Chapter Fourteen-Gloria
A fter last night, I thought for sure Bo was going to run screaming from me the next day. But he didn’t. And since it didn’t stop snowing, I couldn’t leave either.
“Come in here, Baby. I made us some lunch,” Bo called out from his kitchen.
I bit my lip and stood up from where I’d been sitting in his massive living room. Moose and Frou-Frou were keeping me company, and I grinned at how cute they looked, his massive dog and my fur baby napping side by side in front of the hearth.
His home was about twice the size of the rental, and the décor was a little more geared towards him.
The furniture was rustic looking and masculine, mainly made from leather and wood. But it was quality stuff and expensive too.
But it was the framed photographs that hung on the wall opposite the fireplace that really stunned me. They were top quality work. Beautiful, too.
One was of a twelve-point buck caught in the morning light beside a stream.
Another showed a flower budding at what I assumed was the start of spring, since snow was evident in the blurred background.
A third depicted a claw print, maybe a bear’s, just lying there in the mud, being filled by the falling rain.
Poignant.
Still.
Deep.
Each photo made the observer feel something.
Awe.
Hope.
Sadness.
I wondered where Bo bought the pictures, and I had to admit I was miffed when I didn’t see an artist's signature at the bottom.
It reminded me of some of the pictures my mystery photographer B.D. had sent for the gallery showing in just a few days.
But as quickly as I’d had the thought, it fled from my mind. A terrific aroma permeated the air, and my stomach growled as I joined Bo in the kitchen.
“What’s all this?” I asked, wide-eyed, staring at the veritable feast he’d laid across the counter.
“Nothing fancy. Just a zucchini, potato, and mozzarella frittata. A tomato salad. Some fresh orange juice. Coffee. And biscuits from one of those can thingies. I can’t do them from scratch,” he muttered, rubbing a hand over his unruly hair.
“This looks fantastic. Seriously,” I said and placed a hand on his arm.
His green eyes darkened and before I knew what was happening, Bo pulled me towards him and dropped a hard kiss on my mouth.
“ You look fantastic.”
“Hmm. I should warn you, sweet talk will get you anywhere,” I told him, allowing him to kiss me one more time before he pulled out a chair and guided me to sit down.
“I will hold you to that.”
I laughed and started eating when he joined me. But I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous about everything.
“So, tell me about yourself,” he began between mouthfuls.
“What do you want to know?” I asked, tucking my hair behind my ears nervously.
“Everything. Anything.”
“Wow. Wanna narrow it down there?” I teased.
“Okay. Let’s start with your job. Where do you work?” he asked.
“Oh, well, that’s easy. I work for Garden State Public Relations as a client specialist. I handle a variety of accounts from painters, singers, sculptors, professional chess players, and other artists from the tri-state area.
“Chess players?”
“Just one, but she’s fantastic,” I laughed as I told him more.
“I see. And you work in an office building?”
“Well, during covid, everything was handled remotely. I go into the office now a couple of days a week, but they are renovating through the new year. I don’t know if I’ll keep the same schedule,” I said, and shrugged.
Bo’s gaze intensified, and I had to look away, hoping I didn’t reveal too much about my hopes for our future. No promises were made, but I was definitely hinting.
“What about you? What do you do for a living?”
“I’m all set, actually. I don’t do offices,” he said and grinned.
“Just living off the land then, Mountain Man?”
I was only half teasing.
“Something like that. Oh, and I’m loaded,” he replied and winked as he started clearing away the platters of food.
It would be superficial of me to admit I felt relieved. I had worried that maybe Bo was some kind of off-the-grid, survivalist fanatic. But I should have known better.
He was just rich.
Eeek!
I made a decent living, but I was not in any way, shape or form, wealthy. But that was okay, right? I wasn’t asking him for anything.
“Oh, um, can I wash the dishes?” I asked, even more nervous now than I was before.
What if he thinks I am after his money?
“Aw, Baby, I would do anything for you, but I got the dishes. You go sit and pick out a movie.”
“Yeah?” I turned to him, eyebrows raised.
I almost stumbled. He looked so damn good standing there in cotton and denim that seemed molded to his long, sturdy frame.
My heart thudded inside my chest and my heat simmered in my core. Every time I looked at this man he lit a spark within me.
I didn’t quite know how to explain it, but I sure as hell liked it. I liked him.
So much.
“Yeah. Get going, Slick.” Bo kissed me on the temple and squeezed my ass before spinning me around and gently nudging me towards the living room.
“Okay,” I murmured and left him to clean up our lunch mess.
I spent five minutes perusing the pile of DVDs lined up on one of the shelves of his enormous entertainment center.
I’d been getting surprisingly good Wi-Fi at the cabin, but with the snowstorm outside, the connection was lost. But I was not worried. We had plenty of DVDs to entertain us.
Among other things.
I bit my lip as I slid my selection into the player and clicked the pause button, waiting for Bo to return.
“Hit play, Baby,” Bo said, and I complied.
“Don’t you want to know what I picked?” I asked as he sat down close to me.
“Nope. Come here,” he growled.
His green gaze glittered down at me, and I sighed as Bo cupped a hand around the back of my neck, dragging me to him for one of his patented panty-melting kisses.
Nothing compared to the way this man touched me. I was putty in his hands. Willing, wanting and waiting for him to mold me as he saw fit.
But for how long, Lo?
It didn’t really matter because it was already too late for me to deny him, to deny us. As far as I was concerned, I was all in.
Bo DuBois was the last man I ever expected to find when I ventured on this holiday, and he was the only man who could have made a dent in that armor I kept around my heart.
He was a dream. The walking, talking personification of every fantasy I never knew I’d always had.
Every single thing about him was tempting, alluring, working to bond me to him.
His humor.
His intensity.
His expert lips and passion-filled glances.
“You said you wanted to watch a movie,” I accused.
A whispered moan escaped my lips as he traveled from my mouth to my neck, and further down. My fingers were threaded through his hair, and I relished the feel of the silky thick strands.
Pleasure rushed through my veins as the sound of the fire crackling and the movie playing in the background faded to nothing. It was like the whole world disappeared when he touched me.
All I heard. Everything I felt and tasted. Every single thing I saw was him.
Just him.
All him.
I opened my eyes, hissing as the pleasure built quickly. That slow fire was now a towering inferno, and he was the only thing I knew that could quench the flames licking up and down my body.
“I never said I wanted to watch a movie, Slick. I just said put one on,” he growled, then kissed his way across the tops of my breasts that were revealed in the tank top I wore beneath a zippered hoodie I stole from his closet.
“Oh God,” I moaned, turning my head towards the big, double-insulated picture window.
The snow was falling harder now, faster. It was so beautiful. Picture perfect, but even that couldn’t compare to what was happening inside of me.
“Bo, please,” I begged.
“You look so fucking sexy in my clothes, Baby.”
“I do?” I asked, wonder filled at the very sincere flattery this god of a man rained down on me so effortlessly.
But it didn’t feel like empty words. It felt bigger, heavier. Like everything seemed to where he was concerned.
Dangerous man.
Bo was tearing down all my defenses. I should have been more careful, but I was caught off guard and falling fast.
“Yeah, you fucking do, Baby. But you look even better without them,” he growled, and I felt that all the way to my core.
I barely had time to register what he was doing when he slid to his knees, tugged my pants off, and spread my legs.
The way he looked at me, with so much unguarded hunger had my legs shaking and my breath coming in short, harsh pants.
I didn’t know how to handle this. My reactions to him. The way he watched me, staring like I was the only woman in the world.
“You are the only woman in the world for me, Baby. Fuck. Look here. Always so wet for me. Gotta have a taste,” he groaned and closed his mouth right over my pussy.
I bucked against him, a keening moan leaving my lips as Bo ate me thoroughly. The flat of his tongue pressed against my asshole before he swiped it all the way across my folds to my needy little clit.
“Oh! So good, Bo. I-I’m gonna come,” I shouted.
“Do it. I want your slick all over my face, Baby. Come. Right. Now,” he growled, and I had no other choice.
My pussy convulsed, and Bo covered my body with his. His mouth caught mine, and he kissed the hell out of me as he split me open on his gloriously hard cock.
“Give me another, Baby. I want another,” he growled, holding my throat as he rocked into me.
The base of his cock pressed my clit just right, and soon I saw stars. Pleasure slithered through every cell in my body, sending me spiraling into the stratosphere.
Bo’s body jerked above me, and I watched in awe as the big, beautiful man fell apart in my arms. He collapsed on top of me, boneless and breathless.
After what we just did, I did not blame him one bit.
I squeezed him to me, clutching him so tightly. Like I was afraid he would evaporate into thin air or something.
I knew it was fast and that it made no sense.
After all, we hardly know each other.
But I’d never felt this way about anyone else before. Technically, Bo was a mystery to me, but inside, I felt as if I’d known him forever.
Being in his arms just felt right. Like I was meant to be there with him.
I was still curious, though. I wanted to explore this, whatever it was we had. Was it just a holiday fling? I couldn’t be sure. But it felt like more to me. He felt like more.
He felt like everything.
I pushed all thoughts of leaving early out of my head. If Bo didn’t want me here, he’d let me know. But maybe he wanted to pursue this thing, too?
When I said I was all in, I meant all in. I wanted to pepper him with questions. To listen to him as he spoke. To share secrets and wishes.
What made him tick? Why had he hidden himself away like this?
I mean, I wanted to know it all. The basic and the deep. Everything and anything I could learn. I was hungry for information. Desperate to hear about him from his own lips.
At my age, it was pretty ridiculous of me to act like some teenager with her first crush. But the truth was, before he told me he hadn’t had a woman in five years, I’d thought I was in over my head.
I mean, Bo was a walking fantasy. A hero straight out of one of those smutty novels Andy liked to read when he was supposed to be working.
But it wasn’t just his sexy mountain man looks that stole my heart. It was that and everything else about him, too.
Like how kind he was to Moose and Frou-Frou, giving them belly rubs and treats when he did not know he was being observed.
The way he took care of me with the fireplace fiasco and the generator breaking. And of course, I couldn’t discount the way he took care of me in bed.
Bo was the most thorough lover I’ve ever had. The man touched me in places I never knew existed.
Get your mind out of the gutter!
I was talking about my heart.
How rude! Snort.
He said he loved me, and I couldn’t get it out of my head.
Probably because I was in love with him, too.