by J. A. Huss
Contents
DESCRIPTION
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
END OF BOOK SHIT
Edited by RJ Locksley
Copyright © 2015 by J. A. Huss
All rights reserved.
ISBN-978-1-936413-99-7
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
DESCRIPTION
Life in Rook & Ronin’s world has been bliss for fifteen years. Rook, Veronica, and Ashleigh are still BFF’s raising their kids together. Ronin, Spencer, and Ford have managed to go legit and stay out of trouble. And they have a pack of kids running around the eight thousand square foot Vail mansion they all share for the holidays—begging for gifts, and fun, and love.
But every HEA has problems.
Five is fifteen and getting ready to go off to college. He’s put it off as long as he could in order to stay close to Princess Shrike, but his stay of execution is over and in three weeks he’s off to Oxford. But Five can’t leave until he gets the only thing he’s ever wanted. The heart of his Princess.
Ford and Ashleigh never had any more children after Five. And now that Kate is sixteen, Ashleigh is out of her head with desire for just one more chance to have a baby in the house.
Rook and Ronin have two beautiful daughters, but Sparrow is growing up too. And she just got a job offer that has Ronin crazed with paternal worry.
And Spencer is the father of a fifteen-year-old princess who looks way too much like her Bombshell mother for his comfort level.
Join the whole Rook & Ronin gang for a Team Christmas you will never forget.
Chapter One
“Five?”
Kate is calling me from the bottom of the stairs. I’m stuck up in the attic bedroom in the Vail vacation mansion with Oliver, as usual. He’s still snoring. Kids. They love Christmas. He was so excited last night, he stayed up talking me to death until three AM.
“Five?” Kate yells again.
I look in the bathroom mirror and smooth an out-of-place hair, then straighten my tie.
“Why didn’t you answer me?” Kate asks, coming up behind me. She’s clearly annoyed with my indifference, because she has one hand on her hip. “I’ve been calling you.” She stops short and covers her mouth as she laughs. “You are not wearing that.”
“I’m busy, Kate. I have adult things on my mind.”
When I look over at her she’s just giving me that dumbfounded stare. “I’m older than you.”
“Age is not what makes a person mature.”
“Anyway,” she says, sighing and blowing some of her dark bangs out of her eyes. “Rook is making us all breakfast. Pancakes!” This lights up her face. Kids love their pancakes too. “But seriously, Five. No one wears suits to Christmas Eve breakfast. It’s stupid.”
“It says upwardly mobile.”
“That’s stupid too. No one wants to look like they’re going on a job interview at family breakfast.” She pauses, looking me up and down with a critical eye. “You know she’d like you more if you weren’t so weird.”
“I have no idea to whom you are referring. And I’m not weird.”
Kate snickers. “OK. But she’s my best friend, you know. Rory tells me everything and she thinks you’re weird.”
“She does not,” I say, spinning around so I can look Kate in the eyes. “Princess Shrike is my one true love. She knows this. I know this. And one day, when we are of legal age to marry, the world will know this.”
Kate sighs. “I was kidding. Well, a little bit. She has remarked about the suits though, Five. For real. Don’t wear it. I’m not steering you wrong here. I’m trying to help.”
“I agree,” five-year-old Oliver says from behind Kate, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Lose the suit and put on the snowmen, Rutherford the Fifth. Trust me, I live with her. She likes this stuff. She’s always telling me how cute I am in these.” He points to his flannel character pajama pants.
“First of all,” I say, putting up a finger, “do not call me Rutherford the Fifth. Second, I don’t have snowman pants. Third, suits always say normal.”
“Wait here,” Kate says with a sigh.
“Whatever,” I say, turning back to the mirror to check my tie again.
“You should take our advice, Five,” Oliver says. “I’m a girl expert. I have five sisters. I live with them. Rory likes boys who wear t-shirts. Like that Marshall kid in her class.”
“Marshall?” I squint at myself in the mirror, my mind whirring to try and place a kid named Marshall. “Who is Marshall?”
“Quarterback for the varsity team,” Oliver says. “She went to the library with him last week.”
“Hmmm.” I hate not being in the same school as her anymore. She’s at a charter school in Fort Collins and I’m commuting to University of Denver twice a week. Why do I have to be so smart?
“Yeah, Marshall something. Do you want me to find out his last name so you can hack into his email like you did the last boy she was talking to?”
“Jesus, Oliver. You have some imagination. I don’t hack things.” I do hack things, but I’m not allowed to hack things, so Spencer’s big-mouth son needs to keep his mouth shut. “But I’ll take that last name if you can get it.”
Oliver gives me a conspiratorial wink just as Kate comes bounding up the attic steps again.
“Here,” she says, thrusting a present at me. “You’ll have one less thing under the tree, but it’s more of a Christmas Eve gift anyway.”
I take the gift bag filled with bright red tissue paper and peer inside. Pajama pants. “No,” I say, handing it back to Kate.
“Seriously, Five. You’ll look cute.” And then she reaches up and messes up my hair. “Girls like that too. And you should stop shaving those three stubbly things growing on your chin. Girls like a shadow.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Kate. I know what Princess likes. Me. I don’t have to wear weird pants or look like a vagrant. I just need to be me.”
“I saw her staring at Marshall when he was at football camp last summer,” Oliver says. “Princess was at the cheerleading camp across the field and—”
“What?” I was at Stanford all last summer. “She went to cheer camp? Cheer camp with football-playing boys?” I almost can’t take it. “I thought she was riding all summer?”
“See,” Kate says. “You don’t even know her anymore. I’m sure you were best friends back at Saint Joseph’s, Five, but she’s grown up a lot since seventh grade.”
“She’s only in ninth grade now, Kate. It’s not like I missed much.”
“Marshall is in eleventh grade,” Oliver says through a sleepy yawn.
“What? What the hell is wrong with Spencer? How can he allow his daughter to associate with an older man?”
Kate shakes the bag of flannel pants at me. “Put them on. She does like that guy, Five. He asked her to Winter Formal, but we were going out
of town that weekend to talk to those horse catalog people, so she had to say no.”
I just stare at the bag. “Flannel?”
“And a t-shirt,” Oliver says. “Shrike Bikes, if you’ve got one.”
“I’m telling you,” Kate says. “She likes you, Five. She’s always liked you. But you’re moving on without her. It’s not her who’s leaving you behind next semester. Oxford is a long way away. You won’t even recognize her when you come back in the summer. If you come back.”
“If?”
“Please, Five. You’re smart. You know that you’ll love it there. You know you’ll get involved in all sorts of nerdy academic things and coming home might not be a priority after you get settled. You’re going to be living the life of an adult. Rory is a freshman in high school. She’s not interested in growing up so fast. Not like that, anyway.”
I don’t ask what that means. I know what it means. She’s going to do all her teen things without me. I’m going to be thousands of miles away all engrossed in computer engineering, and she’s going to be thinking about football games and Marshall. It’s research labs and college life for me and dances and note passing for her.
I take the bag of pajama pants from Kate and close the bathroom door to change.
When I get downstairs Princess is laughing and joking with Sparrow and Kate as they eat their pancakes sitting at the kitchen island. Rook is flitting around filling plates and the little kids are sitting at the kitchenette table near the window where there is a clear view of the ski slopes.
I feel self-conscious in this new outfit. I want to hide behind my suit and tie. I want to hide behind the facade of normal so the only girl I’ve ever wanted won’t see too deep inside me.
But when she turns and takes me in I know that Kate was right. My new look delights her. I can see it in her bright blue eyes.
“Five.” She laughs. But it’s not a laugh that says ‘you look ridiculous.’ It’s a laugh that says, “You look…” I wait for it. “Cool. I dig the penguins.” She looks me over, taking a full two or three seconds to do it. “And the bedhead.” She giggles. “It suits you.”
I glance over at Kate, sitting just to Princess’ right, and she gives me an I-told-you-so smile.
“Thanks,” I say, letting out a breath of relief. If Kate is right and Rory is thinking of liking a guy who is not me, then I need to step up my game. I need to get her full attention every time I walk into a room. My eyes get stuck on her perfect lips and I wonder briefly if she’s ever kissed that boy she likes.
No. I’m pretty sure Spencer would walk over to that kid’s house and threaten him with a shotgun if she has. She hasn’t kissed him. Yet.
And with that my mission becomes clear.
I need to kiss Princess Rory and I need to do that today.
Chapter Two
“Hey,” Rook whispers in my ear. “Wake up.”
“Hmmmmm,” I growl. “What time is it?” I crack one eye open. “It’s still dark. We just went to bed.”
“No.” Rook laughs. “It’s seven.”
“Practically night time.”
“I made you breakfast, so sit up,” Rook says, sitting down on the bed next to me.
“Since when?” I laugh. Rook is perfect in all ways, but she and I have never been on the same time clock. She is not a morning person.
“It’s Christmas Eve. You know I love Christmas Eve. So I just wanted to cook for the kids. And I made pancakes. Your favorite.”
“Yeah, you love to sleep on Christmas Eve. Ronnie always makes breakfast when we’re in Vail. She’s a kitchen control freak here at the mountain house.”
Rook tsks her tongue. “She was up with Cindy. She’s teething. So Ash helped her last night so she could get some sleep and I said I’d make breakfast.”
“Oh, that sucks.” I reach around and grab Rook by her waist and pull her down next to me. “Thank you,” I say, kissing her on the cheek and sliding my hand up to her breast. She’s wearing one of my old t-shirts and some shorts. She knows I love the shorts. “Let’s take advantage of the chowing kids and get our kinky on.”
She grins at me and then reaches over to the side table where the tray of food is. “Strawberries? Antoine had a fruit basket delivered this morning. The doorbell woke up the pack of princesses. That’s why I’m awake. I’m surprised you didn’t hear Ford’s face-eaters.”
“Mmmm. Forget the kids, feed me, Rook.”
I catch a mischievous grin as she leans over to grab a strawberry, my hand never leaving her soft breast. I twist her nipple a little and that makes her close her eyes and draw in a breath.
“Open,” she says, bringing the berry to my mouth.
I take a bite and chew. The sun is just starting to rise and the pink dawn casts a hazy light over her face. We have been together for sixteen Christmases. Sixteen. Sparrow is almost fourteen and Starling is six. They are just like her. So pretty. So sweet. So perfect. And they have spent every Christmas in this house that I bought with Spencer and Ford once things settled down back. I love coming to Vail for the holidays. And we spend weeks at a time out here in the summer when the girls are out of school.
The house is massive, but it has to be to hold our families. Spencer has six kids with the addition of Cindy last spring. Add in our two and Ford’s two and that’s ten kids and six adults who call this place home. It’s big enough though. Eight bedrooms, eleven bathrooms and eight thousand square feet of living space if you add in the basement.
Luckily there are two wings and most of the kids sleep on the other side of the house so we can have some privacy. Spencer and Ronnie have the master and since they always seem to have a new baby, they remodeled the giant walk-in closet into a nursery for easy access. But all the bedrooms are big and have their own en suite bathrooms.
And Rook and I lucked out with a large terrace off our bedroom. It has a hot tub that we enjoy every Christmas Eve. God, I can’t wait for that moment tonight when we climb into the hot tub.
We have a typical Vail mountain home with long wooden beams running across the ceiling, a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace in the living room, and a chef’s kitchen for Ronnie, since she’s the cook around here.
“It’s quiet down there,” I say. “I think we could have a quickie in the shower.”
“I’ll run the water,” Rook says, jumping up to do that.
“Hmmmm.” I hate to be suspicious, but none of this is adding up. Usually Rook sleeps like the dead. She never gets up early and I can’t recall a single time when she’s brought me breakfast in bed. “Hey, Rook?” I call out over the sound of the running water.
“Yeah?” she calls back, and then steps out of the bathroom naked.
“Jesus. You’re in the mood or what?” I grin and chuckle.
“So in the mood, Ronin. Get up, let’s start this day right.”
“But…” I look over at the plate of pancakes. They are all misshapen and broken. That makes me love her even more. She can’t make a round pancake if her life depended on it. “The food will get cold.”
“I’ll make more,” she says, so easy-going.
“Hmmmm.”
“Hmm what?” She cocks her head at me and leans against the bathroom wall, like she’s flirting with me. “Come on. Don’t keep me waiting.” And then she turns back to the shower and disappears.
I throw the covers off and stuff a pancake in my mouth before following her in, my shirt already over my head and my fingers on the waistband of my shorts, tugging them down as I walk.
I’ve got morning wood, so I’m all over this invitation.
She’s already under the water, sopping wet from head to toe. Her long dark hair hangs down her back and she looks just like the girl I met back in Antoine’s studio in Five Points.
“Come on,” Rook says, encouraging me as she fondles her breasts. “Before the minions want our attention.”
“Well, you’ve definitely got my attention.” She’s never been a prude, but the last time she trie
d to seduce me was… shit, years ago, I think. I step into the shower and she starts washing me with soap. “Mrs. Flynn, what is going on?”
“What?” she asks innocently. She’s got those big doe eyes going on, and her shoulders are shrugging. “I just want some alone time before the hustle and bustle of the holidays overtakes us.”
Her hands drag the soap up and down my body, from my chest to my abs, and I have no choice. I’m under her spell. All I can do is stand there and enjoy it. A few seconds into this and she drops the soap and wraps her hand around my cock, squeezing it until I get even harder.
I moan a little as she pumps me slowly, and then her other hand pushes against my chest until I back up and have to take a seat on the bench. She drops into a squat, my eyes seeking out her pussy as she opens her legs for me.
“Jesus, Rook. What’s got into you?”
“You’re complaining?” she asks, before taking the head of my cock in her mouth.
“Oh, fuck,” I moan, leaning back against the cold tile wall. “Well,” I say, my breathing heavy, “whatever it is, I like it.”
“Hmmm,” she says, moaning as she continues to suck me.
I grab her wet hair and pull her towards me, then scoot down a little on the bench seat so I can fully enjoy this morning treat. She takes me deep and I hiss in a breath, fisting her hair. “Yeah,” I say. “I like that.”
She withdraws and then stand and positions herself over my cock, her ass brushing against my thighs. “Good,” she whispers over the running water. “Good,” she repeats as she lowers herself down onto me.
I open my eyes just in time to see her close hers, and then she sits down all the way, my cock filling her up.
“I love you so much,” she says.
“I love you too,” I say, my heart racing as her breathing picks up and she begins to pant. “I’d do anything for you, anything.”
“I know,” she says, leaning down to kiss my lips. And then she starts rocking the way we both like it. The soft way. The easy way. The way that says we are in love. Her hands clasp together behind my neck as her tongue seeks out mine. I think I love the kiss the most. Her kisses are long and slow. Her tongue isn’t eager and penetrating. It’s smooth and moves to the rhythm of our bodies.
