Authors: Elle Saint James
The wind whistled around and relentlessly plastered the three of them with torrents of white flakes. He brushed off the seat and started the snowmobile before helping her onto the back of his vehicle.
He handed her his helmet. “Here, put this on. I have my parka hood.”
“Thanks.” She slung her purse on her shoulder and maneuvered the helmet on her head. The spicy scent of his cologne still graced the inside of the mask. The dual purpose of the gear not only kept her head warm, but it also smelled very delicious and manly.
Grateful that she’d worn slacks today instead of a skirt, Stella mounted the snowmobile like a horse. Hopefully, the vehicle wouldn’t buck her off like the mechanical bull in that bar she’d visited in Texas during spring break in college. She had to last a lot longer than eight seconds on this seat for the coming ride.
The moment Dominick slid in front of her she placed her hands on his waist. She was strangely comforted by his presence. He
was
her rescuer, after all. She would owe him a favor. She wondered how she would pay him off. The warmth of his legs seeped through the slight material of her slacks and into her opened thighs, which were already sodden at the hems all the way to mid-calf. Warming as the heat of his legs seeped into her body, she contemplated again what gratitude she’d be willing to offer. Perhaps a mutual pleasure.
Riding a snowmobile was as intimate as riding a motorcycle. Once they started moving, she’d have to hold on tighter. She slipped her hands further around his waist in preparation. The tighter she held him, the warmer she got. Stella wasn’t unaffected by his closeness. A carnal heat buzzed between her legs at the intimate connection they shared.
Since he didn’t introduce his friend, Stella guessed they’d meet formally once she was back at their ranch and hopefully safe, sound, and eventually dry. She shivered a little even as heat gathered between her legs as he revved the motor and they sailed through the open gate. He paused, shut the motor off, and exited the snowmobile. She felt the loss of his warmth immediately.
He and his friend struggled to get the gate to their property closed and locked behind them. They had to kick through and dig some drifted snow with their hands to get it away from the path of the gate to close it, but they did it. Now they were all locked in.
The finality of that act ratcheted up her nervousness slightly. These men were strangers after all.
They
are
helping me.
Dominick climbed back onto the vehicle in front of her. Stella settled against him and wrapped her arms around his middle. She resisted the urge to squeeze him tight as he restarted the engine and moved slowly across the white wilderness along a path towards her uncertain future.
They are helping me
. She repeated the mantra.
Stella reminded herself again that she’d be worse off stranded alone in her lonely, dead vehicle as the snowmobile bounced over several mounds of snow and left her car further and further away. Still, her gut instinct told her that she was safer than she’d ever been before in her life.
The biting gusts wind cut through her light jacket and chilled her to the bone. She pressed herself more firmly against Dominick’s back and squeezed her arms around his waist a little tighter, ignoring her initial resistance to do so. She pushed the side of her face against the center of his back, finding a certain comfort in being so close to another. He shielded her from the worst of the wind ahead of them. In no time at all they were ascending another hill and soon after a decline. They came around a bend in the road hidden by trees. The road cut a winding path through the white and bitterly icy winter wonderland.
The journey to their ranch house was both beautiful and disconcerting at the same time. Intrigued by the man she had her arms wrapped around, Stella’s mind slipped into another worry. She was still slightly concerned that not only wasn’t she going to make it to her important destination this afternoon, her car was wrecked, and she was headed to an unknown destination with two strange men.
They came to a fork in the barely there road and took the path to the left. After a few more minutes, she glanced over Dominick’s shoulder and saw a looming structure ahead. The description “ranch house” didn’t do it justice. She expected a double-wide trailer tucked away in the woods. Instead, a beautiful A-frame mansion waited in the wilderness to house them. The steeply pitched roof in the center already had snow clinging to every inch of its surface. It looked more like an expensive Swiss chalet reassembled in the dense forests of the Colorado wilds.
The two snowmobiles glided into an opening garage door, one of three, attached to the chalet-styled abode. The house was huge. The snow came down hard and fast, as if it might never stop. She glanced one last time over her shoulder at the winter snowstorm before focusing her eyes forward into the garage.
Once they parked, she released her grasp of her savior and quickly pulled the helmet off her head. She brushed a shaky hand over her hair several times, trying to ensure she didn’t have helmet head.
Dominick turned off the engine, straightened in his seat right before he dismounted, and pushed the parka hood off of his head.
Stella missed his warmth the moment he departed the vehicle, and then couldn’t stop staring the moment his head was visible.
She didn’t notice the other man moving about until the garage door started closing. The swirling storm disappeared behind the wooden slats of the large door.
“Let’s get inside the house. It’s warmer there, okay?”
Stella realized she hadn’t moved a muscle since they parked. The other man removed his helmet and brushed his burnished blond hair off his forehead. He was just as tall as Dominick, and also gorgeous. She didn’t want to tear her gaze away. She didn’t even want to blink.
“This is Tyler,” Dominick said and broke her stare momentarily. “Tyler, this is Stella.” He gestured to the other man she hadn’t stopped looking at until Dominick had spoken.
“Hi, Stella.” Tyler smiled and waved once. Stella glanced over and waved at him. She turned her focus back to Dominick. He was also still gorgeous.
“Thank you both for rescuing me.” It felt like the right thing to say, but Stella didn’t believe she got the words out of her mouth without stuttering. Both of these men were amazingly attractive. Intimidating. Not at all the usual ordinary businessmen she met on a day-to-day basis. They looked like they’d be at home riding the range on a horse as easily as they would modeling in a pricy ad for rugged and expensive menswear.
“Our pleasure,” Tyler answered. He glanced at Dominick.
Stella shivered. Not all of her shaking was from the frigid weather.
Tyler moved forward a step in her direction. “You’re shivering. We should really move inside. We need to get you warmed up.”
Dominick pulled his gloves off and offered her a hand. Her inadequate knit gloves were enveloped in his strong fingers. She carefully dismounted the snowmobile and followed Tyler past the front bumper of a Jeep, and a humongous, high-profile truck, both parked in the other slots of the garage, to a sturdy-looking door. Tyler swung the door to the house open and a blast of warm air enveloped her. Two steps up and they entered a mud room of sorts.
There was whitewashed beadboard along the right-hand side of the room. An eye-level line of maybe a dozen wooden, painted pegs, with various coats and jackets hung up on half of them, took up the entire right side of the small room. Above the pegs was a solid wood shelf with boxes, hats, gloves, and scarves dotting the surface just above her head. All the outerwear looked very masculine. No children’s things. No feminine touches.
Interesting
.
Tyler immediately peeled his parka off, hung it on an open peg, and tossed his gloves on the rack directly above his coat. Behind her, Dominick had closed the door and followed Tyler’s actions.
When she turned back, Tyler had bent over and was pulling his wet snow boots off one at a time. She couldn’t tear her gaze from his ass until he hopped on one foot and turned. She was afraid he’d just seen her staring.
She glanced back in time to see Tyler stick a sock-covered foot into a well-worn cowboy boot. He bent over again to pull it on tighter. She didn’t trust herself not to watch his ass, so she turned away.
Stella wasn’t sure she wanted to remove any clothing. Not even her soaked coat. She looked down at the hems of her slacks. Sodden wool hid her legs, and she wondered how long before she started shivering in earnest, even in the warm confines of the house. “How about I find you some warm clothes to wear until we can dry yours? You need to get out of those wet things.” Tyler, dry boots on now, walked out of the cloak room, leaving her all alone with Dominick.
Stella felt her face warm. Her clothes were not the only “wet things” gracing her body right about now. She managed to nod.
A particular fantasy she’d always harbored involving sex with a stranger bolted to the surface of her mind. Now the only question was which of the hunky men who’d just rescued her would star in her dreams tonight. Perhaps she’d give each of them a turn. The scandalous thought flamed her cheeks even more. Pretty soon, she’d be plenty warm enough just thinking about these men and what it would be like to have sex with them.
If she did act upon her fantasies, no one would ever know what happened in the huge, warm chalet tucked amongst a forest of tall pines and covered with a thick blanket of snow.
She shook her thoughts from a farfetched reverie and back to the present. Dominick was staring at her. Could he read her mind? Hopefully not.
“Would you like something hot to drink?” Dominick had moved much closer. “It’ll help warm you up inside.”
Stella turned. Her face came to about his chest level. Perfect. His mere presence already warmed her up nicely. “Thanks. That would be great.”
“Through there leads into the kitchen.” He pointed to the doorway Tyler had disappeared through and gestured for her to go first. “After you,” he added when she remained stone still.
Stella looked down at her clothing. “I’m all wet. I don’t want to track water through your house.”
Dominick looked down her body ending up at her feet. “How about you just kick your shoes off and hang up your coat? Truthfully, you can’t hurt the kitchen floor.”
She nodded and bent to remove her shoes. Once she straightened, she caught his startled gaze and wondered if he’d been staring at
her
ass. This possibility also warmed her insides. Was he as curious as she was?
“Here, let me help you with your coat.” His hands went to her shoulders as she quickly unfastened all the large black buttons down the front. He peeled off the sodden outer garment, but not without his knuckles grazing the thin shirt beneath. His hands were warm, and even having him touch her upper back sent a tingle of longing and desire zipping down her spine.
He hung her coat up on a peg and placed his hand in the center of her back, undoubtedly to propel her forward. She almost couldn’t move the moment he touched her. Quietly, she sucked in a deep breath and somehow managed to take a step forward. Another step and then one more and she’d traveled most of the way to the kitchen door. Unsure that she didn’t simply want to turn and blister Dominick’s mouth with a searing kiss to see what he tasted like, she kept moving.
Just as she got to the opening, Tyler returned with a stack of folded clothes. Stella ran straight into him and Dominick crashed into her back.
Being suddenly trapped between the two intriguing men had an immediate impact on her system. Enveloping warmth from the front and back, in the form of two incredibly handsome men, made her heart speed up considerably.
The idea of acting on her fantasy-fueled stranger sex with these men popped to the forefront of her mind again. It was probably only because it had been so long since she’d had a man in her life. How had she become so lonely? And even if she did have the courage to act on her inappropriate urges, which of the two outrageously attractive men would she choose? Too difficult a task to select only one. And how could she possibly ask for a turn with each?
The scandalous idea of multiple-partner sex with strangers warmed her pussy, and she had to shake off the urge to throw caution into the snowy skies and make a lurid request. She mashed her lips together to keep from saying anything shocking out loud.