by Anne Marsh
I’d been so fucking stupid.
Jacks’s face teased me from my phone. Calling him was a mistake I wouldn’t be making, but the man owed me an orgasm. I pushed my fingers against my panties and imagined those were Jacks’s fingers. Down. Then back up. A little firmer, a little deeper. The cotton rubbed against my clit and I pressed harder, a moan breaking from my throat as I shifted. Since I was alone, I got the whole goddamned bed and an orgasm for one.
JACKS
My phone vibrated and I checked the incoming number automatically. Holly. I’d grabbed her number from her phone and programmed it into mine, but I hadn’t expected her to call me so soon as it had only been two days since I’d visited the Christmas tree lot. Apparently, my plan was better than I thought.
I answered the phone. “Give me a sec,” I said. Chatting up my girl in the middle of the hanger, surrounded by my team, wasn’t a challenge. That part was a disaster waiting to happen. Someone would say something, and I didn’t feel like making a public spectacle of myself. This thing with Holly was too new.
Too special.
And so what if I didn’t like to share my toys—or my heart? Holly didn’t say anything—just made some rustling noises that were sexy as hell because they made me think of her, naked and waiting for me in some movieworthy four-poster bed with silk sheets—so I grabbed my stuff and headed for my truck. The smoke jumper team had spent the day running practice drills and fixing gear. It had been a good day, but not the most exciting one. I loved my guys, but I was ready for a change of scenery. I had no idea what Holly wanted, but she wasn’t the kind of person who just picked up the phone to chat.
“I’m all yours,” I said—to nothing.
Holly didn’t speak—and she didn’t hang up. There was just silence from the end of the phone, which was weird. Then a breathy whimper whispered down the line. Clothing rustled, followed by another whimper. Holy. Shit. She was going to come—and I was about to miss it.
“Gotta go,” I said to no one and nothing, and sprinted for my truck. Putting the phone on mute, I tossed it on the dashboard and drove to the sounds of Holly’s little sighs and gasps. Girl wasn’t a screamer, but she was sexy as hell. Probably why I got to Lucky Paws Christmas Tree Farm in record time too. It was a damned good thing Sheriff Hernandez wasn’t patrolling the highway because the woman frowned on flying trucks, and she lived to pass out speeding tickets to the smoke jumpers. It would have been worth every penny though. I had no idea how long it took Holly to come, but I wanted to be there when she went off.
When I pulled into the farm, the place was mostly dark. It wasn’t terribly secure either—nothing stopping me from driving in and doing whatever. The only illumination came from a boatload of flashing Christmas tree lights and an inflatable twenty-foot Santa who listed to one side as the air leaked out of him. After the chaos of the tree seekers, it all seemed relatively calm. Kinda peaceful too, the lights blink-blink-blinking away in a regular pattern. It was spitting snow, which was an improvement over the morning’s rain that had just turned the snow into wet slush. I didn’t like the thought of Holly out in it.
Her POS car was parked in front of the furthest cabin. I probably should have brought flowers or beer. Something. Instead, I was empty-handed. All I had was myself—and from what I’d heard on my phone, she didn’t think she needed me. It was a challenge I could work with though.
I knocked on the door, phone pressed to my ear.
“Shit,” she mumbled and froze. Sheets rustled and I grinned. She could pretend all she wanted that no one was knocking on her door, but she was so busted. Guess that answered the question of whether or not she knew she’d called me with a big, fat hell, no.
“Holly,” I crooned into the phone. I knocked on the door again. “You called. I came.”
The continued silence told me she must have figured out she’d butt-dialed me or whatever it was she’d done. Her scrabbling for her phone about deafened me. There was a loud click and a new kind of silence. I knocked again. She didn’t get off that easily.
Footsteps pounded towards the door. It was cute how pissed off she got. Not like she had a whole lot of runway to work with, judging by the size of the cabin, but she gave the effort one hundred percent.
The door flew open. “What?” she demanded, hands on hips.
I gave her a once-over. Christ, she was cute. She wore plaid pajama pants, a thin white cami, and the pom-pom hat. A bright pink blush painted her face, but apparently she’d decided to play this off as nothing happening here, move along.
“Let me in.” I leaned against the door, inserting my boot so she couldn’t slam it on me.
“Did I invite you to come over?” Her blush got brighter.
I waved the phone at her. “I heard my name. At least twice. Plus you called me.”
I looked over her shoulder. The cabin was dark, except for more of those damned Christmas tree lights. Lucky must buy them by the truckload. I could just make out the postcards, bumper stickers, and other souvenirs plastering the wall. It looked like a souvenir stand had mated with the better part of a pine forest, and her space heater was definitely a fire hazard. She needed a better place, a better life. What she didn’t need was me.
Except… yeah, I couldn’t stop the grin from curling my mouth.
“I’m better than BOB, but I’m a fair guy.” I promised her. “I’ll let you do a side-by-side comparison.”
HOLLY
The itty-bitty piece of concrete in front of my door certainly didn’t qualify as a porch. One good push, and Jacks would fall off. Except I didn’t want to push him away—I wanted to pull him close, closer, closest. Let any falling he did be for me. Crazy. That’s what I was.
Heat.
Desire.
Need.
It was that last one I had a problem with. I was independent and loving it. It wasn’t like it had been so very long since I’d had sex—even if my girl parts begged to disagree—but I didn’t do need. Not anymore.
Sex with Mark had been crazy good at the beginning of our relationship, but it hadn’t been enough. Love and orgasms might have gone hand-in-hand on my part, but I’d been stupid to assume it went both ways. I loved. Mark loved. I just made the mistake of assuming he’d loved me and that his feelings would last longer than three years.
One look at Jacks, and I wanted to make the same mistake with him. Preferably more than once. He slouched in the door, one arm on the frame, the other… that was the sneaky arm. Somehow, the hand attached to it had found its way to my hip, his thumb stroking over my hipbone in sweet, lazy strokes. It felt so good.
So good that I almost grabbed his hand, shoved it under my clothes, and gave him directions like my body was a paint-by-number kit and he was the brush. He could finish what I’d started in my bed, and we both knew it.
“I got to tell you something,” he said, his thumb making another pass over my hipbone. I froze, trying not to pant. How could one little touch set me off? What was wrong with me?
“You belong with me,” he continued. “Or I belong with you. Both. You picked the wrong man before, and I want a shot.”
Rub. Stroke. Sweet, sweet pressure on that one small, not-enough spot where we were connected. Somehow, I found my voice while my synapses misfired and melted into a stupid puddle of goo. “What do you think I am, a piñata or a shooting range?”
“I think you’re my Christmas present,” he growled, shifting closer. “I think I’ve been waiting a damned long time to open you up.”
I blinked up at him. Holy. Wow.
“You want to have sex?” I asked pointedly.
“That too.” His big hand tugged me closer, and my new up-close-and-personal position with the front of his jeans made his interest darn clear. Hard to miss an erection that impressive. “If you promise to behave, Santa’s gonna put you on his list.”
Apparently he was Santa in this scenario, which was a darn sight better than Lucky.
“Behave good—or behave bad?”<
br />
So I liked to have things clear. Sue me.
4
JACKS
“Fuck it,” I said. Playing by the rules had never been my thing, so why start now? She’d called, I’d come, and I’d even tried to have a genuine conversation with her. I wasn’t good at words, but kissing… yeah. I was betting I could do that good enough to make her scream. And if I didn’t get it perfect the first time, I’d just keep fucking practicing until I did.
“Jacks—” She stared up at me, all sorts of indecipherable emotions written in her eyes. Too bad she didn’t come with a secret decoder ring, but I was trying. Fuck. I was trying.
I grabbed her waist, picking her up and carrying her inside her place. The cabin was even smaller on the inside that it appeared from the outside. My knees bumped hard into the edge of an open sofa bed, and I tumbled her down onto the mattress. She didn’t protest. In fact, she looked real pretty, the impossible, fantasy kind of pretty. I followed her right down, because I was done waiting. If she was my Christmas present, I was cheating and opening her early. Sliding a hand into her hair, I held her head still for my kiss.
I kissed her hard too, opening her up with my tongue and getting to know the inside of her mouth. I hadn’t thought my dick could get harder, but it did. She gave another one of those sexy little moans, her tongue rubbing and pushing at mine. I’d wanted to make this first time something slow and sweet, do the whole worship-her-with-my-body thing because she deserved it, and I wanted tonight to be perfect for her. Looked like I was gonna go off like a rocket though, so I’d save slow and sweet for our second round.
HOLLY
Sweet baby Jesus, but Jacks could kiss. He pinned me to my crappy mattress and devoured me. His tongue drove inside my mouth, stroking and taking and licking. Hoo boy. I moaned and dug my fingers into his shoulders.
“You have too many clothes on,” I said when he finally let go of my mouth. I probably should have said something else—something like what the hell do you think we’re doing because it’s a really, really bad idea—but my body won this round. I wanted Jacks, and he apparently wanted me. The way he touched me felt too good to resist.
He rolled off me and proceeded to strip his clothes off with ruthless efficiency. I leaned up on an elbow to watch. Christmas tree lights had been a mistake, because there were too many shadows for me to get a good look at Jacks. What I did see though was fantastic. He was all hard muscles and tempting planes. I’d seen pieces and parts of him over the years, but never the whole man. I caught a flash of his butt as he bent over to shuck his boots. He straightened, and I got my first view of his penis… and men like that should be illegal. He was going to ruin me for anyone else. He hadn’t even been inside me yet, but I knew that.
The sofa bed shook as he came back to me, moving up the bed with lazy grace.
“Your turn,” he rasped, tugging on the bow on the front of my pajama pants. The big red velvet bow. Victoria’s Secret I was not. “These are cute, but they need to come off now.”
He didn’t wait for me to take action, shoving a hand down my pants and tugging. The flannel flew off, getting lost somewhere over his shoulder, and I had to grin.
“Impatient?” I asked.
He dropped another hard kiss on my mouth. “Babe, you have no idea. I’ve been waiting years for this.”
And just like that, he blew my few remaining brain cells. He’d waited—for me? Because that didn’t sound like he intended for tonight to be a one-night thing, but we also hadn’t talked. At all. Nope. We’d stopped briefly for kissing, and then we’d gone straight for the main act.
My panties joined my pajama bottoms, and for a moment I thought he was going to drive inside me, drive me crazy. Instead he dropped down my body in a wicked, sensual slide of skin on skin. Oh. Wow. His mouth pressed against my stomach, exploring the skin there, and then he moved lower.
“Wait,” I said, although most of me really wanted to say hurry up and now. But it was all happening so fast. I wiggled, not sure if I was giving him a hint—head south—or actually trying to slow things down between us.
He snorted, running his fingertips over my hip bones. “You think too much.”
I opened my mouth—because, hello, thinking was a good thing—and he found something else to do with his own mouth. Big fingers eased me open, and there was absolutely, positively no thinking and no thoughts left in my head at all. He kissed me, his tongue doing downright wicked, magical things to me. His fingers stroked and twisted, finding a spot that made me arch up into him with a rough noise.
“Oh, god. That’s good.” Understatement.
He chuckled and flicked his tongue over me. Jacks’s tongue. On me. And I suspected in me too. It was dirty and filthy, and I kind of lost it at that point, panting and squirming. Possibly begging too, because I needed this, needed Jacks, and nothing had ever felt hotter, better or more right.
JACKS
I went to work on Holly, pumping my fingers into her sweet pussy as I gave her clit another lick. She shrieked, her nails digging into my shoulders as she pushed her heels halfway through my spine. Good thing I was SEAL team tough because she tugged and pulled, trying to budge me from my new happy place. As if I was letting her up before she came all over my tongue.
She whimpered, and the sound almost made me come on the spot. She was fucking gorgeous, and she needed me. I was making this good for her, making her scream, and just once she wasn’t gonna tell me that she had this. I had this. I had her.
I was damned lucky and I knew it.
I gave her clit another lick, and she rewarded me with another one of those sweet screams. My Holly. Not like she’d promised me lifetime access, but no way once was enough. I’d been waiting years, and now that I had my chance? Yeah. I wasn’t gonna blow it.
She stiffened, and I felt the little ripples sweeping through her wet, slick flesh. I worked her, kissed her harder, deeper, pushing my tongue and my fingers into her.
“Please,” she moaned, pulling me closer. “Right now.”
For her? Anything. There was nothing I wouldn’t fucking do for her. Not like this wasn’t heaven, anyhow. She was gorgeous and trusting, and I sucked her clit into my mouth, sending her over the edge.
She came with a little pant, like all the air rushed out of her, and then she relaxed, collapsing back onto the mattress. Mine. I’d put that happy, dazed look on her face. I’d made her heart race for me, her body tighten and come apart. I felt like a king, and then I felt even better because she pulled me toward her.
“Inside me. Now,” she demanded, but her small sigh made her words the sweetest of orders.
I got the condom on in record time and pressed forward. She wiggled, taking me deeper. Fuck. She was amazing. She was tight, and nothing had ever felt better. I was buried in her, and it was all I could do not to ride her hard. Not pound her into the mattress and take us both over the edge.
I thrust. Drew back and thrust again. Too bad the room was so fucking dark, because I would have liked to watch her face. See the moment when she came for me. Instead I buried my face against her pretty throat, breathing her in as I came with her.
HOLLY
Jacks kissed me one more time, and then he lost control. Boneless from my own orgasms, I wrapped my arms around him and hung on. I’d hoped for awesome, panty-melting sex, and I’d gotten it.
What I hadn’t planned on, however, was for what came after. Somehow Jacks hadn’t struck me as the cuddling type. He’d seemed more like the kind of guy who’d immediately launch into an acrobatic-but-wonderful round two—or who would find an excuse to get up and leave. Instead of doing either of those things, he took care of the condom, took care of me, and then got right back into bed. And proceeded to pull me into his arms and hold me close.
Damn him.
That felt almost better than the sex. My cheek rested against his bare chest, his heart thudding out a steady, reassuring rhythm I felt in every inch of my body. His scent surrounded me, his legs ta
ngled with mine. It was cute, it was cozy, and one of us needed to go. In less than a week, he’d gotten into my pants, under my skin—and into my heart. That was a problem right there, and it was time to take preventative action.
I rolled away and sat up. He let me go. I’d give him that much.
“Okay,” I said. “Thanks very much. You can go now.”
5
JACKS
Like. Hell.
I wasn’t done with Holly. She wasn’t done with me.
“Why?” She’d damned well give me an answer.
She clearly didn’t want to give me more words, but it felt important. Seeing as how I was bigger and meaner, I had two advantages. I rolled over and knocked her gently onto the mattress, threading my fingers through hers as I pinned her in place.
“Off,” she snapped.
“Answers,” I countered. “We make love, and then you tell me to get up and go? I don’t think so.”
She glared up at me. “What do you think we have going on here?”
I kinda thought my words said it all. Make love, because that’s where my head—and my heart—had been at. Her naked breasts pressed up against my chest made it kinda hard to formulate a better answer, but I tried. I ignored the sweet, hot heat of her pussy against my leg too.
“A second chance,” I answered promptly. No point in giving her the truth.
“At what?”
Christ. She was more suspicious than the IRS. “At us,” I said, taking a chance and brushing a kiss over her mouth. “I should have fought for you when you chose Mr. Dick. Shoulda told you then that I wanted a shot.”
She snorted. “Right. You’ve never had a relationship in your life. One night, Jacks. That’s what you do. Meet a girl, romance her, sleep with her—and then move on from her.”
