Chapter Eleven
Ilight the gas burner with a snap of my fingers. A ring of blue and orange fire sparks, and I set the kettle to boil. With the water heating, now it’s time to prep the rest. I unpack a few tea blends to consider and grab our teacups from earlier, hand washing them in the sink. One of them has a chip in the lip. It’s not sharp either, like it happened a long time ago and Old Ethel kept it around for sentimental reasons. Noelle said it was cute, that it gave the little cup character.
Noelle. I sigh. I just don’t know where we stand. Well, I know where we stand. We’re snowed in on the top of a mountain. I”m secretly ecstatic about the turn of events, but she is less so, which leads me to worry about where we stand . . . otherwise. Are we friends or something more? My palms sweat. I’m a confident demon in business, but with women, not so much.
She kissed me first, and it was the avalanche that had us making out a second time. I mean, we could have died. It was just adrenaline, surely. I set the teacups aside and carefully clean the small mesh infuser.
She doesn’t date outsiders. Strike number one. But we’re friends. That’s different, right? We’re stuck together for a few days. I’ll take her lead. If all she wants is a friendly companion, I’ll be that. She has my stash of books to choose from, and I can introduce her to all my favorite ways to relax and unwind.
I pull down an antique serving tray from the cupboard I saw earlier. My reflection in the kitchen window distracts me, and I grimace. Strike two. Someone as beautiful as Noelle would never have a genuine interest in someone who looks like me.
I pull at the collar and sleeves of my long-sleeve shirt to ensure they aren’t revealing any scars. My horn caps look dull too. I remove and polish them until they gleam. Not too shabby. I’d prefer to be in thicker pants but changing into a clean pair means encroaching on Noelle’s space while she’s undressing.
Down, boy.I practically growl at the half chub I’ve been sporting since seeing her strip down to some tiny shorts and that thin, belly-baring top. It’s impossible not to be affected, not to want to run my hands all over her. The woman is built like a roller coaster, and I want a ride.
My train of thought is not helping the situation, and these thermals aren’t hiding shit. Think of unpleasant things. Soggy mail. Lukewarm coffee. Fighting with my idiot brothers.
I pump out a set of pushups until the kettle sings from the stove. Yes. I can refocus on the task at hand: giving Noelle the best natural-disaster-turned-vacation of her life. Starting with a great cup of tea.
I select one of my favorite blends, a smooth Earl Grey from this excellent supplier I use for the coffee shop. It’s funny, even though I’m not at work, I can still think about it, and it doesn’t stress me out. Compartmentalization is key to a healthy work-life balance. Ever since I was a kid and pressured to excel in all the business classes at our private school I found no real joy in, I learned to focus. Do the work as efficiently as possible, because when it’s done, it’s done.
The pesky habit others have of taking their work home with them has never been an issue for me. My father is the opposite and gets grumbly with me on my days off when I refuse to work. Lazy boy, he’d say. But my mother always said I had a singular skill for putting in the work where it counts.
Something pokes my arm, and I jump with a rough snort.
“Eep. Sorry.” Noelle giggles beside me. “Water heater’s busted.”
“Oh!” I gesture to the teakettle on the stove and snap my fingers to showcase a quick flame. “Use this hot water to start. I can heat up some more in a pot. You can get the tub lukewarm at least.”
That’s when I turn and really see her. Noelle is wearing nothing but a mischievous look and a tiny towel. I try but fail to restrain my gaze from falling to the cleavage begging to burst out of its confines. Every breath makes her flesh swell against the rough terrycloth.
What I wouldn’t give to stick a finger right in the center and tug it down, to press my lips to her skin there and trail my tongue lower. Mother Below, imagining those abundant curves on full display makes me wish I could offer to sponge bathe her myself, head to toe. Who needs a water heater when you have a demon with fire at his fingertips? Her voice cuts through the fog of inappropriate thoughts.
“I have a better idea.” Her smile has a sensual tilt. “A hot spring.”
“A hot spring?” I close my hands and fist them at my hips. She holds soap and a couple towels too. “Is that safe?”
“Perfectly. The location isn’t dangerous, I promise. And the soap is all-natural, actually designed for the hot springs.” She places one neatly folded towel on the kitchen counter, then steps slowly backward. “Would you join me?”
One eyebrow crooks up, and before I can answer, she darts to the front door, flings it open, and runs outside.
“Noelle!” I shout.
My focus narrows to a single intention. Chase her down. Find her. Get her back. Heart pounding, I snatch up the towel and race outside.
It’s not true dark yet, but with the waning light and rising moon, I can still see well. A flash of fiery hair disappears into the tree line, and I run.
This patch of forest is different, a winter wonderland of shallow snow and tall evergreens. A light flurry drifts around me in slow motion. I expect the same dread to fill me at seeing her run away a second time today, but it doesn’t.
Her laughter echoes to the left.
My eyes haze, vision in a half-red tint. My mouth salivates. I focus on one thing — the heat of her body. Demons have an ancient instinct, a predator sense that helped us hunt ages ago. It never quite left us, and I let it guide me now, running toward the sound of her voice and the warm pulsing energy of her body nearby.
“Over here!” Her voice is muffled. There’s something else drowning her out. Drawing closer, I realize it’s the rush of water. The snow on the ground recedes as the temperature rises.
“Noelle,” I growl, warning and pleading all at once.
“Follow the lights.” Her voice echoes. She’s nearby but not in the open. I sense more heat and find myself in front of an overhang that looks different. Blue-flowering vines tangle over the side of a large rock wall, and that’s when I see the first wink of light.
A firefly. We learned about these in elementary school. There’s an endangered species native to Mount Winter Bliss that migrates from the mountain down to Teapot Lake each night. The geothermal activity means they flourish in this unique environment year-round. And rather than emitting only a warm yellow glow, these glow in a rainbow of colors. I watch as several lime-green, pink, and purple fireflies twist around each other and out into the dusk.
This is it. Find her.
Pushing the vines to the side, I notice the entrance to a cave. The movement sets loose another dozen or more fireflies who make their way out toward the lake.
“Noelle?” My voice echoes just like hers did earlier.
The tunnel is dark, but there’s light coming from somewhere close. I hear a soft splash of water followed by a sigh. She’s here. Making my way in, my hand traces along the rock. The walls are slick and warm, and the air grows more humid with each step. A cavern opens as I approach.
It’s a tall space with a round domed roof and an opening in the ceiling that lets in a few speckled snowflakes. The dusky star-filled night peeks through, but that’s not the source of light.
A waterfall flows into a large pool, glowing cyan blue from below. Steamy fog curls up from its surface, and fireflies of every color twinkle and float around the room. Some head down past me and out into the night, while others seem content to dance around the dim cavern in dizzying tendrils of light.
She’s here.Every burning instinct in my body points me to the hazy form hidden by twinkling steam. As the air shifts, I see her. My breath stops. Noelle stands in the pool with her back to me, fully nude. The two dimples in her lower back wink just above the waterline. She turns over her shoulder. Her body in movement is a symphony of shapes, not only naked but gleaming wet.
She’s otherworldly, all voluptuous curves and gleaming skin and wild red hair that catches the limited light and always, ever since the first time I saw her, reminds me of one thing.
Fire.
Demonkind believe our goddesses have hair of flames and lava. They say redheads are our weakness, but for me, that’s not true.
Noelle is my weakness. The first girl I ever loved, maybe the only. How could anyone compare?
She’s a primal dream awakening something within me I’m not sure I understand.
“Join me.” Steam rises from her arm as she raises it toward me. My mouth waters to taste her. She’s the feeling I’m looking for when I escape into books. But she’s even more than that because she’s real. Her hand waves forward several times. “Come on, silly.”
I chuckle, and that breaks the spell, at least a little. My body moves forward. I set my folded towel atop her rumpled one, taking a moment to look down at my clothes — long-sleeve shirt and long thermal pants. They cover all the scars except for my face, and I always swim with a shirt on.
She’s turned enough that I can see the outline of one breast. The rosy nipple tips downward, just begging to be sucked. The soap sits nearby. I cough to remind myself this may genuinely be two friends sharing an adrenaline-fueled skinny-dipping adventure. A chance to clean up after a long day. It’s her vacation after all.
I step into the pool with my clothes still on. I don’t want to get so caught up in old memories and new fantasies and how much the very sight of her ignites so much want in me that I lose track of reality. It’s easy to delude myself into thinking she feels the same, that this is more for her too.
Each step into the piping hot water is bliss. I stretch my arms out and roll my head from shoulder to shoulder, trying to center myself, to stay calm and collected in the face of a naked Noelle. The room is too hot though, stoking a growing arousal deep within me. This is where my kind are most at home, as close to the fire as we can get, surrounded by heat, but nothing makes me burn like Noelle — her blazing hair, flushed skin, and pink lips. How I wish I could take off these soggy clothes, and be closer to the heat, closer to her.
She grabs my hand and leads me deeper into the pool. “This step is tricky.”
When I’m waist deep, she turns and hugs me, laying her cheek against my heart. With her arms around me, I let myself hug her back. She doesn’t seem to mind me touching her. Soft and perfect. Mine, my heart whispers. My mind kicks in. She’s mine while she’s trapped here at least. Reality check. Then she’ll be pulled away by all her to-dos, and I’ll have to board a plane away from her. The thought makes my head hurt, so I brush it away.
“I was going to ask you to meet me at midnight at the Truthfire Festival,” Noelle mumbles against my chest, and I can barely hear her over the rushing water. I don’t know why she’s hiding herself to say it either.
I slide my wet hands up her bare back. My cock grows harder with each inch of her body I touch until I grip her face so she looks at me.
“The one next week?” I ask. Is she worried I would say no? The hounds of Enrama couldn’t hold me back. “I’ll still be in town. Of course I’ll go. We’ll get off this mountain, mark my word.”
She swallows. “No. The winter we were fourteen. I think . . . I think it was the day your family left town.”
That day was years ago, yet the old wound reopens so easily, a slicing chill through the center of my chest.
“I hate that we left like that.” I growl, remembering the storm cloud of emotions I lived with for years after my parents unceremoniously pulled us out of school and straight into the car to move a thousand miles away. No warning. No looking back. There was a unique business opportunity they had to jump on and making a deal, making that deal, was their priority. The emotional effect on their kids was an unnecessary casualty.
“I had it all planned out.” She blinks up at me and her hands move to my chest, plucking at the fabric. Even through the wet cotton, she finds the raised line of my biggest scars, and I will myself not to flinch. “Kids aren’t allowed into the midnight ritual, you know, but I was going to see if you’d sneak in with me and since demons can’t tell a lie on New Year’s Eve, I planned to tell you that I had a crush on you and ask if you liked me too.”
Like always, her words flow out in a rush, and I’m left thunderstruck. My heart cracks open, full of warring awe and bitter disappointment. She had a crush on me? She was going to tell me! I missed that. Not only was she left alone, I also never got to tell her my truth.
“I loved you,” I say.
“Rom.” She giggles and hides her face in my chest again, hugging around my back, but I can hear the muffled, “We were just kids, but that’s sweet.”
I hold her tighter, even though my heart aches. Maybe she didn’t feel the same. Even if she had a crush then or some attraction to me now, it’s not the same way I feel about her, like this is it.
Normally I’m not so bold but call it the safety of darkness or the courage of adulthood or the coming holiday where demons embrace honesty. She deserves to know my truth. At least, what mine was back then, what I never got to tell her.
“You can call it puppy love or whatever, but I wouldn’t have said I liked you too. That would’ve been a lie. It was more than that. You were my first true friend and . . . I loved you, Noelle.”
Love. Present tense. I can feel it in my gut, every ancient instinct to protect and treasure and adore. She heats my blood like a wildfire with no hope of containment.
She may not be on the same page as me now, but I have hope. Winning Noelle over will take time and patience and a singular skill for putting in the work where it counts.
Lucky for us, I have plenty of that.
“You’re my dream girl.” I make her look up. Those golden honey eyes undo me. “That’s what I would have told you then. You still are.”
“And we’d have kissed?” she asks. The past is what she’s after, confessions of teenage dreams and first love re-done. I can start there. Her feet shuffle closer, jostling her delicious body against me in micro-movements. Wispy curls stick to her temples. “Humans do that on New Year’s Eve, you know.”
“I’ve seen it in a movie or two.” My palms coast along her side, testing if she likes me touching her, still not believing this is real and not some fever dream. My thumbs spread out under her breasts and stroke up to feel the exquisite heft of what I”m dying to taste. Her skin, everywhere. “You wanted to kiss me?”
She nods and leans forward to peck at my bottom lip. “I still do.”
That’s it. I meet her the rest of the way. My mouth is ravenous and insistent, licking at the seam of her lips until she sighs and lets me in. Nothing exists except for her. Everything around and between us is wet and hot and impossibly slick. I want to slow down time, stretch the moment just a bit longer. The shape of this woman in my arms, the feel of her, is like no one else before. Noelle wasn’t my first kiss, but I’ll be damned if she’s not my last.
She pushes me back until my ass thumps down on a smooth rock shelf.
“Off.” She sidles up between my legs and pulls at my shirt.
I glance around. It’s not as dark as I’d like in here with the bright moonlight streaming in and the fireflies and the glowing water.
“I normally swim with a shirt on.”
She tugs. “Off.”
“I can change clothes later. It’s fine. Cold showers are no problem for me.” Lies. All lies. I hate cold showers with a passion.
“But hot baths are better, don’t you think?” She grabs my hand and massages up, pushing at the sleeve. “Especially if you have a friend willing to scrub your back. But I can’t do much with all these clothes on.”
“Oh uhhh you don’t need to do that.” My mind is screaming at me. I want you to do that! Please, keep touching me!
“Fair is fair, Rom.” Her eyes have that mischievous look again, intent and determined. “If you want to scratch my back, I get to scratch yours.”
Her touching me is one thing. But the chance to touch her — to bathe her and help her relax — is too good of a deal to pass up, and she knows it. “Sneaky woman.”
She shrugs. “I want you naked, and I’m prepared to bargain like a demon to get it.”
”You want me,” I repeat, still struggling to believe it. Every physical imperfection runs through my mind like a list.
“You.” She nods and tugs at my shirt, sliding her hand over the round of my stomach, making me shiver despite the heat.
It’s only fair that she should see all of me. She bares herself to me, body and soul. Trusts me to take care of her worries for her.
And I’m trying to negotiate staying fully clothed in this magical place? Ridiculous.
I’ve hidden too long in the back of group photos, under layers of camouflaging clothes, behind all these books and fictional worlds. What if the best moments of my life pass me by because of my inability to deal with my shit?
She deserves better than that.
Maybe I do too.
I wrestle my damp shirt off and untie my braid, turning my head so the hair falls over the right side of my face and down my chest. The scars there aren’t as easy to hide, so I send up a prayer that the shadows do me some favors. I tug off my eyeglasses, which keep fogging up and set them aside. Immediately, the room becomes a blurry dream of bright water, fireflies, and shadows. One blessing of nearsightedness is that only Noelle is in focus, as it should be.
Her hands smooth up my chest and push my hair back over my shoulders, then fall to the waistband of my pants.
“Off.” She tugs at the elastic.
My hips lift and soon enough that fabric plops next to the shirt. Her gaze strays down and I fight the urge to cover myself. I’m terrified and incredibly aroused, cold and hot all at once, half in and half out of the water. The pool glows from below, so there’s nothing hiding the effect she has on me, how hard she makes me. I don’t know what gives me the confidence to do it, but my hand has a mind of its own and goes down to my straining cock, sliding from root to tip, then back down.
Noelle’s lips part. Her chest heaves. This is really real. This perfect woman wants me just as I am — scarred, broken, and ugly-as-sin Rom.
Her hands fall to my knees and up my thighs as I trail my knuckles down her cheek, marveling at every unmarked, creamy inch.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I say. Even my fingers are beastly, thick and hairy, where they trail down the front of her neck, along her clavicle and down the round, drooping slope of her breast. “It’s unbelievable how pretty you are.”
Unbelievable that you want me.
“You’re beautiful too.” She grabs my hand and kisses the knuckles. Her lips trail up and down the prominent veins.
I close my eyes and try to stop the gut deep discomfort any time someone pays attention to my body. My experience with women is incredibly limited and always in dark rooms with my shirt on. I prefer to focus on my partner and angle my face away, the only way I’ve ever felt comfortable enough to sink into a moment and let go. But there’s no hiding with Noelle, never has been from the moment we first met . . .
“You don’t believe me,” she says.
“I think you’re kind. The most charitable person I’ve ever met.”
“You think I pity you.” She seems sad.
My jaw ticks, and I cover my face in my hands. I want to open up, but I can’t say what I believe, what I’ve experienced before. Sometimes affection starts from a kind person with pity. Another outcast who can see beneath the surface. A woman who doesn’t mind a casual fling in the dark. For a chance with Noelle, I’d be okay if it started with pity.
“I don’t. Not at all,” She closes the distance, moving like a siren, a fiery vision of flushed skin, rosy nipples, and kiss-swollen lips. Her breasts sway as she moves. Her palms smooth from my thighs to my hips to my chest. I’m strong, naturally, but I don’t work out like crazy, so my body is round and fleshy. She squeezes and admires every inch on her path up, until my chin is in her grip, and she stands between my legs, towering over me.
“You’re a beautiful man,” she says, like a goddess making a decree, saying something that she wills to be true. “I don’t just mean on the inside, which you are, the way you take on my problems as your own and support me. You’re beautiful, physically. This scar always reminded me of a wave.” Her fingers trace the big one on my face from where it meets my lip to where it disappears into my hairline. Then she starts tracing the bigger ones on my chest. ”But seeing them all now, you”re more like a mountain, and these are rivers of lava.” Every place she touches tingles. “Don”t even try to convince me you”re not beautiful. I have eyes, and I like what I see. The way your nose slopes and bends, there’s not another like it.” She straddles me and pushes back my hair again, tucking it over my torn ear. “I don’t want you to hide anything.”
Every inch of our bodies align, hip to hip, heart to heart, eye to eye. Our lips meet, and I’m lost to her. Clever hands explore every inch of me. Her hungry mouth steals my breath. Tangled sensations shoot through me. Hot and cold. Desire and vulnerability.
“I want you just as you are. You’re perfect to me,” she says. Her soft stomach rubs against mine, my hard cock bobbing between us. She thumbs my nipples, then rakes the backs of her nails up my throat before looping her arms around my shoulders. “Do you believe me?”
I nod. It’s crazy, but I do.
She wants me.
When my palms coast up her sides, she stops the movement, gripping my wrists and bringing my fingers to her lips.
“And don’t even get me started on these bad boys.” She growls like a kitten. “I almost got caught drooling over your social media account today.”
“These dumb hands?” I twist our grip so I can see the back of them. The tendons and veins flex as I move them. “I do get a lot of flirtatious comments on the photos of me holding books.” I never took them for more than a joking compliment, but now I huff in amusement.
“Nope.” Her glare is adorable as she presses her lips to my knuckles again then drags her tongue over them. “I licked them. Theyre mine now.”
Surprising the shit out of me, she sucks two of my fingers into her hot mouth. My cock kicks in response. When she grinds again, I grasp her breast with my free hand, hefting and teasing around the areola before moving on to the other. Her nipples are so rosy and tight. She watches the movement and hums a happy sigh, even as her tongue dances around my fingers.
“You like these big hands?” I ask. The fact those words are coming out of my mouth would normally shock me, but I believe that she sees me that way.
“Mmhmm.” The sound is messy as she looks up at me with an innocent nod.
I pull my fingers free and flatten my palm on her sternum. She watches its slow descent with hooded eyes as I tease both breasts together for a moment. My wet-fingered hand moves south, leaving a gleaming trail of flesh behind. Obscene. Her tummy quivers as I pass over it. “You want me to put them to good use?”
“Yes.” She shifts, swiveling forward to urge me closer. “Yes, please.”
I growl, my body purring for her in a deep rumble, like some crazed beast sizing up its next meal. My vision turns gold and hazy. I breathe harder imagining all the things I want to do to her, the things she clearly wants to do with me.
“You’re gonna ruin me,” I say, even though it’s her groaning as I sink a finger inside her hot center. My thumb settles over her clit.
She cries out, then struggles to speak through panted breaths. “Good. That”s so good.”
“We”re snowed in together. That makes you my pretty little captive now.”
Her pussy flutters around me, and I slide another finger inside, wanting to feel more of her taking me. Maybe she likes me commanding.
“I get to use this sweet body however I please, don’t I?”
“Unngh. Yes, please.” Her eyes are closed, but she smiles a little and swivels her hips. “I’m charitable like that. Kind, somebody once said.”
A gruff laugh escapes me. “You’re perfect.”
“You are.”
My chest squeezes as I kiss the tip of her chin. “I believe you.” My lips make their way across her jaw. “And for the next few days, you’re all mine. Mine to spoil in every way.”
“You’re the boss.” Her eyes go half-mast. “I’m all yours.”
If only it were true. Forever.
I keep moving my fingers inside her. Like the rest of me, they”re not small, and her heat, the tightness of her body, surrounds me. I want more. I pull her closer, my other hand tight on her lower back.
My dream girl, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, is finally in my arms. Teenage Rom would never have believed something like this was even possible. But we aren’t teenagers anymore.
With a sigh, she arches back and grips both of my horns in her hands.
“Shit,” I curse. Horns are sensitive. We have plenty of nerves, especially at the base, the exact place Noelle’s fingers keep squeezing. “Holy Mother that feels good.”
I lean forward, trailing my lips under and around her breast before latching onto a nipple, tonguing and nipping at it while she squirms.
Her pussy flutters around me. She’s close.
Demons can sense emotions like a taste sometimes, and all at once Noelle”s arousal flows through me in burst of syrupy sweetness. I”m blissed out with the desire to get her over the edge. My thumb rocks over her clit harder, back and forth.
Her hips pick up a stuttered tempo on my lap.
“Just like that,” I whisper, bringing my hand up to cradle her jaw until her lust-drunk eyes swim at me. I suck on her bottom lip, bite it, wishing she could taste what I taste, smell what I smell, see how she’s so close to finally letting go. “Fucking beautiful. You’re almost there.”
She licks at my mouth, and I sneak my thumb between her lips. Her tongue rolls around it, and she shudders.
“That’s right. You’re going to come for me, aren’t you?”
She mewls and closes her lips to suck my finger then goes off like dynamite, moaning and clenching around my fingers. Her body circles in my lap as the aftershocks work her over.
Stars dance in my vision, a heady satisfaction and fullness washing over me. I grasp the back of her neck and squeeze, pulling fingers from her pussy free to lick them. Her salty, sunshine taste makes me moan. I’m definitely eating her out next time. No question. I need to taste her from the source and make a mess of myself.
I can barely breathe, my body wound tight and as hard as stone. When I open my eyes, she’s staring at me, then my hand with a gaze so drugged and soft I could eat her right up.
“You look . . .” She smiles and sneaks a hand between us to palm my cock. “. . . and feel like a monster.”
I chuff, feeling completely free to be myself, scars and all. She likes what she sees and has the glow of a satisfied woman hoping for more.
“And you look like you need to be fucked,” I say, testing the waters. Demons and humans need fertility assistance to have children together, so the choice of condom is more of a concern over sexual health.
“Yes, please.” She rises on her knees and starts to sink down, working herself a little at a time.
“Whoa.” Bliss. Choking, slick bliss. I grab her hips and urge her down, a little at a time. “Grind on me, goddess.” The word is a low prayer, fits her perfectly.
My goddess.
I guide her in a gentle pace, struggling not to lose it, finally feeling her bare and closer than we’ve ever been. Closer than I’ve ever been with anyone.
The pleasure is absolute, every second something new and miraculous. This is where I want to be forever, pressed against her, moving within her. She pants and mewls with each rough slide as we join. The heat builds between us.
One hand cradles her jaw. I just want her eyes on me at all times. My thumb slides over her cheek. She’s precious in every way, taking me inside, further each time. Her dark eyes glitter in the dim light, enraptured and full of emotion. For me. She’s mine.
Her head turns slightly, and she kisses my hand, nipping at the knuckles and down to the fingers I just had in my mouth, the ones I used to bring her pleasure.
“Let me taste,” she says.
I slide them into her mouth and feel the connection to her pussy immediately. She rocks down to the hilt in one smooth, clenching glide. So deep.
I groan. “You weren’t joking when you said you like my hands, huh?”
“Nnnn,” she mouths.
“Dirty girl,” I whisper, manipulating her up and down, our bodies sliding and colliding. We’re both soft, bigger people, and it”s nothing short of decadent the way we fit together. “You like me filling your mouth and this perfect little pussy at the same time.”
On a whimper, she sucks my fingers harder and picks up the pace, her ass slapping against my thighs like a metronome.
I won’t last long.
She exhales and braces against my chest, looking down between us in awe. When she thumbs over my nipples, the last of my control unravels.
I thrust up in hard, deep strokes. I’m so deep inside, I can’t get any closer. Everything goes tight.
She holds on for dear life, her muscles flexing as she keeps pace with my manic need to drag her down harder. Her pussy clenches around me, rhythmic squeezes that make me see stars. The pleasure is too much.
My release rockets out of me like a thousand-year-old dormant volcano, complete with inelegant grunts.
Even as I”m pulsing, I slide my hand between us and play with her clit. Whispered words of praise fall from my lips as I work her over. ”Give in, goddess. Beautiful girl. Come again, just like before. Give it to me.”
And soon enough, she”s thrashing and falling apart in my arms again. She giggles and hides her face in my neck. Where our bodies meet is hot and wet and pulsing in the aftershocks. I don’t want to move or change a thing. Just leave me here.
“Wow. That was intense,” I mumble, even as I can’t stop touching her.
She kisses me softly. “That was perfect.”
My hands roam over her luscious body. I want to commit each curve to memory, promise myself I’ll adore them all in more detail later.
We still have time. She’s stuck with me, and I’m winning her over. There’s no way I can walk away from her.
After some down time cuddling, she hops off my lap with a cheeky, ”Bath time.”
Back in the water, she soaps up her hands and starts washing her hair, but I slip behind her and take over.
“No, ma’am.” I kiss and bite her ear. “That’s my job. We made a deal. I’m taking care of you.”
“Hmmm. We did, huh?” She wiggles her ass against me, and my body thinks it”s ready to go again, but my brain knows I need to pace myself. She looks over her shoulder. “I know you’re leaving soon, but if we get off this mountain, you’ll go to the Truthfire Festival with me?”
The slope of her neck and shoulders is like art. I can”t believe I get to touch her. “There are easier ways to get me to confess I have a big old crush on you.”
“Like seducing you in a sexy hot spring until you fuck me senseless?”
“That was an effective strategy, to be sure. Very enjoyable. Feel free to try it on me again.” I move her hair over one shoulder and work on her back, getting hard again just from tracing down the divot of her spine. “But yes, of course I’ll be there.”
“When are you leaving?” she asks.
“January 3rd.” My family expects me back to run our flagship store and continue with more Western US expansions. But the thought of getting in that rental car and watching these mountains fade in the rearview feels impossible now.
“Eleven days,” she murmurs. Is there a hint of sadness there, or am I imagining things? I finish washing her hair and soaping up her body.
“Rinse,” I say.
“Yes, boss.” She looks back at me briefly before dunking underwater to clean off.
An excuse to stay in Winter Bliss would be easy. I could wait to see the official opening of Perkatory. I could monitor the store for a few weeks under the new manager. All logical explanations. The operations back home run like clockwork at this point.
But what if Noelle doesn’t want me here long-term? Sure, we just rekindled something, but me immediately encroaching on her life is another story. She assumes I’m leaving, and she’s okay with it. If her wild holiday fling starts taking up space in the building next door every day, how awkward would that be for her?
She grabs the soap and cleans my shoulders and chest, eyes soft as her hands slide over me.
“I want to make the most of our time together,” I say, hedging my bets. “Even after the roads open.”
“Me too.” She nods and keeps working but says nothing more. Insecurity starts to whisper in my mind. It’s not as loud, but it’s there.
“I know you have a lot to do for the festival and fundraiser, so listen, no pressure. Truly. I only want to help. If you get sick of me, I’ll be gone. You can forget we ever crossed paths again.” It would kill me to leave, but I’d do it. At least, I’d try.
She gets a funny look on her face and shakes her head. Before she can distract herself by washing more of me, I pull her chin back to look at me.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Did you ever think of finding me?” she asks, eyes so big and sweet I want to melt. “That’s silly to ask, right? We were just kids, and it’s not like I was busting down your door. I mean, I asked around, but no one I talked to really knew your family that well.”
“I did. When I was seventeen.” I trace the line of her jaw to her ear and tuck some hair back. “I saw a redhead on the street that had waves just like yours and went full internet stalker mode. I’d thought about you before so many times, but thanks to my brother stumbling on to porn, none of us were allowed unrestricted computer access until my junior year of high school.”
She’s biting back a laugh. It may have been overly dramatic of my mother, but in retrospect it”s kind of funny. Probably a blessing in disguise too. As a kid, I didn’t really know what I was missing. I knew others had phones and personal emails, but it just was what it was.
“So yeah, I tracked you down. It”d only been three years, but you looked so different.” She still looks different. I see hints of that girl I fell in love with as a kid, but I know she’s her own woman now. “Always pretty, that’s never changed, but older. Distant to me, I guess. And anyway, your main photo was with a guy your age.” I grimace. “Very cozy.”
“Oh my god. My first boyfriend.” She rolls her eyes. “Chad.”
“What a name,” I grouse.
“Be nice. He”s alright.” She giggles and pets my chest before getting more soap on her hands.
“My search ended there. Maybe I should have still reached out, but it all felt so strange.”
“Because you had a crush on me.” She waggles her head proudly.
I can’t help but smile. “We’ve covered that.”
As she cleans me off, down to the space behind my ears, I grow languid and fill her in on the rest.
“Life has been . . . predictable. I followed my parents’ plans to the T. The perfect, high-achieving son. I got comfortable making Perkatory my whole world. The years flew by until one day I realized I was in my late 20s with nothing to show for myself.”
“Um, hello.” She slaps my flank lightly. “New coffee shop. The business is expanding! You have plenty to be proud of.”
“I mean, personally, I guess. Not business.” I kind of love how indignant she gets when I flirt with feeling down on myself. “Business has always been easy. Carving out a part of my life that’s for me, not my family, is really why I started my bookish social media accounts. I was just bursting to talk about what I was reading. I wanted a place to be me, really myself, a place I could nerd out and live a little, not just pay the bills and please my parents.”
“Your literary commentary is so sharp.” She stares at me so earnestly while simultaneously fondling my ass. Is this paradise? “So I guess getting involved with a librarian is some secret fantasy, then?”
I chuckle and squeeze her ass in return. “Oh, you know it! Dream girl, I told you.”
She hums against my chest, kissing and nibbling at my large pecs-slash-man-boobs in a way no one has ever treated me. It’s addictive.
“I could never forget you,” she says, circling back to my insecurity-riddled statement from earlier, that we could go our separate ways and she could easily forget me. Her hands slide to my horns, thumbing over the broken one like a worry stone. “The only reason I didn’t recognize you that first day was because you hide so much of yourself.”
I swallow. After thinking about why I started the bookish account, I can see what she means. I’m getting there, but I have a long way to go. I sink down on the ledge seat to give her easier access to wash my hair.
“I’m working on that,” I promise.
Her breasts sway in front of me as she scratches my scalp. Holy Mother, that feels good. My hands have a mind of their own and can’t help but massage and play with her large, heavy tits. Perfection.
“No more hiding! I want to see your face. Your body. Everything. Got it?” She uses my horns like handles to drag my attention up. “And no more talk about us forgetting each other.”
“Yes ma’am.” I’m probably grinning like a fool because I love it when she manhandles me.
“Oh, the southern politeness coming out. Be still my heart.” She goes back to washing my hair, and I go back to feeling her up, pleased to see her nipples react immediately. “Well, you’ve got plenty of time to get comfortable with me. I’m on my first vacation and even if the roads open tomorrow, I’m staying through Christmas.”
“Oh, that’s right,” I mumble against her chest, drunk on the pleasure tingling through my body as she scratches my scalp. “It’s that human gift-giving holiday, the one all the books are about.”
“Books?” She chuckles.
“The cutesy love stories in small winter towns. I’ve read one or two.”
“You”ve read holiday romances?” She pulls my head back and stares at me in delighted shock. “Rinse.”
I duck under the water and clean all the soap off, coming up to explain. “If it’s a trend in the bookish community, I’m a sucker. When something gets popular online, even if it’s not in my normal genres, I’ll pick it up. I actually packed one in my suitcase. You can read it, if you want.”
“You brought a holiday romance in your suitcase?” Her head is cocked to the side with a funny smile.
“Of course. I’m a well-rounded reader.” I scoff. “I brought nine books for this trip, and I have my e-reader stuffed with more than any one person could read in a lifetime.”
“Then why did you ask for a temporary library card and spend all that money to have me deliver you books?” She pokes my chest playfully because she knows the answer.
I make a comically cringey face.
“Busted!” she bursts out laughing. “Oh my gosh, someone does have a little crush, hmm?”
“You could say that.” I gather her in my arms, wanting to soak in this steamy oasis with her just a moment longer. I could say a lot more than that, like leaving Winter Bliss isn’t something I want to do, like I’m sure that she’s it for me. Business may be something I’ve mastered but deals of the heart are a different beast altogether.
I need all the time I can get to figure out the best way to woo my pretty librarian in a permanent way.