CHAPTER TWELVE
Jagger
Apparently, the overhead light and all the lamps were on before the power outage happened. Because when the electricity came back on around four-thirty in the morning, it was like a bright, sunny day on a snowy mountain, and my eyes burned as I struggled to make sense of my surroundings.
Somehow, the little cactus snoring beside me in the bed wasn’t bothered by the light as she slept through it all while I rushed around the room, shutting everything off.
By that point though, I was wide awake.
I also had another boner—super inconvenient—which I ducked into the bathroom to relieve.
The dream I’d been having before the lights came on, involved one sexy, prickly, little redhead and that adorable constellation of freckles on her inner left thigh.
Oh fuck, how I wanted to kiss those last night.
Run my tongue across them and feel her legs quake as I did.
But that would have been too intimate. Kissing and all that other fun stuff wasn’t part of the deal.
It wasn’t what I offered her. I offered to go down on Raina.
I offered her an orgasm—and she had two , props to me—but that was it.
My dreams, however, had no such limitations, and in those I ate her out, I fucked her; she sucked my cock, and she begged me to wrap my hand around her throat and give her a pretty five-finger necklace.
I stood in the shower under the spray, stroking my cock from root to tip as the image of her coming flashed back into my mind.
Her eyes were closed both times she orgasmed, so I snuck a peek and watched as she came undone with abandon.
As she yanked on my hair, drove her pussy hard against my face, and rode it like she owned it, soaking my beard and gushing across my tongue.
My balls cinched up against my taint as the warmth in my belly intensified.
The taste of her lingered on my lips just enough that the sweep of my tongue across them was enough to pitch me over the edge and thick spurts of cum mixed with the warm water, circling the drain before finally disappearing.
We really needed to get the fuck home today.
Spending time with the cute little fireball that pretended to hate me was getting more and more difficult.
And not because up until forty-eight hours ago we’d been mortal enemies.
It was because now we weren’t mortal enemies, and I really liked that. Like really, really liked that.
Fuck my life.
After my cock deflated, I got dressed, then quietly exited the bathroom and the bedroom, closing the door softly behind me so Elsa didn’t wake up.
When I got downstairs, the woodstove was out, and although the furnace had kicked on some time after the electricity returned, the house still had a chilly nip to it.
I quickly re-lit the woodstove, then fixed myself a cup of coffee before taking a seat in the sitting room and bringing out my phone.
An onslaught of texts from my brothers greeted me, but it was the one from Bennett about the water taxi that jolted my pulse.
It was too early to call anybody, but a quick check on all the weather apps, and the update from the Wayman and San Camanez harbormasters said that vessels were once again allowed to leave the marinas, which meant we were finally going home.
Despite her haggard, rundown appearance from tying on one too many glasses of wine last night, Lenora was up and in the kitchen, puttering around by five-thirty.
“Let me help,” I said, after she glanced at me with her tired eyes.
The older woman nodded. “If you wouldn’t mind cutting up the fruit for the fruit salad, please, dear.”
“On it.”
We worked mostly in silence, since I could tell she was nursing a splitting headache. She alternated between drinking coffee and chugging water, and I watched her pop two little tablets of Advil at one point. She also kept rubbing her temples and eyes.
“When was the last time you had a night like that?” I asked, removing the tops off a bunch of strawberries.
Lenora exhaled, her shoulders rounding. “Long time. It was fun, but I’m paying for it.”
Smirking, I quartered the berries before adding them to the bowl with the other diced fruits.
“It’s not fair. It tastes so good going down, makes you forget all your troubles, and enjoy life.
Then it makes you feel like death the next day,” I joked before cracking my neck side-to-side, grateful that I didn’t have to sleep on the floor.
Otherwise, my back would surely be wrecked and not just a little stiff from chopping wood yesterday.
“I think it’s so we don’t always do it. Otherwise, the world would be full of unproductive drunks. Nothing would get done.”
Nodding, I grabbed the bowl of freshly washed grapes. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“Breakfast will be a little different, I’m afraid,” she said with a defeated look in her eyes. “Normally, I prepare all the pastries the night before, then bake them in the morning. But with no power and … the wine last night, I just didn’t.”
“And everyone will understand.” I held her gaze, driving home the fact that she need not worry. “We’ll put out a dandy spread, I promise.”
She didn’t seem convinced, and went to the freezer. “I have store-bought English muffins. We could fry up some eggs, slice some cheese, and I think I have some frozen, store-bought sausage patties we could cook up in the air fryer. Do you think they’d mind that not everything is homemade?”
“Is that what you advertise, you crazy woman?”
Her cheeks pinked up a little beneath the wrinkles and dark smudges under her eyes. “No, but it’s what I like to do.”
“Hey, lady, if it’s not on your website or in your pamphlet, you don’t have to stick to it.
Do what is easiest. Especially right now.
Nobody—at least not anybody staying here right now—is going to give you anything less than five sparkly stars if they review this place. If I could give you ten, I would.”
She blinked a few times as tears welled up in her blue eyes. “Thank you, Jagger.”
“Haul those muffins and patties out. It can be our little secret that they’re not homemade, hmm?”
Reopening the fridge, she pulled them out, then went to work defrosting them and getting them in the air fryer.
Voices in the sitting room pulled our attention before Julian and Cynthia appeared in the doorway. “Anybody else forget to turn off the light switches before they went to bed, then woke up to a blinding light in their eyes?” Julian asked, before covering his mouth to yawn.
I snorted. “Yep. Us too. I ran around the room, shutting them all off before they woke up Raina.”
“Coffee is fresh and there is hot water for tea,” Lenora said to them, pointing to the carafe and teapot on the island that we hadn’t yet moved to the console table in the dining room.
“We see you two stayed up and finished the puzzle,” Cynthia said, stepping forward to pour herself some tea. “How long were you guys up?”
“I think we finished it just after midnight,” I replied, stopping my fruit chopping to take a sip of my coffee.
Cynthia added cream and sugar to her tea, all while gauging me with a cheeky, knowing look in her eyes that made me rather uneasy. Almost like she knew something. A secret, or … oh fuck.
“Which room are you guys in again?” I asked, hoping my tone was casual and not panicky.
“Number six,” she said, stepping out of the way with her teacup so Julian could fix himself a coffee.
I swallowed. Raina and I were in room number five. Five and six were right next to each other. They shared a wall.
Oh, fuck.
Did Cynthia and Julian hear us last night?
I didn’t think Raina was that loud. I also thought all the grandparents were passed out.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
If Raina found out anybody heard us—heard her —she’d be mortified and probably go right back to hating me.
Cynthia’s lip twitched as she brought her mug to her mouth. “I got up to go pee and heard just a peep. No need to be embarrassed, dear. We’re all adults here.” She patted my shoulder as she wandered past me back into the dining room.
Julian, on the other hand, elbowed me like a good old boy, and shot me a knowing smirk. “Well done, lad.”
I fought the urge to wince. A smile was definitely the wrong response. What was the right reaction in this instance? I chose to just glance downward and continue dicing fruit.
Lenora gave me a curious look, but I refused to meet her gaze. If I didn’t look at her, maybe she’d take the hint—
“What are they talking about, dear?” she asked.
Fuck. Shit. Damn.
I shrugged. “No idea. I stubbed my toe and swore maybe a little too loudly last night? I dunno. Could have been the wind too.”
“What could have been the wind?” asked Effie, coming around the corner with Bernie and another couple from last night, right behind her.
“The wind could have been the wind?” I said, hating the flush of heat working its way up my neck. Thankfully, my beard was long enough that they probably wouldn’t be able to see it. As long as any color accompanying the temperature change stayed under my beard, I was in the clear.
“Huh?” Effie poured herself and Bernie each a coffee.
“Just some noise Julian and Cynthia were talking about,” Lenora replied. “Nothing to worry about.”
They filled up their cups with their caffeine of choice, then headed to the sitting room so Lenora and I could finish with breakfast.
We were just setting the last trays of food on the dining room table—choosing to just put a couple of table runners over the puzzle rather than take it apart—when Raina made her way down the stairs and through the sitting room.
Her eyes flitted to mine for half a second before immediately glancing away.
She fixed herself a coffee at the console table, then took a seat.
I was the last to sit down, and the only empty seat remaining was right next to Raina. Her elbow bumped mine as she reached for an English muffin. “Sorry,” she murmured.