“You’ll follow me into the hotel, where you’ll get warm,” Garrett says, as bossy as ever. “The roads aren’t safe. You should never have risked the drive up here in this weather.”
“I grew up in these mountains. I can handle myself in the snow.”
He grunts. “Like you were handling yourself with those wolves?”
“I was doing fine,” I say, lifting my chin. “Now let me go.”
“You were about to be wolf bait.” He draws me closer with a strength that makes my traitorous body hum. “And I’m not letting you go until I’m sure you’re not going to do something stupid.”
“Something stupid like what?” I challenge. “Like buying a hotel in my ex-boyfriend’s hometown and setting myself up as an angel of mercy to all the poor, pathetic people living there?” I roll my eyes and shake my head. “No, wait—that’s not me, that’s you, Garrett.”
His expression softens, uncertainty creeping into his eyes for the first time since he stormed in to scare off wolves. “Why don’t you come inside, Dakota? Let me make you something hot to drink, and give me the chance to explain.”
“I’ll take my explanation straight up, thank you,” I say, finally succeeding in squirming my arm from his fingers. “I don’t have much time if I’m going to get back to town before the blizzard hits.”
“You’re not going back to town,” he says, his gaze darkening again.
“I’ll go where I want, when I want. You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.”
“I realize that,” he says, the muscle in his jaw leaping. “But there isn’t time to get down ahead of the storm, and I’m not going to let you risk your life just because you’re pissed at me.”
“I’m not pissed at you, Garrett,” I say, eyes narrowing. “I simply dislike you every bit as much as you dislike me. So what the hell are you doing up here? Surely you could have found another piece of shit mountain town to fix up with the Good Samaritan act.”
“Of course I could have. But I happen to like this piece of shit town, and I don’t dislike you, Dakota. Not even a little bit.”
“Well, you could have fooled me,” I snap, hating the wounded tone that creeps into my voice. I stand up straighter, willing my defenses to hold strong. “And you didn’t answer my question.”
His sighs. “Do we have to do this here?”
“Yes, we do,” I say, shivering as a gust of frigid wind rushes in from the north, sending snow flurrying down on us from the evergreen trees overhead.
“You’re cold,” he says in an accusing voice.
“And you’re frustrating.”
“And you’re stubborn.” He steps closer, glaring down at me. “So fucking stubborn.”
I jab a finger his way. “You’re the one refusing to give me a straight answer.”
He motions toward the hotel. “And you’re the one insisting we freeze to death in a blizzard instead of going inside where it’s warm.”
I growl through clenched teeth. “You’re impossible.”
“And you’re beautiful,” he says, sending my next words falling away from my lips. “So beautiful and so angry. And I know I deserve your anger, every bit of it, but…” He exhales sharply, sending a puff of white into the air between us.
For some reason, the sight of his breath makes this encounter real in a way it wasn’t before.
He’s really here.
Garrett. He’s here, standing in front of me, telling me that I’m beautiful.
“But all I want to do is hold you,” he continues in a softer voice, “and tell you that I’m sorry.”
My throat goes tight as I murmur, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m not kidding.” His hand comes to cup my face, his skin somehow warm despite the sub-freezing temperatures. “I’m sorry, Dakota. So sorry, and you know it, or you wouldn’t have driven all the way here to confront me.”
I shake my head, pulling away from his confusing touch.
“You knew I was behind this,” he insists. “Or at least strongly suspected.”
It’s the truth, but I shake my head again anyway. I thought I had it all figured out, exactly how I would respond if it turned out Garrett was the one playing Santa Claus in Harry.
But now that I’m standing here, staring up into his oh-so-familiar, oh-so-sexy eyes, it’s not easy to tell him to go to hell.
I’m still angry—so angry I’m shaking with it—but I’m also…tempted.
How could I have forgotten how beautiful he is, how magnetic? How his touch turns me inside out and the smell of him makes me want to claw off his clothes and lick his delicious skin until his taste is imprinted on my tongue?
My thoughts flash to a memory of Garrett that day at the beach, bare to the waist and glistening with sweat, the first time I knelt at his feet without being asked. I see my fingers curling around the waistband of his swim trunks, tugging the damp fabric over the thick ridge of his cock. I remember the way my pulse leaped in a hundred different places as he fisted his hand in my hair and fucked my mouth so deep my throat was sore for days.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he warns, his voice so much lower than it was a moment before.
“I told you—you don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.” I sway closer, a wild, wrong idea floating to the top of my already wayward thoughts.
What if I didn’t tell him to go to hell?
At least, not right away?
What if I let myself touch first? Let myself taste and tease and teach him a lesson about what it’s like to be loved and left without being given a chance to defend yourself?
It’s not the same. He hasn’t done anything wrong.
But I hadn’t, either. I’d done my damnedest not to do wrong, in fact, and gotten zero credit for it.
So maybe it’s time to stop trying to do the right thing. Maybe it’s time to embrace the lessons the ghosts in the car were reviewing all the way up the mountain, lessons about doing what feels good and fuck the consequences. Growing up, none of the adults in my life ever worried about cause and effect. They worried about the next fix. Anything beyond that might as well have been happening on another planet as far as they were concerned.
I’ve always taken pride in the fact that I didn’t end up a drunk or a junkie, but looking up into Garrett’s eyes, I know I’m not so different from my mom. I’m every bit as tempted by things that are bad for me; my drug of choice just happens to be a man so sexy not even an angel could resist him.
And I’m no angel.
Decision made, I reach for my hit, heart pounding like thunder as Garrett’s lips meet mine.
Chapter Five
Garrett
Her kiss is a punishment, and her anger a live thing, pulsing in a fuck-you rhythm with every sweep of her tongue against mine.
But I don’t care.
Yes, in the long run, I want more from Dakota than a hate fuck, but even billionaires know that beggars can’t be choosers. I’ll take what I can get and be prepared to beg for a second chance again later, after I’ve reminded her how good I can make her feel.
We kiss on the way in the gate and across the snow-covered paving stones, up the steps, through the lobby, and into the elevator, which I manage to summon without pulling my lips from hers.
“Clothes off now. Fast.” I drag her out of the elevator, one hand fisted in her hair while the other pinches her nipple through her sweater. Her coat is somewhere in the lobby, along with mine and the sweater she clawed off of me as soon as her hands were free of her mittens, and the rest of her needs to be bared to me as soon as possible.
“Get it through your head, Garrett—you aren’t the boss.” She tears at my shirt with enough strength to send the top two buttons flying, a turn of events that is sexy as ever-loving hell, making it impossible to resist whisking her feet out from beneath her with a sweep of my leg.
Her breath rushes out, but before she can scream—or fall—I catch her, guiding her down to the plush carpet in the hall
way and straddling her hips, pinning her to the floor beneath me as I set to work unbuttoning the rest of my shirt.
“You didn’t use to play rough without permission.” Her tongue slips out to dampen her lips as she watches my fingers move, her gaze making the cool hall feel sauna hot.
“It isn’t playing rough if I catch you before anyone gets hurt.” I jerk off my dress shirt, tossing it to the floor, where my undershirt soon follows.
“No games, Garrett,” she says, eyes flashing. “No games and no rough stuff. Do you understand me? This is a vanilla fuck, nothing more.”
“Nothing’s ever vanilla with you, Kitten.” I brace my hands on either side of her beautiful face, kissing her slow and deep before whispering against her lips, “But consider yourself understood. No rough stuff, just me making you come so hard you’re going to need to be carried to bed afterward.”
I pull her sweater over her head and pop the front clasp on her bra, disposing of the last barrier between my mouth and her tits before kissing a path down the curve of her neck.
“We’re doing this here?” Her breath catches as my lips replace my hand and I suckle her taut flesh into my mouth. “In the hallway?”
“Why not?” I flick my tongue across her nipple, relishing in equal measure the sweetness of her skin and the soft moan she makes. “There’s no one here but us. We’re completely alone.”
“Trying to scare me?” Her nails rake through my hair to dig into the skin at the back of my neck.
I smile against her breast as I pop the button at the top of her jeans. “Not at all. Just letting you know you can scream as loud as you want and no one will hear you.”
She makes a husky sound at the back of her throat, the same sexy laugh that always went straight to my dick.
“Some things never change,” I murmur, guiding her zipper down.
“And some things do,” she says, her tongue greeting mine as I reclaim her lips.
I slide my hand inside her panties, cursing as my fingers reach where she’s hot and wet. “But not this. God, I love how turned on you get, Kitten, the way your pussy begs for it.”
“That’s the only begging you’re getting tonight.” She rocks into my touch, breath coming faster as I slide one finger, and then two, deep into where she’s already pulsing for me, so close to coming I can taste it.
“That’s good enough.” I drag my teeth across the soft undercurve of her breast before putting them to use on her nipple, biting down hard enough to make her cry out.
“Jesus, Garrett.” Her nails dig deeper into my neck and then my shoulders, clinging tighter, tighter, as I coax her closer to the edge, fucking her with my fingers as my thumb glides over her clit. “Oh God, don’t stop.”
“Now who’s the bossy one?” I ask, but I don’t stop.
I don’t even think about stopping. I can’t wait to hear her cry out, to feel her pussy tight and slick on my fingers. Can’t wait to bring her over and start the climb all over again because I am a collector of fine things, and Dakota’s orgasms are one of the finest.
“Yes, yes,” she chants, bucking into my hand as her spine arches. “Oh yes!” On the last “yes” her pussy locks down so hard I can feel her inner walls gripping my fingers, making my painfully hard cock pulse with jealousy inside my jeans.
But it isn’t even close to time for him to make an appearance on the scene. The rest of me hasn’t had nearly enough opportunity to get reacquainted with Dakota’s sinfully sweet body.
“Haven’t even gotten your pants off yet,” I say into the curve of her neck as her trembling begins to subside. “That’s something we need to fix right away.”
“Oh, yes, please,” Dakota says, her shiver of anticipation making me smile.
“You’re much more agreeable after you’ve come.” I pull her jeans down her legs, disposing of her snow boots and socks while I’m at it. “Has anyone ever told you that?”
“Fuck you,” she says, but there’s a playfulness in the words that wasn’t there before, making me hope I’ll be able to get through to her, one orgasm at a time.
“How about I fuck you instead?” I draw her panties down her thighs, holding her gaze as she glances down to watch. “Fuck your pussy with my mouth to be precise.”
Her breath shudders out. “I wouldn’t want to deprive you of something you love.”
“That’s very generous of you.” I slide my hands under her thighs and around to grip her hips, ensuring she’s at my mercy, pinned tight with nowhere to run.
“I’m a generous woman.” Her lashes flutter as I press a kiss to her thigh, so close to her pussy I can smell salt and hunger, that almost fermented scent that makes my tongue ache to be buried in her cunt.
“You are,” I agree. “And I’m going to give you a chance to prove it. Spread your lips for me, angel, show me every inch of you.”
“You’re being bossy again,” she warns, but her fingers are already sliding down, pressing lightly into her skin as she opens herself to me, exposing the swollen pink of her.
And she is beautiful. Beautiful and shameless and so sexy all I want to do is rip open my jeans, shove them down around my thighs, and get my dick buried in her as soon as possible. I want to ride her, fuck her, own her, make her come on my cock until she’s begging for my fingers in her ass and my teeth on her neck, until she’s wild with pleasure and so open to suggestion that I’ll be able to make her come with a word, a whisper against her sweat-slick skin.
Instead, I lean in, brushing my lips ever so softly above where her clit strains toward me.
“Oh, Garret, no,” she says, breath rushing out. “Don’t, please. Not that.”
“Oh, yes…this,” I murmur, teasing my tongue in a light circle around her entrance, humming in pleasure as I get my first salty-sweet taste of her. “It makes you come so hard, Kitten.”
“You just want to break me.” She shivers as I kiss her again, this time right above the tight ring of her ass.
“A little bit,” I confess. “Just enough to make it feel so good when I put you together again. Trust me, beautiful. I’m going to make you feel so fucking good.”
I seal the promise by tilting my head and kissing her cunt the way I kissed her mouth, tongue pressing deep into her slickness, claiming every inch of her I can reach and then pulling her hips tighter to my face so I can go deeper. I ravage her pussy with my mouth until she’s bucking into me, seeking the release that’s so close, so close, oh so close.
Only then, when she’s calling out my name, her heels digging into the carpet on either side of my chest, do I pull away, leaving her writhing on the floor.
She curses and reaches for me with a clawed hand I easily bat away.
“Play with your tits,” I order as I tug open my belt. “Make your nipples harder for me, Kitten.”
This time, her eyes narrow, but she doesn’t hesitate. Her hands come to her nipples and begin to pluck and tease. The sight of her slim fingers shaking as she gets herself even hotter is sexy as fuck, but it’s her obedience that blows me away, assuring me it isn’t too late for us to reclaim what we lost.
“Good girl.” I shove my jeans and boxer briefs down and off, disposing of the last of my clothing before I settle between her thighs, determined to reward her handsomely for the hope she’s given me. “Do I need to pull out, beautiful?”
Her head jerks back and forth. “No, I’ve still got an IUD. Just fuck me, Garrett. Please. I need you inside me.”
“Soon, baby.” I grip my furiously swollen length, guiding the tip of my cock through her slick folds, up to circle her clit.
“Inside me, Garrett.” Her nails claw into my biceps as her hips buck sharply upward, trying to force me lower. “Please. Now.”
“Soon.” Sweat breaks out between my shoulder blades as I apply the faintest pressure to the bundle of nerves at the top of her, holding back even as my dick begins to throb with something closer to pain than pleasure.
Yes, I’m desperate to thrust inside
her, to shove so deep my balls kiss the seam of her ass, but I need her submission more. I need to hear her beg for it, beg for me.
“Please, oh please,” she pants, her brow furrowing and her eyes squeezing shut. “It feels like I’m dying, Garrett.”
“You’re not dying.” My lips curve grimly as my balls throb out a similarly sad tale, insisting they won’t survive if they don’t find relief soon. “No one ever died from a lack of dick, Kitten.”
“You’re such a bastard. I swear, I—” Her words break off in a gasp as I slap her clit, bringing my shaft down three times in swift succession before resuming my feather-soft brushes across her nub, smearing pre-come across her delicate flesh as my cock weeps sad tears of its own.
“Name-calling won’t get you what you want, sweetheart,” I warn, voice tight with the effort of maintaining this slow, steady torture. “You know what you need to do.”
“Not fair.” She whimpers softly as I reach up, pinching her left nipple between my fingers. “This isn’t fair.”
“I never promised to play fair.” I transfer my attention to her other breast, brushing lightly back and forth with the pad of my thumb.
“And I never agreed to play at all,” she says.
I pause, my hand going still. She’s right—we agreed to keep this vanilla. But before I can figure out how to gracefully reverse course, Dakota lifts her arms over her head and says, “But okay.” Her fingers curl into fists as she adds in a huskier voice, “I’ll beg for it if that’s what you want. I’ll beg because I need this so bad.”
“How bad?” I fit my cock to her entrance, heat flashing across my skin as my hands find her wrists, encircling the slim bones, pinning her beneath me.
“So fucking bad. So insanely fucking bad.” Her lashes flutter as I push deeper, until her slick walls grip the head of my cock, giving me a taste of the paradise that’s about to be mine.
“And who do you belong to, Kitten?” I ask, even though I know I shouldn’t. “At least for tonight?”
“I belong to you.” She arches beneath me, breath coming faster as I begin to move, fucking her with slow, shallow strokes that only add fuel to the fire. “I’m yours. Please. Do anything you want with me, but please fuck me first, Garrett. Please, I need you so much, I need—”
A Down and Dirty Christmas: Spend Christmas on the Naughty List Page 4
