And then his fingers are gone. “Sorry, but not yet. I’m not done with you yet.”
Hallie hears the groan and it takes her a few seconds to recognize she was the source of the forlorn sound. Troy’s chuckle should piss her off, but she’s too wound up to care.
She feels the wood on her ass as he brushes the spoon across every inch of her now warm skin. Her anxiety level is rising, but she keeps it in check.
The first flick of his wrist brings the spoon down on her right cheek. It honestly doesn’t hurt as much as his hand had since its coverage area is so much smaller. The next spank is harder. He is once again methodically moving across her bottom, varying his strength when she feels the first sting of tears in her eyes. The heat has built up enough that it’s really starting to burn, but she’s honestly thrilled that she’s made it this long without crying. Surely he is almost done.
“Okay, the warm up is over. Are you ready?”
“What? That wasn’t the real thing?”
“Sorry kiddo, but that was a pretty standard warm up. We can stop now if you want to.”
Hallie tempted, but she’s come this far she needs to see this through. “No, sir. I’d like to stop when you want us to stop.”
He answers her with a truly terrifying swat to the center of her right buttock. Before she can even cry out, he puts a matching swat to her left cheek. She can hear her own voice crying out, but it sounds strange even to her. His fingers tweaking her clit come next, giving her blessed time for the fire on her ass to become manageable. The pleasure is building to a crescendo until his fingers are gone and the spoon is crashing against her ass again, this time two quick hard successions to her right side, followed by two even harder in a row to her left. She is fighting to free herself from him, but he is too strong. She is vaguely aware that she could stop this any time. She even remembers the word: butterfly. The word does not leave her lips. Only her moans of pleasure can be heard as he once again ravishes her core.
On and on they go, harder swats with the damn spoon, followed by more insistent attention to her pussy. It’s when he moves the spoon to those damn sit spots when Hallie knows she is in big trouble. The pain is worse, but Troy has moved his left hand from her back to under her body, pressing hard against her clit as his right hand continues to bring the hard spoon against her sensitive sit spot over and over. Pleasure and pain.
The tenderness in his voice pushes her over into her orgasm. “That’s my good girl. Come for me, Hallie. Come on my fingers to show me how much you’ve enjoyed your funishment this morning.”
The contractions move through her whole body, so intense. She is recovering when she feels him slipping out from under her, shifting her to be face down over the end of the bed as she recovers from her bliss. She vaguely hears the tearing open of the condom wrapper, but doesn’t put it together until she feels Troy standing behind her, about to impale her with his cock. He tests her folds to ensure she is ready and then thrusts into her like a man possessed. Hallie is sobbing again, but this time she’s not sure if it’s from the pleasure or the pain as his body thrusts deeply into her over and over again, slapping against her punished skin.
Hallie lays boneless, absorbing Troy’s powerful thrusts hitting spots inside her that have never been touched. She can feel him leaning over her body as he clasps her hands lying uselessly on either side of her head in his larger hands, another intimate connection of their bodies. He is a man possessed as he claims her from behind. Hallie is vaguely aware that he must have a nice view of her red bottom. She’s filled with relief and pride that she not only survived a stricter funishment, but she is about to explode into another heavenly orgasm that she is positive was enhanced by the spanking Troy had delivered.
Hallie crashes into her next orgasm, crying out Troy’s name. He follows her seconds later crying out her name. Tears that had been stored up behind a dam begin to flow. The relief she feels is orgasmic on its own. Troy reads her perfectly and lifts up high enough to begin placing small kisses across her shoulders, neck and back while he remains buried inside her as they recover.
She feels his lips brush across her left ear intimately before he whispers five words that will change her life forever.
“I love you, Hallie Boudreaux.”
The sun has set by the time Troy’s SUV nears Corbin’s Bend. He glances to the passenger seat for the hundredth time since leaving Copper Mountain, checking to make sure she’s still there and not some figment of his imagination. As much as he loves talking with Hallie and getting to know more about her, he was relieved when she had fallen asleep an hour ago so he could admire. She looks so peaceful and innocent as she sleeps and he feels his heart constrict with feelings so intense it scares him. He didn’t know it was possible to feel this way about a woman and he is beginning to dread making it to Corbin’s Bend because he doesn’t want to part with her, not even for a few hours, let alone days.
They are pulling up in front of Aunt Gina’s house when Hallie stirs awake. The smile on her face as she opens her eyes to see Troy gazing at her is amazing. When she realizes where they are, her smile fades. She feels the same way he does.
“Did you have a nice nap?” He tries to sound more light-hearted than he feels.
“I guess, but I hate that I wasted some of our time together sleeping.”
“Are you kidding me? It wasn’t a waste. I got to ogle you while you slept.” He sees tears pooling in her eyes. “Hey, what’s this? No tears now. You came through your skiing weekend with flying colors.”
She swipes a tear. “I’m just being a baby. I wish…” Her voice trails off.
He picks up her hand and kisses her knuckles. “I know. Me too. This is just the beginning, Hallie. Everything is going to be just fine. Just you wait and see.”
He is about to pull her across the center console into his lap when the front porch lights come on. Gina and Adam were waiting for her inside.
Troy exits the SUV and is pleased when Hallie stays put waiting for him to come open her door. He pulls her to stand next to the car, but instead of walking her to the door, he traps her body against the car, staring into her eyes. “I wish I didn’t have to go back to the base tonight, but I do. I have your cell phone though and you have mine. I’m gonna call you and text you and we’ll make plans to see each other again soon, okay?”
Excitement jumps into her eyes. “Actually, if you could come inside, your Christmas gift should have been delivered yesterday after we left and I need to give it to you now.”
“Hallie, you didn’t need to spend money on me.”
“Too late and honestly, it is a gift for me too.”
“Intriguing. We better get going in before your uncle comes out to check on you.”
Aunt Gina flings the door open as they walk up the sidewalk hand in hand. “There you two are. You must have been having fun skiing to be getting back this late.”
Troy and Hallie glance at each other conspiratorially. They had fun skiing, yesterday. Today, they’d requested a late checkout and even though it cost Troy an extra night’s charge, had stayed in their room snuggling, talking and having sex until they had to pack up and leave.
“It was great, Aunt Gina. Troy is a great instructor. I learned so much.” Their eyes meet behind Gina’s back and Troy sees the mischief in Hallie’s eyes at the double innuendo of her comment.
Once in the house, Hallie hugs Uncle Adam and then heads to the desk in the corner of the kitchen where the mail is kept. “Did that envelope come I was waiting for?”
Gina smiles. “Yes, dear. It came yesterday. I put it in on your dresser for you so it wouldn’t get lost.”
Hallie’s smile is like a ray of sunshine. She grabs Troy’s hand and pulls him with her down the hall towards her room. “We’ll be right back.” She shouts over her shoulder to her aunt and uncle. Troy is honestly thrilled to have the chance to say good-bye to her in private.
Hallie rushes to the envelope and then turns, handing it to Troy. �
�Merry Christmas. Sorry it’s late.”
“We’ve talked about this. You didn’t…”
She cuts him off. “Yeah, I know, but really. I think you’re gonna love it. Please, open it first and then you’ll see.”
Troy turns the non-descript manila folder over in his hands and finally rips it open. When he peeks inside, he sees two tickets, the kind printed for big stadium concerts and theater events. A brief moment of dread hits when he wonders if she had gotten them tickets to see Eddie the Asshole, but he pushes it aside, knowing she would never do that.
Troy pulls out the tickets and knows immediately Hallie was right. This is the perfect gift for both of them.
“Okay, so you were right. This is an amazing gift for both of us. Thank you so much, Hallie.”
She looks nervous. “We haven’t talked about New Years Eve yet, but I thought this would be the perfect way for us to spend the night together in Denver at the Nickelback concert. I hope you don’t mind, but I was kind of hoping I could drive over and since it will be so late, well surely Uncle Adam won’t mind me staying over.”
“You little minx. You had this planned even before we went skiing.”
“But I did good, right?”
“Oh Hallie, you did great. It’s the perfect gift. I’ve been dreading having to say good-bye tonight, but now we only have two days to wait and then we’ll see each other again. And we get to go to a great concert. I’ll make dinner reservations for us for before the concert. Maybe you can plan on staying over a couple nights, that is if your aunt and uncle don’t mind.”
She has fallen into his arms, hugging him tight. “I’ll work on them.”
After several quiet minutes of just holding each other, Troy finally peels apart from her. He sees a vulnerability in her eyes and knows she fears the same thing he does. That these past two days were so perfect that they don’t want to let it end.
He leans in to deliver a heated good-bye kiss, before reluctantly pulling her by the hand to return to the living room. Before he knows it, he’s back in his SUV, headed back to Denver, feeling more alone than he remembers feeling in a very long time. As aggravating as it is to have to be headed into work, he welcomes the distraction that will help him keep his mind off missing Hallie for the next two days.
Chapter 14
I just don’t get what changed in the last seventy-two hours that has us against the ropes here.” Troy has spent the last two hours trying to sort out what’s gone wrong with the big project he and his team have been working on for over six months now. They were in the final testing phase and should be handing the code over to move into the next phase of production. Instead, they’re all standing around a conference table at one in the morning, hashing out what they know.
“I pulled our backups for the last month to see if I can pinpoint when the bug was introduced. That might help us figure out what the hell is going on.” John Tatum has been on Troy’s team for almost two years, choosing to move to Denver with Troy when they packed up the project team in DC and headed west. Not everyone on the team had been happy with the move, particularly the members he’d left behind in DC. Troy looks around the table of tired people, trying to piece together the problem.
“That’s a good idea, John. Harris, I know you’ve run through your findings with me already, but at the end of the day, what is your gut telling you?”
Tom Harris glances self-consciously around the table filled with John Tatum and three other technicians before looking Troy in the eye. “Honestly, Troy, I hate to say it, but I think there is only one conclusion I can come to. The code has been tampered with.”
“What are you saying?”
“You know what I’m saying, Troy.”
“Sabotage? I just hate to even consider it.”
“I don’t know what else it could be. We’d passed every test and were home free. The code wasn’t on the network. It can’t be a virus or someone from the outside. It has to be...”
“Someone in this room.” Troy finishes for his friend.
The room is silent. Troy looks from person to person and is met with varying degrees of anger and surprise, yet not one person in the room refutes the claim because they all recognize the truth in the accusation. Their project is locked down so tight that only one of the six people in the room should have access to do the kind of damage they are dealing with.
Troy doesn’t need this. He should be home remembering his wonderful weekend with Hallie and making plans for their future, but instead he’s at the base, dealing with a top-secret security breach possibly caused by someone close to him.
Taking one last look across his team, his gut clenches. “There has to be another explanation. I trust every person in this room. We have all worked together and I’ve watched you all pour your heart into this project. It’s important to all of you. There has to be another explanation.”
The room finally erupts as everyone starts talking at the same time, all agreeing with Troy, relieved that they feel the same. Maybe he’s being naive, but he is usually a good judge of character. There has to be another reason.
“John, make the forensic investigation into the backups your top priority. We need to know exactly when the bug was introduced and that will help us track down what the root of the problem is and with any luck, lead us to the person behind it. You all have been here all weekend. Go home. Get some sleep and come back in the morning. I’m going to spend some time here tonight to see if I can make some headway. Meeting in my office at oh-eight-hundred. Dismissed.”
The crowd disperses and Troy heads to the secure lab to dig into the problem. It’s going to be a long night.
Two long days later, the team has made marginal progress. Harris has pinpointed the introduction of the problem to Christmas Day, which only intensified the mystery since not one of Troy’s team had worked that day. All surveillance footage into and out of the secure lab the team works in confirms not one person had set foot in the lab for the forty-eight hours around Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Troy had been relieved with the proof that his gut hadn’t been wrong about his team, but the mystery still stands and they are running out of time. They were supposed to hand the project over by the New Year and the fact that they’ll now miss that deadline is a huge blow to Troy and his whole team.
He thinks back to the disastrous phone call he’d had to make late the day before to his commanding officer back in DC, outlining the problem and explaining the delay. He’d sat through thirty minutes of uncomfortable ass-ripping and was just grateful it had been over the phone and not in person.
That’s Troy’s next problem. His boss, Peter, is using this event as an excuse to try to pressure Troy into moving the team back to DC since nothing like this breach ever happened when they’d been working out of the more secure location in Washington. Peter had even threatened to turn the project back over to Victoria, a key team member he’d left behind in DC.
Troy hopes Peter was just blowing smoke because if Troy had been sure about moving to Colorado before he met Hallie, he is adamant now that this is where he belongs. He’s barely had time to eat or sleep since seeing her, but he’s made sure to text her often and they’ve spoke a couple quick minutes. He knows the responsible thing to do would be to cancel his date with her tonight to keep working, but there is nothing on this planet that could stop him from spending tonight with Hallie. His team had worked until four this afternoon before he called it quits, telling everyone to go home and report back the day after tomorrow. He tries not to feel guilty for wanting to spend time with Hallie and reminds himself his whole team is hitting the wall and they all need the downtime.
Troy is thrilled when he pulls into the covered parking garage of his apartment and finds Hallie just parking Gina’s SUV in the spot next to his. He hadn’t expected her for at least an hour. They both exit their cars quickly and rush into each other’s arms.
“Oh man, you’re a sight for sore eyes. Let me look at you?”
They’ve se
parated enough for him to look down into her beautiful green eyes. She looks incredible and his heart contracts that this amazing woman is looking up at him with such love in her eyes.
“Hi.” He can sense her shyness.
“Hi yourself. Damn, I’ve missed you. I know it’s only been two days, but it feels like a week. Let’s get you inside.” Troy grabs her duffel bag from the SUV before locking up and walking to the elevator, his arm tight around her waist as if to keep her from getting away.
They make it into the elevator before Troy leans in to claim his first kiss. He tastes her cherry chapstick and has a craving to taste her other delectable tastes and wonders if they have time for a nap before they head out for dinner. The trip to his sixth floor apartment is too short.
“Come on in. The place isn’t much, but I’ve only been here a couple months and haven’t even really unpacked. You’re the first guest I’ve had, other than my work buddies.”
Hallie is hugging him to her. “I don’t care about your apartment. I just missed you.” He hears a twinge of sadness in her voice that surprises him considering they’re just starting their time together.
“Well, you got here a whole hour earlier than I expected. You have any ideas what we might do with that extra time?” He grins.
“Oh, I can think of a couple of things. Which way to the bedroom?”
“I guess that settles that.” Troy grins down at Hallie from above, still buried deep inside her.
She can barely catch her breath. “Settles what?”
“I’d worried I had to be remembering how perfect you were wrong. There was no way you could be as beautiful and sexy as I was remembering, but damn, woman, that was perfect. You sure you want to go out tonight? We could stay home and I’ll order pizza.”
She knows he’s teasing. “Very funny. What do I look like, a cheap date? I already bought the concert tickets. Now you’re trying to get out of buying me a nice dinner too? I don’t know about you, Troy.”
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