Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
AXL
W atching Billie shiver in the bathtub brought back a wave of memories I preferred stay buried. I’d seen what hypothermia could do to a person. Even in the military with all the right equipment and gear, nature will crush you if you aren’t prepared. Cold creeps in fast, and after the shivering comes the calm. I shook off my next thought and focused on Billie.
“Feeling better?” I asked, noticing her chills subside.
“Thanks,” she said, gathering bubbles to her chest. She piled them on top of her boobs, making them look like mountain peaks. I’ll admit, I stole a glance. She caught me looking at her bubble art and gave me a smile.
It was good to see her perking up. I knew logically that Billie was only trapped in the snow for a few minutes, but it felt much longer. She was lucky the snow was powder. A shit-ton of it fell on her, but it wasn’t heavy with ice or water. She could have been knocked unconscious.
I felt sick to my stomach remembering how I jerked the barn door open. It was my own fault. I pulled so hard it shook a big sheet of snow loose from the roof with no warning. It was a roof avalanche, and I caused it. I felt responsible; I should have been more aware of our surroundings. I failed to properly read the margin of error. The most dangerous mistakes are the ones you don’t see coming. In my experience, that’s when people get hurt.
“Do you have a medical background from the military?” she asked, leaning back in the tub. The water was high enough now to give her better bubble coverage. No more peek-a-boo boob shots for me.
“I don’t have a formal medical background,” I said, “but I’ve been in extreme situations. I’ve learned a thing or two.”
“Oh,” she said. The tub made a funny sucking noise as the water reached above the overflow drain.
“I should lower the level,” I said, pushing up my sleeves.
She gathered her knees to her chest, bubbles shifting. As she moved in the water, I glimpsed the brown peaks of her nipples, erect and proud. Her tits were gorgeous and absolutely not there for me to see.
I looked away as I fumbled underwater for the drain. My hand found the lever. I flipped it, and the water gurgled. I flipped it again when the level dropped enough.
“All good,” I said. Billie stretched out her legs again as I removed my hand from the water. I felt the sensation of her feet tracing along my forearm. Her touch sent ripples of electricity through my body. I wondered if she felt it, too.
“Sorry,” she said, eyes on the water.
“It’s all good. More hot water,” I said, turning the faucet on again. I sat back on my knees and watched the water run.
“I should have let you get the lights on your own,” she said. “I’m sorry I pushed you. I’m not used to being taken care of like this.”
“Really?”
“I mean, my mom takes care of me,” she added, eyes darting to my face for a moment. “My dad was not around. He cheated on my mom and left before I was born. He didn’t want to be a husband or a dad.”
“Sounds like he missed out,” I said, treading carefully. She had mentioned her cheating father briefly before. She was opening up to me, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
“I’m sure I have daddy issues,” she said, using air quotes. “I have a super bad habit of falling for guys who lie, guys who cheat. And I’m not used to trusting people.” She paused. “I’m not used to trusting men.”
I nodded, drizzling more warm water over her shoulders. The bathroom felt hot, the air was humid, and my body tingled every time I watched the water glide over her glistening skin. I wanted to reach out and touch her.
“Well, you can trust me,” I said. “I’m not a cheater, and I’m not a liar.”
“I know,” she said. “I mean, I think I know. You’ve been nice to me, all things considered.”
“The snow wasn’t your fault,” I said. “I should have seen the danger. That’s on me.”
“You can’t predict everything. It’s not your fault.”
I shook my head. “No, I should have accessed that the margin for error out there was quite high.”
She laughed. “Still, the margin would have gone down if I’d kept my mouth shut and stayed inside with Cam.”
“Yeah, but it would have been hard for me to grab both the lanterns and the flashlights on my own.”
“Bullshit.” She laughed. “You are saying that just to make me feel better.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I laughed, too. “You were a pain in my ass and should have stayed inside with the dog.”
She splashed me. “You are so mean,” her playful smile balanced her teasing words, “but you are not a liar.”
“No, I am not.” I hoped it was true. There were things I wasn’t telling Billie, but they didn’t matter, did they? Besides, the moment had passed. It was too late to tell her more about Angel and me or my past. It would be weird to bring it up right now.
“I suppose my stupid neon coat made it easier to find me in the snow,” she said, her eyes focused on the bubbles and away from me .
“It is a horrible color, but it’s cute on you,” I said, cascading more water down her back. What was I doing? That was flirtatious and a compliment.
“Okay, now you are lying.”
“Impossible.”
“Well, I’d be lying if I said I liked the color of your car.”
“You already told me that it’s obnoxious. I know how you feel about it, and I’m over the hurt.”
“I know,” she said, looking up at me with her wide brown eyes. They looked dark and endless, and I wondered which one of us would look away first. The heat of her stare felt loaded with a message I couldn’t read.
She looked away first, moving the bubbles with her hands. “Yesterday you said you were used to defending that car. What did you mean?”
Okay, so this was a safe topic. “You want more water, or are you good?”
She looked up at me and bit her lip. My cock jumped, and it took effort to keep my expression neutral.
“I’d like more,” she said softly. “Please.”
“Okay then.” I scooted closer to the tub and crossed my legs instead of kneeling on the hard floor. “So you want to know how I got ol’ Lemon.”
“You named your car.”
“Um, yeah,” I grinned. “If you had a car the color of a lemon Starburst, what would you name her?”
“Why is it a her?”
“Because,” I stumbled over my words, “uh, I don’t know … cars and boats, they just are.”
She looked at me, lips pursed.
“Are you going to tell me I’m being sexist.”
“I don’t know, are you? They are objects that men with power like to control.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I sighed. “What if I told you that my car is nonbinary. ”
“Perfect,” she said.
“After I left the military — ” I continued.
“Did you fly?” she interrupted.
“Yes, I did. I enlisted at eighteen. I dropped out of the local college in Modesto. School was not my thing. When I retired from the military, I ended up connecting with one of my Air Force buddies who lives in Florida. We started a business.”
“Did you guys buy a Bubba Gump shrimp boat together and make millions?”
“As a matter of fact, we did not, and I have seen that movie. I get the reference.”
“Because it’s a super-old movie, and you mentioned you like old-school rock.”
“Whose story is this?” I said, pouring more water on her back. The line of her spine was straight, and I resisted the urge to run my finger down it.
“Carry on.” She twirled her hands. “Wait. I am going to get my hair wet.”
Billie bent her knees and put her head below the bubbles, her hair spreading out like a dark fan around her. Then, with an exhale, she rose out of the water, exposing her breasts.
“Thanks,” she said. “That felt good.”
Her breasts bobbed just above the surface. Her dark nipples rose and fell as the water shifted.
I swallowed. My dick throbbed, and I ached to lean over and take one of her luscious tits into my mouth. “You lost your bubble bra,” I said, pointing at the water.
“Oh, whoops,” she said. She squealed and pulled armfuls of bubbles closer, but it was clear that the bubbles were fading.
“I’ll keep my eyes high” I said, focusing on her eyes, but wishing to drink in every inch of her naked body.
“Are you always such a gentleman?” she asked. Her voice was soft and flirtatious.
“No,” I said, telling her the truth.
“I didn’t think so.” She looked up at me, her mouth open. I was aware of the fullness of her lower lip. Her cheeks flushed from the heat, she looked warm and inviting. All traces of her pale and shocked skin were gone. Her breath was shallow, and she moved her fingertips back and forth in the water, swirling what remained of the bubbles.
Fuck, my dick liked seeing her naked in this tub.
“Finish your story,” she said, her dark eyes focused on mine.
I swallowed and took a deep breath. I wondered if she could hear my heart beating in my cock, because I sure as hell felt it. Her skin shimmered with water and bubbles. After holding her body in my arms, I knew her breasts were perky but soft, and the round curve of her ass had felt smooth and tight. I wanted to press my cock against and inside all her warm and soft places.
“I’m waiting,” she said.
“Right. Right. So, I’m in Boca Raton working with my buddy, Miles.”
“Um, fancy.”
“Yes, so fancy. Can’t you just see me there?”
“No,” she said.
“Miles is quite the poker player, and I’ve been known to have some card smarts. One night, we ended up in a pretty intense card game in the sky lounge of this super yacht.”
“A super yacht,” she said, wiggling her shoulders up and down. “I didn’t peg you as a fancy yacht guy.”
“I’m not, but Miles is, and we’re friends. But I do like high stakes poker, and that’s what we played that night. It was a rough game for me. The cards were cold as ice. One hand left, and I knew I could turn it around, so I bet my plane.”
Her jaw dropped. “Wait, you bet your plane?”
“Yep,” I said. “It wasn’t smart, but as I told you, I’m a pretty good player.”
“So you bet the plane … ”
“And I won, but this guy at the table was super pissed.”
“There’s always one guy, am I right?”
I laughed. She was easy to talk to, and I had to admit, it was fun to have a conversation, especially fun that the conversation was with a beautiful woman who kept flashing her gorgeous nipples at me. “His name was Leonard Dick.”
“No,” she said. “You’re joking. That sounds made up.”
“Sure as shit. Lenny Dick was across from me. He started the hot-dog-on-a-stick franchise.”
She looked confused.
“You know, they used to be in malls. You’d buy a hot dog on a stick, and they had lemonade, which is why he had a custom-made, lemon-yellow Jeep. I cleaned him out, and then he threw down the title.”
I thought back to the day I won that car, Lenny standing there grinning, so sure his full house would win, but he couldn’t beat my royal flush. That was also when I met Angel, but that part of the story was not something I needed to share. Billie didn’t need to know anything about the worst parts of myself, so I edited the tale a bit.
“You won his yellow car,” she said.
“Yes, yes, I did.” I sighed.
“Why didn’t you repaint it?”
“Because I don’t give a shit if people think my car is ugly. The truth is, she has — ”
“She?” Billie interrupted me.
“He, they, whatever … that car is made for the desert, the jungle, the winter.”
“Okay, so your sweet little lemon is a baller. I get it.”
“You get it,” I said.
Our eyes locked, then Billie looked away and moved her fingertips across the surface of the water. It was quiet, outside of our breathing and the sound of water moving sloshing in the tub.
I heard a thump in the other room.
“I should check that,” I said, standing.
She sat up in the tub, eyes wide. “Do you think it’s something bad?”
“Nah, it’s probably just another dump of snow coming off the roof. I’ll be back. ”
“Okay. I’m going to get out in a minute.”
“Take your time,” I said, then paused at the door. “And be slow when you get out of the water. If you get a head rush, sit back down.”
“You got it, doc,” she said. “I’m fine. Thanks for helping me.”
I swallowed. My hard-on had subsided while talking about the Jeep. I closed the bathroom door, my hands pressed against the wood behind me. I heard gentle splashing inside, and just like that, my dick stirred to life.Just thinking about Billie naked was enough to get me going again.
I heard another thump and walked into the great room to see the snow piled higher in front of the window. As I watched, I heard another thump as more snow slid off the roof.
For a moment, I worried about the roof, but a look at the big beams in the great room told me that this cabin was built to withstand hundred-year storms, if that indeed was what we were facing. I knew enough about the Colorado snowfall to realize that this wasn’t normal. If I had a phone that could reach the internet, or if I could bear watching the news, I was certain that this storm was setting records.
There was nothing to be done about the snow sliding off the roof, and it wouldn’t do any harm. I was a little worried about the barn, but also figured that the smart thing to do would be to assess the situation once the wind died down. To clear the barn roof, I’d need to go up on a ladder, and climbing up there in sub-zero weather with fifty mile-per-hour gusts was not wise.
I walked down the hall intending to tell Billie that everything was clear when I heard her singing through the door.
I couldn’t make out the words, but her voice sounded lovely, even muffled by the door. I stood outside listening. Damn, it was charming. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard a woman sing like that.
I heard the doorknob turn and was about to move when she stepped into the hall stumbling.
A towel around her body, she fumbled to keep it up over her breasts as I caught her right arm. My dick was hard as a rock, and I felt her lean into it, sending shivers down my body. She had to feel it .
“Hi,” I said, breathless, but not letting go.
She looked up at me, but didn’t move away. In fact, she leaned into me, pressing her body against my hard-on. Her chocolate brown eyes reminded me of pools of dark water. Her chest rose and fell, her breath shaking, but not from the cold.
She felt like lightning in a bottle in my arms. She had to feel it, too. I reached up and brushed a hair off of her face, my fingertips tingling as I touched her.
“You caught me,” she whispered.
“Seems like it,” I said, my voice gravelly with desire.
“I wanted to say thank you,” she said.
“Yeah.”
It felt like slow motion. She put her hands on my shoulders and pulled my face toward her. Her soft lips pressed against mine, and she kissed me. Her mouth opened and her tongue swept through my mouth. My dick throbbed.
As we kissed, I wanted to snake my hands under her towel and feel her soft skin beneath my palms. I wanted to bury my mouth between her legs and taste her sweetness.
She moved away, eyes wide, and licked her lips.
“I should get dressed.” She walked past me and into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.
I gasped, dropping my hands to my knees. I wanted to follow her into that bedroom and fuck her senseless.