“Ridge …” She leans forward, pressing her forehead to mine. “Come with me … please.”
With her hand still playing with my balls and my cock buried deep inside of her, I fight to keep my eyes open and my vision clear as cum shoots from my cock and straight inside of her while her orgasm rips through her, making her scream out while her pussy convulses around me.
I’ve never come inside anyone my entire life. I’ve always worn a condom. I hardly know this woman, and she hardly knows me, yet here I am, filling her full and loving every second of it.
My body trembles just as her rocking stops, and she dips her forehead back to mine and huffs out a shaky breath.
I’m not sure what to even say right now. I don’t know if she’s going to scurry away like she did last time or maybe look panicked. Instead, she grins.
“Well, that was fun. But maybe we should finishThe Grinch,” she murmurs playfully. “I mean, if his heart really does grow a bunch of sizes, I need to see this.”
“You haven’t seen it before?” I ask, instantly wishing I hadn’t said anything because she’ll probably feel bad now. I don’t know any kid who hasn’t seenThe Grinchbecause it’s a classic. But then again, it seems as though her childhood wasn’t exactly warm. I mean, the girl had never even had a proper Christmas until today.
“Well, I have as of tonight.” She giggles before she unwraps her body from mine. “By the end of it, I’ll know who’s more of a Grinch. You or me.”
“Pfft …” I snort. “I’ve got a spoiler for you, Fireball. It’s you.”
“We’ll just see about that,” she sasses, grabbing her laptop and placing it in front of us again. “After all, your brother gotyouthe movie for Christmas.”
Snuggling against me, she seems to genuinely relax as we lie on the living room floor.
And I enjoy every fucking second of it.
The movie has been over for a while now, and yet we lie here, wide awake and still naked.
“How bad is it going to be for you?” I ask her while she lies beside me, so close that her head is using my chest as a pillow. I’m not complaining though. This may be the best Christmas I’ve ever had, and that’s no joke. “When you get back to the city and break it to your boss that this place is a dead end for him, how mad will he be?”
She’s silent—lost in her own thoughts, I guess—while the fire crackles beside us. At first, when we got here earlier, I was pissed that my generator wasn’t working because it’d never given me trouble, and of course, it had to start tonight, when she was going to be staying here. But after what we just did on the floor and how hot she looked in the light of the fire while I fucked her from behind as my balls slapped her ass in the damn near-silent house? I’ll take a power outage any day if it means this is what comes of it.
“Honestly?” She lets out a long sigh, keeping her head to my flesh. “I think I’m for sure going to lose my job. But to tell you the truth, if I could, I’d just quit anyway.” She breathes out a quiet, almost-sad laugh. “Probably would have quit a long time ago, when they made Victor my boss with literally no training.”
I make sure to think before I speak right now. Stella can be sweet, but she also has a fire that’s always burning inside of her. Feistiness in a woman has never drawn me in—before her. Now, I love watching that fire ignite. But I also know that she’s skittish, and I don’t want to say anything that she may take the wrong way or offend her. While fishing and the wharf are my legacy, she has her own, I’m sure. And even though her boss sounds like a prick, that’s her career. It means something to her.
“Why can’t you quit?” I ask, pausing because I know I need to expand what I just said. “I don’t mean that to sound judgmental. I just mean, you said you would if you could. So, I guess I’m wondering, if it’s okay that I ask, what’s keeping you there? What are your reasons?”
I’m met with more silence, which I’ll admit I expected. She’s guarded; that’s been clear to see since our day at the tree farm.
“I don’t come from a loving family like the one you have, Ridge. And truthfully, even though I don’t love my job, it’s a job that pays well enough for me to have a beautiful apartment and everything else I need. But most of all, it makes me feel secure in life.” She breathes in sharply. “There was a time when I didn’t even have a roof over my head. And when I did have a roof over my head, the people I was living with were so awful that I would have rather been homeless.”
Even though I can’t see her face, she suddenly nuzzles it into my side, like she needs to hide from me.
“I’ve worked really hard to get to a place in my life where I feel safe, and I just … the thought of losing that is actually debilitating for me.”
There’s so much I don’t know about this woman, but I know I can’t spring twenty questions on her right now, even if that’s what I want to do. I want to know everything about her, not just these small tiny pieces. But little by little, I’m figuring out why she is the way that she is.
Sharp yet soft at times. And sassy, though sometimes bashful too.
“And all of that … is that why you’ve never celebrated Christmas?” My chest hurts as I ease out the question. “And why you didn’t want to go to the tree farm?”
A sad laugh slips from her lips. “My parents sucked, and once I was taken from them and put into foster care when I was ten, they didn’t even bother to try to get clean and get me back. Instead, they just kept on doing drugs, and eventually, they got something that was laced, and they both overdosed.”
The words come out almost robotic, and I have no idea how I know this, but I’m somehow sure that she’s never said these words out loud before. She’s too tough for that, and I think that in her mind, if she runs from her past, it can’t bother her. So, she puts on her tough armor, and she runs.
“My whole life, I’ve watched everyone around me—in school and at jobs—love Christmas because of who they got to spend it with.” She runs her palm against my chest. “This was the first Christmas where I got to be a part of something like that. And I know that sounds odd and probably creepy because, well, it’s your family and all, and I’m just a stranger. But I was there, and I felt the love you have for each other and the adoration your mom has for a holiday that she bases around her family.” She quickly buries her face harder against me. “You must think I’m—”
Quickly, I sit up, dragging her up with me, though she only buries her face against my shoulder now. “Stella, look at me,” I say, trying to cup her cheeks and force her head upward. “Please, beautiful, just look at me.”
“I’m so embarrassed,” she whispers, and I hardly hear her. “Here you all were, giving me a pity invite to Christmas, not even knowing it was the first holiday I’d ever been a part of.”
