Love Is In the Air Volume 1

by Susan Stoker

  I crowd into her space. Cupping her cheek with one of my hands and tilting her face up to mine. “Please tell me I’ve still got a chance. That you’ll forgive me for yesterday. I’m here to beg if I have to. I want you, and only you. For as long as you’ll have me.”

  “You’re sure about that? What if I want you forever?”

  “Then forever better take its time coming,” I tell her before crashing my lips to hers.

  I pick her up, my hands cradling her ass. God, it feels good to have her back in my arms. I know I fucked up, but that’s in the past. She’s here in my arms. I’ll grovel every day for the rest of my life if I have to, in order to make it up to her.

  Pinning Allison to the wall, I remove my hands from her ass and rip open the buttons on her blouse. The buttons go flying, I’m not being careful, and I don’t care. It feels like it’s been way too long since I’ve had this woman beneath me. Her sweet pussy squeezing around my cock. “God damn, you’re so fucking beautiful,” I tell her, taking in the swell of her breasts. Thank the Lord in heaven for whoever invented the front-closure bra. I snap it open with one flick and find her already hardened nipples.

  “Lee,” she moans my name as I greedily suck one into my mouth. I sink my teeth onto it, biting to leave a mark—my mark—on her skin. She’s mine. I’m hers—forever, by the sounds of it.

  “I hope you don’t have any special connection to this thong,” I growl against her skin as my hand makes it up and under her skirt. I wrap my fingers around the fabric and rip it clear off her body.

  “Nope,” she gasps. I bring my mouth to hers, greedily sucking at her tongue as I fumble with my jeans. I finally free the button and lower my zipper far enough to push them and my boxers down my hips enough to free my cock. I align my tip with her entrance. I break our kiss, pulling back far enough to look Allison in the eyes.

  “Tell me if I need to stop and relocate us to get a condom.” I can’t believe I was almost going to sink inside her without wrapping shit up.

  “I’m on birth control and clean,” she says.

  “I’m clean, and I’ve never not used one,” I tell her honestly.

  “I trust you, Lee,” she says, and my heart skips a beat at her words. “Now, fuck me.”

  “I don’t have to be told twice,” I growl before taking her lips with my own once again. I line my cock up with her entrance and plunge in until I’m balls deep. The feeling of being inside her with nothing separating the two of us has my balls pulling up tight and ready to blow. I start running stats through my mind, thinking of the worst calls I’ve responded to, anything I can think of to keep my orgasm from ending things too early.

  “Harder,” Allison moans. I do my best to shift her against the wall. I slip my arms under her legs, my hands going to her ass to help raise and lower her on my cock.

  The room is filling with the sloppy sounds of our bodies connecting. Our mutual moans and cries of pleasure as we both make our way towards that cusp, and then toppling over the edge of no return. I hold her ass in my palms, slamming my cock in as deep as I can get it as my orgasm barrels out of me. My knees go weak as stars start spinning behind my eyelids. I stumble around, finding the couch to fall back onto, keeping Allison in my lap, my cock still buried inside her tightness.

  “Now that was some make-up sex.” She chuckles as we both catch our breath.

  “That was just the beginning.” I wink at her, pushing her messed up hair from her face.

  “I’m okay with that.” She smiles at me. A real smile. One that fills her face. Lights up her eyes.

  I might have once been okay with just a night, just a quick fuck, just a kiss… but she’s taught me that what I really wanted was so much more.

  The End…for now.

  Did you love Allison & Lee? Look for their full story in late 2021 in Just A Kiss! In the meantime, you can fall in love with Tucker and Lindsay in Rumor Going ‘Round!

  Connect with Samantha on her website: www.samanthalind.com.

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  Out of the Woods

  Taylor Danae Colbert

  1

  Well, shit.

  I should have listened.

  They all told me to wait until morning, and I didn't listen.

  "The snow gets really bad up here," Lily had warned me. "It's really hard to drive at night. Just wait till the morning and come once the roads have been cleared."

  But what did I do?

  I left anyway. I made the three-hour trek across the state from Baltimore up to Meade Lake just for some girl time. Because it is so. Freakin'. Needed.

  I haven't had a day off since the end of summer vacation, and it's freakin' exhausting.

  Don't get me wrong. I love my students. Love them. Even the ones that hate my guts and call me names and make me secretly cry at my desk when they leave for lunch. I love them all because I know how much they need it.

  But this week was supposed to be a nice getaway with my girls. The ones I haven't seen in months. Lily gets married in just a few short weeks, and this is supposed to be her bachelorette week from heaven. We all thought that, with a January wedding date, she'd want to go somewhere warm and tropical for her bachelorette. But nope. Up to the mountains and the freezing cold it is. Her family has been vacationing here in Meade Lake for years, and she's always raving about it. Honestly, I didn't care if we were going to the damn dump as long as I got some time off.

  But now, as my 2003 Chevy tries desperately to climb over the mounds of snow on the road without skidding, I really wish I'd just freakin' waited.

  Nice move, Caroline. You friggin' idiot.

  In the very blurry distance, I see lights twinkling, and I know that’s my destination. I look down at my GPS. I've got to be close.

  "In ten miles, turn left," she tells me, as if she is reading my mind. She probably is—you know what they say about those darn robots.

  I almost laugh. Ten miles would normally take a few minutes. If it weren't a damn blizzard, I could probably see the house we're renting, right at the top of that mountain. But instead, I'm four miles outside of the town, stuck on a winding, wooded road by myself in what seriously looks to be a foot of snow. There has only been a house or two every few miles, and other than that, no sign of life. If I weren't scared shitless, I probably would laugh.

  I shake it off and take in a deep breath, wrapping my fingers tighter around the steering wheel.

  I got this. Take it slow. Just a few minutes.

  I give the car a little more gas, but as I do, I can feel the tires leave the road.

  My heart stops in my chest as my car glides across the snow and ice, right toward a ravine and a...mailbox? But as I look up to see if there's a house nearby, the car creeps closer and closer to the edge of the road. I slam on the brakes—which, I'm pretty confident you are not supposed to do in this situation—and brace for impact. I close my eyes as the car skids completely off the road, nose-first into the ravine, taking the mailbox out with it. And as the car crashes and my airbag deploys, everything goes black.

  2

  There's a weird ringing noise in my ears for a moment as I slowly peel open my eyes. Cold air nips at my cheeks, and when I finally open my eyes, I'm staring up at a deep-black sky, thick white flakes still falling all around me. It's not until I hear the crunch of snow that I realize someone is carrying me.

  "Holy shit!" I scream, wriggling free of his grasp.

  "Hey, hey, hey," he says, gently lowering me to my feet and taking a step back. He's tall with big broad shoulders and a jaw that I'm pretty sure could cut glass covered with a bit of a beard. He's got these midnight-blue eyes that are piercing, and even though he towers over me, I don't feel as concerned as one probably should when waking up in the arms of a stranger. But as I stare up at him, I start feeling a little woozy. He reaches out to me instinctively, steadying me in fro
nt of him. "Hey, I'm Brew," he says.

  Brew? What the hell kinda name is that?

  "Do you know where you are? Do you know your name?" he asks. I look around.

  "My name's Caroline," I tell him, rubbing my head. When I pull my hand down, I see blood. I gasp. "Do you know where you are, Caroline?" he asks again.

  "I'm a few miles outside of Meade Lake. And I am very late for my best friend's bachelorette party." A grin tugs at his lips as he peers down at me, his eyes jumping back and forth between mine.

  "Look, I don't know how to break this to you, and I don't want you to freak out," he says, "but you're not making it to Meade Lake tonight."

  My eyes dart back to his, and he holds his hands up.

  "I don't mean that in a 'I'm gonna kill you,' serial-killer kind of way," he says, that same grin tugging on his lips. "I mean that in a 'there's no way you're getting that car out of that ditch and driving ten more miles in this storm,' kind of way. I'm sorry."

  I turn to the left, peering through the trees at the dim lights.

  "Oh, fuck," I whisper. "I've got to call my friends. They're probably panicking." He nods.

  "No problem. Look, if it's okay, I think we should get you into the house to warm up and take care of that," he says, motioning to my head. "You can call them from in there. I swear, I won't touch you." As I look back to the mountains again, I realize I don't really have another choice.

  I nod, and he does in return.

  He leads me up a long, gravel driveway through more trees, until we come to a modest little cabin. Smoke billows from the chimney, and light spills out from every window in the dark night. He opens the door for me and lets me inside. When we get in, he is careful to go around me without so much as brushing up against me.

  "Do you need a charger or anything?" he asks, motioning to my phone in my hand.

  "That would be great," I say as he hands me one from the kitchen counter. I plug it in and wait for it to turn on as he disappears into one of the rooms at the back. The inside is just as modest as the outside. The kitchen, living room, and eating area are all one big space that sort of flow into each other. There's a big stone fireplace in the middle of the living room and a door to the outside at the back. Against the wall are a few doors, and as I'm waiting for my phone to turn back on, he disappears through one.

  "Where are you?" Lily asks before I even answer.

  "Hey, Lil," I say.

  "Bitch, when are you getting here?" I hear Maddie ask from the background.

  "Yeah!" I hear the other girls shout in their undoubtedly drunken state.

  Lucky bitches.

  "Well..." I say, knowing my best friend like the back of my hand and anticipating how bad this reaction will be. "I sort of got into an accident."

  "You what?" she asks, taking me off speaker. "Where are you? Are you hurt?"

  I swallow as I see Brew come back out of the room, looking down at a bottle of peroxide and a bag of cotton balls in his hands.

  "Not too bad," I say.

  "Not too bad?" Lily asks. "What happened? Where are you, Caroline?"

  "I'm, uh…I sort of, uh, crashed into a ditch in front of a cabin," I tell her, realizing how similar this sounds to the plot of any good horror movie. "But I'm okay, I'm okay. There's a guy..."

  "Wait, you crashed in front of some random cabin, and you're alone with a strange guy?" Lily asks. "I'm calling 911. Turn on your location and stay on the phone with me."

  As I look up at Brew and our eyes meet, he motions to the peroxide and puts it down on the counter. He reaches up into the cabinet above it, his t-shirt lifting a bit to expose more skin than I bargained for. And whew, if I was cold before, that certainly helped warm me up.

  "No, Lil, don't," I tell her. "I'm okay. Just a little cut on my head, but I'm not hurt. I'll talk to him and see if he thinks I can make it there."

  "What are you gonna do if you can't? Sleep there?" she asks, and I can hear the panic in her voice. I look back to Brew.

  "I'll figure it out," I tell her. "Don't worry."

  "Turn your location on, and call me every few minutes," she instructs me. "Do you want me to try and come get you?"

  "No, I don't," I tell her. "We don't need two of us stranded out here in this damn storm. Stay where you are and have fun. I'll get there as soon as I can," I tell her. After a moment of silence, I hear her sigh.

  "I don't like this," she says.

  "I don't either," I tell her, "but I will be okay. I'll call you soon. I love you."

  "Love you, too."

  I hang up and put my phone down just as he walks toward me.

  "This should clean it out some, and then we can put a few of these on," he tells me, holding up the bandages. "Is it okay if I put some on?"

  I want to smile at his chivalry, the gentle way he doesn't want me to think he's a murderer. It's endearing. I nod, and he motions to the counter. He sets the stuff down then slowly grips my hips, making my breath catch in my throat. He lifts me up onto the counter and takes a step forward.

  "Just tilt your head back a little bit," he says, so I do.

  He pours a little bit of the peroxide on, dabbing at it with a cotton ball then blowing on it gently. He smells like campfire, and it makes my insides all melty.

  He pulls the tabs off two of the bandages and gently presses them to my head.

  "There," he says, crumpling the plastic up into a ball and tossing it into the trashcan next to the counter. He reaches around my waist again and slowly slides me off.

  "Thank you," I tell him. "Something smells amazing."

  Besides you, I mean.

  He smiles.

  "Making a big pot of beef stew," he says, motioning to the stove. "Can I get you some?"

  "Oh, um..."

  The equivalent of "Never take candy from a stranger" for an adult is probably "Never eat the mountain man's beef stew."

  But I'm freezing, starving, and could be stuck here, so I don't have much choice.

  "Sure," I say with a shrug. He makes two bowls, which I take to be a good sign, then plops two spoons in them.

  "We can sit in here," he says, walking toward the couch. I sit down, and he hands me a bowl then sits down in the chair adjacent to me.

  "So," he says, "a bachelorette party?"

  I nod as I let the hot stew slide down my throat, savoring every last drop of it. Damn, that's good.

  "Yep," I say. "My best friend's."

  "Where are you coming from?" he asks.

  "Baltimore," I tell him.

  “Wow,” he says. “Not exactly close.”

  I shake my head.

  "I'm a teacher. Haven't taken a day off all semester, so I was really looking forward to this. But, as luck would have it, here I am."

  He nods as he licks his lips, and my stomach flutters.

  "Here you are."

  Our eyes lock for a moment, but I drop mine bashfully and look down at my soup.

  "You probably should have planned it so that you weren’t driving up here at night," he says. "These roads are a nightmare in the winter."

  I look at him and cock my head.

  "Gee, thanks for the advice," I say, my lips pursed. He puts his spoon down as a smile spreads across his lips, and he starts to laugh. He puts his bowl down on the big coffee table in front of us and leans back.

  "Well, listen," he says, turning his head toward the windows and looking out at the snowpocalypse that's happening outside. "You're welcome to stay here. I'll sleep out here on the couch, and you can have the bedroom. The door locks."

  I think for a moment, setting my own bowl down. Then, I nod.

  "Thank you," I tell him.

  "No problem. Do you have a bag in the car?" he asks. I nod again. "Okay. I'll run down and grab it. Be right back."

  He heads out the door, and I stand up, looking around at the cabin. There's a painting of an idyllic mountain scene and a few photographs of the lake on the wall, but that's it. No other decor. No family photos. No pict
ures of him with a girlfriend or a wife. Nothing.

  In another moment's time, he's back, kicking the snow off of his boots and pulling his hood down. God, he really is gorgeous. It's that tan-skin, blue-eyes combo that's setting me on fire right now—so much so that I have to look away.

  "This it?" he asks, holding my duffel up. I nod.

  "Thank you so much," I tell him. He shrugs.

  "No problem. I'm gonna go change the sheets and, if you don't mind, take a quick shower," he says. "Then the room's all yours."

  I nod.

  "Thank you again," I tell him. "And for the record, I'm not a serial killer either."

  He smiles before walking into the bedroom. "That's what they all say."

  I let him do his thing, plopping back down on the couch and enjoying the safety. And also trying not to worry about my poor baby out there in that ditch, freezing her hood off.

  I open my eyes after a few moments, looking around the room, when I see him through the crack in the door.

  Naked.

  Butt. Ass. Naked.

  He stands up from stepping out of his boxers, and our eyes meet through the slit in the door.

  "Shit!" he cries out, hopping forward and shutting it completely. "I'm sorry!"

  You're sorry?

  I slam my hand over my mouth, sinking down into the chair.

  I've pretty much been trying to picture this man naked since he brought me inside, and it did not disappoint.

  After a quick second, the door swings open again, and he's back, shirtless in all his glory with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. He's holding his hands in the air.

  "I'm sorry," he says again. "I swear to God, I didn't do that on purpose. I thought the door had closed all the way."

  I'm not sure what comes over me. Maybe it's the mountain air, the near brush with death, or the sexy-as-fuck stranger who has been at my beck-and-call for the last hour. Or a combo of both. But whatever it is, I want this man.

  I have to have him.

  I stand up slowly from the chair and walk toward him until we're an inch or so apart. My eyes travel from where the towel is tied at his hips, up the valleys of his abs to his chest, to his lips. I take a step forward so that our bodies are flush up against each other and slowly slide my hand down, taking hold of the towel.