin back at her. Her sexiness shot straight through him and the urge to close the distance between them and kiss her nearly overwhelmed him. He remembered this morning in vivid detail, her naked body pressed against his in the bathtub. They had just touched each other, but there had been laughter and long kisses. He couldn’t recall another time he had enjoyed himself like that with a woman without sex. “You’re a cheeky lass.”

  He knew that they shouldn’t have done any of the things they did last night and this morning, but he couldn’t regret any of it. It had to stop before he got in any deeper. It would be hard enough to forget her as it is.

  “Do you two need to be alone?” he heard Jazz ask.

  “No.” He shook his head and pulled his eyes away from Wynter’s. “You two should go enjoy yourselves. There’s a hotel in town that just opened. I’m pretty sure they’ve got a little spa. You could probably get an appointment if you call right now.”

  “Are you talking about the Blue Cove Inn?” Jazz asked.

  “I think so. Enjoy yourselves.” He was glad that Wynter had suggested they go out together. Cullen had been a little worried about Jazz the last few days. She seemed slightly lost without King, even though he hadn’t gone anywhere. Something had clearly happened between the two and Cullen had hoped that it would sort itself out. Things would never be the same if there was a rift in the group. Jazz and King both needed this place. They all did, but the two of them had come here to heal. This couldn’t
be the scene of their heartbreak.

  It was hard when your best friends were in love with each other and too damn stubborn to do something about it.

  “Let me go back to our cottage and get my bag. I’ll meet you at the Jeep in ten minutes.”

  “Okay,” Jazz agreed. She looked unsure for a moment, her nature naturally distrusting, but she looked vulnerable too, which was a very new, very surprising side to her.

  She stood up and when Wynter was out of earshot, she walked over to him. “I don’t hate your girlfriend,” she said.

  “High praise indeed.” He nodded.

  “I mean it. She’s . . . sweet. She’s not trying to get anything. There’s no scam there. She’s just a nice person.”

  “You say that with some disgust.”

  “I was trying to find something wrong with her. I was actively looking for something to be wrong with her.” She shook her head. “What the hell is the matter with me?”

  “You were in too long. You were trained to question. Not to trust. That life is over now, Jazz. You can take people at face value now.”

  She let out a long sigh. “Maybe one day I’ll be able to do that.” She gave his shoulder a slight squeeze and walked away.

  Cullen felt a little guilt as Jazz got further away from him. Wynter was a nice person, but they were lying, presenting themselves as a couple when he knew they weren’t. It didn’t matter how attracted he was to her, or how he felt whenever he was near her. It was a lie. One that he could never reveal to them, even after Wyn returned home.

  It was important to protect Wyn’s identity and his friends’ comfort and seclusion. He knew they wouldn’t be able to be themselves around her if they really knew who she was. But still, even with the best reasons, he felt a little pit of uneasiness in his belly. He hated lying.

  He heard the phone ring from inside of the community house. It was rare that anyone called that line. He heard Darby answer the phone and he was about to walk away when he heard Darby call his name.

  He looked back at the patio and looked back to see Darby standing there with the cordless phone in his hand and a concerned look on his face.