Stranded

by Chance Carter

“Is that just because you were about to get ground into the dirt?”

  “No,” I answered haughtily. “I just don’t feel like Monopoly anymore.”

  Levi stepped close to me, a glimmer in his black eyes. “What do you feel like?”

  “We could go sledding.”

  Levi’s lips curved at the suggestion, a subtle twist that made my heart flutter.

  “You would get blown away,” he said.

  I snorted. “You would be so lucky.”

  “You’re right. Let’s get you out there.” He grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the French doors.

  I struggled, laughing and cursing at him in the same breath. His grip was strong. He easily tugged me behind him, and soon we were in front of the patio doors. Levi reached out for the door handle with his free hand, grinning. I grabbed his hand and pulled on it with all my might.

  “I will kill you if you send me out there,” I said.

  “Aw, come on, Frankie.” He held my flailing arms in place, biceps bulging. “There’s nothing else to do. I’ve got to entertain myself somehow. You’ll like flying.”

  “You’re a bastard.”

  He smirked. “And you’ve got a dirty mouth.”

  I opened my mouth to retort with some even choicer language, but didn’t get a chance. The lights clicked off and left the room in complete darkness.

  Levi let go of me the moment the power went out, but I reached for his shirt and held on tight. I thought for sure he would make fun of me for my juvenile reaction, but Levi wrapped his arms around me soothingly.

  “Hey, hey,” he murmured. “It’s okay. Just a power outage.”

  The gale outside howled victoriously and a cold shiver worked through me.

  “You okay?” Levi’s breath tickled my nose and I realized he was bent close, trying to see my face.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” I loosened my grip on his shirt, but he still held me. “Sorry. Power outages freak me out.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.” He patted my back. “Now...candles? A flashlight?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “There’s probably something in the kitchen. Shall we go look?”

  I realized he wasn’t asking if we should go look so much as he was checking if it was okay to let go of me. It was a strange thought, but I had a sudden image of Levi as a dad. He’d make a caring father, speaking in low, soothing tones when his kids woke him in the middle of the night because they thought there was a monster in their room. It made me smile.

  “Yeah, let’s have a look,” I said, stepping back. “I’m okay. Really.”

  Levi released me but a second later his fingers threaded through mine and he gently pulled me behind him on his way to the kitchen. His grip was warm and firm, hand covering mine entirely and imbuing some of his calm into the touch.

  I had no reason not to like the dark—except that every horrible thing ever seemed to happen in it. I was the kid who got picked up early at sleepovers if we watched a scary movie or tried to summon Bloody Mary in the bathroom mirror. It wasn’t the movie or the ritual that would freak me out, but the darkness later, when any of the ghosts and ghouls we’d staved off earlier with the light might crawl out and bite off my toes.

  Nowadays I didn’t worry about toe-biting monsters. For the most part, anyway. I still didn’t like the dark though, and even though I was a grown woman and could manage fine on my own if I wanted to, I liked letting Levi lead me around the kitchen while he looked for something to light. I liked that he was so happy to lead me.

  Just as my eyes started to adjust to the darkness, someone banged on the door. Levi’s arm wrapped around my shoulders before I even had time to panic, and I leaned into him and groaned.

  “I’m such a loser.”

  His chuckle rumbled through my back. “You’re fine. Let’s go see who it is.”

  We picked our way through the living room, and I tucked myself behind Levi as he answered the door. In case of murderers, of course.

  It was no murderer, though. A bellhop wielding a flashlight stood in the doorway, smiling apologetically.

  “Hello,” he said. “Is everyone okay in there?”

  “We’re good,” Levi replied. “Do you know when the power will be back on?”

  “They’re investigating but can’t say for certain. In the meantime, we’re inviting the guests down to the cafe. We’ve got a wood burning fireplace and lots of board games. There’s a flashlight in your closet, should be right next to the first aid kit.”

  “Thanks.”

  The bellhop waved and moved on to the next door. Levi let our door close and turned to me, holding my shoulders.

  “I guess we have something to do now,” I said, chuckling.

  “I guess so.” Levi’s voice was gravelly and rich. He ran his thumbs along my shoulders, and the small movement stoked a tendril of hot desire in my core. “But I think I’ve got a better idea.”

  My breath hitched. Levi’s mouth found mine in the darkness with practiced ease. He held me in place and kissed me passionately, tongue and lips laying claim over my mouth and making my head spin. I told myself this shouldn’t happen again, but the truth was I’d been aching for his kiss all day. Now that we were here, there was no way I was going to stop him.

  Levi’s hands skimmed down my arms, finding my waist and pulling me tight against his chest. I twined my arms around his neck and arched up against him, pressing my breasts against the muscled plane of his chest. The wind slammed against the windows insistently, but we were in another world. A world of darkness.

  Levi’s stubbled jaw scraped my cheek as he kissed down my neck. My hairs stood on end. My body quivered with the memory of his expert touch, the way he played my body and made it sing. He sucked on my throat, and I let my head fall back, opening myself to him.

  Everything felt more intense in the darkness. His hands on my ass, his lips on my pulse, his teeth scraping across my skin. Liquid heat filled my core, and I found myself grinding against Levi’s hard thigh, trying to relieve some of the ache.

  Levi anchored both hands on my butt and hoisted me into the air. I wrapped my legs around him and tried not to yelp with surprise, but I let out a ragged gasp.

  He chuckled, tickling the spot just below my ear. “I’ve got you.”

  He began to walk. I had no idea how he made it to the bedroom without tripping over anything, but he did.

  He deposited me on the bed gently, peppering kisses up my chin to my lips. “Keep your eyes closed,” he instructed.

  I wouldn’t have been able to see anything anyway, but I did as he said. Behind my lids, I found an infinite blackness, and it swallowed me whole as Levi began to undress me. I tried to help, but he batted my hands away.

  “Let me,” he said.

  “Whatever you say.”

  “Yes,” he murmured, breathing against my collarbone. “Whatever I say.”

  My toes curled with the promise of pleasure. I wanted him so bad, to feel him moving inside of me again.

  The air was chilly on my bare skin, and I reached for Levi, finding him hovering above me. He lowered his face to mine and moved his lips over my cheek.

  “Do you trust me?” he whispered.

  I barely heard him over the blustering outside.

  “Yes,” I answered without thinking. I meant it, even though he’d done little to earn my trust. Maybe my faith would waver in the light of day, but tonight he held my fate in his hands, and I was along for the ride.

  “Stay there.” Levi pecked my cheek, and his weight lifted from the bed.

  I blinked into the shadowy room but couldn’t distinguish his form from any of the other shadows. His footsteps retreated into the suite and faded. The storm raged outside.

  A couple of minutes later, Levi returned. He walked around the side of the bed, stroking a finger up the inside of my arm. When his fingers reached my hand, he held it and pulled it up behind my head.

  “Your other hand too.” His voice was rich lik
e honey, dripping with confidence. I was powerless to disobey. I lifted my other hand and Levi wrapped something silky around my wrists, securing them together. A tie? He fixed them to the headboard and gave a tug before moving away from the bed again.

  Anticipation made my skin tingle and prick. My core throbbed with desire, and I squeezed my thighs together. I searched for Levi but still couldn’t see a damn thing.

  “You’re keeping those eyes closed, aren’t you?” he asked from somewhere in the shadows.

  “Yes.” I snapped my eyes shut.

  His laugh floated over to me, gliding across my skin like a feather.

  “Levi...”

  “Yes?”

  “Please.”

  I felt the bed dip somewhere near the bottom. A finger grazed the inside of my ankle, and I jerked in surprise. Levi’s hands closed around my calves and eased my legs apart. Air hit my sex, and I moaned at the sensation, so on edge that I thought I might shatter with the slightest touch.

  Levi’s lips began to carve a fiery path up my leg, starting at my ankle and moving steadily to the top of my thigh. His naked chest brushed my other leg, and I rubbed it against him, trying to find the juncture of his legs with my foot.

  A strong hand closed around my thigh and forced my leg to the bed.

  “Stop that,” he growled. “Can’t you stay still for two minutes?”

  “I want to touch you.”

  Levi bit the top of my leg. “Too bad,” he said. “You’re tied up, and I’m in charge.”

  My legs liquefied against the mattress. I could think of nothing sexier than the dark promise of his words and longed to give into them. Give into him.

  “Good girl,” Levi murmured, continuing his journey down my other leg. By the time he reached my ankle, I was quaking with need. I whimpered and tossed my head as he dragged the pads of his fingers toward my sex and groaned in frustration when he stopped just before reaching it. Levi’s airy laugh tickled my rib cage.

  “This is why I don’t like you,” I muttered.

  “This is why you don’t like me?”

  Levi’s mouth closed on my nipple, and he sucked. His hard thigh wedged between mine and ground on the sensitive bundle of nerves between my legs, and I cried out at the sudden onslaught of pleasure.

  “No, sweetheart,” he said, his breath chilling my wet nipple. “This is why you do like me.” He dug his thigh up, and my eyes rolled to the back of my head. “This is why you’re going to have dirty thoughts about me for months to come.” He squeezed my breast in one palm and brushed his lips against my other nipple. “This is why you’re going to cum harder than you ever have before for me tonight.” He bit down on my bud and my back arched.

  I was losing it. Levi was going to drive me mad with lust, and there was nothing I could do about it. He controlled me, owned me, and only he could satisfy the throbbing need between my legs. He was right; I would be thinking dirty things about him for months. Hell, maybe even for years. Nobody had ever made me feel like this, made me want like this, and I didn’t think they ever would.

  Levi began an agonizingly slow exploration of my body, licking and sucking my breasts, my hips, my stomach, until I started unconsciously pulling at my restraints to get to him.

  Finally, his stubble scraped down my ribs, over my naval, and kept going.

  “Stop teasing me,” I begged, knowing that if he didn’t touch my pussy soon, I was going to die.

  “I’m tempted to tease you a little more just for that,” he said, kissing the top of my mound. “But fuck, sweetheart, I can’t wait another second to taste you.”

  Levi’s tongue speared between my folds. I screamed. He tossed my legs over his shoulders and pulled my sex tight against his face, swirling his tongue around my clit and sucking on my tender flesh. The wet heat of his mouth overwhelmed me. I bucked against his mouth, riding his face toward the orgasm that had been bubbling in me with every brush of his lips. He moaned, vibrating my sensitive nub. I couldn’t tell whether I was panting or cursing or a bit of both.

  His cheeks scraped my inner thighs, a delicious contrast to the softness of his tongue. He sucked my clit and licked it with the flat of his tongue, alternating strokes to keep me on edge without letting me fall over. I whimpered and struggled, but Levi was in complete control, holding me down by my hips.

  Just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, Levi shoved two fingers inside of me, and I broke into a thousand glittering pieces. My body convulsed. Pure ecstasy spread through every nerve ending in wave after wave, bringing me to a shuddering climax that turned me inside out. I cried out Levi’s name over and over again. He didn’t pull away from my pussy until the last wave skittered over me, and then kissed me hard and deep so that I tasted myself on his tongue.

  “Fuck,” I breathed. “Holy fuck.”

  Levi sucked my bottom lip into his mouth and grazed it with his teeth. “You taste amazing, Frankie. I could feast on you all day.”

  “I don’t think I could take it,” I said. “That was...wow. Probably the most amazing orgasm I’ve ever had.”

  “Good. Ready for my cock?”

  A hot tingle worked down into my core. “God, yes.”

  Levi sat up and grabbed my hips, twisting me onto my front. He rustled with something on the bed and then pushed a pillow under my hips. My face fell against the mattress, hair forming a curtain over it. I felt so exposed, even in the darkness, but not in a bad way. It was sexy.

  I heard the rip of a condom packet. A couple of seconds later, Levi leaned over me, pulling back my hair and fluttering his lips over my neck. His hard length probed my folds, and Levi grunted as he found my entrance and worked inside.

  I moaned. The angle made the feeling of him stretching me more intense, and I wiggled to get used to it. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to how perfectly full I felt when he was inside of me.

  “You’re so tight, Frankie,” he growled, pulling my hips up to meet his. “This pussy was made for me.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. The evidence didn’t lie.

  Levi bottomed out and pulled back to slam in again, and with each thrust my swollen nipples rubbed against the blanket and sparked with pleasure. I was helpless beneath Levi as he had his way with me, unable even to look back at him. It was wildly erotic, and I felt like we were other people. We fucked like lovers who’d known each other for years, not two people who were only barely getting along after a few months.

  Levi’s powerful thrusts shook the bed. His cock hit the perfect spot inside of me, and my moans grew louder.

  His lips pressed into the back of my neck and his thrusts became more frantic. He worked up to a dizzying pace, grunting and groaning quietly against my throat. It was the sexiest thing I’d ever heard. Levi reached below me and squeezed my breasts, giving me one final command.

  “Cum, sweetheart. Cum for me.”

  I did, and he followed soon after. The pleasure sucked us down together, and together we fell, pressed so tightly against one another that our bodies seemed to fuse from the heat. I was blind, deaf, my only sense that of the nerves pulsating under my skin.

  I was in heaven.

  Chapter 19

  Levi

  I smelled vanilla before any of my other senses kicked in, before I even registered where I was. It was quiet. Still. And then, a bubbling snore that vibrated my ribs.

  I cracked open an eye and looked down. Frankie’s dark head was nestled just under my chin, her hand resting above my heart. The sheet was half thrown off, revealing her gorgeous, tanned back down to the shapely apple top of her ass. I pulled the sheet up, figuring she was probably cold. She nuzzled in a little closer. And snored again.

  One of the reasons I never invited the women I slept with to stay the night was because I couldn’t stand the sound of snoring. My father was a snorer, so much so that he used to shake the house before my mom made him see a specialist. I liked the quiet. The last thing I wanted to hear when I was trying to sleep was another pe
rson’s labored breathing.

  Somehow, Frankie’s little snores didn’t bother me. In fact, they were kind of cute. I cocked my head to the side so I could see her face, and as the next snore rattled my chest, I smiled. Long black lashes fanned her cheeks, her bee-stung lips open just a fraction. She was utterly at peace.

  I looked over at the light pooled on the floor by the window, which showcased a stunning blue sky with only a single white fluffy cloud in view. For the first time in days, it wasn’t snowing.

  I knew I should get up and check the road conditions, but I wasn’t ready to. Not yet. I wanted to enjoy this last minute in bed with Frankie because everything was going to change the second I left it. We would never work in real life, and besides, I wasn’t looking for a relationship. What had happened this weekend was a pleasant surprise, but it was over now. The thought made me a little sad. I pushed past it and began the slow work of getting out of bed without waking Frankie.

  She mumbled something and rolled over on her side once she no longer had my chest to rest on, but didn’t open her eyes. I left her in the master bedroom and walked over to mine to put on some clothes. Then I grabbed my phone and crept to the front door, slipping out into the hallway and heading toward the cafe.

  I looked up the road conditions on my phone on the way. Still closed, but crews were clearing the snow and were expected to finish within the hour. We’d be home this afternoon.

  I reached the cafe and noticed heaps of blankets spread in front of the fireplace. I went closer to inspect and realized they were people, guests and staff alike. Apparently, last night’s blackout entertainment had ended with a slumber party. It made me smile.

  On Friday, the thought of this weekend had filled me with dread. I never thought that I’d look back when it was all over and wish I had just a little more time. It wasn’t like me to get so sentimental.

  I ordered two coffees from the counter and sat at a table to call my brother. Garrick answered immediately.

  “Hey! Great news!” he said.

  “The roads are open soon?”

  “Oh, you already knew.”

  I laughed. “Yeah. Believe it or not, I don’t source all my news from you.”