Chapter 17 Payton
PAYTON
A heady, dreamy feeling lifted my body from the comfortable flannel sheets. I groaned and stretched, not wanting to wake.
Except…warm lips brushed my earlobe, and a set of steady hands stroked my inner thighs.
I purred and tilted my head, giving the pair of lips better access to my neck.
Mav chuckled in my ear and ran his hands across my breasts.
The peaked nipples hardened further under his touch, and I rolled my hips with a gasp when Tarron knuckled my clit.
He’d learned how much I enjoyed that last night and now seemed determined to use it against me.
Let him. I moaned and kissed Reed, who rested somewhere above me, my head on his thighs.
The brush of Mav’s coarse beard against my cheek heightened my awareness of their bodies alongside mine.
What started as slow and languorous turned heady and irresistible.
This was not casual sex. This was intense, all-consuming, mind-altering sex.
It wasn’t too far of a leap to call this lovemaking with the way they cared for me before, during, and after each session.
We came together as a complete unit, the three of them so in sync with each other and my body that it became easy to turn myself over to them.
I caressed Reed’s abs and flipped onto my stomach to take him into my mouth.
Tarron palmed my ass and rolled to his knees. With a kiss to my shoulder, he eased his cock inside my pussy and rocked his hips.
Soon, we were all moving.
My body sang with their touches, and my pleasure rocketed with every caress, every kiss and thrust.
Tears pricked my eyes at the sheer beauty of our connection, and I came harder than ever before, crying out all of their names over and over again.
“That was the most sinfully delicious way I’ve ever been woken up.” I panted and covered my eyes with my arm, lying flat on my back in the center of the bed with all three of them around me.
“Then we did it right.” Reed kissed the corner of my mouth.
Maverick trailed his fingertips up and down my thigh. “Merry Christmas, Payton.”
Shock stiffened my spine and snapped my head up to stare out the window across from the bed.
The world outside glittered white with fresh snow that still pummeled the glass.
The storm hadn’t abated. If anything, it had strengthened.
The few tree limbs I could see bowed with the wind, then whipped into a frenzy as the storm howled around us.
“I was supposed to be home by now.” A crushing weight landed on my chest, and I struggled to breathe.
“Dad must be worried sick. He’ll be all alone for Christmas.
” I was supposed to be there. It was the one tradition we kept no matter what.
I traveled throughout the year for my blog, but I’d never missed spending a Christmas with Dad.
The tears returned in earnest, gathering thick on my lashes. I tried to sniff them back.
Tarron grazed my cheeks with his thumbs. “It’s okay, Payton.”
“We tried reaching him. But even with the satellite phone, it’s impossible with the storm. The weather is just too bad.” He held me close, my back to his chest, and rocked us side to side. “I’m sorry.”
“He knows you’re safe.” Reed slid closer and kissed me again. “He heard your voice, and he knew we were stuck in the storm. That is the best Christmas present short of letting you walk into his office and surprise him. We’d have done that for you if we could.”
“I know.” I trusted them to hold up their end of the bargain. No one could move in this storm.
I’d only been in Alaska a couple of weeks, and it was enough to show me the land’s chaotic mystery was not something to be trifled with.
“We’re going to give you the best Christmas we can.” Tarron’s voice held that edge of promise that drew me in. “Even if we can’t take you home, you deserve a great Christmas.”
“How?” I scrubbed the tears from my cheeks and peeked at Mav behind me.
A slow smile tempered the ruggedness of his face. “Ice fishing.”
“And survival skills.” Reed rubbed his hands together.
The white bandage on his shoulder stood out in stark contrast to his bronzed skin and tattoos, but the wound hadn’t slowed him down at all.
“And Mav will cook dinner tonight.” Tarron grinned as he moved off the bed with a stretch that highlighted every dip and curve of his impressive torso.
I turned away with a blushing heat in my cheeks.
I had no reason to feel flustered, but the mere sight of him made me want to usher him back into bed for another round of scintillating sex.
Later.
The promise shone from his eyes, and he held out his hand. “Ready?”
“Always.” I laughed when he hauled me to my feet and spun us in a circle. “What are we doing first?”
“Shower. Then ice fishing.” Reed headed to the bathroom ahead of us, and an instant later, the sound of gushing water bounced around the room.
An hour later, after a slow shower and rooting through all the clothes they’d brought and what was left behind in the cabin, we’d bundled into as many layers as we could stand and followed Reed to a small wooden shack on the lake.
Wind howled around us, but the structure held.
Much to my surprise. I eyed the rickety walls and fisted my hands around the pole Reed pushed into my hands. “What do I do?”
“Wait.” Reed shrugged. “You don’t have to hold the pole the whole time. You can set it in one of those things and wait.”
I followed his pointing finger to a strange contraption hammered into the wall.
Once I set the butt of the pole in the notch, it made more sense.
A long strap wrapped around the reel to keep the pole in place if a fish took a bite and tried to run. “What else should I know?” I crouched in front of the hole in the ice and stared into the depths.
Nothing moved. Even the ice seemed too cold to venture any further than the edge where Reed had pushed the piece he’d cut loose.
“How to light a fire.” Mav bundled some sticks together and reached into one of the many cargo pockets on his camo pants.
“Anytime you’re heading into the wilderness, you should have one of these.” He held up a small tin and shook it. “Everything you need to start a fire without having to try rubbing two sticks together.”
“Wouldn’t be a bad idea to have one with you at all times. You never know when these things will come in handy.” Tarron joined the conversation as he slung his medical bag onto the ice and pawed through it.
“Better to be overprepared than to get out here and need something you thought irrelevant.”
“True.” Mav dipped his head in agreement. “But if you’re strapped for space, things you can keep in your pockets or in a bag strapped close enough there’s no way you’ll lose it are best. Backpacks are great, but as you have now realized, they can get lost or taken from you.”
“Or drown you.” I shuddered at the memory of standing on the riverbank with my pack beneath the tree. “If I’d had my backpack on and gotten into the water, I’d have drowned.”
“Unless you could get out of it.” Reed motioned at Tarron’s bag. “Most of our equipment has quick-release buckles for emergencies. The downside is that they can be taken from you. Since we’re experts on self-defense and hand-to-hand combat, it’s less of an issue for us.”
Maverick talked me through each step as he built up the small pile of sticks and added fluff from the tin into the middle.
“It’s easier when you’re in a place with walls. If you were out there, it would be almost impossible to light a fire in the open.”
“Finding a good place to shelter is a priority if you’re lost in the wilderness.” Tarron finished organizing his bag and strapped it to his back with a snick of the metal clip.
“What do I look for in a shelter?” I settled in with my back to the wall and listened as each of them gave me tips and tricks for living in the wild.
When they slowed to a stop, I made a show of massaging my temples. “That’s a lot of information, but it’s stuff I was hoping to learn on my survival retreat.”
“Like I said.” Tarron grinned and patted my leg. “Better to be prepared.”
“Yeah, well. I should have hired your three to be my guides from the start. I would have learned more and been safer.” A delicious shiver ran the length of my spine, and I winked. “Not to mention the incredible bonus sex that my previous guide didn’t offer.”
Reed laughed loud and long, slapping Tarron on the shoulder when he ventured within range. “Yeah, now that is not something we offer everyone we rescue. You’re definitely a one-of-a-kind situation.”
The words warmed me. One of a kind.
No one but Dad had ever said that.
He was my only parent, and he had to say it. It was like part of the parental code or something.
But hearing it from Reed had a different meaning, and I relished the way the words took the awful situation we were in and made it bearable.
They made this whole thing bearable.
Maverick locked eyes with me. He had a way of holding me with nothing more than the steel in his eyes.
Pleasure spiked in my center without a single touch.
He took my hand and curled both of his around it. “We are the only men who get to provide you with that kind of service.”
It was a warning given with a sense of possessiveness that I would have called anyone else out on.
I was the owner of my own body, my mind, and my heart. No one got to tell me what to do with any of it.
But I felt the same way about them. Imagining them with any other woman caused a horrible jealousy to burn hot in my veins.
Tarron and Reed closed in from either side so I was surrounded by hunky men.
Reed pushed my hood away from my face and tilted my chin so I stared at him. “You belong to us now.”
“And we might just have to keep you all for us. No one else.” Tarron pressed a lingering kiss to my temple. “What do you think about that for a Christmas present?”
I hauled him close and kissed him full on the lips. “I think that sounds like a damned fine idea. I also think I’m freezing my ass off, and I’ve learned enough for today. I’m ready to go inside where it’s warm.”
The fireplace was calling my name.
I couldn’t wait to cuddle up in front of it with a nice meal and even nicer after-dinner sex.