by Harlow Layne
At first, I thought it was the fact that they made it so easy to let me shove my cock down their throats that made their actions a turnoff, but I knew that wasn’t the case. While I knew if a girl was pretty or not, they weren’t what got me amped up. It was one person only, and he was sitting right beside me with no idea how he tormented me whenever I was around him.
Ever since Lo said West was gay, it was all I could think about. Had I already known, and that’s why I had this abnormal attraction to him? No, that wasn’t it, but I had no idea what it was. If I had, I would have kicked his ass and made sure he stayed as far away from me as humanly possible until my dying day.
I couldn’t like him. Not in that way, or at all, for that matter. My parents would disown me, would stop me from receiving any money from my trust fund, and my college tuition would be up to me to provide. Nothing and no one was worth going through that hell.
In the fight to keep my mouth closed and my body’s response to him a secret, I held myself rigid on my side of the truck.
West was true to his word and kept silent until he slowed the truck to a complete stop. I looked up from staring out the side window to find a road closed sign in the middle of the road.
I would have told West to go around it, but there were barricades on both sides. Even though I hated it, I would trust the CALTRANS to know if the road was passable or not.
“Fuck, the road’s closed.” He slammed his hands on the steering wheel and muttered under his breath. “It’s the only way to your house, and the snow is only getting worse.” He let out a resigned huff. “You can stay at my place tonight, and hopefully, first thing in the morning, the roads will be clear.”
Looking out my window at the rapidly falling snow creating almost whiteout conditions, I knew I didn’t have much choice in the matter. I swung my head back to stare at him. It was either have West leave me out on the side of the road or stay at his house. The plus side was I could at least torture him all night.
“Fine,” I gritted out.
“Don’t sound too excited about it. You know I’m doing you a favor here, right? I could have left you back at your car for you to die of hypothermia.”
I rolled my eyes. “You wouldn’t have done that.”
“And why not?” he asked, sounding annoyed.
“Because you’re too much of a nice guy.” I didn’t tell West even I wouldn’t have left someone in need of help in the weather we were having.
He turned the truck around and drove for a few minutes before he responded. “I’m not always a nice guy.”
“What’s the last thing you did that made you an asshole?”
West took his eyes off the road for a few seconds and stared at me as if I knew the answer to my own question. When I widened my eyes at him and shook my head, he blew out a breath and looked back at the snow-covered road.
“Outside the Lucia’s when… when you know,” he stuttered quietly and then chewed on the inside of his cheek.
Knowing he was embarrassed by catching Candy blowing me had me smiling like a Cheshire cat. I loved it.
“When what happened outside the diner? It’s not a place I often frequent, so who knows what all happens when I’m not there.” He was the reason I always suggested someplace else to eat when the guys or the team wanted to grab something to eat.
“You were there, and you know what happened,” he said through gritted teeth.
Oh, this was going to be fun. “I can’t seem to recall. What happened? Did you punch a customer?” I bit out the words, trying to hold in a laugh as West’s face grew redder by the second.
West watching Candy as she gave me a blowjob didn’t make him an asshole. No matter, though, I loved that he thought it did.
He choked and spluttered so much, I thought I was going to have to take over driving for a moment. “Do you think I’d have a job at Lucia’s if I punched someone?”
Damn, he made it too easy. “It is possible. Why else would you be working at the resort instead of at the diner during the break?”
“Ugh,” he yelled. “You wouldn’t understand. You’ve never had to worry about money a day in your life.” His knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel in a death grip.
“While that may be so, I do understand not everyone is as fortunate as I am, and there are plenty of people in the world who struggle.”
West’s jaw hung as he stared over at me. I thought he was going to run us off the road with his dumbfounded expression.
“Did you lose your job in town?” I finally asked to break West out of his state of shock.
He let out an annoyed huff and turned back to look out the windshield. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no, I didn’t lose my job. During winter and spring break, I work up here, and the rest of the year, I’m at the diner.” For some reason, I wanted to know why, but I wouldn’t let myself care, so I stayed silent. As if West knew my unspoken question, he answered, “I make more money working at the resort than I do working at the diner for two months.”
“Then why don’t you work at the resort… more?” I doubted he had the funds to afford to drive up here all the time if he drove this piece of shit truck up the mountain.
“If it paid as good as it does in the winter, I’d spend my summers up here, but they don’t need a ski instructor during the summer.”
“Did your coach know what you do during the offseason?” I knew our coaches would have handed us our asses if they knew we were skiing or if there was any possibility we could get hurt. I had no one to answer to now that the season was over, but if I made the team at Willow Bay next year, I wouldn’t be taking the chance. I’d heard the new coach was a real hard-ass and would throw anyone off the team if they were caught not following the rules. It didn’t matter if they were the star of the team or a bench warmer.
“Another prime example, I’m not as good as I seem.” He let out a dark chuckle.
I had a feeling West wasn’t doing it because he wanted to be a bad boy but because he needed the money. While it was honorable, I wasn’t going to let West off the hook.
A dark chuckle escaped. “If you think working two jobs makes you a bad boy, you’re delusional. In fact, it does the opposite.”
Pulling into a dark driveway, he stared drolly at me. “Why do I have a feeling you’ll never let me win?”
Because I hated West Jackson and the way he made me feel.
An evil smirk crossed my face. “Now tell me what happened at the diner that makes you an asshole,” I demanded.
5
West
Out of the corner of my eye, I tried to watch as Fin took in my home for winter break. It wasn’t much, but it was free and warm, and nothing beat that. During the first season, I worked as a ski instructor at Snow Valley. A couple of years ago, one of the employees, Taylor, saw that I was trying to live out of my truck to save money. He offered his guest house for me to use, which was probably the size of a shed compared to what Fin was used. It had a bathroom, a fireplace, a full-size bed with a tiny kitchen and living room area. It was my home away from home, and I thought it was cozy. Going by the pinched looked on Fin’s face, he thought the opposite.
“How the hell do you stay here?”
The disgust in his voice had me wanting to kick him out and let him fend for himself, but I knew he’d likely die out in the blizzard, and I couldn’t live with that on my conscience. That and Fin would probably beat the shit out of me or try to kill me if I attempted to push him out the door.
“Not all of us live in mansions,” I said as I moved through the area.
With Fin in my space, it felt a whole hell of a lot smaller. It was like he’d sucked the air out of the room the moment he walked in. His large frame took up almost the entire living area.
Fin’s nostrils flared as his eyes narrowed. “I do know that. Don’t hold it against me that I come from a privileged family.”
“And don’t hold it against me that I have to work two jobs to help
my mom support my brother and me. I need to make all the money I can before I head off to college.”
I had no idea why I opened up to him. Fin tried every chance he got to make my life miserable whenever we were anywhere near each other.
Fin threw the bag he’d brought in on the floor by the door before he turned to me with a strange expression on his face. It looked like he wanted to throttle me, and at the same time, a sense of understanding was there. There was no way Finley Huntington understood what it was like to be poor. To not know if you’d have enough money to pay for groceries for the week or the electric bill.
“If you can get over yourself, make yourself at home while I go get cleaned up. Once I’m done, I’ll make us something to eat. I should warn you now, it won’t be anything gourmet.” I wouldn’t put it past him to turn his nose up at my grilled cheese and tomato soup, but if he was hungry, Fin would get over himself.
Rolling his eyes at me, Fin plopped down on the beat-up couch and kicked his boot-clad feet up onto the table. As much as I tried, I couldn’t take my eyes off of his designer jeans that molded perfectly to his muscular legs. Eventually, peeling my eyes away, I didn’t look back as I stepped into the tiny bathroom, turned on the water, and waited for it to warm. I could hear Fin moving around outside and wondered what he was doing. Was he snooping? There was nothing here or anywhere for him to find. It wasn’t like I doodled in a notebook like some lovesick girl, professing my love for him, or for anyone for that matter, and scribbled their last name after mine.
Once the water was warm, I stepped inside the shower and pulled the curtain closed, hoping it would block all thoughts of Fin Huntington from my mind. It did the opposite. I kept picturing Fin out in the living room and that night after the game. The number of times I had fantasized about it being me down on my knees in that parking lot was embarrassing. I hated how attracted I was to him, but I couldn’t fight it no matter how hard I tried or how many times he spouted his awful words at me. Strangely, it seemed the snider and uglier the comments he made, the more I wanted him. It made me seriously look at myself in the mirror and wonder what the hell was wrong with me.
He was evil incarnate with a sinful body I’d do anything to feel against mine.
It took all my self-control to not jerk myself off after I washed the grime of the day off me, but knowing Fin was only a few feet away from me kept my lingering hand away from my stiff shaft. Knowing my luck, he’d hear me and barge into the bathroom, spouting how he knew I was touching myself while fantasizing about him.
Less than five minutes later, I emerged from the bathroom to find Fin squatting in front of the fireplace, cursing and pulling the ends of his dark hair with both hands.
“Problem?” I asked, causing Fin to jump up and glare at me.
“For fuck's sake,” he shouted, and then started to grumble under his breath as he paced back and forth.
“What seems to be the problem?” I asked again as I knelt down and started to make a little nest of materials in the middle of the wood Fin had put in the fireplace. “Were you trying to make a fire?” Even as I asked it, I knew the words that tumbled out of my mouth were stupid.
“You know damn good and well that I was,” he growled, stopping to stand behind me. I could feel the heat of his body radiating off him. He was a damn furnace. What did he need with a fire?
“If you want, I can let you finish?” I started to stand when his large hands slammed down on my shoulders and held me in place.
“You fucking do it,” he said in a scathing tone.
I heard the silent ‘asshole’ he wanted to say at the end of his sentence. It surprised me he held back when so often he didn’t.
It only took me a minute before flames were licking up the side of the firebox. Fin was back to grumbling in the background. Why had I thought it was a good idea to invite him to my house? Oh right, I didn’t, but I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter either.
Standing to my full height, I asked as I walked into the kitchen to wash my hands, “Are you hungry?”
“Starving. I didn’t eat lunch because all the girls were whining about how many times they fell and the bruises on their asses. I couldn’t stand it a minute longer and went back out on the slopes. I’m surprised I didn’t see you out there.”
He was standing right behind me, but I didn’t look over my shoulder. For the moment, we seemed to have a truce, and I didn’t want to break it.
“Today, I was on the bunny slopes helping the beginners, so I doubt you would have seen me. I have a feeling you stay as far away from them as possible.”
His only response was to walk away, chuckling.
“Since you didn’t eat, I’ll make you an extra grilled cheese. Like I said before, you won’t be getting a gourmet meal here.”
“I’m sure it’s a hell of a lot better than whatever the girls are making. Whatever they made last night was inedible. I was sure I was going to have to live off pizza the entire time I was on the mountain.”
How many girls were there at his house? Finley Huntington confused the hell out of me. I could practically feel his heated stare, and at the same time, his hatred.
To keep the peace, I kept quiet, and Fin seemed to be on the same page. We ate in silence while we watched a basketball game on the TV that was mounted above the fireplace. Our gaze stayed fixated on the players as they moved up and down the court. Once the game was over, I wasn’t sure what to do. It was strange having Fin in my space. I felt like I should entertain him, but there wasn’t anything to do here but watch TV. I needed to get some sleep since I had to get up early the next morning, knowing I’d have to dig my truck out from under all the snow the blizzard brought through the night. Hopefully, the roads would be clear, and Fin would be out of here.
“What’s the address here?” Fin asked as he looked at his phone while lying on the couch.
I rattled off the address as I filled a thermos full of hot chocolate. I hadn’t realized I’d woken him up as I got ready. I tried to be as quiet as possible, but the space was small, and the sound carried easily. I was surprised he hadn’t flown off the handle since it was early. His phone dinged, surprising me even more that he was having a text conversation with someone at five in the morning.
Leaning against the counter, I watched as he typed on his phone. “I didn’t mean to wake you up. Do you want some coffee?”
His eyes shifted to me and then back to his phone. “As strong as you got. I barely slept last night on this lumpy as shit couch. Oz is coming to pick me up. He’ll be here in about an hour, or so he thinks.” His voice was pure gravel, and it stirred something deep in my gut.
Turning back around, I started a pot of coffee and didn’t respond. I listened as Fin shuffled around the room and then went into the bathroom. A moment later, the water turned on and then off. When he came out, I could feel the heat of his body as he stood behind me. There was also rage. So much rage. What happened in his life to make him hate the world the way he did?
“How long does it take to make a cup of coffee?” he growled out.
“I don’t have one of those fancy Keurig machines, so you’ll just have to hold your horses.”
One second I was standing at the counter, watching the first drips of coffee land in the pot, and the next, I was thrown against the wall. I thought Fin was going to punch me—not that he had a reason to—but instead, he kept pushing into me. His hard body was against mine, and I could feel the thick bulge in his pants. Hard lips crashed into mine with bruising strength.
Fin pulled back. His face twisted in anger and pain. Opening my mouth to ask him what the hell he was doing, I was shut up by his lips descending on mine again. The kiss was hard and desperate. Angry and wild. Rough and delicious.
Hands traveled down my arms, skirted across my taut stomach, only to then dive down and grip my straining cock through my jeans.
Letting out a groan, my hands moved of their own volition. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Fin H
untington would be touching me like this. My breath picked up as my fingertips moved under the hem of his shirt, and felt the silky expanse of skin on his washboard abs.
I wanted more. I needed to taste him. To taste the monster because I might never get another chance. Breaking the kiss, I nipped down his neck as I slowly started to undo the belt on his jeans. I tugged his fly open and was ready to take a knee when Fin jerked out of my grip.
I flew back and landed on my ass. With wide eyes, I looked up at him. Fin’s face was colored red and pinched with rage. He took one step toward me, and I instinctually crab crawled back until I couldn’t go any further. Bricks dug into my back as I held my hands up. I wasn’t sure if they were up in surrender or to protect myself.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he roared.
“I… I,” I stammered, unsure of how to answer his question.
“Did you want to suck my big, fat cock? Hmmm? Let me come down your throat? Do you want to taste me, like all the girls do?” The venom of each word he spat burned and scorned me. Shame filled my veins as hatred lit up his black orbs.
“You came onto me,” I shouted back. I stood, not letting him have the upper hand any longer. It didn’t matter how attracted I was to this asshole. I couldn’t—wouldn’t let him treat me like I was the dirt beneath his fancy-ass shoes.
He charged me. His hands slammed into my chest hard, and I went tumbling down onto the floor. “Fuck off, fag.”
I didn’t move as I watched Fin pace back and forth from one end of the house to the other. He pulled at his hair so hard I thought he was going to rip out a chunk.
When Fin’s phone dinged, and he pulled it out of his pocket, I let out a sigh of relief. With one look at it, his entire demeanor changed. He was still pissed, there was no doubt about it, but somehow he was reining it in. Something I was entirely grateful for. He moved to lean against the wall. It felt like a standoff until he crossed his arms over his chest. For a brief moment, I forgot all about Fin losing his shit on me and couldn’t help but stare at the way his biceps bulged and his pecs flexed underneath his shirt.