by Carly Keene
Fear makes me strong. I throw an elbow into his ribs and stomp on his foot. He doesn’t let go. I go wild, twisting and kicking backward, and all that happens is that he gets hold of my waist and starts to drag me away—out of the light, back toward the parking lot.
I don’t panic, but I get angry. Mr. Miller is not going to win. He is not going to drag me away from the man I love, the man who loves me. He is not going to take me away and hurt me.
I will not allow it. I have too much to lose.
I redouble my efforts, and manage to throw his hand off my mouth. I scream. I turn my head and scream in his ear, and then suddenly he’s pulled backward away from me, Jackson’s arm around his neck in a chokehold. Mr. Miller’s hands go up to the burly arm cutting off his air, and I have the thought that right now he feels as helpless as I did just a few moments ago. I am fiercely glad about it. In the midst of all this noise, I want to go kick him, but before I can do that, Jackson is jerking Mr. Miller around to face him, and hitting him in the jaw.
Mr. Miller goes down. Jackson goes down on top of him, flipping him to his stomach and sitting on him. “Asshole,” he spits out. “Touch my girl again and I’ll make you sorry!”
Someone else’s hands are on me, and I fight them off until I realize they belong to Miss Nancy and Jackson’s brother, and they are patting at me, pulling me away from the sight of Mr. Miller.
“Honey,” Nancy says to me, “you can stop screaming now.”
That noise was me. I stop.
I start shaking. They hug me, and it helps. A little.
Jackson is yelling at us to call 9-1-1, and his brother is telling him that they already did, and his other brother comes to join him in holding Mr. Miller down. Then we’re inside the shop, and Nancy is making me sit in a cozy chair, and his brother is introducing himself as Dakota and telling me that everything is going to be fine, and one of the Red Hat ladies comes in and pours me a cup of hot chocolate and makes me drink it.
I love this part of living in the South. Sure, there’s one crazy guy, but most people are really kind and considerate.
The hot chocolate soothes my sore throat. The adrenaline rush has gone by the time the sheriff’s deputy arrives, and I’m getting sleepy. The deputy interviews me, and I tell him everything: the pharmacy, the stalking, the restraining order, all that’s happened.
Jackson walks into the shop and comes right to me. He interrupts the deputy. “Sorry, Mike, I have to do this.” He takes me in his arms and lets me lean on him. Mike the deputy just raises his eyebrows a little, but he smiles before he goes back to asking me questions and assuring me that I’m safe.
In Jackson’s arms, I finally feel safe.
CHAPTER NINE
Chapter 9
Jackson
She’s safe now.
I can’t even express how scared I was for her, much less how scared I was for me—that I’d lose her right after I found her. And especially after the unsettled feeling of a day without her, when I wanted so much to talk to her but I was run off my feet at work, it was terrifying.
I really wanted to kill that guy. It was with the greatest difficulty that I managed to keep myself from burying an ax in his skull. Punching him was, at least, satisfying.
I’m holding her now while Deputy Mike is going over the events with her. It sounds like that black Olds behind me in traffic last night might have been her stalker, and I think I do recognize him as the guy who was staring up at her building when I went in last night with the pizza. I shiver a little, picturing him dragging her away, and settle her more firmly against me.
I’m not letting her go. Ever.
When Deputy Mike closes his notebook and tells her she’s free to go, she turns to me and holds me so tight I can hardly breathe. I squeeze her back.
“Do you want to go home?” I ask her, stroking her beautiful caramel-colored hair away from her beautiful face. She has no makeup on, and she is the loveliest woman I have ever seen in my life. I decide that from here on, Noelle will be the loveliest woman I will ever see, that she will be my standard of beauty. No one else can be as beautiful, because no one else is her.
She is such a gift.
“Yes,” she says into my chest.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t call you. My phone was dead.”
“Nancy told me.”
“I brought you flowers, except you weren’t at the Sledds Run branch today.”
“I brought you dinner from Burger Shack,” she says, and finally tips her head back to smile up at me. My stomach growls, right on cue, and then we’re laughing. Because we’re both alive and unhurt, and because the threat is locked up by now in the county jail, and because we have our whole lives together stretching out in front of us.
I want that burger, but I don’t want to let her go. Nancy must be able to tell what I’m thinking, because she picks up the bag and hands it to me. “Sit down and eat. Everybody’ll feel better with food in their bellies.”
I sit in the comfy stuffed chair that we keep around for Santa to make Saturday appearances, and Noelle sits on my lap, to feed me fries.
Holly comes in and fusses over Noelle, pressing her to go to the farmhouse and eat something, wrap up in a blanket, have a hot toddy for the shock, but Noelle refuses to leave me. Holly brings her a blanket and another cup of hot chocolate, with extra marshmallows.
I’d meant to ask this later, but it just comes rolling out. “Want to move in with me? My apartment’s down on Dodson Avenue. Very basic and cheap, but my place is your place. Forever.”
She blinks. Smiles. “Forever?”
I nod, chewing burger.
“I think my place is nicer,” she says. “And closer to all the locations I work. Why don’t you move in with me, instead?”
“Deal.”
Miss Nancy’s eyebrows are about up to her silvery hairline. “Y’all don’t think you’re maybe rushing things a little?”
“No,” Noelle and I say together.
“You just met yesterday,” Adam points out.
“When it’s right, you know,” I tell him. “And you married Holly three weeks after you met her, so you have no grounds to criticize.”
Adam grins. “Not criticizing, just making sure.” He pats Noelle on the back. “Welcome to the family, Noelle.”
As we go out to my truck, the first flakes of snow begin to fall.
We stop by my apartment first, so I can grab a few days’ worth of clothes, and then we’re back across town, pulling up to her place in the light layer of snow on the ground. She turns to me in the parking lot to kiss me, and I have to acknowledge that my need for her is big and desperate.
“Can we go in now?” I say between kisses.
She pulls back a little. “I even have bread and milk and toilet paper. We won’t have to go out for days.”
“Good.”
We lock her apartment door behind us, and we pull the curtains, and we go to the bedroom, kissing all the way. Her lips are hot, she tastes delicious, and I can’t wait to get my mouth all over every inch of her skin. It’s soft and smooth, her pale olive flesh glowing against the peach-colored sheets. I take my time, kissing everything I can reach and turning her over and around to get to the spots I haven’t kissed yet. I linger on the slopes of her breasts, her nipples. Her delicate neck. Her silky inner thighs.
And then I’m kissing and licking her sweet pussy, all tender and slick with just a hint of salt, and her hands are in my hair, her hips moving underneath me. She’s making sexy desire noises, and then she’s tugging my head up to kiss me. “I want to come on your cock, Jackson. Please.”
She doesn’t have to ask me twice. I push inside, gentle but firm, her tight sheath opening for me. We rock together. It doesn’t take long for her inner walls to clamp down hard on me, her pleasure pushing me to my own and us collapsing in sticky satisfaction after. “I love you,” I tell her.
She sighs and puts her head on my shoulder. “I love you, too.
”
It snows all night.
We make love all night.
Toward morning, after the fourth time, I peek out the window. Eight inches of snow, maybe, on the ground, and it looks like the roads may be clear by noon. Eight inches wouldn’t be much if you lived in Vermont, but around here it’s substantial. And beautiful.
I go into the living room and plug Noelle’s tree lights in, feeling immensely grateful she wanted a fresh one this year. I turn at a noise in the hall, and there she is, my beautiful girl, looking frowsy and sleepy and very well fucked. “You’re so gorgeous.”
She rubs her eye and squints at me. “Why are you awake?”
I put the blanket from the couch on the floor. “So we can come in here and be naked under the tree. Like Christmas presents to each other.”
She blinks, and then she laughs. “I know exactly where to put the bow on your package.”
CHAPTER TEN
Epilogue
Epilogue
Noelle, one year later
It’s early December again, the busiest time of year at the tree stand. Jackson’s nearly run off his feet with how crazy things are at Sledd’s Winter Festival; they’ve had to hire more help to get through the season.
I can’t wait for the end of the month! In three weeks, I’ll be his bride, right here at the little chapel, the day after Christmas. Mom and Dad are coming from Missouri and my brother Paul from where he’s stationed in Texas, and Jackson’s parents will fly in from Florida. We all met this summer, and it was nice; everybody gets along just fine. I like Adam and his wife Holly, and their little girl is adorable. Dakota’s going to make an awesome brother-in-law, too.
But Jackson, he’s my life now. My future. My present. My Christmas present, actually.
He moved in with me last winter, and I can say I’ve never been happier. He’s still as sweet as he was when I met him, or maybe sweeter. Still as thoughtful and fun and great to spend time with, whether we go out dancing, or take a trip to Yosemite like we did in September, or stay at home for pizza and TV.
He’s every bit as sexy as he was that first night, too. Maybe even sexier, because we get up to all kinds of fun stuff.
This evening I’ve come by after work to bring my boo some dinner and take him home. Miss Nancy is selling wreaths in the enclosed shop area, and I’ve joined her to take advantage of the warmth and the hot-beverage bar. Holly comes by with her sweet little girl sleeping in a carrier, and offers to make me her special hot chocolate with peppermint and whipped cream, and I’m glad to accept.
“I’m so excited for your wedding,” she confides, her brown eyes sparkling at me from under her dark curls. “I loved my own wedding here, but it was so rushed that my in-laws couldn’t even be here. And my own parents weren’t here, either. Adam and I just couldn’t wait to be married.”
“That’s romantic.” They’re still so much in love.
Dakota comes in, shirt unbuttoned, cheeks flushed. He plops himself on a rustic stool and sits there looking bemused. It’s totally unlike him, because he’s usually so calm and reassuring in person, like a young bearded Mr. Rogers.
Holly and I both stare at him. “What’s up with you?” Holly asks, expressing the puzzlement I feel as well.
The baby stirs, and Dakota puts his finger to his lips, to hush us. I don’t think it’s the cold that has his face reddened. There’s a fugitive smile that keeps turning up the corners of his mouth, and he won’t look either of us in the eye. “I gotta go deliver a tree.”
“We don’t deliver trees,” Holly says, matter-of-fact. “It’s not a good use of time, and if we charged what it cost us, nobody would pay that much.”
“Well, I’m delivering this one,” he says, and gets up to button his shirt. “I’ll take the big pickup.”
And then a young woman comes into the enclosed shop, her own cheeks pink, and their eyes meet.
I can feel the heat between the two of them. I stifle a smile, and Holly does the same thing. The young woman, who is tall and statuesque and has this stunning creamy-blonde hair streaming down her back, gives Nancy a credit card, speaking in a soft shy voice. She sneaks glances from behind her lashes at Dakota, who is staring right back.
“Delivery fee?” Nancy says out loud, sounding shocked.
Dakota makes a noise in his throat, but Holly speaks over him. “A hundred dollars on top of whatever the tree costs.”
“That’s no trouble,” the blonde says in her soft voice. “It’s worth it to my dad. He insists on having it delivered.”
All of us blink. Holly recovers first. “Fine with us then. I hope you really enjoy it,” she says, with her usual direct warmth.
“I’m sure—I’m sure we will,” the blonde stutters, with one more glance at Dakota.
He smiles at her before going out.
I head outside as well, looking for my fiancé. He’s out there, jacket stripped off, helping Dakota haul the monster tree onto the big pickup. It’s a gorgeous view, from the twinkling Christmas lights overhead to the decorated trees near the building, the rows of conifers to the beautiful men in snug-fitting undershirts. I sigh.
Dakota heads off without a backward glance, followed by the blonde in a white Lexus. Jackson comes over to me and kisses me. “About time for me to go off-duty,” he says, smiling.
Adam comes over. “It’s pretty dead now. Too dark to do any more Christmas Lumberjack experience stuff. I can manage things here if you want to take off, Jack.”
Jackson gives me a devilish look. “Maybe,” he says. “Babe, why don’t you come with me to go check on a couple things before we head home.”
“Check on a couple things,” Adam repeats, and then laughs. “Go ahead. You’re off-duty.”
We head off in the other pickup. “Aren’t you starving?” I ask, as we leave the vicinity of the lighted shop.
“For you,” he says, and gives me a charming sideways glance. “Remember how we got really close to losing our minds out here the first day we met? Standing right outside the truck?”
I’d wanted to tear his jeans off him. “I remember.” My voice is husky with instant arousal. He can still do that to me, without half trying.
He stops the truck out of sight of the shop. Out here it’s dark, and when I stick my head out the window, I can see a bazillion stars overhead. It’s beautiful, but it’s cold. “You’d better not be thinking about getting naked outside. I’m not that kind of a girl,” I tease.
He snorts. “I know better.” He reaches for me, putting his sexy mouth on mine and pulling me into his arms. He tastes good, and feels good, and the heat between us is all I need. I wrestle my jacket off between kisses, and suddenly I’m on my back on the big bench seat with his hands unbuttoning my work blouse and unhooking my bra. “You’re the kind of girl who loves being naked with me in a truck,” he says, voice low and dark with desire. “You want to be fucked in my truck, don’t you?”
“Fucked by you, yes,” I admit, and jerk open his belt buckle. He moans when I release his beautiful long cock from its pants prison and lean over to take him into my mouth. I love sucking him, love hearing him make those noises, love making him almost helpless with need. Soon enough, I know, he’ll return the favor.
And he does. He begs me to stop before it’s all over, and then he’s stripping the rest of my clothes off me, spreading my legs, and kindling the fire in my ladyparts even higher with that skilled tongue of his. “I wanted to do this the first day I met you,” he says, before licking me again. He slides a finger inside me, and then two, reaching for my joy button. Pleasure ratchets higher and higher, until my body explodes in fireworks.
“Want your Christmas present early?” he asks, in that sexy low voice, and all I can do is nod. He lifts my legs into the air and settles between them, pushing his rock-hard cock into me and making me moan in anticipation of even more delight. I’m still excited by my first orgasm, and it doesn’t take much to send me spiraling back into fireworks again, my toes poin
ted and legs taut. “Shit, Noelle, I can’t take it, you feel so fucking good,” he growls, and speeds up, until we’re both panting and groaning with climax.
Afterwards, he pulls his jacket over us while we catch our breath in the chilly air. “I can’t wait to marry you,” he says, and rests his forehead against me. “Did you like your present?”
“You’re my present,” I tell him. “You’re everything I ever dreamed. I couldn’t ask for more.”
He kisses me, soft and sweet. “I guess you’re mine too. Best Christmas present ever. Forever.”
Forever.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Sneak Peek: Christmas Angel Wishes
Read on for an excerpt from the third book in the Christmas Lumberjacks series, Christmas Angel Wishes (available for pre-order now here!)
Assertive, manly dude meets shy, curvy woman, and they give each other the confidence to make their wishes come true. Cold weather, warm hearts, hot loving.
Dakota
The tree farm venture, under the guidance of my sister-in-law, is really thriving. I keep hoping that my brothers won’t need my labor to keep the business in the black anymore, and that I can refocus myself on my real job with the national forestry service. Because I’m under-appreciated and bored here. And I’m lonely. It’s tough to be alone, now that both Adam and Jackson have found the girls of their dreams. But maybe now I’ve found mine—if she can find the strength to believe that she’s as wonderful as I know she is.
Angelina
After years of listening to my wealthy father complain that I wasted my college education on becoming a preschool teacher, and listening to my stepmother complain that I’m too fat for any worthy man to ever love me, I’ve come to believe that I don’t really deserve better. But when I go to the tree farm to pick up the showplace Fraser fir my stepmother has insisted on, I meet gorgeous Dakota. I can’t understand why he likes me and wants to spend time with me, but I’ll take whatever I can get. As a 25-year-old virgin, I’m coming to think that it really might be better to love him and lose him than to chicken out and miss my chance at finding my soulmate.
