The Complete Series Boxed Set (15 page)

Don’t joke about bombs
,
Josie texted back.
 

Haha
, Darla replied. A chill shot through Josie, helping to quell her need for Alex, for an electronic vibrator, for her own hand. If Darla made a joke in front of a TSA agent, she’d get the cavity search of her life. Though, Josie assumed, Trevor and Joe had probably done quite well in that area…

THAT killed off her arousal lickety-split. Whew.

No—seriously, Darla, don’t you make a single fucking joke about a bomb
,
she typed back, slamming her fingertips against the phone as if Darla would realize her emphasis. This was serious stuff.
 

Like I look like a bomber, Josie. What am I going to do? Eat a can of beans and sit on the pilot’s head?
That’s about the only bomb I can manage
, Darla said with a smiley face.

No one looks like a bomber, you idiot
, Josie replied.
That’s the point
.

Especially me,
was Darla’s response. You could take her out of small-town Ohio and put her in classes at
H
arvard, and have her in a long-term relationship with two guys in Ivy League law schools, but sometimes Josie wondered about Darla’s provincialism. Being blond and curvy didn’t mean anything when a TSA agent was concerned about abnormal behavior.

And while Darla was no terrorist, she cornered the market on abnormal.

So help me motherfucking God, if I have to come bail you out of federal prison and explain that shit to Aunt Kathy because you couldn’t shut down the short circu
i
t between your funny bone and your mouth, I will make you sponge bath my mother when she is too old to care for herself
,
Josie answered in two texts.
 

Silence.

More silence.

And then:
Point received
.

Whew.

Any more advice that doesn’t mean I need to go poke my eyes out with a hot car cigarette lighter after reading it?
Darla added.

Josie thought for a moment, imagining Darla at a TSA checkpoint.

And then:
Yes. Don’t wear an underwire bra
.

WHAT?
Darla texted.
WHAT does my bra have to do with flying? I’m not going to stab someone to death with my underwire.
 

The thought made Josie giggle, and she looked down at her own modest chest.
I read it somewhere
, Josie answered.
Research it for yourself
.

K. Tnx
.
w
as the only response.

She tipped
her head up
and
her neck muscles groaned with the stretch. How long had she been bent over her phone, a texting zombie like half the population of Cambridge and Somerville? Slapping one hand on the printer stand she was sure would work, she realized it would be easier to order it on her phone and have it delivered to the office than to buy it here and ha
ul
it there on her own. The order took all of five clicks.

Done.

Ah, technology. She heard they even had vibrator apps on smartphones these days. Alex had come home from work one day telling her all about them, a weird smirk on his face.

Alex. Back to thinking about Alex and sex.

She needed to go do something about that.

Right now.

* * *

Outdoor sex was their thing, but this was going way too far. “I am not fucking on a public ice-skating rink, Alex!” Josie
said
as his hands pawed at her jeans, trying to work the button with fi
n
gers so cold she feared having one slip inside her, like a vagina popsicle.

“Why not?” Hot breath tickled her ear. What tiny sliver of ear skin she allowed to touch the air. Boston was experiencing one of the coldest weeks on record and it was twilight, the air temperature dropping more with each breath.

She had to hand it to him—the setting was amazing. An open-air pond that had frozen just right, leaving skaters to play on the ice for free, bare trees surrounding the little alcove he’d pulled her into. Streetlights dotted the landscape on the road above them, but otherwise the only light came from the full moon.

Full moon. It always brought Alex outside, his cock hard as a rock, his mind
in
single pursuit of her body and her heart, unencumbered and outside, air a s
tr
ong aphrod
i
siac, the pull of which she found hard to fight.

Like gravity.

Like sexual tension and need, all rising up inside her but abruptly cut off
b
y his icicle fingers.

Bet his tongue is nice and warm, though
, her little devil inside said. “Devil” was a euphemism for clit. Her clit said it, and she was unabashedly out for some action right now. Unable to get home after her earlier shopping trip, Josie had walked around town with fire between her legs.

And Alex had just the right hose to put it out.

He took her glove off and shoved her hand down the front of his jeans. Ah. Commando. How could guys go around without underwear when it was six degrees outside? Seriously? Didn’t their mus
h
room caps turn into little push-up bars? How could you leave so much to the cold elements?

Her hand warmed up instantly as she brushed against his soft, thick goodness. “Who needs hand warmers?” she murmured, and then slipped on the ice, her hand caught in his pan
t
s and dragging him down with a lurch and a strangle cry.

He sounded mutilated. Her fingers were tangled in the thatch of his hair and one testicle was clenched in her fist that she’d invol
u
ntarily made as she struggled to remain upright.

“Did I break something?” she said, worried now—unable to stop giggling at the absurdity of what they were doing, though.

“
I
f you did,” he said with a choking sound, “I know a way you can fix it. And,” he muttered, looking at his package, unbuttoning his jeans, “after what you jus
t
plucked out, I won’t need to be waxed for months.”

Her giggles increased and she couldn’t stop, overcome with wet eyes and whooping gasps as Alex tried in v
ain to get her to re-engage in some semblance of sex.
 

“How about on the shore?” he finally asked, struggling to stand. In the moonlight he was quite a sight, knit cap pulled over his unruly brown hair, crystal-clear brown eyes full of lust.

And his pants were hanging open under his ski jacket, like some kind of flasher.

“Snow is way better than ice. I think I wrenched my shoulder when I fell,” Josie admitted.

Alex reached up under her coat and shirt to cup a breast.

“That’s not my shoulder.”

“Really? I’m so sorry. I’m really bad at anatomy.” He teased her nipple until she gasped and began to
t
remble with need.

“You’re a doctor and you don’t know the difference between a shoulder and a breast?”

He pulled her hand over his now enormous erection. “Can you give me a neck rub? My neck really needs you.”

“If that’s your neck, then what have I been kissing all this time?”

A rush of power and he was on
her
,
Josie’s
back crunching against fresh snow, the cold somehow shifting to warmth as his body was over
hers
, bare
abs
rubbing against
her
own as
her
shirt pulled up, his hands fevered against
her
skin, unclas
p
ing
her
jeans and pullin
g
them down.

Cold. Frozen buttocks. “ALEX!”
Josie
squealed. “The snow’s all over my ass.”

“Let it go,” he whispered.

“I’m not some Disney princess,”
she
hissed, but his hands warmed
her. T
hen he sat up, pulled off his coat, and draped it on the snow like a blanket.

“Get your frigid ass on there. Now,” he commanded.

“Frigid! You want to see frigid? I’ll show you—”

H
e
leapt on
her
, pinning
her
arms to the ground,
her
ass stripped bare of panties, jeans around
her
ankles as he took a deep breath and inhaled against the gro
o
ve between
her
breasts.
Josie’s
shirt was inelegantly shoved up, along with
her
now-unzippered coat.
She
didn’t wear a bra today simply because, and now
she
was glad as his mouth found one nipple and
he
plu
c
ked it with his tongue, making
her
wet and hungry to have him in
her
.

The moon agreed, watching over
them
as always, a celestial voyeur. And
they
were giving it an eyeful.

Alex pulled up, balancing himself on one arm, his hand deep in the snow, wrestling with his back pocket,
w
hich now rested somewhere around his knees. The clumsy way
they
were made
her
smile, a deep sense of goodness and comfort infusing
her
, making the night chill an afterthought.
Thei
r breath mingled visually, puffs of white essen
c
e twining together like a visual manifestation of
thei
r relationship, and even as
they
fumbled like teenagers,
she
found
her
self.

She
found
her
self.

“I love you so much, you dork,”
she
said as he fell on his side, his ribs hitting the cold snow, his yelp of surprise sending
her
into a fit of giggles. At this rate
she’d
be laughing so hard he wouldn’t be able to enter
her
.
She’d
shoot him back out like a blow dart.

“
I love you, too.” But he was distracted, the reply robotic.
 

“You’re such a romantic. I’ll bet you say that to all the girls whose asses you dip in snow.”

“
I’m trying to find a condom,” he huffed, tossing a handful of snow at her bare belly. Josie’s turn to yelp. She clapped a hand over her own mouth, then a single finger.
 

“Someone’s going to find us!”
she
said.

The al
l
-too-familiar sound of a foil wrapper tearing in the
n
ight made
her
stop laughing and
her
insides went liquid with white-hot desire. He handled the basics and then hovered over
her
, trembling.

“Are you cold?”

“Let’s make our own heat,” he said as he slowly entered
Josie
,
her legs going wide by pragmatics in the way, jeans holding her to one spot. The rub of his thighs against her own as he slowly thrust in and out gave her shivers, like a fingernail tracing up her spine.
 

Or maybe that was the beginnings of frostbite.

Masterful and patient, Alex had this way of being during sex that gave the impression he could do this all his days, until
they
were ancient and timeless. At the same moment, he was dominant and feverish, wanting and needing with a near-violence that spoke more of deep trust than sheer control.

They
didn’t have much time, so the latter man emerged above
Josie
,
her
clit gaining a rapid slick from
their
movements, the push of his abs against
hers
, the tilt of his hips driving
her
to sensual insanity.
Josie’s
own orgasm crashed first, careening as
her
hands found his bare ass and dug in, cupping the scul
pt
ed flesh and feeling his power as he used it to push into
her
, to drive
them
closer to each other.

As
she
held in
her
screams through gritted teeth, the stars sparkling above, a squir
r
el skittering across branches a few trees away, Alex tense
d
and heat poured through
Josie
as he came, a glorious rush of emotion and animal tension released because of
her
.

Her
.

“Hey!” a voice shouted as Alex panted over
her
, eyes intense. That wasn’t Alex’s voice, and his eyes shifted to alarm. With lightning speed,
they
pulled apart as a flashlight flailed its beam in
their
direction.

Josie’s
panties tore as
she
pulled them up,
her
fingers too cold to button
her
jeans, so
she
simply zipped
her
coat over them. Alex shoved his condom-covered cock into his jeans and pulled them up, deftly snapping them and pulling his coat shut just as a man’s form rounded a thick tree and
Josie
was blinded by light.

Her
hand went up, palm facing him. “Do you mind? I rather like my vision!”

“Oh,” he said, dropping the beam. Heavy breath filled the air, a panting that definitely wasn’t
her
boyfriend.
Josie
looked down, and in the non-flashlight-holding hand a husky on a leash panted heavily, looking at
them
. That dog looked really familiar. A little too familiar.

If dogs could smile, it did.

“Sorry, folks.” The guy looked to be the age
Josie’s
dad would be if he were still alive. A bit gr
a
y, and slim like
hers
was. Tall, and with a lean runner’s look. His face was guarded, but you could tell he was naturally friendly. He reminded
Josie
of someone, but
she
couldn’t see his face.