Everything I wanted with him, a future, a marriage, even freaking cooking classes, he gave it all to my baby sister!
“Isn’t he the sweetest?” Val gushes, her arms circled around Knox, but she’s watching me as if she’s waiting for me to react.
I don’t.
“He really is,” I mumble, schooling my facial features when I see the Cheshire grin on my sister’s face.
“Come on baby, let’s go to the kitchen and this time try to keep your hands to your task instead of me.”
I clear my throat, looking straight ahead.
“Well, then,” James starts. “I’ll show Nicole to her room.”
“You don’t have to--” I start, but he cuts me off.
“I insist.”
A hot thrill rushes down my spine, leaving me breathless as those two tersely worded word.
“How can I resist?” I murmur.
“You simply can’t,” he counters.
He picks up my bag and I follow him down the hall, completely disregarding Knox and Val who are watching us as we go.
The cabin is nothing like I’d pictured it would be, but then again, what was I expecting? Moths and rotting wood just to spite my ex and my sister? Yeah right. Everything about Val is sparkly and if she wants grand, expensive shit, she gets it. Val has always had the ability to get whatever she wants. Even if it was mine.
The cabin is more like a mansion, with every tasteful and expensive design you’d expect to find in a secluded cabin in the mountains.
I love the intimate ambience in the room, it reminds me so much of the night I had with James years ago at the hotel but more than that, the space reminds me of the man himself.
It’s a bit rustic with a pre-war style to it, yet you can see the modern aspects all over. The huge Christmas tree in the warm living room, and just beyond, there is a wall of floor-ceiling length windows that show a spectacular view of the evergreens and the mountains in the distance.
“Wow,” I whisper in awe. “I wouldn’t mind living up here all year.”
“I wouldn’t mind having you here snowed in with me either,” James whispers in my ear and then he’s moving. “Come on.”
I have no idea what I was expecting but there’s something about this place, something about these walls that feels so… James Cross.
There’s so much I want to ask him, but the tension between us is crackling like electricity. I catch the way the muscles of his forearms flex as he pushes my little carry on with him. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a chance that I might make it out of this fucking holiday with my sanity in check and my broken heart in the pieces I can manage.
We go up a flight of stairs and then I silently follow James down a very dark, very long hallway until we reach one of the only two doors that are visible on this side of the cabin.
Strange, why is there only two doors?
We passed so many rooms on our way up here and this side has a more sinister feel to it, more secluded. Why did he bring me up here?
Blindly, I follow James into the room and before I know it, a strong arm snakes it’s way around my waist and then I’m hauled up to a strong chest in a flash. Before I can take or breathe or think, firm lips smash against mine.
James kisses me with a hunger and ferocity that resembles what I thought was our last kiss but this is more.
This time I can taste his relief, his intense sexual hunger and… a tad bit of anger.
His tongue plunders my mouth wickedly, then he’s fucking my mouth like he fucked me just hours ago.I can only hold on for dear life as I get swept under his storm, but all too soon, he pulls back.
“Are you still in love with him?” he demands, his eyes a bit wild, his touch slightly rough but I can’t help feel the heat heading south, making me slick and wet in between my legs.
“What?” I gasp.
“My son, are you still in love with him?” he growls.
“Are you crazy?” I demand breathlessly. My head is still spinning from the way he kissed me and now, this.
“I saw the way he was looking at you down there,” he growls. My jaw drops to my fucking flooded panties.
“You’ve got to be shitting me.” I try to push away from him, but instead, he holds me tight. “I didn’t notice how my ex, well, my brother in law was looking at me because I was too busy looking at you! His father! The man I slept with last night and the man who gave me five fucking orgasms in the dark before I realized it wasn’t Knox all those years ago!”
Fuck.
“You lied to me!” I say, feeling frustration and anger bubbling up in my chest all over again, heightened by seeing Knox and Val together. “Last night you just told me your first name, but you… you are him, the man who took a special night I had for Knox but instead, you made me come over and over again--and you never fucked me even when I begged--and then you were gone!” Blurting it out now just shows me one thing. James might not have fucked me the night I wanted to lose my virginity but he did what even Knox never did when we dated. He tattooed his soul onto mine so much so that names didn’t fucking matter. Just his touch, then his voice and now here we are. “But I guess judging from your absence when I woke up this morning, that seems to be part of your character.”
“I didn’t lie to you.”
“Then what do you call that night five years ago and oh yeah, last night?”
“Nicole, it would be fucking best that you know right fucking now that I don’t lie. I don’t twist and bend the fucking truth to suit my needs, I’d rather bend you over and fuck you until you scream my name.”
“You wouldn’t,” I gasp but I can’t deny the way my pussy just clenched.
“I would, I’m going to and you know it.”
He’s right. He’s so freaking right! Oh God.
“But… he’s your son!” I croak, not knowing how I feel about all this. “This is so wrong.”
“Is that how you feel?”
“I feel horrible about it.”
“You would feel horrible,” he says darkly. “If you’re still in love with him.”
There it is again, but this time I don’t have an answer for him. I don’t know what to say. Am I still in love with Knox? I mean yes, he broke my heart by stabbing me in the back but am I still in love with him? Is that why this Christmas is harder for me than the first one I spent without my parents?
“We dated since high school,” I whisper, looking at anything but him. “He was my first love.”
“And do you think he deserved you?” James demands, the notes of anger ringing clear in each word as he watches me so intently, I think a part of me melts and hardens all in one go. “Do you think he’d have known how to handle a spitfire like you? Or at the very least cherish you the way you deserve to be treated? Because from where I stand and what you told me last night, he didn’t give a shit about you.”
I swallow, feeling emotional all of a sudden.
“But… when I woke up, you were gone. Twice.”
“Baby,” he murmurs in my hair, then James takes a step back, but instead of letting me go, he grabs my hand and leads me to the large four poster bed where he sits and pulls me down to his lap until I’m straddling him.