by Bailey Rock
“No, Jenny, if you really want to see the best leaves in the area then you simply must try getting back up on the Parkway. I know the winding road can be a bit of an issue, but it’s worth it.”
“If you say so, Jo, you know I trust you.” Jenny turned and gave me a wave before going down the steps. I followed her with my eyes, gasping when I saw the sexy man who had just come up from the parking lot.
He was huge, with a full beard and rough hands. He stood out, not just because of his size, but also because of what he was wearing. While everyone else in the parking lot had on jeans, flannel shirts, and hiking boots, he was wearing a suit. It had obviously been tailed to fit him perfectly, as he had broad shoulders and a trim waist.
One shoulder was nicked, though, and there was a small tear in the fabric.
That’s strange. The rest of him looks so put tighter.
I allowed my eyes to travel up and down his body, drinking him in, before I spoke. I had no idea how this man had ended up on my front porch, but I wasn’t going to turn him away.
“Hey, how can I help you?” My voice was husky and deeper than what most men suspected, when they looked at me. He appeared surprised, but quickly hid it with a sexy smile.
“Hi, I’m looking for a room. I had a reservation up the hill, but it got cancelled, so I’m in a bit of a bind.” He flashed me a winning smile as he spoke. I felt my stomach drop and a flame start to burn low in my abdomen. “They suggested that I come to Jo’s and that I’d be taken care of here.”
Oh, I can take care of you, alright.
“They have a pretty bad reputation for doing that during the busy season,” I said. “Hate it for them, but it’s good for my business. I’m Jo.” I stuck out my hand, and he shook it, sending sparks of electricity up my body.
Damn.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jo. I’m Trent. And you’d be a lifesaver if you have an extra bed for me.” He held my hand too long, squeezing it gently before finally dropping it.
I wondered if he could tell the effect that he had on women. I could feel myself getting wet as I thought about Trent and a bed. Trent and my bed? Hell, I’d be happy with Trent and any bed. I grinned.
“Why don’t you go on in and sit down and I’ll be there in just a minute to see if we can find you somewhere to stay?”
He smiled and walked by me, close enough that I could feel the breeze from his body as he passed. I turned to watch him go into my B&B, then I let out a deep breath that I didn’t realize I had been holding.
Holy fuck, he was hot.
I’d always liked my men tall and in charge, and he was definitely my type. I’m not sure what kind of luck I had that he had ended up on my front porch this morning, but I would do anything to make sure that he didn’t have to go somewhere else for the night.
There wasn’t any way that I could double-book a room. Strangers only slept in the same room when they were at a hostel, and he couldn’t sleep in the lounge on the sofa. That really only left one option that I could think of…
Just then, my assistant, Mary, popped her head out of the screen door while I was waving goodbye to the rest of the leaf-lookers. I had hired her after we started getting busier with guests wanting not only a great place to sleep, but also a great meal. She was a bit older than me, but equally determined to make something of my B&B.
“Jo,” she hissed, “have you seen this man in here?” Her eyes were huge and she gestured with her head. Looking past her I could see that Trent had settled himself onto the sofa, his arms spread out along the back of it. He looked comfortable.
I nodded, pointing for her to come out onto the porch. She did, carefully shutting the door behind her so that it wouldn’t slam and scooted up next to me and gestured at the door.
“That man is gorgeous. What is he doing here?”
We generally only got the leaf-lookers who were coming through with their families, although sometimes there were foodies who came through to see what I had to cook for them. He obviously wasn’t a leaf-looker and I didn’t think that he looked much like a foodie. I didn’t know what the hell he was except that he was absolutely perfect.
“His name is Trent and his room got cancelled up at the Blue Door Inn,” I explained, “so they sent him down here. I don’t know why in the world they would think that we had a room…”
Mary cut me off. “We don’t! We’re full. But damn, you can’t possibly send him away, can you?”
I couldn’t. He was exactly the type of man I was looking for. I made up my mind.
Chapter 2
Trent
I watched Jo through the screen door when I sat down. Everything about her was sexy. Her curves were to die for, but her hair and mannerisms made me want her more. When another woman walked by and leaned out the door to talk to Jo, I knew what they were talking about. Me.
Something in the B&B smelled amazing. Fresh bread, maybe? I leaned my head back to rest a moment while I waited on Jo to come back in. Hopefully she had somewhere for me to sleep. A wicked thought entered my mind: maybe she would let me sleep with her.
The screen door slammed and I opened my eyes to see that Jo had come in and was standing over me, her hands on her hips as she watched me, a small smile playing on the corner of her mouth.
“You look like you need a nap, Trent,” she said, laughing.
“Actually, I’m starving. I heard that you serve food here, not just hot beds. Think I can get some of whatever smells so good?”
Jo grinned. “Yeah, I just took some bread out of the oven and was going to make some clam chowder for the leaf-lookers when they got back. Why don’t you follow me to the kitchen?
She turned and walked away, heading down a hall to the left. I hopped up, following her eagerly, wanting to keep my eyes on those delicious curves. Her ass was fantastic, and I had to resist the urge to reach out and grab it.
“Wait, I thought that you were a B&B. Doesn’t that mean that you just serve breakfast? Or is the clam chowder a special meal for the leaf-lookers?”
“I’m expanding,” she called over her shoulder, not bothering to slow down or turn around. “Working on opening a restaurant. You can be the first to try my new clam chowder. I think it’ll be a perfect way to warm up on this cold day.”
I could think of another great way to warm up on such a chilly day, but I didn’t tell her that. She sashayed into the kitchen, holding the door open for me to come through.
“This is quite a setup you have here,” I told her, honestly impressed. It was not a small kitchen that I would have expected from a B&B in the middle of Virginia. Brand new appliances and gleaming countertops shone all around us.
“I used some money from my parents to upgrade the place. If I want to open a restaurant then I really have to do it right.” She shrugged and opened the fridge to start pulling out ingredients.
“They must be really proud of you,” I said, coming up behind her to take things as she handed them out and put them on the counter.
She stopped and turned to me. “I would hope so,” she said slowly. “But I don’t know for sure. They’re both dead, so it’s just me.”
My heart broke for her and I wanted to hold her. Before I could stop myself, I had closed the gap between us and pulled her in to my chest. She stiffened at first, then relaxed against me. I held her soft and curvy body, wanting to protect her.
“I know they’d be proud of you. Look at what an amazing woman you are.” She breathed contently, her head snuggled under my chin, fitting perfectly.
“Trent, you can’t possibly know that I’m a good person yet, we just met.” Jo laughed and pulled back a little to look me in the face.
I felt a stronger desire than before. I knew that I shouldn’t, but I had to kiss her. I needed to taste her. Jo had soft and puffy lips that were begging to be kissed, and the feeling of her body up against mine had made my cock incredibly
hard. I leaned down, lightly brushing her lips with mine.
Jo responded like I had hoped she would, opening under my mouth and allowing my tongue to enter. I kissed her, hard, my beard scratching her face, my tongue probing and taking her. She was soft and delicious, and the feeling I got when I kissed her made me feel drunk.
I don’t need a beer after all, I thought. This day is going just fine.
She leaned into me, and I could feel the heat between her legs as she pressed up on me. I pulled her closer, one hand around her waist, the other gently squeezing her delicious curves. When she moaned into my mouth, I knew that I had her.
After a moment she pulled back, breathing hard. Her eyes were bright and her cheeks were flushed.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me.” She looked embarrassed and wouldn’t look me in the eyes.
I reached out and lifted her chin to make her look at me. “Don’t be sorry, Jo,” I said. “You are amazing.”
We had to stop, I couldn’t take this curvy beauty in the middle of her kitchen, could I? I wanted to. I wanted to press her against the refrigerator and take her, over and over, making her come and making her mine. My cock throbbed in my pants, pressing hard against the fabric. If she looked down, she would be able to see its outline.
“You’re not mad?” She still looked worried, so I pulled her to me and kissed her forehead.
“Jo, darling, you couldn’t make me mad. You need someone here to show you how amazing you are, and that’s going to be me. Now, would you like some help putting together this clam chowder?”
She looked at me incredulously. “You cook?” She asked, a slight laugh in her voice. Her fingers had found the bottom edge of her apron and she’d pulled it up, playing with it while she spoke. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her hands.
“I’m better on the grill,” I admitted, “although I have been known to throw together some mean deviled eggs in my time.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “I don’t think that we need deviled eggs with clam chowder. How do you feel about chopping an onion and frying bacon?”
“Whatever you say, Jo. I’m yours.”
Jo
I watched Trent out of the corner of my eye while he chopped the onion. The pieces weren’t all uniform, and he wasn’t holding the knife correctly, but I didn’t really care. It was nice to have him in the kitchen with me.
Scrubbing the sand and dirt off of the clams, I tried to keep my mind on the job. I’d never kissed a man like that before, especially not when I first met him. Hell, I was a virgin, so the number of things that I had done with a man was very small. Trent didn’t kiss like a virgin. I looked at him again, and the heat between my legs started to rise.
The last thing that I wanted to do was let any sand stay on the clams, because this could quickly get into the chowder. I was scrubbing the last of the clams when I heard Trent speaking.
“What do you say, Jo?”
“What?” I turned to look at him, suddenly nervous that he had been talking to me for a while and I simply hadn’t heard him. He was looking at me, holding the knife and the cutting board. Sometime after starting to chop the onion he had slipped off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. I could see the muscles in his forearms twist and move as he waited for my response.
“You were really focused on those clams. I asked if I did an okay job.” Trent smiled at me, and I felt the warm pooling in my abdomen. I wanted him to kiss me again like he had. My face flushed.
“They look great,” I lied, smiling. In truth, they looked pretty terrible, since none of them were the same size, but that was one of the great things about chowder. Nobody would ever know.
He grinned, looking sexier than ever and set the knife and cutting board back down on the counter. “What can I do next?”
I put him to work, overseeing while he chopped the bacon and fried it and then carefully sautéed the onions in the bacon grease. Just half an hour later and we had delicious thick, chunky, and steaming hot clam chowder ready for him to enjoy.
“God, this smells amazing!” Trent dug into his bowl with enthusiasm. I cut the fresh bread I had just baked and put some by his bowl. “You know, I bet your restaurant is really going to take off. You’re incredible.”
We were in the dining room, but none of the leaf-lookers had come back yet, which meant that all of our conversation had been private. Even if the leaf-lookers had returned, it wasn’t officially time for a meal, so they would probably wander around or retire to their rooms for a rest. The brisk air can really wear you out if you’re not used to it.
The table I had chosen was my favorite. We were right in the corner, up against two windows and you could see down the hill to the lake at the bottom. In the summer kids would swim in it, but it was too cold for them now. The only thing moving down there was a pair of geese that were too stupid to fly south for the winter.
“I’m glad you like it.” Trent grinned at me and wiped his bowl clean with a hunk of bread before popping it into his mouth and sighing contentedly.
“Jo, if you cook like this all the time, I’m going to marry those fabulous curves of yours.” His voice, light and airy before, now sounded deeper and serious. “Honestly, that was amazing. You’re amazing. I can’t seem to get enough of you, you know that?”
“You can’t possibly know that about a person when you just met them a few hours ago.” I raised an eyebrow at him and tried to look serious, but he started to laugh.
“You can’t tell me that you don’t feel the same thing,” he said, reaching out and drawing my hand across the table to him. “There’s no way that you don’t feel the same attraction that I do.”
My hand was hot where he held it, and I gripped his fingers tightly, surprising him. His hands were hard and strong, mine looked softer, but they were stronger than they looked thanks to years of cooking and running the B&B mostly on my own.
“I do feel it,” I admitted, both to him and to myself. I hadn’t felt this way with a man in a long time. The last time I had gone on a date with someone new it hadn’t ended well. We went out for dinner and he corrected my order, telling the waitress that I wanted a salad, not a steak. There wasn’t a second date.
I’d never met a man who was not only okay with my curves, but seemed to enjoy them the way that Trent did. He looked at me like he could eat me up. How could it be that the man of my dreams found me as irresistible as I found him?
“I knew it.” he grasped my hand tighter and pulled it to his mouth, gently kissing the tips of all of my fingers. I gasped as electricity shot its way through my body, warming me from the inside.
Everything he did made me wet. I wondered if he could smell my musk through my clothes, if he had any idea of what he did to me. He didn’t seem to know, which was even hotter.
What happened next was up to me. I stood, pulling him with me. “We have a little time before the dinner rush,” I said. I paused, weighing my next words carefully, a little afraid of what his response would be. “I can show you to your room.”
His eyebrows raised in surprise. Rubbing his thumb slowly over mine he breathed in deep. “My room? I was under the impression that you were full.”
Nodding, I bit my lip. “We are. But you can share mine.”
Immediately, his eyes darkened, and he pulled me to him, pressing my body against him. I could feel his hard cock on my thigh, and I leaned in, holding him tight between us.
“Share your room or share your bed?” His eyes were dark, his mouth by my ear. Every breath he took sent shivers down my spine, and he gently kissed my ear, slowly working his way down my neck.
Squirming against him I moaned. “Both. My room and my bed.”
“Good.” Trent growled, dipping his mouth to mine, kissing me hard and then pulling back, leaving me gasping. “Lead the way.”
Chapter 3
Trent
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She led me out of the dining room and past the kitchen, turning before she reached the main lounge where I had waited for her. Mary passed us in the hall and must have seen the look on Jo’s face because she murmured “I’ll take care of dinner,” and then disappeared.
God bless Mary.
Jo’s room was at the top of the stairs and down a long hall. We walked past multiple closed doors where the leaf-lookers were all staying. At least, we reached her door. She fumbled in her apron pocket to try to find her keys.
“Here, let me,” I said, gently taking them from her.
“Thanks. It’s the one with the blue top.”
I flipped through her keys and slipped the right one into the lock, swinging her door wide open so that she could go in first. She did, flipping on the light behind her and then shutting and locking the door once I was inside
Never having been in a B&B before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The room was larger than I thought it would be, and there was a huge four-poster bed flanked by two windows that looked down over the same pond we had already seen while eating. Even though there wasn’t a lot of furniture in the room there was some great art on the wall. I walked over to take a closer look at one of the paintings.
“I did these myself,” Jo explained, coming up behind me.
“They’re really good,” I said, honestly. The painting was loaded with bright colors and perfectly captured a field in bloom in the middle of summer. Even though landscapes weren’t really my thing, I loved the way the colors looked. They brightened up the space.
“Thanks,” she said, nervously standing beside me. I turned to look at my curvy girl and grinned. She was so beautiful, so unaware of how gorgeous she was. Jo was absolutely perfect.
“So,” she said, turning, “this is the bedroom. It’s not too big, but I have a great bathroom there,” she pointed, “and a wonderful view.” Turning to me, she crossed her arms, a nervous look on her face. “I don’t bring people up here,” she added.
