Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
Lake
By the time I pull my head out of my ass and focus enough to get us dressed, Nova and I are half frozen.
I get her pants up, her boots on, shrug my backpack over my shoulders, mindful of the camera I zipped carefully inside.
She’s shivering now, so I don’t take her hand, just scoop her up and make our way back to the house.
Steve’s still sleeping fifteen minutes later as I carry her in through the front door, but he wakes as I try to walk quietly by him, probably clocking that his owner isn’t one hundred percent and that I’m responsible.
“Stay,” I order him before adding like he can understand me—and hell, at this point, I’m half convinced he can, “I’ll be back to get you and you don’t want to hurt your leg more. ”
Beady eyes narrow.
But he settles back down onto the blankets with a huff.
My ankles thank me as I move to the bathroom and set Nova on the counter. I crank on the water in the tub, putting it as hot as I think she can stand. Then I shove down the plug and turn back to the shivering woman. “Arms up.”
She complies, teeth chattering. “Th-that w-was st-stupid.”
“Maybe,” I say, “but I think your pussy is worth a little frostbite.”
Her mouth falls open and I take advantage of her befuddlement to tug off her sweatshirt, tee, and bra, to guide her off the counter, to take off her pants, her underwear, her boots and socks.
The musk of her cunt as I’m kneeling in front of her—lifting one leg and then the other—is tempting, but she’s still cold, her pert pink nipples proof of that, even if they’re just as mouth-watering as her pussy.
I lean in. Inhale. Flick out my tongue—
Focus.
Because she has goose bumps all over too.
Deal with hypothermia first.
Fuck her exactly as I want to second.
Plus, Steve is bound to lose patience soon.
I scoop her up, bring her to the tub.
She dips a toe in, hisses.
“Okay?” I ask.
“It feels good.”
Once she’s beneath the water, I go back for the mutt, grabbing one of his beds from Nova’s duffle and setting him up in the corner of the bathroom.
Then I turn away, intending to go change.
I want to strip down and crawl into the tub behind her.
But…I’ve crossed a lot of lines today. I’ve pushed and—
“Lake.”
My name on her tongue is a fucking siren’s call. I turn around, dick going hard when I see all of that glorious woman on display for me.
“Where are you going?” she asks.
“To change,” I say gruffly—too fucking gruffly considering I was just inside her.
Those pine needle green eyes change, head tilting to the side, the ends of her hair dipping into the water. “You can do that if you want, but”—here she takes a breath, as though shoring herself up—“if you want to join me, I”—she nibbles at her bottom lip—“I would like that.”
Women bring nothing but complications.
Women bring nothing but pain and drama and bullshit that I don’t want to deal with.
But Nova’s invitation…
Is one I can’t resist.
So, I ignore all of that and I just…give in to what I want with her.
Again.
And the first touch of that hot water is nothing like the brand this woman has burned into my heart.
“You know,” she says as she lies in bed next to me, another Christmas movie playing in the background—this one featuring a kid besting a pair of burglars through all manner of mischief and pranks, “you don’t have to spend twenty-five thousand dollars on a couch.”
I tilt my head so I can look down at her.
She’s uploaded the photographs from her memory card onto her laptop and is carefully scrutinizing each one.
“I know that,” I say, ignoring Steve’s panting and puppy breath far too close to my face. “Hence, the reason I canceled that order for the twenty-five-thousand-dollar couch.” I nudge the pup away again, reach over him and sip at the honey rosemary mule I’ve become seriously addicted to.
The guys will give me a hard time for drinking something so prissy.
But I know they’re going to be addicted to it as much as I am once they take that first sip.
I have the secret weapon now—rosemary simple syrup.
It’s the shit, one hundred percent, and makes the already tasty drink even better.
I bet the marketing company for the vodka brand would want to share the recipe on their socials—because branding and shit—and I wonder if Nova would care if her secret drink concoction was out there.
But first, couches—twenty-five thousand or otherwise—because she glances up at me, mouth curving.
“I ask that because I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there are also online stores where you can order said not twenty-five-thousand-dollar couches.
” She taps a finger to her chin. “And other things you might need, like a table or barstools or—eek!”
Steve grunts unhappily as I snatch her laptop from her, tossing it to the side and pinning her beneath me. “Does this sass mean I need to give you orgasms?”
“No,” she says, trying to reach past me for her laptop. I just nudge it a little further, moving it out of her reach. “It means that I’m going to help you find an awesome couch that’s not twenty—”
She squeaks again, but this time it’s because I’m tugging off her pants, tossing them to the side, and—
Pinpricks of pain, this time on my wrist.
I glance at Steve, lift a brow. “This is becoming a problem, dude.”
He lets me go, bares his teeth, but I just get up, lift him from the bed, tuck him onto the bed in the bathroom and shut the door behind me.
Saving my limbs from the killer attack pug one wooden panel at a time.
He woofs once, but doesn’t otherwise complain, and by the time I make it to the bed, Nova’s naked, sprawled back against the pillows, hand skating down her belly.
“Getting started on those orgasms, butterfly?” I ask, my voice like sandpaper.
Pink cheeks. Deep green eyes.
“Yeah,” she says silkily. “Want to watch?”
My cock is instantly hard.
Because fuck yes, I do. I drop my mouth to hers, taste her deeply, then kiss my way down her throat, her chest, laving her nipples, sucking them hard, teasing her as she teases herself.
I spend a long time there, listening to her moans, her breath catching, feeling the way her body rocks and tightens and relaxes as she draws herself up the edge.
I need to see it, see her fingers in her pussy, see her face as she comes part, so I drag my tongue down, tracing the path of her arm across her belly, down between her thighs, pausing to inhale the musk of her desire.
Fuck, she’s hot.
Fuck, I want to be inside her again.
I grunt when she slips a finger into her pussy, watching her thumb work, adding my tongue to aid her when I can’t keep my distance.
She hisses out a breath, widens her legs. “Do that again,” she orders, the slick sounds of her finger fucking herself loud as she moves faster.
I suck at her clit, press the flat of my tongue to the bundle of nerves.
She jerks then moans, fingers sliding in and out. “Oh fuck,” she whispers.
“Keep going,” I order. “Don’t you fucking stop.”
Her eyes hit mine. “Don’t you stop either.”
I grin, drop my head, work her clit, and get to see, get to feel, and, best of all…
I get to hear her come apart.