by Cara Malone
Then she laughed and fell back against the couch.
“What?” Carmen asked.
“I just realized that I’m still on the clock,” Joy said. She looked at the time in the kitchen – it had been over an hour since she walked over to cabin number four, and people were probably looking for her by now. She said, “I came over here because someone told me there was a housekeeping issue in this cabin.”
“I know,” Carmen said. “That was me. Pretty good trick, huh?”
“Yeah, it had me fooled,” Joy admitted.
Carmen held Joy close and she felt every soft curve of her body. She let out a tortured moan and inhaled the intoxicating scent of Carmen’s hair, her hands squeezing her hips with renewed desire. Carmen murmured into the crook of her neck, “If they ask, we’ll just tell them the problem was more complicated than you anticipated. Stay a little while longer.”
“You’re going to get me in trouble,” Joy said, but she made no move to leave. She was exactly where she wanted to be, with the girl she didn’t dare to dream could be hers. “Hey, Merry Christmas, since I kind of screwed it up yesterday.”
“Merry Christmas, Joy,” Carmen said, wrapping her arms around her as the snow began to fall lightly outside their window.
Epilogue
It was a little before nine p.m. when Joy walked into cabin number four on New Year’s Eve. Carmen wasn’t in the living room, or the kitchen, and Joy meandered down the hallway to the bathroom, where she heard Christmas music.
Carmen was standing at the vanity and her phone on the counter beside her was filling the room with the soft, instrumental sounds of the season. She was wearing a stunning silver dress that sparkled in the light from the vanity, her dark hair shining as it cascaded down her back in meticulous ringlets, and she was leaning over the counter to apply her lipstick. Joy bit her lip as she came up behind her, wanting nothing more than to run her hands up Carmen’s smooth legs and under the hem of her skirt. Carmen caught sight of her in the mirror and smiled.
“Hey,” she said. “I’m almost ready.”
“Take your time,” Joy said, coming over and sliding her arm around Carmen’s waist. “You, this big, empty cabin, and that dress are all I need to ring in the New Year.”
Carmen smiled wryly at her and said, “We’re going to the party.”
The resort hosted a big New Year’s Eve bash every year in the resort ballroom, and the moment Joy told her about it, Carmen’s eyes had lit up. There would be resort guests and Emerald Hill residents alike, with flowing champagne, dancing and a countdown at midnight. The resort even arranged to have fireworks every year, lighting up the night sky over the mountains. Most years, Joy preferred a quieter party – just her and Danny and whichever high school friends happened to be in town for the holidays – but this year she was looking forward to celebrating in style with Carmen.
They’d spent every minute of the past week together when Joy wasn’t working, and even though they weren’t any closer to figuring out their plans for after the holidays, Joy knew that whatever her future held, she wanted Carmen to be in it.
“Go get dressed,” Carmen ordered. “I laid out your clothes in my room.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Joy said, leaning over to kiss Carmen’s cheek before going down the hall to the bedroom.
Carmen had gone into Denver one afternoon while Joy was working to pick out her dress for the party, and she’d texted Joy to ask for her measurements, telling her that she’d found the perfect thing for her to wear. Joy tried to object, but she was quickly discovering that Carmen had a way of getting what she wanted.
Not that she had put up much of a fight – if Joy could do something to make Carmen smile, there really wasn’t much question about whether or not she’d do it.
Laid neatly across Carmen’s bed, Joy found a dark gray suit jacket and matching pants, along with a knit sweater vest made out of a shimmering material similar to Carmen’s dress. It was soft and feminine, balanced perfectly by the sharp cut of the suit, and Carmen had done a pretty good job of finding the right size in Joy’s absence. She put the outfit on and then went back into the bathroom, where Carmen was just finishing her makeup.
“You look hot,” she said, raising an eyebrow appreciatively at Joy.
“So do you,” Joy answered, putting her arm around Carmen’s waist a second time and pulling her into a deep kiss that nearly undid all of the work she’d just done on her makeup. “Are you ready?”
“So ready,” Carmen said.
They walked down the short road from Carmen’s cabin to the lodge and Carmen shivered with her hand in Joy’s. Joy put her arm around her to try to protect her from the cold, but her dress was short and the mountain air was always colder after dark.
“Tonight’s my last night in the cabin,” she said while they walked. No one else was out at this hour – all the other guests were either at the party already, or in their accommodations for the night, and Carmen was growing accustomed to this peaceful illusion of being alone with Joy on the mountain.
“Don’t remind me,” Joy said, kissing her and then leading her up to the door of the lodge.
“Okay,” Carmen agreed. “We’ll forget about if for a few more hours.”
They went inside and immediately, the sounds of the party flowed over to them across the marble floors and high ceilings. The Christmas tree in the lobby had been transformed into a blue and white sparkling ode to winter, and notes of music and jovial conversation were coming from the ballroom. They checked their coats and then Joy took Carmen’s hand again, leading her into the party.
The room was large and beautifully decorated, with twinkling white lights hanging from the ceiling and white garlands draped around the perimeter of the room. There were at least two hundred people there, all dressed in their finest and gathering on the dance floor and at the bar. There was a band playing on a small stage at the far end of the room, and there were floor-to-ceiling windows that took up one wall and which overlooked the snow-covered mountains.
“What do you think?” Joy asked as they headed over to the bar. “Bet it doesn’t hold a candle to New Year’s Eve in the Big Apple.”
“New York doesn’t have this view,” Carmen said.
They spent a couple of hours at the party, having cocktails and dancing, and the large clock on the wall ticked closer and closer to midnight. Every time Carmen looked at Joy, she seemed even more beautiful and seductive in that crisp suit, and when she got too warm and took off the jacket, Carmen decided she couldn’t take much more of this view without being able to touch her.
When the time reached a quarter past eleven, she leaned in and let her lips brush over Joy’s ear as she said, “Come back to the cabin with me.”
“You don’t want to stick around for the countdown?” Joy asked.
“I want you all to myself when the clock strikes midnight,” Carmen said, taking Joy’s hand. It didn’t take much convincing to get her out of the ballroom, and before long they were walking fast through the cold to get back to the solitude of cabin number four.
Carmen began undressing Joy as soon as the cabin door shut. She kicked off her shoes while Carmen carefully slid her coat over her shoulders, taking it off along with the suit jacket and hanging them both on the hook near the door. Joy turned Carmen around, pressing her hands against the wall while she unzipped her dress and let it fall to the floor. The sight was just as good as she’d imagined, the dress laying in a pool of silver around Carmen’s feet and revealing a black, lacy set of lingerie.
Joy kissed Carmen’s bare shoulder, putting her arms around her from behind and pulling her close as she inhaled the scent of her hair and nuzzled into the crook of her neck.
Then Carmen turned around, pulling the vest over Joy’s head and then slowly working her way down the buttons on her shirt. She never took her eyes off Joy’s as she did this, a wicked little smile forming on the corner of her mouth as she got to the final button and popped it open, yanking the t
ails of the shirt out of Joy’s pants. She tossed the shirt aside and then dropped down to her knees to undo the buckle of Joy’s belt and pull her pants down. Joy stepped out of them, feeling breathless with Carmen kneeling in front of her, and then Carmen wrapped her arms around Joy’s hips, putting her mouth on Joy through the thin fabric of her underwear.
She felt her legs go a little weak – she’d been anticipating this touch all evening – and she whispered urgently, “Let’s go to the bedroom.”
She took Carmen’s hand and pulled her up from the floor, but they didn’t make it far. The way Carmen’s skin looked so smooth in the moonlight from the large living room window and the softness of the lace that hugged her curves tempted Joy and she pushed Carmen up against the wall, kissing her deeply. She had to have her now, touching her and tasting her.
Carmen responded with matching desire, pressing her body against Joy’s and sliding her hand between her thighs to make her go weak and shivery all over again. Joy put her forehead on the wall over Carmen’s shoulder and breathed heavily against her neck, panting as Carmen slipped her fingers beneath the fabric of her underwear and found her wetness. She put her hands on Carmen’s breasts and moved her hips against her hand, and when she couldn’t take it any longer, she pulled Carmen down to the floor.
She snagged a throw blanket and a couple of pillows off the nearby couch and arranged them into a quick little nest for the two of them, then crawled down between Carmen’s knees and pulled the lace panties off. She quickly shimmied out of her own, and then Carmen was reaching for her, wanting her, needing her.
Joy let Carmen pull her hips down to meet her eager tongue, and she leaned over to stroke and rub at the tenderness between Carmen’s thighs. Joy could feel her whole body trembling already, nearly losing control at the bliss of Carmen’s tongue gliding over her. She slid her fingers between Carmen’s thighs to the same rhythm, slowly teasing an orgasm out of her as she watched the sensation swell inside her. She wanted to capture every moment of this in her memory, the way Carmen tasted, how she smelled, how she moved beneath Joy’s hand and the little, panting breaths that she took as she got closer and closer to climax.
They moved together and Joy moved her hips gently over Carmen’s mouth, her thighs shaking with the effort of holding herself up when all she really wanted to do was melt into a puddle of pure ecstasy with Carmen.
They finished together, Joy collapsing on top of Carmen and lapping at her wetness as her own body convulsed and Carmen’s thighs quivered around her head, and then they lay together on the floor, breathing hard and satisfied. Joy pulled the blanket around them and after a minute or two, she craned her head backward to look at the clock hanging in the kitchen.
“It’s almost midnight,” she said, wrapping her arms tighter around Carmen.
“So it is,” Carmen said, glancing at the clock.
“Come on,” Joy said, standing up and pulling Carmen to her feet. She picked up the blanket and brought it with them as she led Carmen over to the big bay windows in the living room. It wasn’t quite the same view as the ballroom had, but the mountains looked majestic and beautiful from any angle.
Joy pulled Carmen into her and wrapped the blanket around them both, and they stood there for a couple of minutes, looking out at the world beyond their window. Then Carmen looked at the clock again and said, “Less than a minute now.”
“Thank you,” Joy said, and Carmen looked at her with a curious look.
“For what?”
“For staying,” she said.
Carmen squeezed her in a tight hug and said, “I couldn’t leave you.”
“Good,” Joy said with a contented sigh.
“You should come to New York with me,” Carmen said abruptly, and it took Joy a little bit off-guard. Of course Carmen would have to check out of this cabin tomorrow to make room for a new set of guests, and they’d both have to get on with their lives at some point, but they’d done a rather admirable job of ignoring this fact while they enjoyed the extra time they got together when Carmen didn’t go home after Christmas with the rest of her family.
“You really want me to?” Joy asked.
“Of course,” Carmen said. “Or if not New York, then maybe we can go visit your friend the rock star, or see your mom.”
“Really?”
“I can work anywhere,” Carmen said with a shrug. “And I want to be wherever you are.”
The sky lit up in front of them, the first of the fireworks exploding just over the ridge of the mountain. They cast the room in a bright, hopeful glow, and Joy pulled Carmen into their first kiss of the New Year. It was long and very nearly ended in them sinking to the floor again, but then she pulled away and said, “Okay. Let’s do it. Let’s have an adventure.”
Carmen grinned widely at her, the deep pools of her eyes sparkling with the reflected light of another set of fireworks, and Joy’s chest swelled with happiness. She took Carmen’s hand and pulled her as fast as she could to the bedroom.
A Note from Cara
Hello!
Thanks for reading That Old Emerald Mountain Magic – I hope you enjoyed it!
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With love,
Cara
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