Chapter 13 Forever
THIRTEEN
FOREVER
PATRICK
I’ve never fucked outdoors before. In a car, sure.
But out in the open? While the snow flurries around us on Christmas Eve, the moon shining brightly while the colored lights bathe her pale skin in reds and yellows, blues and greens?
It’s so nice that I can have a brand new experience with my Starling, even if my cock feels like an icicle without her heat to keep me warm.
Once I’ve finished, I can’t afford the luxury of lingering in the afterglow of my climax.
Even though having Noelle Halliday sprawled out on my chest is like having the best fucking blanket ever, all she has is my sweater to keep her covered.
Let me freeze. I could deal with it. But Noelle?
I warmed her up all right, getting her hot enough that she was willing to fuck me hard into the ice-covered snow, but now that she’s coming down from her own high… it’s time to head back to the chalet.
After palming her ass, squeezing her flesh with enough desire that I’m nearly ready to rebound and take her again, I reluctantly get up and tuck my stirring cock into my pants. Then, retrieving her leggings and her boots, I help her get dressed.
Noelle doesn’t ask me to. Honestly? She probably doesn’t want me to. Her hands are shaking slightly, and her eyes are heavy-lidded even as she gazes up at me, a dazed look in her pretty brown eyes.
After stealing a quick kiss that she doesn’t deny me, I adjust the sweater, tugging the hem down over her hips with care.
Bending before her, I slip her feet back into her boots, lacing them up and tying them snugly, all while she stares somewhere over my shoulder like she’s already bracing for what comes next.
When I stand up again, she finally looks dead at me.
“That’s five,” she murmurs. Not defiant. Not hopeful. Just… tired.
I study her face for a moment, then give her a small shrug. “Is it?”
Her brow furrows. “You said—”
“I said I wanted five things,” I correct my Starling. “Not that we’d be done when you decided you were. And, by my count, I only got four of the five.”
She opens her mouth. I’m prepared for her to ask what the fifth one is, but before she can, a gust of wind blows past us, sending her wild red hair flying around her face. She gasps, her teeth chittering, her body jolting as the cold slams into her.
Yeah. That’s enough of that.
“Come, Noelle. It’s time to finish up our Christmas Eve together.”
The snow is still falling gently as we walk back toward the chalet.
She doesn’t fight me when I guide her, but she doesn’t lean into me either.
There’s a careful distance she’s trying to preserve, like space itself is the last thing she owns, but I’m a greedy motherfucker.
I slip my arm around her shoulder, tugging her close until there isn’t an inch between us.
“Tomorrow’s Christmas,” she says as we pass the snow-covered cars on our approach to the chalet. “I have the chalet rented for three more days after that. I want you to leave on the twenty-sixth.”
I almost smile. Even after she was begging me to fuck her, Noelle is quick to kick me out again. She’s given me her obedience. Her body, too. I don’t have her trust yet, or her love, but that’s okay.
I want nothing short of forever, no matter how I get it.
So, for now, I just nod. “If that’s what you want.”
Sneaking a peek my way, Noelle doesn’t look convinced. And that just proves that my Starling has a good bullshit detector because I have no intention of leaving this mountain unless she comes with me.
Besides, she said the twenty-sixth. That means she’s resigned herself to spending Christmas with me which is exactly what I’ve wanted all along.
So, feeling fucking fantastic—between her resignation and how amazing it feels to have gotten laid for the first time in a year—I lead her into the chalet.
Inside, it feels even warmer than before, and I sigh happily…
until Noelle ducks out from under my arm, and I have to work hard to hide my slight scowl.
Shaking away the few snowflakes that cling to the sweater, Noelle hurriedly unties her boots, kicking them off near the front door while I purposely lock us in. Without another look back at me, she heads for the stairs—for the bathroom, I’m betting—without a word.
I let her go. Why not? I’m not worried about her finding an escape, and even if she tried? Our little romp through the snow should be enough to finally get it through her pretty little head that there will be no escaping ‘Saint’ Patrick North.
Counting to ten, I follow her up the stairs. For a few seconds, I stand outside the closed bathroom door and simply listen. The sink is on. The sound of rushing water is loud, but I still hear it when Noelle mutters, ‘fuck me’, just loud enough for it reach me through the door.
Oh, Starling. Don’t tempt me.
Because I am so very tempted to join her in the bathroom, tug down her leggings, bend her over in front of the mirror, and bury my cock inside of her so deeply again that I don’t know where she begins and I end, I force myself to return to my bedroom.
Unzipping my luggage, I dig around until my fingers close on cool metal. Smirking to myself, I pull the pair of handcuffs out.
They’re police-issue. Both solid and very practical.
Officer Burns was very helpful when I explained I needed them for personal reasons.
He added them in with the cost of the phony badge I bought off of him to pretend to be a man Noelle could trust, but now that I’ve shown her exactly who Saint is, it’s time to take a few more precautions.
Shoving them into my pants pocket, I wait for Noelle to leave the bathroom. When I hear her feet padding down the hall, I’m not surprised when she scurries past the open door to my room.
Very well. If that’s how she wants to do it.
I shrug off my suit jacket. Like Noelle, I remove my shoes, placing them neatly beneath my bed. I leave on my pants—despite being slightly damp from the snow—though my white button-down shirt joins my jacket.
There. Now I’m ready for bed, too.
Noelle must’ve suspected that I wouldn’t let her slip away from me so easily.
For the first time that we’ve been in the chalet together, she doesn’t have her bedroom door closed and locked.
The fact that the door is partway open is an obvious invitation to me, and I take that even if I can’t take her again just yet.
She swallows notably as I walk into her room, kicking the door shut behind me.
“If you didn’t want to sleep in my bed, you could’ve just said that. I’ll sleep in here with you instead.”
Her cheeks turn red, though her eyes are undeniably angry. “I thought you were kidding when you said that last night was the last time I’d ever sleep alone.”
Kidding? Me? Oh, Noelle… if there’s one thing you need to know, it’s that I don’t kid. I don’t bluff, either.
And I’m always, always prepared.
Dipping my hand into my pants pocket, I pull out the handcuffs and lift them high so that she can see them.
She blinks once. Twice. And then, in a strangled voice, she says, “You can’t be serious.”
“I am,” I reply evenly. “Until you choose to stay in bed with me, I’m going to make sure you can’t leave it.”
“You’re going to cuff me to you?” Her look is one of disbelief as she shakes her head. “Haven’t you trapped me enough?”
No, Starling. Maybe if I had a cage, then I’d agree… and this is the closest I can come to one to make sure she doesn’t try to fly away.
I cock my head. “Can I trust you to stay?”
“Can I really escape you?” Noelle shoots back.
Wrapping her arms around her tits, she snorts.
“I give up. You know my name. You know my secret wishes. You were in my computer. You’re in my head.
” She unfolds her arms, gesturing toward her lower half.
“You were inside me. And now you want to cuff me to you so that I can’t forget that, in the matter of days, you’ve taken over my life?
I’ve given you everything I could, and you just want more. ”
She looks at the cuffs again, and I can tell that I’m on the edge of taking something that’s been reforged over time and seeing it shatter again.
That’s why, when she sighs and holds out her wrist, I know that I’ve pushed her as far as I can tonight.
“Good point,” I say, then drop the cuffs to the hardwood floor.
The metal hits the floor with a clank.
Her shoulders sag just enough that I can’t miss it. From relief, maybe, or just frustration that she can never expect my next move. Then again, as I gesture for her to lie down before I join her on her bed, maybe she can.
I curl around Noelle, one arm heavy over her thick waist, my chin resting against her gorgeous red hair. She’s stiff at first, then slowly, reluctantly, she settles against me.
I knew she’d fall asleep before me. Ever since I went from Patrick to Saint, showing her who I really was, she’s been on edge.
I don’t blame her, either. In time, she’ll relax, though being constantly on guard has got to be exhausting.
Add that to the way I worked her body all Christmas Eve… oh, yes. I expected her to fall asleep.
What I didn’t expect? Was for my Starling to use my own handcuffs against me.
I don’t know when I finally passed out. I’m usually a light sleeper, but wrapped around Noelle, I guess I allowed myself the pleasure of actually resting for once.
I know her too well to think she’d ever attack me in my sleep—not when she wrote a wish list to air her grievances against the pricks who hurt her instead of getting revenge on her own—but I underestimated how crafty Noelle is.
Because, when I finally wake up on Christmas morning, my arm is stretched over my head. A heavy weight is on my wrist, the metal cuff biting just enough into my flesh for it to be noticeable.
Blinking my eyes open against the morning sunlight, I can see that I’ve been cuffed to the wire-wrought headboard.