Desperate Times (Silver Ridge Series Book 2)

by Emily Goodwin

  “Chloe,” Sam growls, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. I’m panting, slowly pushing myself up and suddenly very aware the lights are on in the kitchen and the large floor-to-ceiling windows aren’t too far from where we are on the counter. Anyone in the neighboring apartment could have looked in and saw us.

  And, fuck, that excites me.

  Inhaling, I sit the rest of the way up and reach for Sam, hooking my legs around him as soon as he steps closer. He takes me in his arms, bringing me tight against him. In one swift movement, he picks me up as if I weigh nothing and carries us to the couch. He lays me down and climbs over top, pushing his pants and boxers down at the same time. I bring my hands up, feeling his biceps, and widen my legs to welcome him in between.

  We kiss as he enters me, and I widen my legs, welcoming him in deeper. Sam drives in hard and fast at first, and then slows his movements and circles his hips as he thrusts in and out of me. I angle my hips up, mouth falling open as another orgasm builds inside me. My head hits the arm of the couch as Sam fucks me harder, not stopping until I’m coming again.

  He pushes in deep, breath quickening as he finishes. Letting out a breath, he rests his forehead against mine, dick still pulsing inside me. I rake my fingers up and down his back, body still humming. We stay together for another moment, and then Sam slowly pulls out and picks up his boxers from the floor, giving them to me to use to clean myself up with until I can get into the bathroom.

  “Chloe,” he starts right before I get up.

  “Yeah?”

  His blue eyes meet mine and his lips part as if he’s going to tell me something. “I love you,” he says and gets up, extending a hand for me.

  “I love you too.”

  Head still spinning, I get up and walk to the bathroom, knowing we’re already late for dinner but not caring.

  “Are you supposed to go talk to a class at SRH?” Sam asks, turning on the shower. I carefully gather my hair into a bun on the top of my head, trying not to mess up my curls.

  “Yeah, how’d you know?”

  “My mom said something. I can’t remember her name but some English teacher—”

  “Mrs. Clemmons?”

  “Yeah, that’s the one. She’s been telling everyone about it.”

  I stick my hand in the running water, testing the temperature. Sam showers at a considerably cooler temperature than I like, though my preferred temp is “scalding.”

  “Well, now I better do it. I hadn’t set anything up.”

  “Do you have time for that?” he asks, getting two clean towels out for the linen closet for us.

  “Yes and no.” I make a face. “I kind of want to go back to Silver Ridge. I miss the woods, and sitting at that picnic pavilion with my computer would be really inspiring. Assuming no one else is there.”

  “You can rent it out still.”

  “Ohh, then that’s what I’m going to do,” I say, and Sam laughs as he gets into the shower. “I’ll rent the whole thing out just for me and me alone. I’ll bring snacks and wine and will sit by the fire writing.”

  “Expect a bear or two to join you.”

  “We’ll be friends.” I step in behind him. “I’ll bring honey and he’ll be my Pooh Bear.” I close the glass shower door and turn up the temp of the water. “Did you ever stop and think about how sticky Pooh’s house would be? He’s always eating honey with his bare hands and you never see him wash them after.”

  Sam laughs. “I have never once thought about that.”

  “I have so many questions about Disney characters. Why is Gaston such a bully? And speaking of him, don’t you think he’s the reason eggs are 'too expensive'? I mean, the guy is eating dozens every day.”

  Sam tips his head. “I’m missing something here, aren’t I?”

  “You are. We’ll binge old school Disney films on our next rainy day, though, don’t worry.”

  “As long as you’re naked, I’ll watch anything with you.”

  “Remember you said that.”

  His hands land on my waist, slipping up and down my wet skin with ease. “I’ll remember the naked part.”

  “Do you want to go with me?” I ask.

  “Are you going to be naked wherever you’re going?”

  “I will be at some point.” I spin in his arms. “I mean to Silver Ridge. I should go talk to that class before I get too busy and then look like an asshole for not showing up.”

  “Actually, yeah. I’d like that. We can go this weekend. My mom will be thrilled and will talk your ear off, just to warn you. Oh, and Mason might stop by too. I owe him a thank you.”

  “For what?”

  He kisses my neck. “I’ll tell you later. We better hurry. We’re already running late.”

  7

  Sam

  I fasten my fingers around Chloe’s and steal one more glimpse at her as we walk down the busy sidewalk. She takes my breath away every damn time I look at her. My heart jumps in my chest, and when I blink, I get a flash of her naked in my bed, making me want to rush through dinner just so we can get back to my place and fuck again.

  Every second I’m with her, I’m reminded all over again just how much I fucking love this woman. She’s the same awkward girl I knew all those years ago, who wears her heart on her sleeve and hasn’t let her wild success change her beliefs. She’s one of a kind, I know, and though it’s easy for the world to fade away whenever Chloe is near, the fact that I have to bring our time together to a screeching halt weighs heavily on me.

  “How late are we?” Chloe asks as we step through the door to the restaurant.

  I look at my watch. “Twelve minutes.”

  “That’s not too bad.”

  “I’m never late,” I tell her. “I like to get places a little early, though burying my cock inside of you is as good a reason as ever to run late for anything.”

  “Sam!” she whisper-yells. “Someone might hear you.”

  “Then they’ll be jealous. Though all it will take is one look at you and they’d already be jealous.”

  “Is this dress too much?” She looks down at her breasts, which are beautifully pushed up together. She’s nervous to meet my friends, and I love that about her. She’s met actors and producers. Appeared on talk shows and gone on week-long book tours all around the world. You’d think meeting two of my friends would be no big deal.

  “You look beautiful.” I give her hand a squeeze and bring it up, kissing her fingers.

  “Thank you. I do think I look good in this dress. That time at the gym has paid off,” she adds with a slight laugh. I give our name to the hostess, who leads us over to our table. Quinn sees us first and waves.

  “Hey!” she exclaims and gets up to give me a hug. “It’s been so long!”

  “I know, it has,” I reply, giving her back a pat. “This is Chloe.”

  “Hi,” Chloe says shyly, reminding me of my childhood best friend I secretly fell in love with all over again. “Nice to meet you.”

  “And this is Quinn and Archer,” I introduce. “Sorry we’re late.”

  “Did you get caught up at work?” Archer asks as I pull out the chair for Chloe.

  “Not exactly,” I reply and give Chloe a cheeky grin. She smiles back, cheeks flushing slightly.

  “Making up for lost time?” Archer laughs and looks at Quinn. “We did the long-distance thing for a while and it was hard.”

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Quinn quickly adds, giving Archer a pointed look. “It was hard for us because I was pregnant and Archer was finishing his residency. I was in Chicago and he was in Indy.”

  “That’s a bit closer than LA and Chicago,” Chloe notes. “So that’s when you lived with Sam?”

  “Yeah. He’s all yours now, so good luck.” We laugh, and a waiter comes over to take our drink orders. Chloe orders a glass of red wine and I get an Old Fashioned.

  “Have you eaten here before?” Chloe asks, looking over the dinner menu.

  “I haven’t,” I tell her. �
��It has good reviews online, though.”

  “I’ve been here,” Quinn says. “Like three years ago.”

  “When?” Archer asks. “I wasn’t with you.”

  “It was a work dinner,” Quinn tells him. “And it ended in a fight.”

  “Robot fights don’t count.”

  Quinn purses her lips. “It wasn’t a robot fight, but it was about robotics. Well, kind of. We were talking about an object-relational database management system and—”

  “You lost me already,” I tease, and Archer nods in agreement.

  “What do you do?” Chloe asks Quinn.

  “I’m a software developer and write computer code. I joined a start-up a few years ago with a focus on using technology to help the environment.”

  “Ohhh, that’s cool. I don’t know the first thing about computers other than how to use my writing program, and after years I still find it too complicated and only use like half the features on it.”

  Quinn laughs. “Computer stuff can be complicated, I’ll admit. But I understand code and programming…but writing a book, there’s no way I could do that! And you’ve written so many. I’m a huge fan of the Nightfall series!”

  “Thanks,” Chloe says with a genuine smile. “Writing comes easily to me, well, sometimes. Other times I’m tempted to take a sledgehammer to my laptop, give away all my possessions, and join that cult of nuns who live in the Blue Mountains in Australia so I never have to write again.”

  “Don’t you have to take a vow of chastity to be a nun?” I ask, putting my hand over Chloe’s.

  “I’d sneak you in on the weekends,” she tells me and then looks back at Quinn. “Though really, I love writing.”

  “I promised Archer I wouldn’t bombard you with questions, but I wanted to tell you how much I am dying for the next book in the series. That cliffhanger killed me!”

  Chloe laughs, and I can tell she genuinely likes to talk about her series. Her creativity astounds me, and now I really have to pick up the first book in her series and give it a read.

  “I feel like I should say sorry, but I’m not,” she laughs. “And I actually wrote that last scene years ago. It was one of the first scenes I had in my head when I first thought of the series. That cliffy killed you, but it killed me having to wait six books to finally let you all read it.”

  “If Marcus dies, I’m going to cry. Please tell me he doesn’t.”

  Chloe innocently shrugs. “I haven’t even decided his fate yet. I will tell you I’m already about halfway through the first draft already.”

  “You got a lot written the last few days,” I say, remembering her saying she’d barely made a dent in her book before.

  “You are kind of inspiring,” she tells me with a grin.

  “Ohhh,” Quinn coos. “So this book is going to be super sexy?” She wiggles her eyebrows and looks at Archer. “I like the super sexy books, and so does Archer.”

  “Is that weird to hear?” Archer asks Chloe, looking at me almost as if he did something wrong.

  “Not at all,” Chloe says with no hesitation. “I think it’s important to remove the stigma around reading romance. We as humans like sex. We like having it, watching it, and reading about it. As long as something is in the realm of appropriateness, if it gets you in the mood, go for it.” The waiter brings us our drinks and Chloe takes a sip of wine before going on. “And it’s no secret watching porn or reading about people having sex can get you in that mood.” She turns to me again, gaze intimate. “Writing about it does too.”

  “I noticed.” I circle my thumb over the pulse point of her wrist, and Archer kicks me under the table.

  “Need to get a room?”

  “I wouldn’t object,” I shoot back.

  “I’d like to eat first,” Chloe laughs. “I’m starving.” She takes another drink of wine and looks over the menu, asking Quinn what’s good since she’s been here before. The evening is off to a good start, and everyone is getting along well. Everyone in my family already loves Chloe, and she and Dean hit if off just fine.

  My mind goes back to what Chloe said before we left for dinner, how things happen for a reason to make us who we are today, how all of our choices mix in with things beyond our control, shaping our own reality.

  I pick up my Old Fashioned and take a big sip. The whiskey is smooth all the way down, and I take another gulp, wanting it to dull the ringing in my head, reminding me that my choices have led to hurting Chloe in the past…and how they’re going to again.

  She’s so much more than I deserve.

  “Yeah,” Chloe says, answering Quinn’s question. I zoned out and missed what she asked. “I was the most involved with season one, but I think the showrunners have done a good job keeping the show close to the series while expanding side characters more than I did since the books are all told through Kellie’s point of view.”

  “That is so freaking cool.” Quinn leans in. “And you go to all the premieres?”

  Chloe nods. “I do, and I went to two Emmy Award shows with Charles when he was nominated. It was…rather boring,” she admits with a laugh. “I was so hungry the whole time. Now you,” she starts and looks at me, “get to suffer through them with me as my hot date.”

  “I suppose I can be your arm candy,” I joke, and Chloe’s lips curve into a smile, lighting up her whole face.

  “Do you have to live in LA?” Quinn asks, sucking down a large mouthful of her cocktail. “Because of all the TV series stuff?”

  “No, I don’t. My editor is in New York, but my publicist and agent are in LA. We meet face to face, but pretty much everything can be done online or via Zoom now. Though I was recently approached by a producer about writing a series.”

  “Ohhh, cool! But, what, uh, does that mean?” Quinn asks.

  “A network who may or may not have produced some epic fantasy series before wants me to basically be in charge of the writing for two seasons of a new fantasy show that’s a twist on the old King Arthur legend.”

  “That sounds awesome!” Quinn says excitedly, stirring her cocktail with the straw.

  “It does, but I don’t know if I want to do it,” Chloe goes on.

  “Why not?” I put my hand over hers again, needing to touch her.

  “It would require me to stay in LA for another year or so, and would take away time from writing my own books. And I, uh, just don’t want to be tied to LA.”

  “You don’t like it there?” Archer asks. “The weather is shit here in the winter. I’d love to move somewhere warmer, but we can’t leave family here.”

  “Oh, the weather is wonderful there. Waking up to sunshine more days than not has done wonders for my mental health, I’m sure, but…” She trails off, biting her lip as she looks at her glass of wine.

  “But you don’t want to be away from Sam,” Quinn finishes with a big smile. “That’s so sweet, and I get it. Long-distance is hard.”

  “But doable,” Archer adds quickly, for our sake.

  “Oh, for sure.” Chloe looks at me again, and the second our eyes meet, a rush goes through me. I want to lay her down and slowly trail my tongue down her body, hovering over her tight pussy, taking my time and teasing her before I finally dive in, tasting her sweet cunt and licking up every drop she gives me as I eat her out. “It helps that neither of us have anything tying us down other than work.”

  All at once, the moment is over, pulled out from under me like a rug from my feet. I feel Archer’s eyes on me and avoid looking at him and his unspoken question.

  No, I haven’t told Chloe yet.

  Because in a few short months, I will have something tying me down to Chicago.

  “They did offer quite a bit of money,” Chloe admits, picking up her wine and taking a drink. “Not that I need it,” she adds almost shyly. The waiter brings our appetizers, and the conversation shifts to the antics Quinn and Archer’s kids have pulled the last few weeks. We talk and laugh the rest of dinner, and when the bill is paid, we leave the restaurant
with the intention of walking around the block a few times before calling it a night.

  “I think we’ve been replaced,” Archer says, looking over his shoulder at Quinn and Chloe, who are walking down the sidewalk with their arms linked, laughing hysterically at something one of them said.

  “It looks like we have.”

  “If they do lesbian stuff, do you want to watch?” Archer asks seriously.

  “You set up one camera, I’ll man the other,” I say back, just as serious.

  He laughs first and shakes his head. It’s been a while since we’ve been out like this, though even when we lived together, we were both going through hell as we finished our residency. We hardly had time to sleep, let alone go out and have a social life.

  We come to a stop at the street’s edge and Chloe and Quinn crack up at something again.

  “My favorite thing about the series are the familiars. They’re cats!” Quinn tells Chloe, reaching up and brushing her hair back. Lesbian stuff might not be so far off after all.

  “No,” Archer groans, rolling his eyes. “Don’t talk about cats.”

  “What’s wrong with cats?” Chloe asks, and I chuckle, knowing of Archer’s annoyance with their cats.

  “Nothing,” Quinn says harshly, looking at Archer. “They are majestic creatures and I really love them. We have a few.”

  “A few?” I raise my eyebrows. “That’s not what I heard.”

  “We have seven, you want one?” Archer deadpans, and Quinn pouts. The light changes and I make sure the girls, who might be a little tipsy, cross with us and don’t get lost in the sea of people.

  “It’s nice to see them getting along,” Archer says. “I don’t think—wait, we’ve never met a girlfriend before. For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve never used that word. You flat-out refused to.”

  I swallow hard. “Because there was only one person I wanted to use that word for.”

  “And now you have her.”

  “Now I do.”

  “You two look happy,” Archer says. “She’s good for you, and if it even matters, which I know it doesn’t, I like her. Your sister won’t shut up about her either. You’d think Rory was the one dating Chloe, actually, by how much I hear about her. I think she’s already planned your wedding, so let’s hope Chloe will go for a gothic Lord of the Rings themed ceremony.”