Maverick

  Riley nods eagerly.

  I open the door, and as expected, Chewie comes tearing out of the house. She runs right past us and down the driveway and then right back up in a tight circle, running around the two of us over and over again, ears back, smiling, tongue hanging out of her mouth. I probably looked like that earlier.

  “She’s got the zoomies,” I tell Riley, putting my hand at the small of her back and ushering her inside.

  “What are the zoomies?”

  “When she zooms around like that.” I clap my hands at Chewie. “Hey, Wookie Butt, get over here.”

  Riley snickers. “Wookie Butt.”

  “Believe me, you don’t want to hear all her nicknames, though I’m sure by the end of the day, you will.”

  Chewie comes barreling inside and up the stairs. She gets these energy bursts every now and then, which is always amusing, but it also means she’s going to crash soon. Which is perfect. I can’t say the number of times this dog has cockblocked me at one point or another.

  I almost bring that up to Riley as we’re climbing the stairs to the main floor, but I manage to keep my mouth shut. Most women don’t care who I fuck around with because most women don’t stick around long enough to care. But with Riley, even though she has this don’t give a fuck attitude, I don’t think she’ll take too kindly to me talking about past conquests.

  I certainly don’t want to hear about hers, especially when it comes to Neil. I really hope I erased that prick from her system.

  “This is like a ski chalet,” Riley says, looking around. Chewie continues to zoom around the living room, going in circles around the coffee table, though she’s already tiring.

  “That’s what we were going for,” I tell her. “Fox and I bought it together four years ago. He sleeps in the loft upstairs,” I point to the top of the cathedral ceiling. “That was all open before but we had it closed in. I’m down the hall.”

  She walks to the large cathedral windows that look over the balcony and then the town, then past the fireplace and the fuzzy bearskin rug in front of it. “Hope you didn’t kill that.” She points at it with pouting lips.

  I shake my head. “My grandpa. It was a dangerous grizzly too, kept eating our sheep. Believe me, I’m not a hunter.”

  “A mountain man and not a hunter.”

  I shrug. “I have too much appreciation for nature. But I also respect those who do hunt. Fox does for deer and elk. So does my dad. They use all the meat. No one in this town touches the predators. The wolves, the bears, North Ridge pretty much leaves them alone unless they’re a bother.”

  She seems to appreciate that. She points at the fireplace with her boot. “Are you going to light this baby up? For after the hot tub?”

  After the hot tub? Jesus. For some reason I thought she would bail after, but she doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. And why not? We have all day. Kind of.

  “My brother might be home when it gets dark. He’s on the slopes right now.”

  “Then you’ll have to fuck me quick. You can do that, can’t you?”

  “I can,” I tell her, walking over to her and taking her hand. “But maybe I want to take it slow. There’s no rush.”

  “There’s a rush if you’re screwing me on the rug when your brother comes home,” she points out.

  “You’re so crass,” I can’t help but comment.

  She smiles playfully. “You love it.”

  And I do. But honestly, and this is going to sound kind of lame, I wouldn’t mind some tenderness from her. I’ve only seen it a few times, like when she was coming, wrapped in rope. Those moments after sex, she’s soft and fragile and open. She’s someone I feel I can protect, who wants to be protected. Most of the time, Riley acts like it’s the last thing she needs.

  But I want that.

  I want her to need me.

  While all of this is warring inside my brain, Riley reaches up and runs the tip of her finger down the bridge of my nose and over my lips and chin. “Come on, mountain man. Let’s get wet.”

  I grab some towels from the linen closet and then take her hand and lead her through the kitchen to the back deck where we have the hot tub. It’s a small one but it backs out onto the mountain and there are huge Douglas firs between our house and the next so there’s complete privacy.

  Snow surrounds the hot tub, biting into my bare feet after I’ve stripped naked. I pull back the cover, steam rising, and quickly get in.

  “Fuck it’s hot!” Riley cries out, laughing and shivering as she gets in. “And so cold!”

  “Man, you’re hard to please.”

  I can’t take my eyes away from her body. Her breasts, full and perky, her hard rosy nipples, the sleek curve of her waist, the meat on her thighs. By the time she eases herself in, I don’t even feel the heat anymore. I’m hard as a rock and ready to go again. This woman will never tire me out.

  “Come here,” I tell her, grabbing her by the back of her neck, relishing how delicate she feels in my grasp. I pull her toward me and crush my mouth against hers, my tongue sliding in, ravenous, hungry. She tastes sweet.

  Her hands sink into the water, grabbing hold of my dick, just as she had earlier on her knees, with purpose, with lust. I love how much she loves this, like she couldn’t keep away if she tried.

  I grab her by the waist and lift her up and she grabs hold of the tub edge behind me for leverage. She lowers herself onto me, not making a noise, not even breathing. Her eyes meet mine and for a moment she looks startled. Our faces have never been this close before while I’m inside her. It’s beyond intimate.

  It’s probably why she looks away.

  Hot tubs are notorious for sounding sexy but actually not being so when it comes to practice, but Riley is superhuman and she’s slick and wet and luscious inside. She’s so fucking good, so small, and warm. Almost as warm as the water we’re in. She moves her body up and down my shaft with confidence, knowing what she wants, what I want.

  “Look at me,” I whisper to her and my words come out hoarse.

  She reluctantly brings her eyes back and I lock them in with mine. I want her to see how I feel about her, not just what she’s doing to me physically, because that’s impossible to miss, but I want her to see in me.

  “There you are,” I say.

  She gives me a soft smile in return before her eyes close with pleasure. She leans forward and takes my bottom lip between her teeth and tugs. Then she kisses my chin, my jaw, my neck. I take over the rhythm, moving her up and down over my shaft in long controlled movements. I wasn’t kidding about earlier when I said I wanted to take things slowly but the reality is, the slower I go, the faster I want us both to come. My mind and body are at war with each other.

  “Does that feel good?” I ask, wondering why she’s not saying anything. Usually she’s quite talkative.

  She moans her response, digging her fingernails into my shoulder. But still, it’s like there’s something holding her back. I don’t want her to hold back, I want her to let loose, be loud, tell me how much she wants me, how badly she needs this. I want to know she wants this as much as I do.

  My mouth drops to her breasts, sucking her nipple in, swirling my tongue around and around until I feel it stiffening in my mouth.

  Her moans get louder and I’m rutting up into her deeper. I’m packed in so tight and she’s squeezing around me, the entire length of my cock in a warm, hot grip. I try and keep it slow and controlled but the truth is, I’m getting ravenous. I could fuck a lot harder than this.

  “Tell me what you want?” I ask her, my way of checking in. “Tell me if…” My words fail as she starts to ride me harder, matching the speed of my thrusts, her pattern to mine. “Fuck.”

  “Just this,” she says thickly, licking and biting my neck until I’m near the point of no return. “Keep going. Keep going.”

  I take in a deep breath and try and keep the pace. The steam rises up around us and I take a hungry kiss from her lips, tasting like chlorine and sweat.
br />   I’ve never had such ease with a woman before, this grinding and rocking of our bodies together, like they move as a singular unit.

  And soon we’re moving fast, fucking hard, the water is splashing over the sides of the hot tub. She’s all around me, so wet and wild and ….

  She’s so good.

  Unreal.

  I want her to come so hard she sees stars.

  Impulsively I grab her ponytail, wrapping it around my hand, and then yank her head back so the delicate arch of her neck is exposed as I slam her up and down on me.

  “Fuck!” she cries out. “Oh God. Mav.”

  It’s not from pain, and if it is it’s from a pain she likes. A lot. I can feel her coming before she even says another word.

  Her mouth drops open. Nipples harden. She rolls her hips, her chest shiny with sweat and water and she starts shuddering around me, squeezing my cock, tight, tight, tight.

  “Mav!” she yells and moans and moans, her noises echoing through the forest, bucking against me wildly.

  That does me in.

  I let myself go. No holding back anymore.

  I pump harder up into her as I come and I don’t know if she saw stars but I’m seeing them.

  Holy shit.

  A garbled mess of words spill out of my mouth as I spill into her, thrusting and thrusting until I’m emptied.

  And that’s when I realize I didn’t use a condom.

  I was going to wait until we’ve both calmed down until I bring it up but she beats me to it.

  “We didn’t use anything,” she says softly as she raises her hips and climbs off of me.

  “I always use something,” I tell her earnestly. “Always have. Just in case. But I’m clean. You can believe me on that.”

  She nods. “So am I. You’ll have to take my word on that too.”

  And of course I do. I’ll take her word on anything.

  I lean over and kiss her gently. “It felt so good being bare inside you.” I rub the tip of my nose against her and she stares at me with big eyes. But if the intimacy scared her earlier, it’s not scaring her now.

  She smiles and kisses me back. “Yes, it did.”

  “So you took the dog to the park, eh?”

  Both Riley and I spin around to see Fox standing by the sliding door. He’s not amused.

  Riley doesn’t even move to cover up her breasts so I place my body in front of hers. “You’re back early,” I tell him.

  “Yeah, I am,” he says. “And by the way, your dog ate one of my boots while you guys were…whatever.”

  He turns around and heads back in, and through the glass door I can see Chewie staring at us with a proud look on her face.

  “That dog,” I mutter to myself. “Good thing she’s cute.”

  I look back at Riley.

  “Does he care?” she asks.

  “Who, Fox? Yeah but he’ll get over it. He has a lot of boots.”

  “No, I mean about us.”

  “Oh. Nah. He’ll probably high-five me later.”

  “You guys are really playing up this whole bachelor pad thing, huh? You’re like Joey and Chandler.”

  “Which one am I?”

  She thinks for a moment. “Joey.”

  “Aw man. But he’s dumb.”

  “But he gets laid.”

  “But Chandler gets laid too.”

  “Yeah, with Janice and the woman with the missing leg.”

  “He ends up with Monica.”

  “Monica is batshit crazy.”

  “Okay, so then Fox is Chandler.”

  “No Fox is Ross. I barely know him, but I can tell you he’s one hundred per cent Ross Gellar.”

  “But Joey never lived with Ross.”

  “Yeah he did. Don’t you remember?”

  “That was Rachel.”

  “Oh yeah.”

  Our conversation continues like this for a while until we both remember that Ross did in fact live with both Joey and Chandler for about three episodes, then when we start getting wrinkled from the water, we get out. I wrap her up in a big fuzzy towel, making sure Fox wasn’t looking, and we go inside. I throw a few logs on the fire, settle us both down on the bearskin rug, and have a beer.

  Obviously, nothing else happens between us and we’re just sitting there chilling. Mainly because Fox is a weirdo and sits down on the living room couch with Chewie, staring at us and trying to make sure it’s all as awkward as possible. He succeeds. When it starts to get dark out later, I drive her home.

  “Thanks for coming trail running with me,” I tell her as she steps out onto her sidewalk. “And, you know, the blow job and the hot tub sex.”

  “Thanks for inviting me,” she says. “Tell Fox that next time he’s welcome to join us in the hot tub.”

  “You don’t fucking mean that.” I am horrified.

  She laughs, loud and contagious, and slams the door, giving me a quick wave before she hurries through the cold and into her house.

  That little minx.

  12

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Riley

  The text comes at eleven at night.

  I worked all day at the lodge with Tony, giving a talk to young kids about mountain safety, followed by a few runs (Fox gave us lift passes), so I went to bed around nine, totally exhausted.

  But despite being tired, my mind won’t shut off. It keeps thinking. I’m not even in control of my thoughts, they’re just going every which way. They’re thinking about Levi. They’re thinking about my parents. They’re thinking about the future. They’re thinking about the people I’ve rescued. They’re thinking about this town. And most of all, my thoughts seem to center on Maverick. Every part of him.

  So the text doesn’t wake me up, though when I hear it I groan loudly because I’m so cozy and warm in bed and the last thing I want is to get out, get dressed in my gear and head into the cold night. For once, I just want to be a normal person who has a nine to five and can expect to get some sleep at night.

  But when I look at the message, it’s not about search and rescue.

  It’s from Maverick and it says, Spend the night with me.

  My heart jumps and skips and swells.

  Fuck. I’m losing my head here. Even just a two-line text for sex is making me giddy, filling my chest with champagne bubbles.

  Are you going to pick me up? I text back. I can definitely walk to his place if needed but…

  He texts back:

  I’m outside right now. I’ll wait.

  A grin splits my face. I’ll get out of this warm bed if I can go right into his.

  Not that he hasn’t been here before. It’s been a week of us sleeping together whenever we can, which meant an afternoon sex session in my room, then the next day we fucked in the backseat of his truck, parked down a deserted road.

  But I’ve never stayed overnight at his house, so this is a big step.

  Stop thinking in steps, I tell myself. There are no steps when you’re just fucking.

  I’ve become pretty good at ignoring that voice though. Because right now, there are steps. Steps that are bringing Mav and me closer, beyond being boss and employee, colleagues, beyond having casual sex. Each moment we’re together, I feel that rope wrapping us tighter.

  I’m not sure what to do with the feeling. I know I should push it away to feel safer, to protect myself. Because what are we really doing here? We both know that what this is can’t morph into anything more or we’ll lose our jobs. I can keep sex a secret but anything more than that is going to get harder and harder. There will be a straw that breaks the camel’s back.

  At the same time…god, it feels so damn good to be with him. The way he looks at me, the way he touches me. The things he says, both so possessive and sweet, soft and rough. He makes me laugh too, so much. He gets me, brings out my silly side while I bring out his. I just…I can’t get enough.

  I can’t get enough of him.

  I shove my birth control pills into my backpack, along with clothes
for tomorrow, toothbrush and face wash, and then I’m slipping on thick leggings, an oversized sweater and heading out the door.

  His truck is running at the side of the road, the exhaust billowing up into the sky. The sight brings me peace, warms me like a hot bath. Amongst the unending darkness here, the cold air, the desolate peaks rising into the stars, he’s shelter. My shelter.

  I run toward him and quickly get in the passenger seat.

  He leans over and kisses me, soft, long and sweet. “Hi,” he says, looking deeply into my eyes. Yowza.

  “Hi,” I say back as I pull away, rubbing my hands over my legs. “Damn it’s cold tonight.”

  “I know. I figured I’d use you as a heater.”

  “How romantic.”

  “I think we might get hit with another storm,” he says to me as we drive off. “Forecast isn’t calling for it, but I feel it in my bones. Normally we would see some geese flying in for the spring but I haven’t seen any yet.”

  “That’s when you know you’re in the backcountry,” I joke. “Using geese to predict the weather.”

  “They’re better than the weather app,” he points out.

  Soon we’re pulling up his driveway and I stare up at the house. All the lights are off. “Is Fox home?”

  He nods. “Yeah. But don’t worry, we’ll be in my room.”

  “Will he be in the room too?” I ask, knowing how Fox was trying to cockblock Maverick last time. It was funny and I love seeing him rile Mav up as good brothers do, but if we’re getting down to business, I definitely don’t want his brother there, no matter how good looking he is.

  “What do you think?” he says. “If he shows his face, I’ll show him his ass.”

  We go inside and he grabs my hand, leading me past the living room where Chewie is snoring, all the way to his bedroom.

  It’s a nice room. Sparsely decorated but that seems to suit Maverick. Just a bunch of maps nailed to the wall along with some framed concert posters. In the corner is an overflowing laundry hamper beside an acoustic guitar. On his desk pushed up against the wall are a bunch of coffee cups. I have a feeling they were all over his room earlier and he did his best trying to tidy for me.