Chapter 8
Aspen
Something wakes me from the peace of dreamland. Something soft and delicate presses into my sides, accompanied by the scent of lavender. I stir, blinking back the afternoon light streaming in from the window. It takes a moment to realize the source of the comfort. And then it hits me.
Nicolette.
The stunning woman cuddles up beside me, her head half on my chest, while her hair fans out in different directions. Her small fingers splay over my abs while our legs twine together.
My muscles tense in shock. What the heck? How did this happen? I remember lying down on the bed, but after that, everything is a blank.
She’s wearing nothing besides one of my white shirts, and it leaves little to the imagination. Her nipples poke through the fabric, diamond hard, and my mouth waters. My cock twitches to life, stirred by her proximity and my desire.
Shit. I need to move before I do something inexcusably dumb.
I curse under my breath and try to move. But I can’t. She’s got me trapped, and any movement will wake her up. How will I explain this to her without seeming like a creep?
But damn, it feels good being stuck here. It’s been a long time since I’ve had someone this close and even longer since I’ve wanted it.
Nicolette shifts in her sleep, a soft sigh escaping her when her shirt-covered nipples brush against me.
She snuggles in closer, her heated core pressing against my thigh, and it takes everything in my power not to reach down and palm my cock.
If she keeps going like this, I’m going to embarrass myself right here.
Shit. Shit.
She moves again, her eyebrows twitching while she stretches, and before I can brace myself, her head pops up, level with mine. Unable to stop, I drop my head forward just an inch, allowing her soft lips to brush against mine.
It’s soft and sweet, not much as kisses go, but the electricity that zaps between us is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. It lasts a fleeting second, barely happening, but just enough to know it’s not a dream. But then she jerks up with a gasp, her eyes flying open in surprise.
“What the—!” She lurches back, pressing her fingers to her lips like she can taste me on her tongue. Her eyes dart around, flying down my body until they come to a halt on the tent in my pants.
She takes in our disheveled state, the way our bodies intertwine, and before she comes to the wrong conclusion, I interject.
I slowly sit up and raise my hands in surrender. “Relax, Nicolette. You’re the one who crawled onto the bed and pressed your body to mine. I was already asleep.”
She retorts quickly. “I did not.”
“You did…” I chuckle at her indignance, and she flops back onto the sheets, letting out a frustrated whine. “Yes, I woke up, and you were glued to me like a cuddly barnacle.”
“Let’s say I believe you.” Her face relaxes. “Why didn’t you push me away?”
I shrug at the stupid question. Her last guy must have been a complete asshole. No man in their right mind would push a woman as stunning and lovely as Nicolette away. “Bed’s small. If I did, you’d land ass-flat on the floor.”
She glares at me, but curls closer, reaching out her hand and placing it on my chest. The warmth of her touch sears my skin, and my cock jumps in my pants. Her tongue flicks out to lick along her lower lip and I can see the cogs turning in her head.
Perhaps she isn’t unaffected by me either.
I shouldn’t get attached, I tell myself. I don’t do feelings. But something about her makes me reach for more. The fire in her eyes, her stubbornness, makes her feel both dangerous and almost like… home.
Fuck it.
Unable to stop myself, I reach toward her and run my finger over the smooth skin of her cheek.
Gripping her chin, I twist her face until I can press my lips to hers once more.
She melts into my kiss. Opening for me like a flower, and I delve inside, ready to taste her.
Our tongues dance, and I’m lost in her touch.
Nicolette’s body begins to wriggle against mine, her need growing.
“Tell me what you need.” I skim my hand down her side until her thigh flexes below my palm. She throws her thigh over me, the heat of her core pressing against my stomach.
“More. Please, more.” My t-shirt rides up her body as she claims my lips again, and I slip my hand between our bodies.
Finding the waistband of her panties, I wait a moment to see if she stops me, but her hips thrust forward, offering me more.
I move my hand over her panties until I reach her center.
She’s absolutely soaked, and I run my fingers over her clothed pussy. Nicolette’s whole body shudders, and she presses against me, seeking friction. The need to see her come apart, to shatter around my fingers, fills me with glee.
Slipping her panties to the side, I get my first glimpse of Nirvana. Her pretty pink pussy is glistening with arousal, and I slip my fingers through her juices, gathering them up and gently rubbing circles around her clit.
Her movements become more frenzied, and she pants, breathing harder and harder as she gets closer to flying apart at the seams. My eyes zero in on her hardened nipples, poking through the thin material of my shirt, and suddenly I have to taste them.
Bending forward, I suck one into my mouth, pulling hard on the tender bud.
I wish the shirt weren’t in the way, but oh well. Next time.
And there will be a next time. I’m already addicted.
Knowing she needs more, I slip two fingers into her pulsing pussy, crooking them forward to massage her inner walls. Nicolette rides my hand harder as I suck. Her body quivers, and she cries out as an orgasm floods her body.
I watch her relax, but her expression quickly shifts to embarrassment. Not wanting to allow her to return the favor out of a sense of obligation rather than desire, I quickly roll to my side. “Are you hungry?”
She looks at me with surprise. “Are you… don’t you…?”
“You’re beautiful when you come. Let me feed you an afternoon snack, and then if you want, we can do it all over again.
” It’s beautiful that she can mirror her thoughts on her face.
The glare she shoots me probably means she’s mad at me for teasing her, but the twitch on her lips lets me think she’s debating the offer.
“I need my phone first. Then food.”
Right. I totally forgot about the damn phone. The phone that threatens to take her away before I’ve had a chance to get my fill.
I walk over to my small side table, where I had plugged it in.
I pick up the phone and toss it at her. “You’ve got only one bar. It might be enough for a call out, though.”
She catches it after a bit of fumbling, which almost lands the phone on the floor. “Oh, thank God.”
“By all means. Don’t thank me. What are friends for?” I say sarcastically.
Nicolette ignores me and immediately dials away on the phone. A few seconds later, a voice I presume to be Wanda’s screeches through the small speaker.
“Girl, where the hell have you been?” Her voice is laced with concern. “I tried to send a search party. They said that with the active storm, they couldn’t go out. I was worried sick.”
Nicolette exhales in pure relief. “If you ever find James, please punch him in the gut for me. He left me out in the blizzard. That guy from town—Aspen—let me stay in his cabin.”
“That guy?” I mutter to myself. “Nice.”
Nicolette ignores me again, shooing me away with her hand. Her sass makes me want to kiss her all over again. “How’s everything over there? The guests? The activities we lined up.”
“Everything’s superb over here. The guests have been bubbling with reviews. No disasters… yet. You just focus solely on getting back alive.”
She exhales again. “Oh God, Wanda, you wouldn’t believe how scary it was out there. I was so lucky to find Aspen’s cabin, or I might have died.”
“Well, you didn’t. Your knight in shining armor came through to save you,” she jokes, but for the first time, I realize how serious it could have been if she hadn’t found the cabin.
I could have lost her without ever even knowing her.
The thought sinks like a stone in my stomach.
“If it makes you feel any better, Greg was super worried. He offered to go look on his own.”
At that, she finally laughs. Taking that as my cue, I head toward the kitchen to make some food. “Nah, better he didn’t, we all know he would be lost too. Fortunately, I landed up here.”
Wanda cackles. “Yes, poor you. Finding a hot, smoldering, and muscular mountain man who rescued you from the storm and offered you his bed?”
There is a long pause, and I glance out of the kitchen, pleased to see the red flush on her cheeks as she considers what to tell her friend.
“Please tell me you got some of that!” Wanda says it more like a statement than a question. Like she predicted, it would happen.
“We did not, Wanda!”
“Yeah, you did so,” she snorts.
I come out and catch Nicolette pinching the bridge of her nose. “It’s not like that.”
Oh, but it is.
Wanda is still giggling by the time she finishes her explanation. “That’s a real fairytale. What’s next? You two cuddle by the fire and whisper secrets while braiding your hair?”
I’m not sure if I expect her to tell her best friend, but she looks up, catching me watching, and her eyes widen.
She scoffs. “Nope. The plan is to get out of here as soon as I can. Which, by the way, is going to take longer than I estimated because this morning, there was an apocalypse at the front door.”
“Honey, just accept it.” Wanda’s calm voice wafts over. “You’re in a Hallmark movie.”
“And you are in one where you just got stuck running everything all on your own. I feel terrible.”
I can hear a whisper to someone, something about starting a family, and a small smile tugs at Nicolette’s lips. “Thanks, Wanda,” she says. “I’ll—”
The phone cuts out mid-sentence, followed almost immediately by the power, and the cabin goes into complete silence. Nicolette stares at the phone in her hand, pressing the power button desperately. Nothing.
“Might be out for a while,” I sigh, bringing over a few granola bars and apples.
She throws her phone onto the couch. “It sounds like the storm blanketed everywhere.” She takes a deep breath and looks around the cabin. “Well, if we are going to be stuck here for Christmas, we should make it lively, and festive.”
I freeze, dead in my tracks. “Make what festive?”
Nicolette gestures with her hands around the cabin. “This place. It’s like a depressing cave. We need some holiday cheer. Let’s take out your decorations. I’ll help.”
“We?” I stare at her like she says some forbidden word. “Yeah. No. I don’t do holidays. Especially Christmas.”
“Why not?” Her eyes widen in surprise.
“Because Christmas is bullshit.”
“What?” she gasps in shock. “How can you say that?”
I shrug, not interested in having this conversation. Instead, I grab one apple off the table and take a big bite. The crunch cracks through the tension.
Nicolette stares at me, the horror growing with every second. She’s stuck with the Grinch. “No tree? No stockings?” She stares forlornly at the fireplace.
“Nope.”
Her mouth drops, but she goes on, “No Christmas decorations?”
“Nope.”
She gasps dramatically. “No cookies or Christmas presents?”
“Nope.” I rub my temples. “Are you done? I need to chop more wood.”
The walls are suddenly closing in on me; all my happiness from waking with Nicolette in my arms is long since gone. The need to get out of the room overtakes me, and I shove my feet into some boots and grab my jacket as I head for the door.
“Hey, we aren’t done talking about this,” she yells at my back.
“Of course we are.” I grab my axe behind the door and head outside, the cold air forcing me to exhale quickly.
The only thing Nicolette can have for Christmas is my cock.