Snowed In

by Lexi Blake

  Snowed In

  By Lexi Blake

  Snowed In

  Lexi Blake

  Published by DLZ Entertainment LLC

  Copyright 2019 DLZ Entertainment LLC

  ISBN: 978-1-942297-34-5

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

  Sign up for Lexi Blake’s newsletter

  and be entered to win a $25 gift certificate

  to the bookseller of your choice.

  Join us for news, fun, and exclusive content.

  There's a new contest every month!

  Click here to subscribe.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Author’s Note

  An excerpt from Three to Ride by Lexi Blake writing as Sophie Oak

  About Lexi Blake

  Other Books by Lexi Blake

  Prologue

  Birmingham, Alabama

  Jessica walked into Gideon’s office, her heart in her throat. Something had gone very wrong with her boss today.

  He’d closed the blinds so only a little light filtered into the dim office. Gideon sat behind his desk, his face turned away from her.

  She knew the barest bones of what had happened. Reid had slammed out of the office an hour before he would have normally left, his handsome face a mask of rage and pain. Reid was sunny and happy, the light of her day. The fact that he’d barely spoken to her had hurt.

  “Gideon?” Her voice sounded small in the huge, opulent office. She could still remember the day she’d walked in for her interview. She’d been awed by the office and the men who ran it. Two lawyers. How had she ended up working for two lawyers?

  Maybe it would have been okay if she hadn’t fallen in love with them both.

  She was an idiot.

  “What do you need, Jessica?” Gideon didn’t bother to turn around. He remained staring at a closed window, but that dark, rich voice rolled over her anyway.

  “Are you okay?” It was a dumb question since the answer was obvious.

  “No. I’m not okay. Is Reid gone?”

  “Yes. He left with his briefcase and told me he won’t be back until Monday. Did the two of you have a fight?” Occasionally Gideon and Reid would fight over whether to take a case. Reid liked doing a lot of pro bono work while Gideon preferred high-profile cases.

  “Oh, dear, Reid and I have had this particular fight for years. We’ll get through it. You should follow him. Go and have a couple of drinks with Reid. He loves spending time with you. He’s crazy about you, you know.”

  He was also openly gay. Reid Watkins was one of the most stunningly beautiful men she’d ever met in her life. She often suspected she drooled a little when he walked in a room. But he liked men. Though he didn’t seem to date at all. He spent a lot of his time with her. And Gideon was engaged.

  “I don’t know about that. He seemed really angry.”

  Gideon waved the thought away. “He’s only angry at me. Everyone’s angry at me today.”

  She wasn’t sure why, but it was important that she know what had happened. Somehow these two men had become the center of her life. She cared about them. She was more than half in love with them. “Please tell me what happened. I want to help.”

  “Fuck, Jessica, you have no idea what you’re asking.” The words came out on a low growl that should have sent her running. “You said you want to help in that soft, sweet voice of yours and you have no idea what it does to me. What I want would tear you up.”

  “Did something happen with Anna?” Anna was Gideon’s gorgeous fiancée. She was everything Jessica wasn’t. Tall, slim, blonde. She looked like she’d walked off the cover of a fashion magazine. Anna and Gideon were the picture-perfect couple. So why had Jessica always thought Gideon deserved more? Anna had seemed utterly cold and uninvolved in anything beyond the endless round of social events she organized.

  “Anna called off the wedding. I’m afraid my family is a bit upset with me. Father hand-picked Anna, you know. They are no longer going to fund my election run.”

  Since the moment she’d walked in the office, she’d known Gideon was planning to run for a judgeship. From what she could tell it had been part of his life plan since he was a kid.

  She’d never spent time with his family. His father had only come into the office a few times, and he utterly ignored her unless he wanted a cup of coffee. From what she could tell, Gideon’s father thought they were back in the fifties and he was the supreme overlord of the family.

  It had to have been hard to grow up in that household.

  “I’m sorry.” She moved around his desk.

  He was in real need. He’d been such a good friend to her. After he’d found out she was on her own with no one to lean on, he’d taken over in little ways. He made sure the oil got changed on her car. He’d helped her move into a safer apartment, insisting the one she was living in must house at least five serial killers. He walked her to her car at night. She couldn’t leave him when he was hurting.

  She got on her knees in front of him. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Do you want a drink?”

  His eyes were deeply hooded as he looked down at her. “I’ve already had a drink. Or four. I lost count. I don’t need another drink, and if you don’t leave very soon, you’re going to become intimately acquainted with what I do need. I think it would be best if you left now. I’m on the edge of something nasty.”

  She could hear it in his voice. She should get the hell out. She should run as fast as she could. He was in a nasty, predatory mood. He was dangerous—not to her body, but definitely to her heart.

  It was stupid. So stupid. Any woman with half a brain would be out the door, but she put a hand on his knee, her heart thundering in her chest. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”

  It was the closest she could come to saying I want you. She waited for him to reject her. He would be smart. He would spare her. God, what was she doing? She’d been falling madly in love with both Gideon and Reid for the six months she’d been working for them. They worked so much—sometimes twelve hours in a day—that they had formed this odd little family. Her own parents were gone. She didn’t have any friends since her divorce. It was her and Gideon and Reid. She knew she’d never have Reid. Why was she risking everything?

  Because she couldn’t stand that look in his eyes. Gideon’s normally warm eyes were cold, flat stones.

  “It won’t be pretty, love. It won’t be soft. It won’t be sweet.”

  She laughed, but it was a bitter sound. At least they were on the same page. “It might not be worth much at all. According to my ex, I’m not good at it.”

  She knew what “it” was. He was talking about sex. Dirty, filthy, potentially mind-blowing sex. She was gambling a lot. He was hurting. He’d recently broken up with his fiancée. Was she taking advantage of him?

  His hand came out and for the first time there was a spark of life on his handsome face. He wrapped his fingers in her hair. “Is this the same ex who told you that being rough was wrong? That you were wrong for wanting a bite of pain?”

  She could still hear her ex complaining that she wasn’t a real woman because she wanted to try some rather unconventi
onal things. “Yes.”

  “Tell me something, love, did he ever make you come?”

  Tears pricked her eyes. “I don’t think I can do that. It’s okay. Not everyone can, but I wanted to try. It doesn’t matter. I want to help you. We can help each other get through the night and then we can go back to being friends.”

  “So fucking naïve.” He tightened his hands in her hair, the pain making her hiss slightly. “I don’t think we can ever go back. I don’t think you’ll feel the same way about me once we’re done. But you will come. I swear to god, I’ll have you screaming. One last chance, Jessica. Run away now or stand up and take off your clothes with the full understanding that I’m in control until morning. You will obey me.”

  The very words made her blood heat up. How long had it been since she felt this way? Maybe never. She had been a “good girl” for so long. She’d played it right. She’d never slept with a man outside of her husband, and her loyalty hadn’t bought her anything beyond half of his debt.

  Gideon Michaels was so far out of her league it was ridiculous. She was passably attractive, but he was a Nordic god of a man. Six foot five inches and roughly two hundred twenty pounds of pure muscle. He was all Alpha male and yet he’d always been sweet to her.

  What would a single night with him hurt? She would never get the chance again. He might never give her another chance to be close to him.

  She got up on unsteady feet.

  “Smart girl,” Gideon said on a low growl. “Run away. Run away for all our sakes. I’m not good for anyone. I’m not good for you or Reid. I’m better off alone.”

  His voice was hard, but she could hear the lonely boy in there, the Gideon he thought no one saw. Late at night when he was past tired, she could look beyond his perfect face. He was a man trying to build a life, hiding much of himself. She wasn’t sure what he was hiding, but he was afraid of something.

  So was she. She was afraid of so, so much. “Does your heart ache for her?”

  She couldn’t stand thinking about what Anna had taken from him.

  He shook his head as though trying to process the question. “Anna? I never loved Anna. Anna was arranged for me by my father. Anna was a means to an end. Anna was a compromise that’s going to end up costing me far more than money. Years and years I played the good son. But I couldn’t be the good son. Not deep down. I couldn’t cut it out of my soul. I didn’t even want to. You. You fucking walked in. God damn it, Jessica, I don’t want to dissect my engagement. Take your clothes off. Reid is right. Fucker’s always right. I was never going to be able to go through with it. Not since you walked in the door. Clothes, Jessica. Now. Make your choice.”

  She didn’t think. She responded to the dark command in his voice. This was what she’d longed for all of her life. This was what she’d wanted. She’d been far too afraid to explore it beyond romance novels, but she couldn’t turn it down now that it was being offered to her. And by Gideon. Oh, she’d dreamed of Gideon and Reid.

  Half a fantasy was better than nothing.

  Hands shaking, she unbuttoned the top button of her sensible shirt. Gideon said nothing, merely sat back in his chair and watched her with inscrutable eyes. She wished beyond anything that she’d taken Reid up on his offer. Not two days before, he’d playfully offered to take her to a lingerie store and help her buy some pretty, frilly things. She’d laughed him off. She didn’t need lingerie.

  “Fold it and place it on the desk, then take off your bra next. I want to see your breasts.”

  She did as he asked and then struggled with the back of her utilitarian white minimizer bra. Her underwear wasn’t any better. It was white cotton. Boring. Bland. She’d bought them in packs of twelve at a big box store.

  She was going to ask Reid to help her buy pretty things. How could she think of herself as pretty when she wouldn’t even buy herself a nice pair of underwear? The bra came free and she was standing in front of Gideon Michaels. He was staring at her breasts. She leaned over and dropped the bra on her folded shirt.

  “Your nipples are hard, Jessica. Are you aroused?”

  “I think I’m cold.” She probably shouldn’t tell him how much she wanted this.

  His voice got deeper, his eyes narrowed. “Don’t lie to me, love. I bet if I put you over my knee right now, I could force those pretty thighs open and do you know what I would find? I would find a pink pussy all ripe and ready for me. If I wanted to, I could fuck you right now. I could force you on my cock and you would take me. Now tell me the truth. Or would you rather I found out for myself? If I discover a lie, Jessica, I will administer punishment. I’ll ask again. Are you aroused?”

  She could barely breathe. “I am now.”

  “Excellent. Now take off that skirt and whatever form of underwear you’re wearing.” He said the word underwear with a hint of disdain. “I want to see your pussy.”

  With only the barest moment of hesitation, she pushed the skirt off her hips, hooking her underwear under her thumbs so he didn’t see the bland nature of them. She was left standing in only her black heels.

  “Perfect. Leave the shoes.” He stared, his eyes moving up and down her body as though assessing every part of her. His hand came up and he wordlessly asked her to turn around with a flick of his finger.

  She did it. She made a slow turn though her skin flushed with embarrassment. She wasn’t going to give in. She knew she was overweight, but her breasts were nice. Some men liked a round ass. She wasn’t going to allow her fear to rule her one moment longer.

  She turned again when he told her to and then she stood for what felt like forever. Despite her newfound belief in standing her ground, anxiety started to build.

  “You’re lovely, Jessica.” His hand went to the top of his slacks. He made quick work of his belt buckle and lowered the zipper. “Whatever happens later, you should know that. You’re a beautiful woman. You deserve far better than me.”

  But she didn’t want better. She wanted him. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “You don’t have to know what to do. It’s up to me to tell you. Get on your knees, love. I’m going to teach you a thing or two.”

  Jessica felt her eyes widen as he stripped off his dress shirt and tie. His slacks were still on, but his cock jutted out of them. Thick and long, she’d never seen anything as perfectly, gloriously decadent as Gideon Michaels.

  Jessica got on her knees, the carpet thick under her legs.

  “Spread your legs wider and thread your fingers together behind your back. Look at that. That’s the way. Now your breasts and your pussy are nicely on display.” He leaned forward and flicked her nipples.

  Her breath hitched. He ran a single finger around her nipple. It puckered and pouted. She’d never imagined her breasts could be so sensitive.

  “Don’t you move.” He took her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, He twisted lightly, just a touch of pain. She felt it in her pussy.

  He slid his free hand down her torso, tracing a line of heat all the way down between her legs.

  “Wider.”

  She didn’t hesitate at all this time. Gideon was taking command. It seemed to dissipate her anxiety. She didn’t have to be worried. She only had to follow Gideon’s command.

  His finger touched her clitoris, grazing it, making her shiver.

  He took his hand away, sitting back in his chair. Jessica heard the whimper that came out of her throat. She wanted him so badly she could practically taste it. Now she was the one on the edge. She needed to see where this would go—how far he could take her.

  His hand stroked up and down that magnificent cock. His eyes darkened, but the terrible despair was gone, replaced with honest desire.

  She’d put that look on his face. She had something to give him, too.

  “I’d like you to suck my cock. I’m going to teach you how, and I expect you to remember.”

  She leaned in, eager to learn.

  Chapter One

  Six Months Later

 
; Aspen, Colorado

  The snow seemed endless, a blanket of white falling from the sky. Jessica peered through the window of her sedan. The wipers were working overtime. The thud sound was the only rhythm that mattered now. She’d turned off the radio, unwilling to be distracted by anything. Mountain driving was turning out to be a nightmare.

  It was far more stressful than city traffic on a Friday afternoon. She was a sea-level girl. Mountain driving would have been anxiety provoking even in the best of circumstances. She was driving up the mountain in the middle of a snowstorm. It was her first trip to Colorado, and she feared it might be her last.

  Stay calm. Everything’s all right.

  If she concentrated and went slow, she would make it. Reid had been explicit in his instructions. She was in the vehicle Reid had left at the airport for her. It had snow tires and she was inching along. The Aspen Retreat was only a mile away.

  She was going to be okay.

  She told herself that far too often these days. Okay. It was all she could aspire to.

  Jessica let her mind wander even as her eyes stayed glued to the road. Unfortunately, her mind drifted exactly where she didn’t want it to go. Though her eyes were on the road, she was back in that place, in that moment that wouldn’t let her go no matter how hard she tried to forget. Images of that night six months before flashed through her mind.

  Gideon’s hands in her hair.

  Gideon tying her to the headboard of his bed.

  Gideon taking her roughly and demanding that she enjoy it.

  Gideon telling her to leave.

  She shook her head and tried to concentrate on the road. She wasn’t going to think of Gideon. She’d lost too much of the last year loving that man, and she wasn’t going to waste another minute. Except she couldn’t help it. The memory was always there…

  “Lick the head,” Gideon had commanded, pushing the plum-shaped head of his cock toward her.