Jingle Wars: A New Adult Enemies to Lovers Romcom (Hollyridge Book 1)

by R. Holmes

  My breath punches out of me on another groan as I hook my legs around his hips, arching up to try to bring his body back down on mine. He grins around the candy cane and, fuck, that should not be as hot as it is. The sight causes throbbing heat to pool between my legs.

  “Tell me, Freya,” he commands in that deep voice that makes a needy ache pulse in my clit.

  “Badly. So bad. Come on, Finn.” A relieved gasp escapes me as he settles between my legs, shifting down so he can pull my knees over his shoulders. He takes the candy cane from his mouth and lays a kiss inches from where I’m desperate for him. “I want you again.”

  I fall back against the sheets, spreading my legs, only to jolt up on my elbows at an unsuspected sensation.

  Finn trails the sticky candy cane over my folds and cuts his gaze up to me through hooded eyes. “You’re so wet for me.”

  My lips part as I watch him tease me with a candy cane he was sucking on moments ago. His tongue swipes his lower lip as he rubs the hook of the treat in a torturous circle over my clit.

  I drop my head back, closing my eyes. “Ah! Fuck, that feels—”

  Finn’s tongue follows the same path as the candy and I cry out.

  “I have half a mind to fuck you with this candy cane.” He shoots me another wicked look up the length of my body. “Don’t think I didn’t notice your resort’s logo on these.”

  Instead of doing that, he tosses the candy aside. He lowers his head between my thighs and has me coming hard on his tongue and fingers minutes later, knowing just how to drive me wild.

  “I need to touch you,” I push out.

  A moment later, he lets me up and we tangle together. I drag my palms over his shoulders as his hands grip my ass.

  “Come here,” he rumbles.

  A squeal escapes me as he lifts me into his arms and carries me to the wall as if I weigh nothing. My teeth sink into my lower lip, shivering as he presses my back against the smooth, cool wood.

  “You’re so sexy when you go all caveman on me,” I murmur.

  In response, Finn smirks, then with a minor adjustment, the head of his cock nudges against my entrance and he’s inching inside me. My mouth drops open on a silent cry of pleasure while he massages my ass. With the first hard thrust, my body ignites in a burst of ecstasy.

  “Oh my god.” His dick fills me and it feels so good.

  “That what you needed, baby?”

  “Yes. Always.”

  The pace picks up until the sounds of our skin slapping together fills the room. My nails drag across his back as he pounds into me, hitting the perfect spot that makes me scream.

  Finn pants and grins, muscles flexing while he fucks me against the wall. “Scream for me?”

  Each word is punctuated with a sharp thrust of his cock. He presses closer, his hard chest teasing my pebbled nipples. My screams reach higher in pitch as he slams into a spot that electrifies me with pleasure. His fingers dig into my ass and he snaps his hips.

  “I wanna hear you Freya,” he commands.

  Head thrown back, my voice cracks with my cry. “Finn!”

  “That’s it, baby. God, you feel amazing squeezing my cock with your tight little pussy.” His lips find my neck, nibbling and sucking. He’s obsessed with marking me and I love it. “Like it was made for me.”

  I bury my fingers in the thick hair at the nape of his neck, encouraging him to give me another hickey. “I’m—I’m close.”

  Finn captures my lips in a searing kiss. Everything becomes too much and I cling tightly to him as an orgasm wracks my body. He swallows my moans, slowing down his pace to keep me from tipping into oversensitivity.

  “Catch your breath, beautiful,” he says gently. “We’re not finished yet.”

  While I shiver and whimper from such a mind-blowing orgasm, he holds me, kissing me for long minutes, keeping the sensations of my orgasm going with each sensual roll of his hips.

  The mood shifts from something tinged in wild abandon to something more intimate as his hands drag over my flushed skin in soft caresses. His whiskey-colored eyes are filled with devotion and something else I’m afraid to put a name to, wary of chasing it away. No one has ever looked at me like that and it makes a lump form in my throat. He brushes his thumb over my cheek and draws me in for another kiss.

  Finn has a way of reading my body like he’s attuned to my mind, knowing how to meet my needs before I’m even aware of them. I feel safe and loved in his strong arms, worshipped like a goddess by his mouth, and my heartbeat syncs to his as he holds me close. He’s reminded me how important it is to savor life and the people in it, not just barrel my way through my work. He allowed me to see what’s important to him and it makes me want to do the same, to show him what I really care about.

  This is the feeling my favorite movies talk about. We fit together.

  I take a shaky breath.

  The realization of how much he means to me makes my eyes well with emotion and I bury my face in his shoulder, trembling until he squeezes me tighter.

  I think this is what I’ve been searching so many years for. A person who makes me laugh, who challenges me, and lets me into his world. Someone who’s heart feels like a home, exuding the kind of love I’ve always craved.

  With Finn, I no longer feel so lonely and out of place. I don’t feel like I have to be as loud as possible in order to be seen or respected. In his embrace, our bodies joined and our breaths mingled between kisses, I feel loved.

  “Freya,” Finn murmurs, lips brushing mine.

  He doesn’t say anything else, but he doesn’t have to.

  “I know,” I whisper thickly, tracing his jaw with my fingertips.

  I feel it, too.

  As I rock my hips and wind my arms tight around Finn’s shoulders once more, he cups my ass and takes us back to bed, sitting on the edge so I’m straddling him. He controls my rhythm with his hold on my hips, guiding me to ride him. Resting my head on his shoulder, I pant into his neck.

  We’re no longer frantically chasing release, but savoring the feeling of our bodies connected, our warm skin sliding together. It feels like we could stay like this for eternity and it would be right.

  “I want to stay here, just like this.” He cradles my face when I lift my head.

  Our lips meet and he falls back to the sheets, rolling us over without breaking our kiss. Hiking my leg higher on his hip, he thrusts deep, hitting the spot that is my undoing. My moans become his until I can’t tell the difference. I wrap my legs around him and he drops his thumb to rub my clit.

  “Finn,” I murmur. “Right there.”

  It becomes too much once more and I utter a soft curse while pleasure ripples from my core.

  With one last groan, Finn presses his forehead to mine, cock buried deep inside me. I can feel the throb deep in my body as he comes.

  Neither of us say anything to break the moment. It isn’t needed after our bodies did all the talking.

  I push Finn’s damp, curling hair back from his forehead and smile up at him. His eyes are bright with a tender happiness and he turns us on our sides so he isn’t crushing me with his body. He tugs me closer, tucking me against his body, and kisses my forehead.

  With my head pressed to his chest, I listen to the steady thrum of his heartbeat, knowing that even if Hollyridge isn’t the place I stay, Finn Mayberry will always be the place my heart lives.

  The snow hasn’t let up yet. By the time we venture downstairs around mid-morning, the storm has transformed the landscape around us into insanely thick blankets of white snow. Winter wonderland doesn’t begin to cover it.

  I have the odd urge to run outside and fall back into it to make a snow angel.

  “How many inches do you think has fallen so far?” I ask, tucking Finn’s flannel shirt tighter around my body. The sleeves are too long, so I have to cuff them a few times, and the hem hits me above the knee. It’s the only stitch of clothing I have on other than my reindeer pattern socks that dried by the fire ye
sterday. “This is crazy. And it’s still coming down!”

  “Can you see the tops of those fence posts outside the cabin?” Finn kneels by the fireplace in his hoodie and sweatpants, throwing fresh logs on the fire to warm the house.

  I squint through the window. “Barely.”

  “Probably close to four feet, then. We haven’t had a blizzard like this since I was a kid.” He stands and comes to stand behind me, wrapping me in a hug. “A nearby lake froze over fast enough West and I could see the fish stuck in it.” His chest vibrates against my back, shaking in amusement over the memory. “Riley cried.”

  It’s funny to think of my tough, sarcastic friend upset over fish. I tip my head back to look up at him from upside down. “How come?”

  “She thought they’d die, but they were fine when the ice thawed out. Some fish are used to being popsicles through the winter.”

  A light laugh bubbles out of me. “How much longer will it snow for?”

  “Let’s see if we can find out.” He releases me to grab his phone from the coffee table. “Looks like I have service. For now, anyway. Radar is showing another day of this at least. I’m going to call Grams and Gramps to let them know we’re okay. See if you have service.”

  While Finn strolls into the kitchen to make his call, I find a ton of missed messages on my phone. Shooting a quick text to Riley first, I skim through to find the most important ones. The phone vibrates with her response.

  Riley: Glad you’re okay! Alpine still has power. Roads are still pretty bad from what West said, so stay put.

  “Gramps says the roads are a mess,” Finn says, returning to the living room.

  I hold up my phone. “That’s what Riley just told me.”

  “Guess we’re stuck here until they’re cleared out.”

  He drops onto the couch with a content sigh. Glancing up at me, the corner of his mouth lifts and he pats his thigh. I roll my lips between my teeth, but can’t hold back my smile as I set my phone aside and climb onto his lap, straddling him.

  “What a shame,” I drawl, bracing my hands on the back of the couch and hovering my lips over his. “However will we pass the time?”

  Finn’s hands find my hips, dipping beneath the material of his shirt I’m wearing and teasing my bare skin. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.” He gives my backside a light smack. “Like a Scrabble re-match so I can whoop your ass again.”

  I collapse against his shoulder, giggling at his deadpan humor. His chuckle rumbles in his chest as he palms my bare ass, absently grinding his half-hard dick against me. Sitting up once I catch my breath, I steal a quick kiss. When I break it, he cups his hand behind my neck and drags me back for another.

  “You’re impossible to resist,” he says against my lips. “Especially when you’re wearing my shirt.”

  “I just want to check my emails while I have service in case it goes out again,” I say, escaping his hypnotic pull. “I’ll be quick.”

  Finn drops his head to the back of the couch, mumbling a protest under his breath. Once I grab my phone, he yanks me back so I’m snuggled in his lap. It’s comfortable to cuddle on the couch with him while I work, the crackling fire as background noise and his absent caresses stoking the glowing ember of happiness expanding in my chest.

  “We should take a picture for Insta.” I twist on his lap. “People are stuck at home and bored in a blizzard, so we’ll get them thinking about how much they want to be somewhere else.”

  His brows pinch together. “Somewhere else?”

  I nudge his sternum with my elbow. “Yes, somewhere like Mayberry Inn. Or the Alpine. It’s a great marketing tactic. Let’s do it.”

  He tips his head to the side in consideration, fingers tracing lazy circles on my skin. “Alright, fine.”

  My smile widens and I nuzzle close to him, holding my phone up to snap a few. The first one we look at the camera and I almost laugh at Finn’s blank expression. When I turn to face him and catch his eye, still snapping selfies, warmth floods his gaze. We end up coming together in a tender kiss, his fingers grazing my jaw to tip my face up.

  “There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I tease.

  “Let me see.”

  I show him my camera roll, swiping through photos of our kiss and the ones where we’re looking at each other. The shift in his expression causes a flutter in my stomach.

  “I like that one,” he says when I stop on the one of us just after the kiss, our noses bumping together.

  “Me too. Okay, let's post it.”

  I caption my picture Being snowed in isn’t so bad with this guy. We both hope we see you soon at the #mayberryinn and #thealpinehollyridge so we can show you all our beautiful town has to offer you for a magical stay this winter.

  Once I share the photos to his phone and show him how to tag me from his new account, I laugh at the flood of comments and the perplexed look on his face. Every other comment on my post is someone freaking out that we’re together and comments about shipping us with the same hashtag from Twitter. Several comments ask if I’m wearing Finn’s shirt.

  “What the hell is that about?” Finn shows me one of the comments on his post.

  “The fans of Jingle Wars. They ship us.” An amused noise puffs out of me. “Guess they saw what we couldn’t long before we did.”

  Finn shakes his head, tossing his phone to the couch. “Trust me, I saw it. I just didn’t act on it.” He brings his lips close to my ear. “Didn’t mean I didn’t want you every second I was around you.” I hum as he trails a path of kisses down my neck. “Now you’re all mine and I’m not letting you go anywhere.”

  “There’s nowhere I’d rather be right now.”

  The truth of my statement echoes in my heart.

  After a few minutes of quiet while I finish reading emails, Finn breaks the silence. “You said you were looking to buy this place?”

  I cast a glance around the room and imagine how I’ll decorate it with my own personal touches. It’s easy to picture myself here, spending my weekends wrapped up in Finn’s arms and watching my favorite holiday movies on marathon enjoying a deluxe hot cocoa with extra marshmallows spilling over the rim. In my head, he’s poking fun at me for my obsession with Christmas and how I like my cocoa heavy on the marshmallow, but we’re wearing matching flannel pajama pants and Santa hats.

  Perfect.

  “Yeah,” I say softly. “I love it. And we already have memories in it.”

  He chuckles, tucking my hair behind my ear. “What makes you want a cabin so much? It’s not what I’d picture you wanting.”

  I put my phone down and twist my fingers together. “It’s always been what comes to my mind when I think of a cozy and comforting home. Somewhere to curl up with someone by the fireside.” The memory of last night has the corners of my mouth turning up. “Something homey that feels like a hug when you come back to it.”

  Finn hums at my explanation, stopping my anxious hand movements when he entwines our fingers. He brings my knuckles to his mouth, brushing a kiss over them. His comfort makes me want to open up more.

  “I’ve told you about my family a little.” He nods and I take a steadying breath to clear the tightness clogging my throat. “Well, it was the worst during the holidays. I was always alone.”

  Finn frowns, gathering me close, stroking my hair as I talk.

  “I have two brothers, you know? After my parents divorced, they moved in with my mom. She decided to live in New York, as far away from Dad as she could get. I was left behind while they went off and had their own family.”

  His embrace tightens around me. “Freya…”

  “It’s okay. Things with Dad have always been… Well, he’s not the most affectionate man.” I rub my face against Finn’s sweater, ignoring the wetness gathering on my lashes whenever I talk about this. “Anyway, I found Christmas movies. I really fell in love with them because they helped me through some tough times.”

  He kisses the top of my head and the emotions bo
mbarding me pass.

  “Thanks for listening.” I shift in his hold and press my lips to his neck, where he’s warm and smells faintly of spice. “Ever since I got to Hollyridge, I haven’t felt like that once. This town is magic. Everyone is so great.”

  Finn hugs me harder, plucking at my heartstrings.

  “I’m glad you came here,” he says.

  “Even when I complain about being forced to eat Funyuns so I don’t starve when we’re snowed in?”

  He barks out a deep laugh, shaking his head. “Especially then.”

  We shift on the couch to lay down, legs tangled together. The heat from the fire makes me drowsy and I rest my head on his chest.

  This domestic bubble of ours is perfect. I wish we never had to leave. Forever with Finn sounds like a dream come true.

  I woke this morning to sunlight streaming into the cabin through the sheer, light curtains. The rays shine directly onto the tan, taut skin of Freya's ass. It’s the first thing I've seen this morning and I wish I could wake up every morning with this view.

  The fire I stoked in the bedroom fireplace has died down sometime over the night, leaving nothing but a pile of black ash and a few glowing embers. There's a chill in the cabin, but the sunlight combined with the tangle of our bodies has kept us both warm. The storm has passed and now, it's back to reality.

  I pepper light kisses along Freya's, shoulder, down her back until I reach her ass, where I take a bite. She groans sleepily, stretching her arms out.

  "Good morning beautiful." I whisper against her skin.

  "Mmm good morning."

  "As much as I hate to, I need to get out there and try and get your car unstuck. It seems like the storm has passed and some of the snow is starting to melt. Should be able to get us back on the road today."

  She groans in protest. "I wish we could just stay here forever."

  I grin. "Then you'd be forced to eat Viennas for the rest of your life, and I don't think you'd survive."

  She looks so beautiful spread out before me, completely nude. Her body is what men like me see in their dreams. Curves and dips that beg for attention from my lips, my tongue, and my cock.