Carnal Christmas-epub Read Free Page B

Three
     
    Yikes! Hake Stivers was either a hardcore dominant or the best actor ever born and AJ was having the deeply conflicted submissive reaction to prove it. She could hardly believe this was the same man she’d had such fun, relaxed sexual encounters with over the past two years.
    He bent his head toward her again, that taunting smile still curving his lips, and she instinctively braced her hands against his chest to push him away. It was like trying to hold back the tide. He nipped her earlobe hard enough to send adrenaline screaming through her system, making her pant and strain harder against him. Desire was a live wire sending bolts of sensation from her nipples to her clit and back again—if her panties hadn’t been wet before, they sure as hell were now.
    “Stop!” she cried, craning her head away from his seeking mouth.
    “Are you using your safe word?” he murmured without backing off.
    Still craning, AJ gave a breathless laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”
    He didn’t bother responding. Instead, he seized her wrists and twirled her around so her back was to him with her arms crossed in front of her, then hauled her toward the garage.
    Ignoring her struggles, he called through the open door, “Hey, Mandy, get in here. It’s all clear.”
    “Woo-hoo!” Mandy immediately hopped up the two steps from the garage and into the short hall, slamming the door behind her, and AJ’s heart swelled with gladness at the sight of her.
    But Mandy had a role to play and she wasn’t going to break character for a greeting. She eyed AJ with a frown as she walked into the kitchen, unwrapping the wool scarf from around her neck and pulling off her stocking cap. Though her straight blond hair brushed her shoulders these days, static made a number of the fine strands wave in the dry air. “What’s she doing here? I thought you said it was clear.”
    “She’s not going to be any problem—are you, sweetheart?” Hake said against AJ’s ear, tightening his arms when she jumped in his hold. “You’re just the entertainment we need while we’re holed up here during this storm.”
    AJ glanced at the window over the sink, half-expecting to see a blizzard outside. There were, indeed, some big flakes drifting down, but it wasn’t quite a storm yet.
    “You’d better get out of here while you can,” she growled. “My bo—I mean, lovers—” Dammit, why did she always trip over that? “—will be here soon and they’ll hurt you for putting your hands on me.”
    Hake chuckled. “Hear how she stumbled over ‘lovers’? She’s lying through her teeth. There’s nobody coming to save her sweet little ass.”
    “Merry Christmas to us, then,” Mandy purred, setting her hat and scarf on the counter and tugging the fingertips of her leather gloves off one by one as she walked a slow circle around them. “Yum, cookies.”
    When she picked up one with ruffles on it, AJ said without thinking, “Hey, I’m not done icing those yet.”
    Mandy raised a mocking brow and then made a big, sensuous production of eating every bite, letting her eyes slide closed as she chewed. “Mmmm. If she’s as good a fuck as she is a cook, we may have to take her with us when we leave.”
    AJ bristled, mostly at her own conflicted reaction to that idea. “Like I’d going anywhere with you.”
    “Feisty, isn’t she?” Mandy said, flashing an amused look at Hake. “You’ll have to restrain her for what I have in mind.” She shrugged out of her short wool coat and carried it in the crook of her arm as she strolled across the big open dining area. “Come on, let’s go find the bedroom.”
    Hake tried to drag her along and AJ resisted, trying to pry his arms from around her, but he simply adjusted his grip around her midsection, lifted her a few inches off the floor and carted her off. She knew it was a game, and that Hake would never hurt her, but being handled so easily made her feel incredibly vulnerable so she kicked her