Carnal Christmas-epub (3 page)

Ignoring her struggles, he called through the open door, “Hey, Mandy, get in here. It’s all clear.”

“Woo-hoo!” Mandy immediately hopped up the two steps from the garage and into the short hall, slamming the door behind her, and AJ’s heart swelled with gladness at the sight of her.

But Mandy had a role to play and she wasn’t going to break character for a greeting. She eyed AJ with a frown as she walked into the kitchen, unwrapping the wool scarf from around her neck and pulling off her stocking cap. Though her straight blond hair brushed her shoulders these days, static made a number of the fine strands wave in the dry air. “What’s she doing here? I thought you said it was clear.”

“She’s not going to be any problem—are you, sweetheart?” Hake said against AJ’s ear, tightening his arms when she jumped in his hold. “You’re just the entertainment we need while we’re holed up here during this storm.”

AJ glanced at the window over the sink, half-expecting to see a blizzard outside. There were, indeed, some big flakes drifting down, but it wasn’t quite a storm yet.

“You’d better get out of here while you can,” she growled. “My bo—I mean, lovers—” Dammit, why did she always trip over that? “—will be here soon and they’ll hurt you for putting your hands on me.”

Hake chuckled. “Hear how she stumbled over ‘lovers’? She’s lying through her teeth. There’s nobody coming to save her sweet little ass.”

“Merry Christmas to us, then,” Mandy purred, setting her hat and scarf on the counter and tugging the fingertips of her leather gloves off one by one as she walked a slow circle around them. “Yum, cookies.”

When she picked up one with ruffles on it, AJ said without thinking, “Hey, I’m not done icing those yet.”

Mandy raised a mocking brow and then made a big, sensuous production of eating every bite, letting her eyes slide closed as she chewed. “Mmmm. If she’s as good a fuck as she is a cook, we may have to take her with us when we leave.”

AJ bristled, mostly at her own conflicted reaction to that idea. “Like I’d going anywhere with you.”

“Feisty, isn’t she?” Mandy said, flashing an amused look at Hake. “You’ll have to restrain her for what I have in mind.” She shrugged out of her short wool coat and carried it in the crook of her arm as she strolled across the big open dining area. “Come on, let’s go find the bedroom.”

Hake tried to drag her along and AJ resisted, trying to pry his arms from around her, but he simply adjusted his grip around her midsection, lifted her a few inches off the floor and carted her off. She
knew
it was a game, and that Hake would never hurt her, but being handled so easily made her feel incredibly vulnerable so she kicked her struggles up a notch. His breaths huffed deeper and harder—as did hers—but he had no trouble keeping her under control. When they approached the hall to the bedrooms, she thought about bracing her feet on either side of the doorway but couldn’t bear to leave scuffmarks on the pristine paint.

“You won’t get away with this,” she gasped.

He chuckled. “Oh, I think we’ll get away with this and a lot more.”

Ahead of them, Mandy opened doors to the coat closet and office just long enough to peek inside, and AJ abandoned the struggle in favor of watching her friend’s reactions. After all, she’d had most of the input into the interior and she wanted Mandy to like it.

At the bathroom, Mandy oohed with appreciation. “So pretty! I need to spend an hour in that tub.
After
,” she added under her breath, with a devilish look at AJ.

It was AJ’s turn to mock Mandy with a crook of her brow. This tub might have whirlpool jets and be big enough for a beefy man to stretch out and get comfortable, but Mandy would forget all about it when she saw the one in the master bath. Bathrooms were one area where Joe and Brent had both refused to skimp, after sharing one in a cramped RV for years.

When she opened the third door on the left, Mandy walked right in and looked around at the sparsely masculine decor with a puzzled frown.

“Joe’s room. He’d rather sleep alone than go do one of those sleep studies for his snoring.”

Mandy shook her head and sighed. “You and your imaginary lovers.”

A snort of laughter escaped AJ. “Have it your way.”

“Thanks, I will.” Finally Mandy walked through the open door at the end of the hall on the other side. “Now this is more like it.”

Hake followed her in and set AJ down but didn’t release her from his hold as Mandy looked around the large master bedroom, which was done in shades of cream, red and gold. It was probably AJ’s favorite room in the whole house, and she hadn’t even put up the final touches yet—she’d managed to keep some of her mother’s quilts sealed up in storage and Joe was going to make her a couple of quilt racks to display them on. She would have put one on the bed but it was a king and the quilts were all twin or full-size, like the beds in her parents’ house had been.

AJ held her breath, hoping Mandy would break character long enough to offer an honest reaction to the room. She’d put a lot of herself into it.

“Ariel, this is absolutely lovely,” Mandy said softly. “Bright and warm and comfortable. It looks just like you.”

Blushing in self-conscious pleasure, AJ smiled at her. “Thank you.”

Mandy touched one of the frames on the lowboy dresser. “Your parents?”

“Their wedding day.” It had been a simple ceremony in a little country church, her mother in a street-length dress of pale blue and her father in his Sunday suit, but they couldn’t have looked happier.

“Is her bouquet goldenrod?”

AJ nodded. “Dad picked it on their way to the church. They didn’t believe in wasting a lot of money on frills.” Like doctors. And lifesaving medications.

“Are we done with the small talk yet?” Hake nuzzled the side of AJ’s neck, sending a shiver through her as his arms tightened around her waist once more. “I’m ready to get down to the raping and pillaging.”

Mandy shared an amused look with AJ. “Someone’s got a one-track mind.” Still holding her coat, she sank into the overstuffed chair by the fireplace and propped her feet on the ottoman. “All right, I’m ready. You can rape and pillage at will—just don’t block my view.”

AJ frowned. Why the heck was she sitting way over there?

By the time she completed the thought, Hake had manhandled her to the bed, shoved her facedown over the side and planted his hand between her shoulder blades. Adrenaline blasted through her when he reached under her and tore the button fly of her jeans open, but she was helpless to do anything but kick at him and try to shove up off the bed.

In other words, helpless, because there was no budging him.

The feel of both her jeans and underwear being dragged down her legs had her gasping for air, her heart racing. Holy crap, it was truly scary how easy this was for him—and madly exciting, in a sick, twisted way that made her nipples prickle and tighten in her bra. The cute little zippered boots she was wearing made her jeans bunch around her ankles, stymying her attempts to kick him, especially when he put a foot down on the floor between her knees and leaned against the bed.

“There’s that pretty little ass,” he crooned, running his calloused palm over her cheeks and making AJ rear instinctively against the hand holding her down. When he slid his fingers down between her legs, she gasped and tried to press them together but his leg was in the way. There was no hiding the evidence of her arousal—from either him or Mandy. His fingers made all kinds of wet sounds as they probed her sensitive folds.

When he grazed over her swollen clit, she couldn’t hold back a gasp, and then a groan as he did it again. And then again and again—just light passes that tightened her nipples along with everything in her abdomen. The torturous teasing made her pant and arch her hips, straining for firmer contact.

“Oh God, please,” she cried into the quilt, breathing in the scent of the JC Penney store where she’d bought it as she twisted handfuls of the fabric in her fists.

“You have no idea how tempting you are right now, Ariel,” Hake growled. “I could be inside you in less than a second and coming in less than a minute, that’s how fucking hot you are.”

AJ whimpered. By tacit agreement, they’d always stayed away from intercourse, both vaginal and anal, and she’d always been kind of relieved because she didn’t do that kind of intimacy casually. But right now all she wanted to do was throw caution to the wind and scream at him to just do it—

But not without Brent and Joe. Dammit.

“You want to come, Ariel?”

“Yes!”

He didn’t even say anything, just pressed harder as he repeatedly rounded her clit with his fingertips, and suddenly she was there, the knot of tension in her stomach exploding into waves of sensation that made scream into the quilt as they rolled over her.

She was still twitching when he slid his fingers deep into her pussy. Shocked at the sudden invasion, she tried to twist out of his hold, but he pushed her into the mattress and fucked her gently but with relentless purpose, jacking the tension in her belly back up to impossible levels within seconds. “Come again for me, Ariel,” he ordered.

He dragged his thumb over her clit until she bucked and screamed again, wracked with the spasms of a harder orgasm. And he kept pumping right through them. “Again, Ariel. I want you all swollen and dripping when I get my dick into you for the first time.”

“Oh God,” she whimpered, her body on fire—clit, nipples, palms, face…

His fingers curved harder against her pubic bone, his thumb making constant firm contact with her clit, and she screeched and sobbed, trying to get away even as orgasm gripped her again.

“There we go.” He shoved his fingers deep and held them there until the contractions had waned to twitches again, then withdrew. AJ was nothing but a puddle when he rolled her onto her back, and when she pried open her eyelids enough to smile up at him, she was thrilled to see his face was hard and flushed with arousal.

The smile he gave her in return was wicked. “And now I might need a little help from my henchmen.”

Her eyes were suddenly wide open. “Henchmen?”

Brent’s boner was going to kill him before this scene was over. Ariel was cute as fuck, looking around for henchmen in her post-orgasmic stupor. Apparently she hadn’t noticed when he and Joe came in.

Hake nodded at them. “Strip her and hold her down, boys.”

Ariel tipped her head back just as they each grabbed one of her arms and gasped when they yanked her fully onto the bed. She slapped at their hands when they pulled off her t-shirt and bra. “Hey, you’re supposed to rescue me!”

“What fun would that be?” Joe growled, pinning her wrist to the bed. Then he ruined the effect by leaning over to claim her upside-down mouth in a kiss—that turned unmistakably possessive when he glanced up at Hake in the middle of it.

Brent frowned. Was Joe getting cold feet about letting Hake have actual sex with Ariel?

“One victim at a time,” Hake informed her as he lifted her hobbled feet into the air and climbed onto the bed to kneel at her butt. “Joe gets to be next.”

Jerking up, Joe leveled a scowl at Hake as he sat sideways on the edge of the bed with one knee pulled up, his cheeks and ears turning red. “The hell I do.”

“See? He’s fighting me already,” Hake told Ariel with a droll look.

When Joe just rolled his eyes, Brent valiantly choked down a laugh and joined him on the edge of the large king bed, mirroring Joe’s position so he could maintain his hold on Ariel. Nobody could work Joe like Hake Stivers.

Unzipping Ariel’s boots, Hake yanked them off, along with her socks, panties and jeans, and laid her long, slender legs on either side of him before stretching out over her. The sight of his fully dressed body settling into the cradle of her naked thighs was undeniably hot, as was her moan and the anxious roll of her hips against Hake’s.

She tugged once on her arms, which Brent and Joe had pinned to the bed, and then strained to kiss Hake as he hovered over her.

“You’re supposed to be fighting this,” he breathed into her open mouth, thumbing her rosy little nipples and making her writhe.

“I don’t want to fight now,” she whimpered. “I want…” Relaxing into the mattress, she looked back and forth between Brent and Joe, a hesitant question in her arousal-darkened eyes. Brent noticed she didn’t look for Mandy’s permission—although it was pretty much a given since Hake was always the one who’d held back.

Hake raised his head and rolled onto one elbow, resting one hand on Ariel’s breastbone and caressing the dip in her collarbone with his thumb. “Are we all still in green territory?” he asked, including Mandy in his visual polling.

It was no surprise when they all wound up looking at Joe.

His eyes widened. “What?” he demanded. “Did I say anything?”

Hake watched him for a moment then crooked a finger at him, his expression serious. Joe frowned and leaned closer, obviously expecting Hake to whisper something in his ear. Instead, he captured the back of Joe’s neck and kissed him.

Brent smiled. He could almost feel the irritation draining out of Joe—and the arousal that flooded in to replace it.

Good old Hake. Brent had actually been relieved to see him today—the ready-to-run vibe he was getting from Joe lately made Brent think he was going to need some stout backup, and nobody could take the wind out of Joe’s sails quite the way Hake did.

When Joe finally broke away, he said hoarsely, “You don’t fight fair.”

“’Bout time you learned that,” Hake told him, breathing heavily himself as he popped the fly of his jeans open with one hand. He wasted no time in peeling down the front of his underwear and tucking it under his nuts before setting the head of his hard-on against Ariel’s cunt. “Don’t let go of Ariel, you two. She needs the connection.”

When he settled on both elbows and eased down between her thighs, they both groaned. Ariel rolled her hips up to meet him, and the hand curled around Brent’s wrist tightened reflexively. He squeezed her wrist in return to reassure her and used his free hand to stroke her head, turned on as hell by the way sweat and the heat of arousal made her soft yellow hair curl around his fingers.