“Carter!” I hear Greg calling out. “God damn, look at you,” he says heartily, slapping me on the back and dislodging the last of the snow from my shoulders.
“It’s alright, Mr. Everett is with our group,” he explains to the sour faced old woman, gripping me by the arm and dragging me closer towards what I can already feel is my next hard on, this time in a public place.
The sensation I had by the window in my room feels magnified like I’m under a giant lens the closer my friend urges me towards his waiting daughter.
By the time we get near enough to his table, I can see her already standing.
“You remember-” Greg starts to say, but she’s already in my arms. “Serena…” his voice trails off.
Her whole body pressed hard up against my front, drawing a low sound from me once I feel her softness against my raging dick.
Without her jacket I can hold all of her easily, feeling her heavy chest stiffen against my abs, her nipples scratching through the delicate fabric of her sweater.
“Uhh? Don’t I get a hug, big man?” Greg asks awkwardly, and I have to let her go to keep it looking natural.
I make sure Greg’s seat is between us as I reach over to embrace him.
“Of course, of course,” I tell him, holding him tight and slapping his back. “So good to see you both, it really is,” I tell him truthfully.
I think I manage to sit down quick enough for no one to notice, but my dick is hard north. Straight up in my jeans.
I don’t think anyone noticed.
Except for the only person who matters.
Serena’s flushed cheeks and quivering breath tell me everything I need to know.
I want to brush her blond bangs back behind her ears, to hold her hand and tell her so many things.
But Greg’s already talking over both of us, going on about some surprise he has in store for me.
If I needed a surprise, it would be the one where Greg says he has to leave me and Serena alone in the woods for about… oh, I dunno… the rest of our lives.
The crotchety old woman’s followed us, interrupting Greg just as he’s about to announce something important.
“Oh, Mr. Blaxhall? Mister Blaxhall! I forgot to tell you…”
All three of us look over to her, and I can see she’s got a smug grin she’s trying to hide which has me figuring it’s bad news.
“Well?” Greg asks, hating it when he’s interrupted and hating surprises just as much as I know I do.
“Your other friend. She won’t be joining you after all. Left late yesterday, apparently,” she says with mock sympathy, scrunching her nose when she looks from Greg to me.
I look over to Serena, watching her sink back into her chair.
The look on her face is far more smug than the look this old cow could ever put on.
“Greg?” I ask him with some annoyance now. “What’s going on?”
CHAPTER FIVE
Serena
I don’t think I’ve ever had better news.
Not ever in my whole life.
To think, that plastic Witch Barbie isn’t even here anymore, let alone anywhere near Carter, nor will she be for the whole time we’re here.
I’m on cloud nine and don’t even care when a small sound escapes me advertising the fact.
I sink back into the heavy dining chair, watching Carter’s huge body flex under his clothes as he asks dad what’s going on.
I couldn’t have planned it better myself either, and for some reason, the old woman who runs the lodge seems just as happy.
But she’s no threat. I’ve seen the look Carter gives her already.
His eyes meet mine, filled with frustration and annoyance until I cock a brow and watch his dark, smoldering pools soften to something new.
Something else that sends as much a shiver up my spine as when I felt his huge hands on me, and that huge cock of his stabbing me in my softness.
“You mean Wendy?” my dad asks, and the old woman nods gravely this time, but still hiding a smile I know my dad doesn’t like.
“She did, I’m afraid. Paid-up though… no returns on advance payments as per our policy, you understand. But her bill isn’t your own. Can I get you your menus now?” she asks.
My dad’s slunk back into his chair too, disbelief but of a different kind of my own.
“Was… was anything wrong?” he asks suddenly. “Was Wendy alright?” he presses her.
“Humph! Looked fine to my boy when she left, according to him. Made some story up about too much snow and having other things, other places to be. All I know,” the old woman says defiantly.
“Greg? How ‘bout you fill me in on just what’s supposed to be going on?” Carter drawls suspiciously. Hauling himself upright in his chair, dwarfing all of us including the old lady who’s still standing nearby.
His eyes move to mine again but they’re firm.
He’s in charge now, I can tell. And so can my dad.
Carter obviously doesn’t like surprises, and the one my dad planned has backfired.
I watch him knead his fist with his other hand as he waits for an answer, eyeing me with nothing less than what I could only describe as…
Triumph.
“I’ll fetch your menus, folks,” the old woman murmurs, scuttling away as I notice Carter holding my dad’s gaze.
Dad blows out a huge puff of air between his cheeks, reaching for his phone.
“Alright, slick. Keep your hair on, I was trying to surprise you with something,” he says, slowing his own words and pushing the phone over to Carter; the image of that blond bimbo filling it.
“I don’t understand,” Carter observes, making my dad twitch and give a little nervous laugh.
“I was trying to do a little harmless matchmaking, Carter. That’s all.” Dad confesses, noting Carter as he shoves the phone back towards him, a look of revulsion on his face as his eyes only glance past me.
“Is this what the whole trip was about?” Carter asks dad, his voice hissing to a whisper as he stabs at the phone again with his thick finger.
He’s mad, and the vein thicker than his finger in his neck tells me his pulse is as hard as mine as I watch him in action, but for different reasons.
“Carter… I was just trying to-” my dad croaks, looking as hurt as he sounds.
“Well, I don’t need you to run my love life, Greg. Never have and never fucking will. How dare you,” he says loudly, openly scolding my dad, his dearest friend before shooting me a look of…
What is that, apology?
He cracks his fist with a noise I hate before narrowing his eyes at my dad one last time before thrusting his seat back and storming off.
I pray that stupid woman doesn’t come back, fearing Carter will give her a bunch of five for her efforts he looks so mad.
But as quickly as I felt myself pressed against Carter.
As quickly as I felt his heat, his warm touch, and his passion against me, he’s gone.
He raises a dismissive hand to everyone in his way as he storms out of the dining hall.
Our first day here as a group. Our first meal together.
My first time seeing him in the flesh in god knows how long.
The announcement of dad’s matchmaking backfire announced, I should feel elated.
But now I feel crushed like I can feel Carter leaving already before we’ve even-
“I’ll go,” I hear myself say with some authority, standing from the table and rattling the cutlery.
My dad’s hand gripping my wrist and pulling me back down tops me. “You’ll sit down,” he scolds me, rising above me, his own anger showing now.
“I don’t know what the hell’s going on, Serena. But you’ll sit here and have your lunch with me. I’ll get to the bottom of this, Carter be damned,” he says, bringing his own fist down onto the table, silencing me.
The only time I’ve ever seen him so mad.
And the only time I’ve ever defied him so openly.
> “I’m with Carter, dad. What you did was stupid, bringing him here so you could set him up, some friend you are,” I blurt out, ignoring his hand reaching for me and all the other diners in the lodge as I race after Carter.
He’s all I care about right now, even though I know he’ll never love me I can still be his friend.
I can show him my dad’s plan wasn’t my own.
My own plan?
Well, that’s obviously not gonna happen either.
I don’t hear or feel dad chasing me, and only get a look of the same smugness from the old woman as I dart past the reception area of the dining hall.
A few heads look up, but the amount of warmth and food available is more appetizing than any floor show we’ve given them all.
True to my word, I go to Carter. Not even knowing if or why he’d hear me out.
I trace his defined, heavy steps to a set of cabins not far from the main lodge, and again follow his steps up to his door which I pound on desperately.
“Carter,” I call out. “I had nothing to do with that, let me in,” I plead against a heavy and snow-lined oak door, which eventually creaks open.
“Get in here,” he growls moodily, leaning against the door once I do.
I’m all his, he can do whatever he wants to me from now on, I’ve already decided.
He points to the sofa nearest the entrance and I sit, feeling his eyes on me again.
Hearing another low sound rumbling inside him that feels like it travels through the floor, straight up my legs, and into my body, making me gasp.
“What the hell was that all about?” he finally asks, sounding more himself and sitting opposite me in a large chair, crossing his legs and resting a huge hand on his wet ankle as I notice it start to twitch and kick in time with his thoughts.
“Dad had some idea, he was trying to matchmake you with some…” I start to say but don’t want to use words hard enough to complete my meaning.
“Some?” Carter muses out loud, his face relaxing and his leg coming down, spreading both of them wide as he leans forward with an inquisitor’s gaze.
“Tell me,” he commands. “Tell me and I might tell you something, Serena,” he offers, making my center ache with a single word.
A single phrase that carries suggestion, inquiry, and of course, power.
His power.
The same thick power I felt pressing up against my body, the same power I know I now crave deep inside me at any cost.
“He should really tell you himself, naughty dad.” I tease. “But, well...He said he set up a dating account with your photo, hoping to snare you some beauty you’d fall madly in love with on an all-expenses-paid trip to-”
It sounds like it’s coming from behind me, but a croaking cry suffocates my words.
I try and tell Carter what dad’s best intentions were, are. But my own sense of betrayal is too much.
I can’t stand the thought of him with anyone else. I just want him.
I only want him to-
“C’mere,” he says softly, standing up as I gravitate towards him. His huge arms circling me, warming me against my own shivers as he strokes my hair.
Listening to my sobs and pressing them harder into his own body.
He takes a deep breath in and I can feel his own familiar, deep voice resonate through me as he speaks.
“I’ll have to talk it over with your dad, Serena. I blew up just now and that wasn’t fair. We’re all here on a holiday and I don’t think I should be the one to ruin it,” he says softly, brushing my hair back behind my ears like I know he’s been dying to.
“I hated her… told dad she was wrong for you,” is the best I can do, willing myself to tell him more, but weakened under his stare and those strong, warm hands as they comfort me.
Not touching me like I want them to, but holding me in comfort.
Like a family friend would and should.
“Would you rather I died a lonely old bachelor?” he says, making me jump as I feel another familiar feeling.
A thick heat rising up from his front as he presses closer towards me, taking both my hands in his.
I feel my head shaking, my whole body shaking as he commands me again.
“Ask me to tell you my secret,” he says. His voice is deep and smoky. So freaking masculine I feel like I’m gonna burst unless he touches me someplace else.
I try to mouth the words, but my whole mouth feels like paste, I can only make a silly whimpering sound as I watch him lean in closer, his face getting within an inch of mine.
My lips opening for his and my eyes closing.
The sudden, heavy pounding on the cabin door jolts us both apart in a second.
“Carter! Goddammit, Carter open up. Where’s Serena!”
CHAPTER SIX
Carter
I can’t say I’m surprised at the news Greg tried to play cupid, it’s so like him.
But with a complete stranger, and using my details without my permission?
I guess what really surprises me, the guy who hates surprises, is just how mad it makes me because Serena’s here.
Anywhere else I’d brush it off and wag my finger at Greg for being a dick. But here? Right in front of Serena?
It makes me so mad because I guess I still have some foolish hope she’ll fall for an older guy like me, that somehow we could be happy despite her being Greg’s daughter.
Like I said, a fool’s hope and one that frustrates me so much I can’t help but blow my stack when Greg rubs my nose in it at the lunch table.
Even though he doesn’t mean to upset me, he’s only trying to help.
Trying to steer me away from the life of loneliness I know he’s felt since his own wife left all those years ago when Serena was still a baby.
God, how time flies.
I’m in too deep now with my own feelings though.
As soon as I’m alone with Serena, even just for a minute, all I want to do is tell her how I feel. Hold her close to me again.
Consequences be damned.
I almost think she does feel the same way, but she’s probably just upset about seeing me erupt at her dad just now. But I really hope that the feeling she’s broadcasting isn’t just my imagination.
I ask her, pretty much point blank. And before I know it, our mouths are gravitating towards each other.
Until her dad pounding on my door breaks the moment.
Kills it before it even starts.
In a split second, Serena’s leaped halfway across the room and I feel like the dirtiest man alive.
Until I see the pleading look in her eyes.
I should be mad all over again, but I feel more confused than anything until she mouths a single word.
After.
I open the door, and Greg brushes past me, heading straight for Serena and pulling her closer to him.
Something I don’t like, another man’s arms around her, even her own father’s.
So soon after she was just in my own.
My own lips about to-
“What is wrong with us? We’re supposed to be on holiday,” Greg announces, forcing a lighter mood, straining to smile.
“I’m sorry I went behind your back, Carter. Truly I am,” he says honestly, making me realize just how tense I still am as I force my own shoulders to relax as I exhale.
“And I’m sorry to sweetie, for being such an ogre just now. Seeing you want to storm off right after my best friend… well, I guess it hurt me twice to see how silly I’ve been,” he tells Serena, looking more relieved than anything when she returns his squeeze.
If there’s one thing Greg is, it’s honest. He’ll lay all his cards out for you to see so there’s no question in your mind as to what he’s thinking.
It’s why we’re friends after all these years.
Never anything between us.
Until today.
“I’ve asked them to hold our table for lunch, can we try again? Let’s head back and have something to eat, Carte
r. I think we’re all a bit tired and cold from the trip up. I know Serena skipped breakfast too,” he adds.
Looking at her, I don’t have to think twice. I feel my head nodding and once Greg lifts his free arm up, beckoning me over I embrace him.
My arms reaching around him and holding Serena again too.
Feeling her hip under my hand, wanting to trace down over that fine ass of hers but contenting myself with a brief group hug with my friend and his daughter.
Reminding myself what she said.
‘After.’
“That’s more like it,” Greg announces, one arm around each of us as we all head back to the lodge for lunch.
As promised, our table’s still waiting and we don’t draw any attention as we come back inside. The buffet is our unanimous choice over the menu, especially once we’re told it’s all that’s left. The kitchen is closed now, the old sour-faced woman informs us, and reminding me, in particular, we’re lucky to get anything at all.
The look on my face is enough to make Greg punch my arm as she leaves, reminding me how we all agreed to have a good time, regardless.
“You’re right,” I grumble, finally chuckling as we all get up.
My hand on Serena’s back as I move her ahead of me, behind her dad towards the buffet, which has so much food left I’m grateful for that.
I’d forgotten how hungry I was.
Confusing physical hunger with my other, newest obsession.
Serena.
For all their gruff service, the lodge puts on a very decent spread of fresh and very well made food.
Frowning at how little Serena has on her plate, I urge her to have some more of everything.
Wanting to tell her she’s going to need her strength if I have my way.
But how?
How on earth can I get her all alone, with Greg at the table every meal, right next door to me in my cabin?
I hide the groan I make with a hungry sound as I turn my attention to the food instead of my new problem.
It feels like one of those good luck, bad luck stories. Something positive happens, but there are a dozen things in the way to stop you from getting to it.
But at least I know for sure know what I want.
I know from a simple look here and there as we eat that Serena is as interested in me as I am in her.
Matchmaker Backfire: An Instalove Possessive Age Gap Romance (A Man Who Knows Who He Wants Book 226) Page 3
