AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His cell vibrated in his back pocket. He cursed and jerked back. “Sorry,” he panted, struggling to get his phone out of his pocket. His pants felt too damn tight.
“It’s okay.” Noelle swept a visibly shaking hand over her hair. All the fight had drained out of her.
He pressed the talk button, not even looking at the caller ID. Nellie had officially hijacked his world.
“Jake?” It was Alexa. “I’m stuck in Columbus. There’s a monster storm and they’ve been de-icing the planes, but now they delayed my flight. For like seven hours. I called everyone I invited a couple hours ago, but I’m nervous I forgot someone. Can you get up to my house a little early just in case? I’ll owe you one. A really big one.”
As usual, his sister was a chatterbox. What wasn’t usual was that his wires had all gone on the fritz simultaneously.
“Especially Noelle,” Alexa continued. “I couldn’t reach her. She needs to know the party’s off.”
He licked the inside of his lower lip, all his focus on the beautiful blonde now staring up at the sky, her features silvered by the hint of moon glow. “I’ll take care of Noelle, don’t worry.”
“Jake?”
“Yeah.” His answer came out as a groan as Nellie stuck out her tongue to collect snowflakes. So. Wrong. When she caught his attention, she rolled her tongue, scooping up a couple flakes and drawing them inside the honeyed heaven of her mouth.
“Are you okay? You sound weird.”
“I’ve been making out with a chick,” he said, knowing Alexa wouldn’t believe him and Nellie would shoot him a death glare. He was right on both counts.
Chuckling, he said to his now silent sister, “Kidding. Tell me again what you need me to do?”
A couple minutes later, he hung up with Alexa, who wasn’t excited about spending the night in an airport. He, on the other hand, was very excited about who he was about spend his night with. Even if this only lasted as long as their orgasms, he’d take it. Right now, he wasn’t capable of walking away.
Were you ever?
“Bad news,” he said lightly, pocketing his cell and tossing back the hank of hair that kept falling in his face. The two of them probably looked like snow people in the making.
“Alexa okay?”
“Yeah, but she’s stuck in Columbus. Big snowstorm, so the party’s off. She called most of the guests and told them not to come hours ago, but she couldn’t get ahold of you. Did you have your phone off?”
“Probably. I turn it off when I go to bed because she likes to text me in the middle of the night when she hooks up with someone. Though it’s been forever since Alexa’s done anything but work. She’s way overdue for—“ Jake cringed and she choked back a laugh. “Sorry. Forget the brother thing.”
“Yeah. Apparently.”
“So the party’s off? That sucks.” He could hear the smirk in her voice. “I wanted to let loose tonight.”
He said nothing. But he was already imagining just how loose he could make her once they were alone and he’d gotten her out of her wet clothes.
“So now what?” she asked, giving him a sexy little pout.
“We need to get up to her place. You and I are the bouncers in case anyone shows.” He tugged her against his side. “Ready to be alone with me?”
chapter four
The ride up to Alexa’s took almost an hour. Noelle’s best friend lived high in the hills outside Sanderson and on a night like this, traveling the twisty roads that led up to her incredible log cabin was an exercise in patience.
Jake drove with reckless caution, if the two things could co-exist. He took it easy on turns and in the places he needed to brake, but hit the gas a little too hard on the straightaways. She never felt in danger of crashing, though. He knew how to handle the roads.
And her. Which she hoped he planned on doing soon.
Would they actually have sex? As much as she’d fantasized about him over the years, the act itself had always been murky in her mind. After the last few weeks, being held by Jake would feel like nirvana, though some mind-scrambling lovemaking would definitely be welcome, too. Good thing she’d bought condoms. A whole fresh package waited inside her boat of a purse.
A purse she no longer had. One that contained all her credit cards and the small amount of money she had in her wallet. And her pictures. Those were especially precious. The ones of her Nana couldn’t be replaced.
“Dammit,” she muttered, pressing her fingers against her stinging eyes. Breaking down in a sobbing fit in front of a potential lover over some photos would put a capper on her day, wouldn’t it? Being held up hadn’t done it, nor had losing her car. But she just couldn’t bear the thought of some jerk throwing out the faded picture of her, age three, sitting on her Nana’s knee.
