by Terry Towers
“Is that bacon and cheese in the eggs?”
“Sure is.” Brock grinned and gave me a wink.
“Thank you. Looks and smells amazing.”
“Well, that’s two out of three. Hopefully you like it just as much.”
Grabbing a fork, I dug into the eggs first and eagerly brought the food to my lips. Taking the bite I was immediately struck by the hint of salt from the bacon, which mixed with the cheddar and egg. There was something else in there though…. I wasn’t a foodie, but my palate was quite sophisticated. “What else is in the eggs?”
“It’s a secret.” Brock replied with a wink. “If you’re a good girl, maybe I’ll tell ya.”
Looking into his eyes, I could see the humor in them. Rolling my eyes, I gave my head a shake. “I’m always good.”
Tyler huffed, drawing my attention to him.
“What’s the huff for?” Cocking a brow, I stared at him, knowing damned well what the snort of derision was all about.
Swallowing the bite of food he had in his mouth, he took a drink and gave me a side glance. “I would challenge that you’re not always good.”
“That so?”
“It’s a fact. If you don’t recall you had to be carried kicking and screaming from the cabin.”
“Hmmm. That a fact?”
“It is a fact,” he confirmed.
A snicker from the other side of me drew my attention to Brock who was pretending to pay us no mind, but I could tell he was quite into the banter between myself and Tyler.
“He has a point.” Brock chimed in. “We’re trying to be good guys so that you don’t get snowed in with no access to the rest of the world or murdered by a couple of psychopaths and you weren’t none too receptive. It was much harder than it had to be.”
~*~ TT ~*~
Brock
Whoa…. Yup, here we go. I couldn’t resist riling her up again. I really shouldn’t be poking the bear, she was being reasonable at the moment. I guess you could just chalk it up to me being a sucker for punishment. Though that wasn’t really it. The fact was that she was damned sexy when her blue eyes flashed with anger and her jaw clenched as she tried to figure out what to say in return.
“Fuck, Brock,” Tyler groaned under his breath.
I didn’t consider that putting her into a bad mood would mean she’d lash out at Tyler as well. My gazed locked with her. Oh well, Tyler was a big boy; he could handle her as well as I could. Besides, we were going to be cabin bound for a few days minimum, might as well have some fun with it.
“I would think if I manhandled you and forced you from your place and made you sleep in my bed that you’d be a little pissed as well.”
Not breaking her gaze, a cocky grin began to emerge on my lips. “I can guarantee to you ma’am that if you came in and forced me into your bed, I’d be quite willing to oblige.”
I could have sworn that I heard a little growl coming from her. “That’s not what I was getting at.”
“Oh, but it’s what you said. I can only go on what you say to me, baby.” Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have called her baby…
She sat up straight in her chair and squared her shoulders. I could almost see a smile crack her scowl, but not quite. She raised a hand and pointed her index finger up. “First off, I’m not your baby.”
I didn’t reply, attempting to remove the smirk from my face and look serious.
“And second...” Her middle finger popped up joining the index. “You must think pretty highly of yourself to imply that I’d kidnap you in the hopes of scoring.”
“I never implied that.”
She frowned, her eyes narrowing.
“I just said that I wouldn’t object to you welcoming me into your bed.” I was definitely overdoing it. If I knew what was good for me I’d quit this now, but I couldn’t.
“I will not sleep with you, Brock. I really hope that you didn’t have your hopes too high on that.” As she said the words there was a faint blush that colored her cheeks and something in her eyes and said that her words weren’t quite fact. I’d been around enough women to know when there was a spark of desire between us.
Unfortunately, Tyler stopped it for us.
“Stop you two. We’re having a good breakfast, let’s not ruin it with your squabbling. We’ve got to get along for a while”—he looked directly at me—“and I doubt the bickering will help our guest be productive with the novel she’s working on.”
Genevieve turned her head and looked over at Tyler and smiled, if I wasn’t mistaken it was a flirty smile at that. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“Don’t mind Brock, he can be a little too flirty for his own good.”
She looked back at me and cocked a brow. “So, you’re the playboy out of the two of you that I need to watch out for, huh.”
“Tyler is overstating.” I looked over at Tyler and he caught my stare. His look told me exactly what was on his mind—she was off-limits.
Well, we’d see about that. Him denying me made her forbidden fruit, and that only made me want her more.
Chapter 6
Genevieve
I’m not sure what was going on, but things were beginning to move in my head. I wasn’t in a writing whirlwind like I’d hoped to be, but something had definitely sparked for me. I never plotted my stories and that may be part of my problem, I liked to just go where the creative juices took me.
But despite my minor breakthrough, after pounding out a couple of chapters throughout the day and well into the evening as the guys worked, I was depleted and needed to take a breather. What the boys had been working on I was unsure; they were in and out of the cabin most of the day. I had to give them credit, they were true to their word and left me to work away and both were already sound to sleep.
And to add to it my stomach was growling. I needed something to eat. I wasn’t sure what they had for snacks, but they were guys; surely they had jerky or something on hand.
Getting up from the computer, I shut it down and closed the lid. That was it for the night. Looking down at my watch I was surprised to find that it was past 2am.
“Wow. Guess I’m a trooper today,” I muttered to myself, though considering I’d been plugging away all day and into the night I’d have hoped I’d have been able to get more accomplished then just two chapters.
Leaving my room, I tried to be quiet so as to not wake Brock, who had insisted on giving up his bed again tonight for Tyler. As much as he was could be a dick and seemed to like pushing my buttons he did seem like a genuine guy. That revelation didn’t make me happy, because it made me like him. And liking either of them was dangerous. I didn’t want to get involved with men who would hurt me and I had a sinking suspicion they were, indeed, men who would hurt me. There was also the logistics problem. They lived across the country for God’s sake. So even if something did happen it wasn’t as though we could ever explore anything other than sex. And one thing I wasn’t into was no-strings-attached sex. No way. No thank you.
A couple of the floorboards squeaked as I tiptoed to the kitchen area. With each squeak I’d stop and turn to look at the sleeping Brock. He was shirtless on the sofa, wearing a pair of red flannel pajama bottoms. The quilt he’d had over him was half off his body and onto the floor. If the fire went out in the stove and fireplace, he’d be pretty damned cold. I looked down at my pajama bottoms; tonight was all about the Transformers. And truthfully, my black tank top wouldn’t give me much protection from the cold. But Tyler’s bed had some awesome down-filled bedding. It was a hard bed, but the down-filled comforter and pillows were a dream.
It took a few minutes to reach the pantry and another few to find an unopened bottle of white wine, a wine glass and, as anticipated, some jerky—a half a dozen or so bags to be exact. I inspected the Ziploc bag it was in and wondered if it was homemade.
Hmmm. With the wine in one hand and the jerky in the other I made my way to the living-room area. This was tricky business, entering the living room where
Brock was sleeping, but as long as I was careful he’d be none the wiser.
Slipping into the rocker recliner across from the sofa, I placed the bottle of wine on the end table next to the chair and opened the Ziploc bag containing the jerky. Grabbing a piece, I resealed the baggie and placed it on the end table while taking a bite from the jerky. It was pretty freaking good, with a distinct smoky taste. I’d go as far as to say that it was the best I’d ever had.
Opening the bottle, I poured myself a glass and closed my eyes as I tilted the glass up and began to swallow the liquid. It had a fruity taste and burned ever so slightly as it went down. The taste was nice, and it was a good burn. Before I knew it, I was three glasses in and feeling slightly buzzed.
~*~ TT ~*~
Brock
Do you ever get the feeling that you’re not alone? It’s so intense it pulls you from a deep, albeit, not-all-that-satisfying sleep. That’s how I was feeling. Slowly, I opened one eye and then the other to reveal Genevieve sitting on the rocking recliner across from me, sipping on a glass of wine. Looking over her shoulder I sought out the clock behind her; it was nearly 3am. What in the hell was she doing up so early, or late, whichever way you wanted to look at it?
Three am. The fire must be nearly out. I groaned inwardly as I slowly sat up, rubbing my eyes as I adjusted.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” Despite her words there was a smile on her lips and a flush in her cheeks. My eyes shifted and my gaze settled on the nearly half-empty wine bottle next to her.
“You didn’t wake me. I need to keep the fire going anyhow.” Looking over at the fire I was surprised to see that it was still raging.
“I’ve been taking care of it.”
I looked back at her. “Thank you.” I grinned. “I gotta say I’m impressed.”
She laughed. “Because I’m city folk.”
“Perhaps. No offense.”
“None taken. My folks had a cabin in Maine when I was young. We’d spend long weekends there.”
“You don’t say. Did you fish and hunt and all that?”
“My dad did. I couldn’t bring myself to hurt a living creature.”
I cocked a brow up at her. “Yet, you insisted you’d be fine killing one of those convicts if they broke into your cabin.”
She cocked her head at me and pulled her lower lip between her teeth, drawing my gaze to her lush lips. Bet they tasted of wine. The hard-on I woke up with demanded I find out.
Taking another long sip of the wine in her glass she finished it off. “Well, there’s a difference between killing an innocent animal—just because—and killing someone who has every intention of killing you, or worse, then killing you. Survival of the fittest. Fight or flight, I choose fight.”
“Hmm. Fair enough. But thinking you can kill someone and actually doing it is a very different thing.”
She shrugged. “Have you killed someone?”
My jaw clenched as I pondered her question. This conversation was a little more intense then I really wanted to get. “I have. Even though it was what needed to be done and was done in self-defense, I still don’t feel good about it.”
“I see.” She sat up straighter in her chair and eyed me. There was a little something extra in her eyes. Interest, maybe. “What happened?”
I sighed. “I’d rather not talk about it. At least not now.”
She looked disappointed but nodded. “Fair enough.”
“Why are you up so late anyhow?” I nodded toward the bedroom that was temporarily hers. “Burning the midnight oil?”
“Not with this in my hand, I’m not.” She picked up the bottle of wine and poured another glass. “Want some?”
“Nah. I’m good. Thanks.”
“I’ve been having issues working on the new book. I just can’t seem to get into it. I almost wonder if I should just scrap it and start something completely new. But the problem is that the publishing company expects the book I’ve pitched already so I’m forced to write it…”
“That’s tough.”
She nodded. “It doesn’t sound it, but my head is just not there. I’m almost there.”
“That a fact?” I raised a brow at her, a sly smile spreading across my lips.
“It is…” she frowned as she stared at me and then slowly nodded. I could see that she was fighting a smile from forming. “That’s not what I was talking about.”
“I apologize. I guess I must have misunderstood.”
Genevieve groaned. “Yes, easy mistake I’m sure.”
“Is there something I can do to help?” Sitting straight up, I suddenly realized that I had something else standing straight up as well. Leaning my elbows on my knees, I looked at her, at the same time attempting to stop the erection from protruding from my pants.
“I’m just tense and stressed and…ugh.” She groaned and flopped back into the chair, placing the wine glass onto the end table. “You know when shit just seems to take over and you can’t remember the last time you were able to just relax?”
I shrugged. “I’ve been in situations like that from time to time. Yes.”
“I’m feeling that way. Book sales have taken a nose dive and I’m scared if this next book isn’t a bestseller that the publishing company will drop me.” She closed her eyes and massaged her temples. “I could self-publish, I suppose. But what if that fails? What in the hell would I do? I got my first publishing contract when I was still in college. I’ve never had a real job.” She used air quotes to accent the word “real,” making me laugh.
No wonder she was such a damned spitfire. She was driving herself insane with stress. “What did you take in college?”
She snorted. “Philosophy. Boy that was a waste of four years, right?” She opened her eyes and looked deep into mine. “By all means laugh. It’s what I usually get.”
I grinned, but didn’t laugh. “I’d never do that.”
“Trust me; I laugh at my own choices sometimes.” A hint of a smile touched the corners of her lips. “I don’t even really have an interest in philosophy anymore!”
My grin widened. “At least you can find humor in it. That’s a bonus.”
“Yeah. I suppose. Doesn’t make me any less tense or damned stressed through.”
As we stared deep into each other’s eyes I couldn’t help but think that she was an exquisite woman. She had a sharp tongue, and there was a part of me that loved it. Women that challenged me I found thrilling, and I seriously doubted life would be boring with her around.
She grimaced as she rolled her shoulders.
An idea struck me as I watched her distress. I wasn’t sure if she’d be up for it, but I was willing to take the risk. In truth, it was my dick that was demanding I take action. “Here let me help you with that.” I motioned for her to come and sit beside me on the sofa.
There was a moment’s hesitation before she stood, cautiously walked over to the sofa and sat down next to me. “Okay. Now what?” I saw the suspicion in her eyes, but there was also something else. If I wasn’t mistaken there was a hint of need in those blue orbs.
Gently grasping her shoulders, I turned her to face away from me and brushed her long, silky locks off her shoulders, causing her to gasp and her body before me to tense up. The dark hair cascaded its way down her back, shining where the light hit it; it was almost captivating, making me yearn to rake my fingers through it.
“It’s nothing, really…” she gasped as I settled my hands on her shoulders and applied a gentle amount of pressure.
“You’re really tight, baby.” I cringed as soon as the statement came out of my mouth, expecting her to rip a strip off me. I didn’t quite expect it to sound so blatantly sexual. Surprising enough, she didn’t lash out; if anything she relaxed a little.
Good. Very good. I began to work on the knots in her shoulders and back, purposely brushing the side of her neck with my fingertips from time to time, enjoying the little gasps that my not-so-innocent touches provoked within her.
Once done with her shoulders I debated if I should move lower. Her sighing and leaning back against my chest took the decision from me. My lips lightly brushed her ear lobe as I said, “Lay on your stomach.” The smell of lavender reached my nose. Fuck she smelled amazing. She seemed to have a new tantalizing scent each day.
She didn’t question but did as she was told, lying on her stomach in front of me. I hesitated a moment. If I didn’t keep myself in a gentlemanly frame of mind, we’d be in some trouble. However, my dick was still throbbing making gentlemanly a very hard option.
I repositioned myself so that I was straddling her backside and began to work my hands down her back, starting at her shoulders. Her body twisted and moved under me, accompanied by her periodic soft sighs and moans. Each time she moved under me, her ass would brush up against my balls, the friction increasing my arousal. At least she was on her stomach so that she couldn’t see the bulge straining against my pajama bottoms.
My hands dipped lower, down over her shoulder blades and to her lower back. She arched her back slightly as I applied pressure and moaned softly again. I needed to stop this. Honest to God, I didn’t mean for this to become such an intense sexual thing, but her soft body under mine was making things—a number of things—damned hard.
I reached her lower back, just that beautiful arch at the top of her round ass, and hesitated. Her tank top had pulled up and my hands were pressing against her bare ivory flesh. Where did I go from here? In any other case, if I had a woman in this position it would be the point where I’d flip her over and devour her lips with my own. But I couldn’t do that.
“Brock?” Genvieve turned slightly to look at me. When I didn’t respond, she wiggled under me as she flipped over to her back. This time it was my turn to groan as she rubbed my balls in the process with her hip. This was embarrassing; it wasn’t like I was a teenage boy. I saved lives for fuck’s sakes!
