"Then why so sad?" He dipped his head to meet me face to face. "You look devastated."
"The cookies for Shane and Brenna…I promised them, and now I'll just be another asshole adult who let them down. I hate being that person more than I hate the sight of blood." I felt myself choke up. I could barely make sense of my emotions right now. Part of me wanted to fall into a deep sleep of denial, and the other part wanted to hear James's version of the two of us after he brought me back home.
"You've never been an asshole and you never will be," he said as he pulled me into his arms. I breathed in his spicy scent and realized nothing felt better than being against James. Nothing. I was quickly becoming addicted and didn't want him to pull away. I could be happy being held by him for as long as he wanted to do it.
"James, I…I hate to ask this, but will you take me to the center…just so I can drop off the cookies to Shane and Brenna?" My mouth was against the side of his neck, and I had the furious urge to lick him there.
His arms tightened their hold as he comprehended my question. "On one condition."
"What is it?" What could he possibly want from me in return? James has never needed anything from me.
"You're coming with me to my parents' for Thanksgiving after."
Chapter Nine
JAMES
"I can do that," she agreed, maybe a little too quickly.
She surprised me by being so compliant, but her willingness only served as a turn-on for me. I wasn't complaining. Her eyes flicked over me as she studied my face, probably searching for answers about my motivations for asking her to join me at my parents'. I wasn't ready to do much beyond taking care of her right now, but the spark of an idea had taken root in my head anyway.
Something that would probably never fucking work.
But man, I wanted it to.
I didn't have the answers, but I sure as hell wasn't going to jinx everything by rushing in half-cocked. Which was never my problem around Winter. Ever. My dick was of the fully cocked variety if in the same room with her. Telling me she loved me last night wasn't helping in the sense of trying to keep everything cool and moving slowly. My heart was screaming one thing and my head another. Caution was a trait I'd adopted as a way to survive in my world, and I needed it now.
At least Thanksgiving dinner with my father, something I'd dreaded for weeks, was now a meeting I actually looked forward to. Which was a novelty. I wanted to see the look on his face once he realized who I'd brought with me. I wouldn't offer a sliver of an explanation to him either. Let him try and figure out what was going on without benefit of the whole backstory for once. My father wasn't going to be allowed to control my future. As long as I had breath in my body, any decisions regarding my life were my own.
Winter didn't even hesitate in agreeing to go with me. In fact, she'd gone along with every one of my demands since I'd started handing them down this morning—which only made her all the more irresistible. I could no longer mistake her consistent signals for what they truly were: naturally submissive behaviors. My thoughts flashed to an image of her bound naked to my bed, her body splayed out for me to worship. I felt my mouth begin to water, and everything below the waist start to tighten.
Off-the-charts-fucking sexy was how she appeared in my fleeting fantasy. I had to keep reminding myself that's all it was. A glorious fantasy.
For now.
And I'd thought I was attracted to Winter before last night. My inner Dom was dying to meet her inner sub with a craving so intense I feared how things might eventually play out. I'd never felt this way about any other woman before. Not Leah. Not anyone.
My previous belief that Winter and I weren't suited was quickly going down in flames, and I was running out of reasons to keep a distance. Especially when she looked at me like she was doing right now with her sexy eyes melting through my resistance like a hot knife into butter.
I told my conscience to fuck off and leave me alone for the day.
"You're amazing, Winter Blackstone." It was the truth.
"I am?" She appeared genuinely surprised.
"Oh yes, you are."
"How am I amazing, James?" The corner of her mouth lifted in a tiny smile.
Mostly you're amazing because you love me. "Well, for you to be so happy and caring of others after the night you had is damn amazing," I told her. "You've never complained, not one time. You let me take care of you last night, and you're coming with me today so I can keep an eye on you. And you're doing it willingly." And you love me. I picked up her bandaged hand carefully and brought it to my lips for a gentle kiss. "I rest my case."
She blushed at the praise, which only served to bring my cock to full attention. Again, not a surprise, but it helped me understand something about Winter that I'd suspected all those years ago on the day of her fifteenth birthday party.
She wasn't acting.
There was no artifice or deceit in her behavior.
Winter was simply unaware of how beautiful she was.
And she loves me.
Holding on to any shred of self-control became my one and only goal when she needed help to get ready.
"This is making you uncomfortable, isn't it?" she asked in a small voice.
"Whatever gave you that idea?" I managed through gritted teeth as I did the hooks on the back of her bra.
When she'd called me into her bedroom, I really didn't know what I expected. I guess I wasn't thinking much at all beyond getting to have her with me today.
It shouldn't have surprised me, though. I'd showed her the surgical gloves she had to wear on her hand when she showered, because her cut needed to remain dry in order to heal. I knew her hand was sore, and her range of motion limited, so twisting fingers behind her back to fasten tiny hooks tightly into corresponding loops wasn't possible for her to manage alone. It wasn't rocket science to figure out her need for assistance was real, but my dumbass brain practically shorted out when I walked in there and got a good look at her in some sexy-as-fuck black lingerie.
Her silky hair flowed down her back and shoulders in soft waves, taking my line of sight directly to her legs in black thigh-high stockings topped with some kind of high-waist garment that did amazing things to her already amazing ass. She shyly looked over her shoulder at me and asked if I would fasten the hooks of her bra for her.
I was fairly sure I groaned out loud.
I could do this.
Yeah, asshole, keep telling yourself that.
Easier said than done when all that stood between my hands and her beautiful body was…nothing. I could smell her orangey scent again and fought the urge to put my lips to her shoulder and have a taste. I'd never be able to stop if I went that far, so I pushed those thoughts aside as best I could.
"I can just tell," she said. "I'm monopolizing your time, and now you're having to help me with everything and even watch over me at Thanksgiving, on a day when you should be with your own family." She sounded sad. What the hell?
"Hey"—I finished the last hook and turned her around to face me—"let's make one thing crystal clear right now. When I'm with you my time is never monopolized. I'm glad I was the one to help you last night. I want you with me today for Thanksgiving with my family. You know how things are between my dad and me, and this year will be a lot less torturous having you there to help defuse him." I smiled at her. "I might even be looking forward to today a lot more than I was yesterday."
She smiled back. "Really, James?"
"Really, Winter." If she only knew how true it was.
"Okay then," she said with another shy smile.
I should've walked out right then.
I should've done a lot of things differently in my life.
Instead, I looked her over from head to toe and tried to freeze-frame the image of her in my head. So fucking beautiful and sweet, standing serenely for me in sexy black silk and lace…