Deliciously Thick (Naked Brews Book 2)

by KB Jacobs

  I cringed. No one who knew better called me Mel. It was way too close to Melinda, and living my whole childhood in the shadow of my sister, who used that nickname and was ten-months-older, was enough for one lifetime.

  It’s been years since I’ve seen you, but watching you on the news brought back all the memories of the amazing time we spent together. Time that wasn’t even close to enough. I’d love to see you again. I’ve changed so much, but I’m hoping you haven’t changed at all. You were perfect just the way you were, even if I couldn’t see it then. I’m ready for you now. Ready for your secrets.

  Love,

  Brad

  I nearly dropped my phone. It had been years. Six long years since I’d heard so much as a hello from the jerk face who ruined my senior year in high school and almost ruined me. How in the world had he tracked me down? The news?

  Anthony’s press conference.

  A shiver ran up my spine at the thought of Brad watching the press conference, picturing me all those years ago...picturing us.

  I punched at my phone screen and deleted the email. Brad was a horrible part of my history, and he needed to stay in the past.

  Chapter 19

  Anthony

  Sunday morning, we found ourselves in the most beautiful place in the world, at the base of the ski slopes. The morning was bright and clear with the sun just peeking over the top of the mountain. We’d gotten a couple inches of fresh snow in the middle of the night, so everything looked smooth and untouched. The forecast called for milder temperatures today...thirty-one degrees with totally clear skies.

  Anticipation about a perfect day at the slopes buzzed under my skin. I couldn’t board, but just being here felt good.

  It should have been perfect, and it would have been if Melissa weren’t acting odd. Ever since she’d gotten back from her run the night before, she’d been quiet and withdrawn. She watched everything happening around us, her hands wrapped around my waist as we stood outside by the picnic tables, waiting. She smiled, but that expression didn’t make it to her eyes. No, her eyes looked wary, exhausted, and flat. That wasn’t normal for her. While she didn’t engage often, I could always see her excitement about what was happening around her.

  I missed that light in her eyes. Had I done something? I didn’t remember anything, but my mom had always told me that as a male, I probably would never realize when I did something wrong when it came to women. She’d also advised when those moments came, and I felt clueless, to just continue on and show my girl how special she was, and she’d probably get over it sooner than she ever would if I tried to defend myself against some unknown, unmeant wrong. So, that was my plan for today.

  I hoped some fun would perk Melissa up and maybe make up for whatever I’d managed to screw up. I had ulterior motives. I wanted to see more of the Melissa who could let loose. I knew if anyone could do it, my kids from the high school ski team could help bring her out of her shell.

  Sometime in the last few years, it had become tradition for us to meet at the slopes on Sunday mornings if I was in town. I had no idea if any of the kids would show up this morning or not, but I was hopeful even though I couldn’t go up on the mountain with them.

  I also really wanted Melissa to get to know my kids.

  “Who are we waiting for?” Melissa looked at me quizzically.

  I hadn’t told her why we were coming out here, only that I had to meet some people. She probably assumed this was some sort of PR thing for Triple B, but I wanted today to just be about the kids and her. Drake already knew that if I wasn’t competing, Sunday mornings belonged to my kids.

  “I told you...it’s a surprise.” I brushed my finger over her cheek already flushed red from the cold. “Are you going to be warm enough?”

  She had on ski clothes, but she was so tiny. She didn’t have any insulation of her own from the cold. “Yeah, I’m good. I have silk thermals I bought yesterday for running. Lake recommended I try them. Who knew silk could be so warm?” She moaned. “And all that soft fabric? Total win/win.”

  I wanted to moan with her, because now all I could envision was her soft skin under the thin, fitted silk fabric clinging to all her curves. Dang, that was a really nice visual, but I had to wipe it out of my brain. I could not meet the kids with an erection. That was not cool.

  “That sounds good.” My voice was deep and a bit husky. I cleared my throat and looked around for a distraction.

  Annika and Vaughn came around the corner of The Edge. They were smiling, holding their boards with one hand and each other’s hand with the other.

  “Interesting,” I murmured.

  “What?” Melissa followed my line of vision. “Who are they?”

  I nodded toward the two senior high school kids. “Those are two of the people we’re waiting for. They’ve been circling one another for a year and a half. Judging by their hands, I’m guessing they finally gave into the attraction.” I waved to the two teens, and they rushed over to us.

  “Mr. Millett, you’re here,” Annika gushed.

  Melissa glanced at me with a look of surprise at the use of my surname.

  “We hoped you’d come but weren’t for sure.” Annika frowned down at my crutches and ankle. “Are you going to be okay? Will you still be able to board?” she whispered as she glanced over and smiled shyly at Melissa.

  “Yeah, I’m going to be fine. I just have to concentrate on rehab and stick with my PT. Annika and Vaughn, this is Melissa.” I nodded toward my girl, wishing she really were my girl. “She’s going to help me wrangle you all today.”

  “Hi.” Melissa smiled at the two teenagers. “I think he’s been holding out on me. How do you all know Mr. Millett?” She put extra emphasis on the formal use of my name.

  “We’re on the high school snowboarding team,” Vaughn answered proudly. “Mr. Millett helps us out unofficially. On Sundays, he’ll come out and give us extra coaching time if we want it. It’s awesome.” He fist bumped me.

  “Hey, it’s just more slope time for me,” I said. “There can never be too much of that, not in my book.” With any competitive sport at the high school level, there were time limitations on official training and practice sessions. As there should be, because at their level, school needed to come first. The kids coming out for extra slope time did so completely on a voluntary basis. Plus, since I wasn't an official team coach I could be here to help without counting it as practice time.

  Melissa leaned back and looked at me with something close to admiration. “I had no idea. That’s pretty awesome.”

  I smiled at her, warmth flowing over my chest. I really wanted to kiss her. An image of our one and only kiss flashed through my head. Melissa plastered to me and molding to my body like we were carved from the same stone. I shook the image away. Right now I needed to be all about the kids. But later...

  I pulled at a purple dread to give myself a flash of pain. Focus. “Is anyone else coming this morning? Do you guys know?” The team had twelve kids on it, ranging from ages fourteen to eighteen. With family and other various obligations on the weekends, we usually only had a few kids come out, which worked. That way, they got more one-on-one time to work on trouble areas.

  The two kids exchanged a frown, and Annika said, “I thought Dane planned to come, but something might have come up.”

  I nodded. Dane was the most talented kid of the group. At only fifteen, he was also one of the youngest, but he could easily be an Olympian someday. His home life wasn’t the best though, and that made it harder for him to get to the slopes. One of the other kids usually brought him when they could.

  “Okay, well why don’t you both head on up and start a run. We have these”—I lifted the binoculars wrapped around my neck—“so I’ll be watching. Vaughn, you need to be careful about those edges. Don’t over edge or else Annika is going to beat you every run. Again.” I winked at her as Vaughn groaned.

  Annika laughed as the two headed toward the lifts. “Face it, baby,” she crowed as they
walked away. “I’m just better than you.”

  “We’ll see at the end of the day, won’t we? Wanna place a little bet on it?” Vaughn’s voice had a suggestive edge to it. Their voices faded away, which was probably a good thing. I didn’t need to know what the young couple might wager.

  After they were gone, Melissa turned to me with her hands on her hips. “You’ve been holding out on me, Mr. Millett. I knew your dad coached the high school football team, but I had no idea you followed in his footsteps. That’s awesome.”

  I flushed under her praise. “Well, yeah, it’s something I’ve done for about four years now. I’ve had those two from the very beginning, and there’s something so rewarding about watching them thrive, get better, and fall in love with the sport. There’s no better feeling in the world than working with these kids.”

  Melissa frowned. “Why don’t your sponsors play this part of you up? This is so much more admirable than all that Triple B party-boy hype.”

  I chuckled. “When the whole Triple B thing started, that’s what they had wanted. My image was the fun...definitely not anything serious...one. They were selling the whole...Triple B uses this product and look at how awesome his life is—just one great big party—aspect.”

  She frowned like she didn’t like that.

  “It’s better that way.” I shook my head. “What I do here is about the kids, the sport, not about PR. This isn’t for public consumption. Ninety-five percent of my life is broadcast for the cameras. This time isn’t. Drake knows that. So do my sponsors. Sundays are for the kids and now you.”

  I leaned down and kissed her before I could talk myself out of it. The whole dating thing was supposed to be fake, but the more I got to know her, the more I genuinely liked her. I wanted to spend time with her getting to know more about her...her secrets and dreams, her wants and desires, the things that made her tick. In return, I wanted her to get to know me, too...beyond the Triple B persona.

  She tasted like the orange breakfast tea she had drunk this morning along with the chilly, winter air. Her lips were soft under mine, sensuous. Gently I probed, getting her to open to me. As our tongues met, she wrapped her hand around the back of my neck pulling me in tighter. Yes.

  My cock throbbed against the placket of my jeans. I wanted so much more, but that meant I needed to stop this before I couldn’t. I pulled away from her. She slowly opened her glazed eyes and licked her lips. A sexy smile broke over her face, a real one that reached all the way to her eyes.

  The sight of her happiness took my breath away and warmed me from the inside out. Jesus...this woman...she was so much more than I ever expected.

  “What was that for?” Her voice was soft and breathy in the cold morning air.

  “Just making sure you stay warm.”

  Her smile morphed from sexy to downright vixen. “Nice and toasty now.”

  I was in so much trouble.

  “They should be about ready to run. Want to watch, too?” I pulled out another pair of binoculars I’d brought and handed them to her. I pointed her toward the boardercross run. “They’ll be coming down there. Vaughn has on the lime-green helmet, and Annika has the pink one.” The kids wore distinctive colors so we could always spot them on the slopes.

  Melissa looked through the binoculars and then pulled them away to frown at me in confusion. “That doesn’t look like what you do.”

  I smiled, a warmth spreading through my chest. She knew what kind of boarding I did. Had she done research on me?

  “No, I run the halfpipe. Their sport is boardercross. It’s pure racing down the hill. Usually six to eight boarders go at once. If you’ve ever watched motocross, this is the same thing except they’re on boards instead of motorcycles.”

  Her eyes widened. “Really? That sounds dangerous.”

  “Anytime you’re hurtling down a mountain, there’s some danger involved, but they’re smart kids. They know how to be aggressive without endangering themselves or others. There are also rules and regulations to the sport to keep them from getting too aggressive.”

  I nodded at the top of the run where the kids were in the gate. “With those two, their edge comes from how much they want to beat one another. The more they compete, the better they get. Now that they’re dating, it will be interesting to see how much that dynamic changes.” I lifted my binoculars. “Here they come. Let’s watch.”

  Melissa gasped and squealed as the two hurtled down the mountain. I would have liked to ignore the kids and just watch her. Her reactions were so honest—joyous and worried all at the same time.

  By the time our day was done, my dick throbbed from being hard for so many hours. Thank goodness the thick snow gear hid it. But I’d had more fun and laughed more than I could remember doing in a single day in recent history. I spent the whole day on the mountain without touching a snowboard, but because Melissa had been there with me, I hadn’t minded one single bit.

  It had been a great day. There had only been two tiny blips. One, Dane never showed. I’d texted, and he’d responded that everything was fine; he was just feeling a little under the weather. The winter crud had been moving through the team the last few weeks. The other blip was that a reporter with a photographer had showed up. When I’d asked them to respect our downtime, they’d grumbled a bit but still walked away.

  Overall, I counted the day as a success, mainly because Melissa seemed one hundred percent happier than she had when we left. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her in tight.

  She gasped at my touch.

  “When my ankle is better, we’re going to get you up on a board.”

  She shook her head. “Oh, no. I’m not that girl. I run, but that’s the extent of my athletic ability. Ask Lake or Alex. We came out here once and only once. After taking Alex to the emergency room, we all agreed it’s safer for me and everyone around me if I just stay in the lodge by the fireplace with my book.”

  “But you took Alex to the ER, not you? How does that work?”

  She grimaced. “I may or may not have knocked her down as we got off the ski lift. She was totally fine then, just a little wrist pain that was later diagnosed as a sprain, but five minutes later when she stopped to help me off the ground for the fiftieth time in just a few minutes, somehow I managed to wallop her upside the head with my ski pole. Twelve stitches later, she has a nice little scar right at the edge of her hairline, and my friends banned me from hurting any other innocents.”

  When she saw my frown, she smoothed the puckered skin between my brows. “It’s okay. I like the lodge much better. It’s so much more fun for snuggling.” She tucked herself against my chest.

  Snuggling. I could deal with that. In fact, having her tucked up against my chest gave me all kinds of very warm ideas that had nothing to do with my snowboarding career. I just had to ignore the truth that none of this was supposed to be real. We could have some fun and enjoy the moment, right?

  Chapter 20

  Melissa

  “Son of a monkey’s uncle.” I hit the delete key a half a dozen times and pushed away from the desk. I’d been trying to fill out permit forms for the pub renovation all morning, but my brain refused to cooperate in any way, shape, or form.

  It didn’t help that Lake and Walsh had been in and out of the office all morning, snapping at each other about details of the renovation. If it were anyone else, I’d separate them. With Lake and Walsh, it was foreplay. An hour ago, I’d kicked them both out, suggesting they go for brunch. Of course, with the way they’d been pawing at each other all day we all knew “brunch” would involve very little food and even less clothing. So now, all I could think about was heading back to Anthony’s and getting a little brunch of my own.

  Which of course was a horrible idea.

  Or was it?

  Triple B was absolutely the last guy on the planet I wanted anything to do with. He was an arrogant athlete who used women like disposable silverware and treated life like one big party with zero consequences. Even Pr
ince Charles looked good in comparison.

  But Anthony Millett...

  “Well...” Alex flounced into the office with a wicked grin on her face. “Good morning.”

  I crossed my arms and switched to high alert. An overly cheerful Alex was a dangerous Alex. “Afternoon actually. Where have you been all day?”

  “I was meeting with Collette down at Aspenridge Events. Gotta make sure once the new pub is ready we can start hosting the hottest parties in town.” Her grin still troubling me, she sauntered over to the desk with her arms tucked behind her back.

  “Well, that’s good.”

  “Oh, it is good. We had a great meeting, so I stopped at Coffee Haus on my way back to treat myself.” She pulled one hand from behind her back and held up a giant cup of coffee that filled the tiny office with the scent of roasted beans and a hint of cinnamon. “And do you know what else I happened to find at Coffee Haus?”

  Alex didn’t wait for me to answer. She pulled her other hand from behind her back and slapped a tabloid down on the desk in front of me. A picture of Anthony and me stared back at me from the front cover. Only we weren’t looking at the camera. Our gazes were entirely focused on each other. With the gushy expressions on our faces and the snowy background, it could be a cover for a romance novel.

  “You know how I love to keep up with all the celebrity gossip.”

  I picked the gossip rag up and tossed it to the other end of the desk. But not before the headline caught my eye: The Bad Boy of Boarding in Love with the Good Girl. “This is nothing. I told you that part of the deal with helping Anthony is pretending to be his girlfriend. It’s all about improving his image.”

  “That look”—Alex tapped on the tabloid cover—“doesn’t look like pretending to me.”

  I glanced at the cover again, considering how his lips had felt on mine in that moment. She was right. It had been amazing.

  “Oh my god.” She gasped.

  “What?” I looked up and caught Alex staring at me with her mouth open.

  “You really are falling for him.”