The Rock Star's Christmas Reunion: contemporary holiday romance (A Charisma series novel, The Connollys Book 1) (17 page)

“Perfect. My mouth is literally watering.”

She picked up one of his hands and placed it between her breasts.

“Sweet,” he breathed. “Permission.” He palmed both of her breasts, feeling the tight points under his hands. “All wishes, reality, right here.”

She put her hands over his. “I haven’t heard the description of a single chest tattoo yet.”

He pointed to his chest. “Broken heart over my heart.”

“Pretty obvious,” she said. “But what is with the orca over your intestines?”

“The orca is my animal totem. I know it sounds stupid. I’m not Native American, but we did this dream meditation a long time ago, ten years or so, and orca is what came to me.”

“Powerful totem,” she commented. “I don’t know a lot about that kind of thing, but there’s no reason you can’t have an animal totem. You never make the same mistake twice, that’s what an orca is supposed to mean, right?”

“Sounds good to me. Plenty of mistakes I’d like not to make again.”

She let her hands fall.

“Oh, Yakima,” he whispered. He’d never seen a more beautiful pair of breasts. Going to his knees on the carpet, he reached for her hips and pulled her against him, and set his lips to one breast. She cradled his head between her hands as his mouth slid to her nipple. He licked her, feeling her chest kick with a startled gasp.

“Startled you,” he said softly.

“More.”

He moved his attention to the other nipple. Her breasts weren’t small, but had a lot of sensation. He knew if he took the time to unbutton her jeans, he’d find her slippery and wet, ready for him. “So responsive.”

She moaned and tugged his hair. He moved his tongue to her other nipple, and used his fingers to keep stimulating her other one. She pressed her inner thighs against him, opening her legs. He caught the scent of her arousal and couldn’t take it anymore. His hands went to the front of her jeans.

“Yes, take them off,” she begged. “I’ve been waiting for this.”

He opened his mouth, taking in as much of her breast as his jaw would allow. She cried out as he roughly pulled the buttonholes over the buttons. He pushed her back on the sofa so he could get them over her hips, hoping she hadn’t bothered with panties, but when he saw the scrap of black lace covering her mons, his erection throbbed with approval.

He forced his gaze to her face. “You’re perfect, Yakima. Absolutely perfect.”

Her smile was sultry. “You’re overdressed.” She kicked her jeans off the bottom half of her legs.

He debated kissing her over her panties or just tearing them off. Tearing had just about won when he heard the doorbell. Her hand had been on his, urging him to take action. It stiffened over his hand.

“What was that?”

“Effing doorbell.”

“Now?”

“Now,” he agreed as it rang again. And again.

“Persistent. Who is it?”

“Haldana?” he guessed. “I don’t know.”

She swore. “Do you have to get it?”

The doorbell rang again. He heard a shout, a man’s voice? “Sounds urgent. I’m in hell.”

She pushed him gently. “Duty calls.”

He grabbed his T-shirt, hoping it was long enough to cover the bulge in his jeans. “I have never been so sorry in my life.”

She just stared at him, longing in every plane of her face. “Hurry back.”

It felt like dying to leave a beautiful, willing,
wanting
woman on the sofa. The problem with dating the town sweetheart was she wouldn’t be selfish. Of course she’d want him to answer the door.

Instead of Haldana, he found his brother at the door, unshaven, his hand up against the fresh white paint on the wall next to the door. He shifted unsteadily. At least he didn’t have an open container in his hands.

“Dare,” Bax said.

“Baxter Henry Connolly,” Dare slurred. “You son of a bitch.”

“Keep your voice down. What did I do now?”

“You have a triple-wide lot. No one’s gonna hear nothing.”

“I have a guest and you don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of her,” Bax said. “I hope you weren’t driving in that condition.”

“I felt okay.”

“Great.” Bax, cursing his brother’s stupidity, fished in his pockets for his keys and tucked them into his jeans. “You can sleep it off in my guest room.”

“Ver-very noble of you,” Dare said. “But you suck.”

Bax tried not to breathe in the fumes coming off of Dare as he walked in, then closed the door behind him. “Can you make it up the stairs or do would you prefer the sofa?”

Dare went to the steps, then sat on the second riser instead of climbing them.

“Not a good choice. Stairs are not comfortable. I woke up on some once. Carpeted, but that didn’t help much.”

“You an alcoholic, too?”

“Easy to drink too much when you’re in clubs all the time.”

“I want to tell you—” Dare stopped, winced.

Bax lifted a finger. “Hold that thought.” He went into the guest bath on the main floor and grabbed the garbage can and brought it back to the steps, placing it next to his brother.

“You think I’m gonna puke?”

“Keep it in the can,” Bax said. “I hate cleaning up other people’s vomit.”

“Not very brotherly of you.” Dare coughed.

“I let you in, didn’t I?”

“Why do you care if Remy Rose hits on me?” Dare asked, sounding suspiciously sober all of a sudden. “It’s over between you guys.”

“I don’t know if she’s as convinced of that as I am. She spent the last few days trying to get back into my pants. Seemed like a desperation move to try to get into yours.”

Dare stared at him, then his face crumpled. He sniffled, snorted, and wiped his nose with the back of his hands. Bax remembered Niall saying Dare had just had a horrible breakup.

“You were just trying to get some revenge sex, huh, buddy?” he said sympathetically.

“Would have been great.”

“If she wasn’t my ex. Sorry, man, but that’s not smart.”

“Why didn’t you have other girls there? Just the usual locals and her.”

“If I’d known I was supposed to hook you up I’d have imported some new talent. Sorry.”

“You only think of yourself.” Dare went green.

Bax’s hand hovered by the can. “I didn’t import anyone for me.”

“Yakima,” Dare said. “No one can get with her because all she does is work. Prettiest workaholic in Battlefield. She never left her aunt’s side these past couple of years.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.”

Bax considered this. “She had a crush on me from way back. Maybe she was saving herself for me.”

Dare sneered. “Used to see your posters around town. She wasn’t the only one.”

“You must have gotten some action from being my brother.”

“Nothing worth having.”

“You want to tell me about your breakup?”

Instead, Dare was noisily sick in the garbage can. As Bax was patting his back, Yakima came down the stairs, fully dressed.

A sympathetic expression on her face, she held out a towel. “I heard the retching.”

Bax took the towel. “Dare is spending the night.”

“You want me to get some water and aspirin or something?”

Dare was sick again.

“I’ll handle that part when we’re through with this. I’d kiss you goodbye, but, well.” Bax gestured.

“Rain check.” Yakima edged around him and grabbed her coat and purse.

“Wait. I drove you here.”

“I’ll walk. It’s not far and I could use the exercise after all that pita bread.”

He handed her Dare’s keys. “Take Dare’s truck. It feels safer. Text me when you get home.”

“Will do.” She blew him a kiss, shook her head at the sight of Dare, and walked out the front door.

~

“Did you hear about the break-ins last night?” Haldana asked when she appeared in the kitchen on Monday morning.

“What break-ins?” Yakima closed the cookbook she was perusing, one of a trio of British vegan tomes she was going through for New Year’s Eve party inspiration. The customers considered themselves highly sophisticated and wanted a “foodie” appetizer array.

Haldana set her purse under a rack and picked up an apron. “I went to pick up Dare this morning and there were police cars on Bax’s street and a bunch of his neighbors outside talking. Dare had to get to work and Bax couldn’t get out of his driveway because the police were blocking him in.”

“Did he get robbed?”

“No, but the neighbor to his right did, and two down the street.”

“How did they get in?”

“I don’t know. I had to get Dare to work. He looked awful.”

“I can imagine. I had dinner with Bax and it ended abruptly with Dare showing up and starting a puke fest.”

“He’s a mess. Do you know his ex-girlfriend?”

“Tamara Union, right?” Yakima opened another cookbook.

“Yes, she’s a bank teller in that branch in the grocery store.”

“I don’t bank there. I know the name but I think she’s quite a bit younger than me.”

“Older than me,” Haldana said. “Anyway, I guess Dare went on a blind date down in Portland last night, which is kind of desperate if you ask me, and ran into Tamara. She was all over some Trail Blazers player.”

“I take it the date didn’t go well, given that he had time to get wasted and go to Bax’s house, mad about Remy Rose.”

“Obviously he wasn’t thinking straight. He said his date was recently divorced, had three kids, and was talking about still carrying the baby weight from her one-year-old. He pretended he had a family emergency after twenty minutes of watching Tamara coming onto the NBA player.”

“So Dare’s both tortured and shallow,” Yakima concluded. “And maybe has a drinking problem, since it wasn’t much after nine when he showed up at Bax’s place.”

“He’s a mess,” Haldana repeated. “But maybe substance abuse issues run in the family. Aunt Tricia, Bax, well, you know.”

“Then Bax had better get his brother some help, if he’s willing to accept it. He can’t drink like that when he has to get up and work the next morning.”

“No. I told him he was a jerk for leaving his date like that, and he said she only talked about her kids, ordered the most expensive entrée in addition to two appetizers and a bottle of expensive wine, and showed up with hot pink lipstick on her teeth.”

“Doesn’t sound like a great start,” Yakima agreed, running her finger down the appetizer listing. “But I have to imagine dating with three little kids is a nightmare. Who set them up?”

“A customer. This woman is his sister.”

“I hope Dare got the sale before the date.”

“No kidding. Small business is hard. How are we doing?”

“Honestly, I’m really happy with how it’s working out. Our sucking up to the city council is paying off. Though I’m having trouble with this menu.” She closed the cookbook.

“What do you have?”

“Yellow pepper and walnut dip.”

“And?”

“Dried pineapple flowers dusted with gold powder for garnish on a tray. I’m thinking some grilled fruit on skewers. Let’s see.” She consulted her notes. “Purple potato chips with some kind of fancy vegan cheese dip. Some kind of Spanish sipping soup.”

“You’re getting somewhere. How many apps do we need?”

“Like eight. This is where I wish I could serve shrimp or something.” Yakima laughed.

“You’re halfway there,” Haldana said encouragingly. “I think you should do a savory mini-pancake. A summer roll. Some kind of tofu on toothpicks.”

“Samosa and chutney,” Yakima said. “High five! That’s eight.”

They high fived, then Yakima stared at her list again. “We need to have it all make sense somehow, and then come up with three different desserts.”

They labored over their menu for another couple of hours, blending up spare ingredients from their pantry and refrigerator to come up with samples for Yakima’s afternoon meeting with them. Just before lunchtime, someone rang the doorbell.

Yakima wiped her hands on her apron and pulled it off her head, in the small chance it was a potential client noticing the small sign on the door.

When she saw Bax, her heart rate sped up. Oh, he was a client, all right, but a lot more, too. He wore black today, jeans, T-shirt, motorcycle jacket. Utterly sexy. For once he’d remembered a cap. It had the Dealy Band logo.

“Hey,” he said, holding out an oversized candy cane to her. “Sorry how our night ended.”

She took the candy cane. “Thank you. This is practically a weapon.” She wondered how he’d react if she suggested spanking him with it.

“That’s quite a naughty smirk you have going on there,” he said. “I thought you could make cookies or brownies or something with it.”

She smiled and slapped the end of the cane in her free hand. ”I have a fantastic layered mint cookie recipe.”