Christmas From Hell (14 page)

“
We just ate an hour ago,” she pointed out with another sigh and a shake of her head as she turned the page, making sure to dog-ear the page so that she could find it later and moved onto the next page.

“
And I’m already on the verge of starvation!” he snapped, sounding kind of bitchy and for some reason making her lips twitch.

“
You had four helpings,” she felt obligated to remind him, since that much food should hold him over until at least tonight.

Granted, that much food would have probably held her over for a day or two, but apparently not him, which was a little concerning, she had to admit. He’d eaten several large steaks, at least two pounds of bacon, two-dozen eggs, and somehow during all of that, he’d suckered her into making him more home fries.

Not that she minded, because she really enjoyed cooking and was somewhat limited as to what she could cook at home because of her grandfather’s diet restrictions. It was a nice treat cooking for him, but it was also a bit frightening. Before she wasn’t worried about running out of food, because of all the freezers and refrigerators hooked up to the generators that the insurance company had insisted that they purchase to protect the food that they used for private functions.

Every one of the ten freezers and refrigerators downstairs was stocked full of food and should be more than enough to feed several hundred people, but with Duncan here…

She wasn’t sure that the food would last another week. It was definitely a frightening thought, so she decided to return her attention to the magazine in her hands and pray that he forgot about food for the moment and distracted himself with one of the hundreds of books and magazines that she had stacked around the-

“
Holy shit!” he said in such a way that dread shot through her stomach before she even managed to look up and once she did, she couldn’t seem to look away.

Or speak for that matter, but she was able to pray and pray she did, for a quick, painless death, for him or her, it didn’t really matter just as this moment was long forgotten.

*-*-*-*

He should have put the book back down, should have pretended that he hadn’t seen it, but once he’d picked the book up and realized what he was holding, he couldn’t contain his reaction.

She didn’t say anything, but then again he had a feeling that she’d lost the power of speech the moment that she’d realized what he was holding, but she did make a mad grab for the thick hard covered book that would forever be burned in his memory. It was definitely not something that he’d expected to find in her room or even something that he would have thought she knew about, but damn if he wasn’t holding the biggest book on Kama Sutra that he’d ever seen.

As she tried to yank it out of his hands, he just sat there, staring down at it numbly as he tried to wrap his mind around everything. The somewhat shy little jinx that had been making his life a living hell for the past year had the biggest book on sexual positions by her bed and-

“
Thank God,” she said, sounding really relieved when he suddenly released the book, but that didn’t last for long.

Needing to know, more like dying to know, he immediately turned his attention to the nightstand by her bed, reached for the top drawer and grunted in pain when the surprisingly strong woman put him in a headlock and took him to the ground.

Doing his best to ignore the small woman on his back, no doubt trying to kill him, which again he was surprisingly okay with, he moved his ass, needing to know more than ever what was in that drawer.

“
Oh, my God! Please don’t! They’re not really mine!” she screamed as he placed his hand on the drawer handle, making him hesitate until he realized what she’d said.

When her words registered, God himself backed up by the army, navy and Marines wouldn’t have been able to stop him from pulling that drawer open and-

Choking on air when he saw exactly what the small woman had hidden in the top drawer of the dresser that he’d been sleeping within two feet of for that last two nights. He tried to make sense out of what he was seeing, but all his mind could register were the condoms, so many fucking condoms, lubes, sex toys and some things that he’d admittedly had no clue what they were supposed to be and how to use them, but he did know one thing.

The little jinx had a dark side to her, one that had his cock twitching eagerly, his mouth going dry and him getting to his feet so that he could get the hell out of there before he could do something incredibly stupid.

*-*-*-*

Oh, no, she realized with dread, he’d come back.

Swallowing hard, she did her best to lay as still as humanly possible only to remember that she wanted him to think that she was sleeping, not dead, so she started working on breathing evenly. Whether he bought it or not, she really didn’t care as long as he didn’t talk to her or acknowledge her in any way other than to be politely quiet as he moved around the dimly lit room and for that she would forever be grateful to him.

She lay there and didn’t say anything as he took off his boots, his jacket, layers of sweatshirts, jeans, sweatpants, socks before he headed towards her bathroom. He paused only long enough to grab a candle before he stepped inside the bathroom, closed the bathroom door behind him and gave her a chance to finally breathe easier.

All afternoon she’d been terrified about his reaction, waiting for that moment when he decided to either tease her, thinking that it was funny or started looking at her like she was the town whore. Instead he’d headed outside, shoveled both their walkways, carefully calculating where he thought the wires were, avoided those until about two hours ago when he’d disappeared inside his house.

She’d thought that she’d seen the last of him, but just in case she’d grabbed two pans of lasagna out of the freezer that she stored a few months ago, lit the oven and cooked them. She forced herself to eat a slice, placed foil on both pans, placed them back in the oven and went to bed, praying that by the time that she woke up tomorrow morning that her grandfather would be there to greet her with that smile on his face that she loved so much so that she could see it disappear as she informed him of her revenge.

Only boiled foods and vegetables for a month.

Except it didn’t happen that way.

She’d barely finished washing up with the cold water, switching into her sweatpants and long-sleeve t-shirt when she heard the backdoor open. For all of thirty seconds she’d considered going to ask him to leave after she thanked him for everything he’d done for her, but then she realized that would mean facing him and possibly making eye contact with him. Those were two things that she was never going to be able to do thanks to her grandfather and his idea of helping her break out of her shell.

He wanted great-grandchildren one day, but most of all, he wanted to leave this world knowing that she wasn’t alone. Thanks to that drawer, she could pretty much guarantee that she was going to die alone and most likely still a virgin.

It was something to look forward to in her old age, she thought dryly, deciding that tomorrow was the day that she found all of her grandfather’s hiding spots and threw his precious stash away.

Chapter 15

He should have never come back, but he hadn’t been able to stay away, desperate to know who Necie had provided all those condoms and toys for. He tried to tell himself that he wasn’t jealous, but no matter how many times he’d tried drilling that message into his head today, reminding himself that they weren’t even friends, it hadn’t been enough to stop him from wondering who they were for.

He shouldn’t care.

He shouldn’t be here.

But, he couldn’t fucking stay away. He had to come back. He had to see her and he just thanked God that she’d left two pans of lasagna in the oven so that he could buy himself a little more time before he had to face her. He had absolutely no idea what to say to this woman. Not only because he’d never thought of her in that way, but he’d just assumed that she was a shy little virgin.

Apparently he’d been wrong. Over the past couple of days he’d noticed how cute she was, was able to appreciate her figure, but not once had he wondered what it would feel like to be between her legs.

Now he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

He really was a fucking idiot, he concluded as he splashed cold water on his face, grabbed a wash cloth and proceeded to give himself a cold sponge bath to clean away the sweat from working all day and hoping to make it impossible to think of the woman that he was about to hold her as anything more than a woman in need of help.

This was Necie Dixon that he was dealing with here.

Necie. Fucking. Dixon.

He was only here because it was the right thing to do. Her grandfather was out of town and thanks to this fucked up weather she was left without electricity or heat. Helping her and watching over her was the right thing to do. It was the way he was raised. How they were all raised, but for some reason it had always resonated with him. He’d always been the kid who went out of his way to help the weaker kids, the one who helped out the teachers, couldn’t walk past someone that needed his help and not feel like the biggest asshole on earth.

That was the only reason that he was here right now, he told himself as he cringed, mouthing a few select words that would have had his mother bitch slapping him and shoving a bar of soap down his throat as he took the facecloth soaked with ice cold water and soap and washed down south, silently apologizing to his poor balls as they tightened up and did their best to retreat back into his body and away from the cold towel.

Releasing a slow breath and praying for the day that hot water was once again abundant, he quickly dried off, pulled his boxers back on and headed back into the bedroom, doing his best not to look at Necie’s sleeping form, terrified that his cock would get the wrong idea, and walked around the bed. He quickly climbed into the bed, shivering one last time as the cold air sent one last shiver through his body and lay down. He pulled the thick pile of blankets up to his throat as he turned over and-

Realized that he was now facing the nightstand that had fucked with his head in the first place. Refusing to look at it, he stared at the frost coated bedroom windows instead and thought about everything that he was going to have to do in order to get off suspension early. He’d just decided to contact his union rep when he realized that he was staring at the top drawer of nightstand again.

Swallowing hard, he tried to look away, tried to stop picturing everything in that drawer and all the ways that he could use the toys and lube with Necie, but couldn’t stop thinking about how it would feel to roll over, push her on her back, strip her of her clothes and lick and suck her breasts as he used his hands to push her legs open and settle between her legs. He imagined gently grinding his cock against her to see how wet she was, and he knew that he would make her fucking wet. He’d do everything he could to make her wet.

When she was moaning his name in his ear, digging her nails into his back, wrapping her legs around his waist as she shifted wildly beneath him, desperate to get him inside her. He was going to-

“
Oh, fuck no,” he groaned softly, closing his eyes and willing his overly excited cock to go to sleep and leave him in peace, but it wouldn’t listen to him.

It was intrigued with the idea of the little jinx moaning his name as he pumped inside her, fucking her in every position in that book until he’d fucked her in the last position and then he’d turn her on her stomach, cover her body and slide his cock into her beautiful plump ass, something that he’d never fantasized about before.

There was something seriously fucking wrong with him, he told himself as he forced his eyes away from the nightstand that had started it all and turned over onto his side and groaned when he realized the little jinx was lying on her side with her generously curved ass was positioned just right for his eager cock.

As he closed his eyes and willed her to stop moving that beautiful ass of hers, unintentionally grinding it against the part of his body that was infatuated with her the most, he realized that it was going to be a long fucking night.

*-*-*-*

Slow deep breaths, she told herself, slow deep-

Oh, God, it moved again!

Okay, no need to panic, she told herself. She was completely dressed, he had boxers on and besides, it was just an erection. It didn’t mean anything. It was a natural blood flow response, most likely because he was lying down and resting. That was it. That was the reason that it kept jerking hard against her bottom, making her bite her lip and grip the sleeping bag so tightly that she feared that her fingers were going to tear through the tough material.