Christmas in a Small Town

by Kristina Knight

  “What’s next on the Tulsa holiday tour?” Levi asked as they started for the parking lot.

  Bonita yawned. “I’m about done in,” she said. “You two should go have a little fun after being cooped up in that arena all day. We’ll take Uber back to the hotel,” she said and took her phone from her purse.

  Camden looked from the older couple to him, and Levi couldn’t read the expression on her face. Something about it, though, made his belly clench in anticipation.

  “I’m tired, too. The drive, the competition, and there will be more demonstrations tomorrow. Why don’t we all go back to the hotel?” she suggested. “If it’s all the same to you.” Camden looked at Levi expectantly, and his mouth went dry.

  She wasn’t asking him to take her back to the hotel, he realized.

  Camden wanted him to return to the hotel with her. Levi considered faking a yawn but simply nodded. “Yeah, it was a long drive.”

  All too soon, the four of them reached the hotel. Calvin and Bonita took the elevator to the fourth floor, but Camden and Levi’s rooms were two more floors up. When they were alone in the elevator, Camden turned to him.

  “I don’t normally do this sort of thing,” she said. “Sleep with a guy on the second date, I mean.”

  “Well, since this isn’t a date,” he said, “maybe it’s okay to make that exception. We’re here in this hotel to convince Grant to move on with his life. And sex could definitely push that realization farther along.”

  The elevator door swooshed open, and neither said a word until they were inside the suite. When they’d arrived earlier, Camden had taken one of the bedrooms and Levi the other, leaving the living area as a communal space. The area was decorated with overstuffed couches, a minibar and a television screen that covered nearly an entire wall. They both stood in the center of it all, closer to each other than it was probably safe to be.

  “Except Grant isn’t here, and he didn’t show up at the holiday dance on Saturday. You probably didn’t need to come to Tulsa at all,” she said, but she didn’t move away from him. “Wait, but there is always the rental agreement for the forty acres.”

  “That makes this seem a little too much like prostitution. The rental agreement doesn’t really matter. I’ll find some other place for the older cattle.” He stepped closer to her, and her right thumb went under the thin strap over her shoulder, and then she stopped. Levi felt as if he was frozen in place. Less than a foot separated their bodies; her brown eyes were wide in the dim light, her chest rising and falling quickly. His own breathing was rough in his ears, which was odd. He did this kind of thing plenty, but never once had he felt quite like this. As if the world might stop spinning if she didn’t push that strap off her shoulder.

  Camden took a step back and kicked the rain boots—the rainbow-striped pair—off her feet. “Just how many of pairs of these boots do you own?”

  “Four?” she said, but the word sounded more like a question.

  “You don’t know?”

  She blushed, and the pink stain on her alabaster skin made his blood quicken. “I may have ordered another pair. And it may have been delivered while we were driving to Tulsa.”

  “May have?”

  She shrugged. “It could have been two more pairs.”

  Levi laughed, putting his arms around his middle. Camden really did have a shoe fetish, like Grant had said that night in the Slope. The blush on her cheeks deepened.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. I was just thinking only a new-to-country-living girl would have not one but six pairs of rain boots.” She stiffened, as if insulted at his laughter. Camden dropped her hand from the cami strap, and before she could run from the room, Levi stopped her, putting his thumb beneath the thin strap. “And I was thinking how you’re not like any woman I’ve ever known. And I keep telling myself I don’t want to know what makes you tick, but I can’t seem to stop myself from trying to figure you out.”

  Camden stepped away from him, moving to the windows.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Nowhere,” she said, her voice soft in the room. She took the curtains in her hands and pulled them across the window. “Just making sure what happens in Tulsa stays in Tulsa.”

  “Nervous?”

  “About having a one-night stand with the object of my preteen affections?” She shrugged nonchalantly. “Why would a partially blue-blooded debutante and former beauty queen like me care about something like that?”

  Levi chuckled. “That may be the first time you’ve referred to yourself as a deb or a socialite or a beauty queen without a hint of condescension in your voice.”

  “Tonight I don’t care so much about who I used to be.” Camden took the camisole hem in her hands and pulled it over her head. She wore nothing beneath, and he forgot to breathe for a moment. The pulse at the base of her neck thundered, and a thin vein seemed to darken beneath her smooth, creamy skin. She dropped the garment and her hands went to the fly of her faded jeans. Levi advanced, feeling the predatory linebacker he’d once been. Camden was the quarterback he was tracking.

  “What do you care about tonight?”

  She shrugged, and a low “Hmm” slipped from her full lips. “Not a single thing,” she said finally. “You?”

  “I can’t think about a single thing except you.”

  She slid her jeans over her hips and then kicked them across the room, leaving only a pair of pink-and-lime polka-dotted panties to cover her body. She didn’t hide her breasts, merely stood in the middle of the hotel suite, letting him look at her.

  Levi unbuttoned his flannel shirt. Camden reached out to push it from his shoulders. He went for his belt buckle next, but her soft hands were already there. Levi sucked in a long breath when the backs of her hands came in contact with his lower abdomen. She raised her gaze to his, and for a long moment he only looked. He wanted to memorize this moment, the way he’d memorized every playbook during his football years, the way he’d memorized his father’s dairy records. If he memorized her, this night, he could come up with a plan to keep her with him. He couldn’t explain when things had shifted. Maybe that first kiss outside Calvin’s barn. Maybe the second at the Slope.

  Maybe when she’d walked into the bar wearing that ridiculous wedding gown, a gown that wouldn’t go with the rain boots she liked to wear, even if some designer added a few yards of camo over the train or on those underskirt things. How could anyone think a tulle dress with a train of roses would be the right wedding dress for a woman like Camden? She needed silk and tulle, but white was...too ordinary for a woman who wore boots decorated with rainbows and umbrellas and unicorns and shamrocks.

  God, she’d been in Slippery Rock for less than a month, and already it was hard to remember what life had been like before she’d blown back into town. Levi didn’t care that they had no plan for whatever this was between them. He didn’t care that he still didn’t know what she wanted with Slippery Rock or her grandparents or what was going on between Camden and her ex. He only wanted to feel the softness of her skin, to memorize the curves and valleys of her body like his favorite playbooks, to take in everything that was Camden Harris. At least for tonight.

  He raised his hands to her face, cupping her cheeks and tracing the lines of her cheekbones with his thumbs. She licked her lips, and her hands stilled at his waist. Levi lowered his mouth to hers, and it was as if the hotel suite ignited in flames. Her hands fisted at the waist of his pants, and Levi pulled her more securely against his body, trapping her hands at his waist.

  And then her arms were around his waist, her hands raking over his back. Levi slid his hands into all that silky brown hair, tilting her head to give him better access to her sweet mouth.

  “If we don’t move, I’m going to push you against the wall and take you right here.”

  “Sounds perfect,” s
he said, her words breathy and unsteady.

  Perfect, and memorable. Still, Levi didn’t want Camden against the wall. He wanted her on that big bed, with soft pillows. Levi lifted Camden in his arms and took her to the bed, where he put her down gently before kneeling between her knees. He wrapped her long hair around his hand and pulled gently to expose her throat to his mouth. She sank back and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, pulling him closer.

  He found her breast with his free hand and began teasing the pebbled nipple with his thumb. She arched her back when he flicked his thumb over the puckered skin. Levi nipped at the throbbing pulse in her neck and then released her hair to play his hand over her ribs. While his other hand continued to work her breasts, he kissed his way to them, eventually replacing his finger with his mouth. He sucked her nipple into his mouth, and she hissed. She released his neck to score her nails along his back. Levi had never particularly liked being marked by a woman, but he didn’t mind it with Camden.

  He’d forgotten how much fun it was to make love to a woman, especially one as responsive as Camden. For every move he made, she had a counter. His mouth at her breast sent her nails scoring down his back. His hands at her ribs sent her hands exploring his pecs. He wondered what would happen if he cupped her center. No time like the present to find out. He slid his hands along her abdomen, liking it when her muscles clenched at his touch. When he reached the thin elastic of her waistband, he slowed, walking his fingers over the cotton until he felt the dampness of her panties against his palm.

  Camden sucked in a breath and clutched his shoulders in her hands. Her chest rose and fell in a fast rhythm, and those long, long legs moved restlessly over the fluffy coverlet. He wanted to watch her shatter into millions of tiny pieces. Wanted to hear her shout his name.

  She raised her arms, inviting him down, down, down. And Levi felt himself falling even though he hadn’t moved a muscle. He couldn’t quite explain it, but he knew if he kissed her again, something big would change. There was still time to stop this. Time to turn back the clock before he sent into chaos everything he’d spent so much time and effort planning.

  But he didn’t want to turn back the clock, and he didn’t care what might change. Not in his life or hers. Not with the farm, and not with her dog school. For the moment, he didn’t even care how what he was about to do with Camden would change his relationship with her grandparents—the people he thought of as his own family. He wanted to be with Camden, even if he didn’t know what would happen next. But he didn’t want to think; he just wanted to feel.

  Levi took a condom from his pocket and palmed it as he pushed his jeans over his hips. He kicked them off, along with his boxer briefs, and then sheathed himself. As he knelt on the bed, he reached between them, hooked his index finger into her panties and slid them down her legs before settling his hips against hers.

  “Levi. Please.” Her voice was a whisper in the room as she maneuvered to wrap her long legs around his waist.

  He found her center and pressed in. She was warm and wet and ready for him, and this time it was Levi who hissed in a breath. He didn’t want this to end, and yet he knew he couldn’t make it last. Camden lifted her hips, pulling him farther into her core, and he began to pump.

  “God, Camden, you shouldn’t have done that,” he said, but he wasn’t angry. What man could be angry wrapped around five feet seven inches of fiery woman?

  “Oh, I think it was the right move,” she said and arched her back.

  Her breasts pressed against his chest, slipping against his sweaty skin. He nipped at her lower lip, as her hands found his nipples, scratching over them as she met him thrust for thrust.

  Levi was close, too close, and he didn’t want to leave Camden behind. He reached between them, his thumb finding her clitoris. He flicked over the hard nub and felt her body tighten beneath him. She forgot to move for a moment, her back bowed, her legs tight around his hips. Levi worked the little bud while his hips thrust into her. Camden closed her eyes. Her hands went around his neck to fist in his hair.

  “Levi,” she said as her body tensed beneath his. For a moment, she was motionless, and then he felt her inner muscles moving against him as the orgasm took her.

  Levi rested his weight on his elbows on either side of Camden and let the wave crash over him, too.

  “Wow,” she said after a moment.

  Levi grunted in reply. When he knew he could stand without falling over, he got up, disposed of the condom and then returned to the bed. Camden hadn’t moved. She lay there, one arm thrown back over her head, her other over her breasts, eyes closed. She wasn’t asleep—he could tell from the still fast rise and fall of her chest. He slid behind her, gathering her to him, her back to his chest. Her legs tangled with his. Arms around her waist, he buried his nose in her neck, breathing her in.

  Vanilla but with something spicy under the sweet scent.

  She wrapped her hands around his, snuggling into him, and he felt her breathing steady.

  He kissed the sensitive spot behind her ear.

  “Do that again, and I might require an encore.” She wiggled her butt against him.

  “Do that again, and you’ll get that encore,” he returned, feeling his length pulse to life again.

  She chuckled. “I’m just going to rest my eyes for a second,” she said.

  The suite quieted, no traffic noises from outside coming through the thick windows, and no noise from the hotel corridor, only the sounds of their breathing. Camden went limp in his arms, and he knew she slept. Levi didn’t mind. He watched the thin shafts of moonlight sneak in around the sides of the closed curtains.

  He’d come to Tulsa to prove a point and had ended up in bed with Camden Harris instead. What’s more, he couldn’t imagine not repeating the experience at least a thousand more times.

  Again, he thought about the fact that though she’d only been back in Slippery Rock for a few weeks, he already had a hard time imagining his town without her in it. Couldn’t fathom what the Harris farm would be like if Camden weren’t training Six, didn’t want to think about how no one else would argue with him about that stupid bike trail.

  He’d never, not once in his twenty-eight years, thought about life with a woman at his side for a long period of time. He’d always considered relationships of any sort a distraction from the things in his life that were important: continuing the legacy of Walters Ranch and living up to the expectations of a small town brought to fame because of his work on a football field.

  But with Camden, he was tempted. Working together. Playing together.

  Collin, James, Adam and Aiden. All four of his best friends had fallen under the spells of their women, and none of those relationships seemed like work or that they were taking attention away from other aspects of their lives.

  Levi’s eyes became heavy, and he felt his arms loosen around Camden’s waist. She snuggled back against him and sighed. It was a happy sound in the quiet hotel suite.

  This was all too fast. Too soon. Too perfect.

  Yet maybe, just this once, perfection was within his reach.

  * * *

  CAMDEN WOKE IN Levi’s arms, her head resting on his arm. The blinds were drawn, but she could tell it was still night outside. Their suite was high enough they wouldn’t hear street noise, anyway, but there was a stillness to the room and the occasional faint flashes of light from headlights on the street outside that said middle of the night.

  A glance at the clock confirmed it. Just after two. The rest of the dog show would start in about six hours. She should slip away from Levi, get some real sleep so she didn’t have bags the size of Oklahoma under her eyes tomorrow.

  She couldn’t make herself move. Camden wanted just a little while longer like this, a little while longer to pretend that sleeping with Levi Walters hadn’t been a mistake.
He moved restlessly beside her, his arms coming around her middle. Camden breathed deeply, and the smell of Levi’s cologne—woodsy and fresh—settled her in a way that no meditation or mantra before a beauty pageant ever had.

  She’d slept with Levi Walters. Because she wanted to. Because she liked him, all of him. The part that was grouchy with her, and the part that was so kind to his buddies’ girlfriends and wives, the part that wanted so much to expand his dairy empire, and the part that respected and loved her grandparents. There were no other words for the way he was with Calvin and Bonita than respect and love.

  A man who could be so kind to an elderly couple that had been virtually forgotten by their own family...that was a man who could burrow right under Camden’s I Don’t Want a Rebound defenses.

  That was the kind of man her father had been. The kind of man Grant would never have become.

  She should go back to her room. Put a little distance between the two of them before she started thinking really crazy things. Having sex with Levi didn’t mean anything, not in the long run. Him taking the land deal with her grandfather off their bargaining table before having sex with her didn’t mean anything, either. It probably was a little prostitutey. Probably, she should thank him for saving at least a portion of her virtue.

  Stop trying so hard to build up the guilt, Cam. You don’t regret sleeping with Levi any more than you regret walking out on your wedding three weeks ago.

  Part of her wanted to at least keep attempting to feel some guilt, but a bigger part of her, the part of her that had walked out on Grant, wouldn’t allow it.

  She’d slept with Levi Walters, and it probably didn’t mean to him what it meant to her. That was okay. Sleeping with him was her decision.

  She settled against him and let her eyes flutter closed. This was it, the moment she finally broke free of the guilt and recriminations from her childhood. The moment when she started living her life for herself. And what a way to start it.

  Camden snuggled Levi’s arm close to her chest and slept.