Authors: Violet Walker
Finally, he groaned and laid her back on the mattress, grasping her legs and raising them before pushing into her again. Her whimper bloomed into a long moan as he pounded against her, driving her closer and closer to the edge. She writhed under him, panting helplessly as her body tightened around him. Her nails dug into his back as her heels braced against his legs--and then she wailed with joy as her release exploded through her.
He started to tremble and pant as she contracted around him, his thrusts growing erratic and quick and his grip on her almost painful. His back arched; she saw his face, the strain on it--and then his lips parted as his bliss caught fire into ecstasy.
He gasped and shuddered violently, hips rolling hard, and she felt him spasm inside of her. He shouted, little explosive noises escaping him with each tremor of his sex...and then he went still, and settled over her limply.
She wrapped her arms around him, holding him as he caught his breath. Her knees lowered, muscles aching a little, and she dragged the comforter over them. He gasped softly as the cloth slid over his back, every nerve hypersensitive, and buried his face in her shoulder. “I love you,” he whispered against her skin as he drifted off.
She didn't want to come back down to earth after that. She just wanted to stay there, tangled up with him, sated and happy. Back down on earth there was the snowstorm, and the mess with Henry. Here in this quiet room was only pleasure and peace, and the honest, patient love of a good man. She stroked his hair, staring out at the falling snow, and stayed awake like that as long as she could.
“
D
on’t even talk about us to that son of a bitch right now. You don’t owe him an explanation. He does you.” James’s voice was gentler and calmer than usual, his manner more relaxed, but his opinions were as blunt as ever. “He damn well knew you were in love with him.”
“I’m not giving him an explanation. He made it none of his business when he did what he did. But I’m the one who should confront him about that.” She met James’s gaze firmly as they drank coffee on the couch. It was still early, the dim dawn light shining through the storm outside, and she was happily tired and a little sore from his cornering her in the shower not half an hour before. He had pinned her against the wall and taken her with the water pounding them, holding her up firmly the whole time. She regretted going from that to this discussion, but James was right--it had to be done.
He frowned slightly, but then nodded, bringing his cup to his lips. “You want to handle it? That’s fine. He makes you cry again, though, I’m punching his goddamn lights out.”
She sighed and focused on her coffee for a moment. James was stubborn and bad-tempered; those were his only real flaws, and they were directed outward, in defense of her, not against her. Right now, though, they stood to get him in real trouble. Aside from distracting him constantly with sex--something she would happily do anyway--she didn’t have very many ways to get him to cool down besides plain old reason and a dash of her own stubbornness. “I’m the one who should be doing that too.”
“Phff,” he teased, a bit of his anger melting and his eyes twinkling. “Might tickle him a little bit.”
“I’m not that weak.” Except against a giant lump of muscle like, well, either of them. “Anyway, my point is, let me try and talk to him first, okay?”
He sighed, the corner of his mouth quirking skeptically, but he nodded. “Okay, sweetheart, it’s your show. But I won’t let him hurt you again.”
She gave him a smile, grateful for the sentiment even if she really didn’t want to see him brought up on assault charges. Some women might have thought of two men fighting over her as romantic. Anna, meanwhile, was worried about the consequences for everyone involved.
She didn’t hate Henry. She had spent just a little time hating and loving him in equal measure last night, her emotions out of control. But then James had drowned all of that out for her, and she could look at the situation more objectively.
Henry had done something piggish and inexcusable by treating her love as disposable, but neither was he obliged to return her feelings. She wondered more and more whether there was something wrong with him, either emotionally or something going on in his life. Why did he only date casually? Why had he pushed her away so decisively after they had such a beautiful night together? And what had he heard from work and his doctors to make him so distant and distracted?
“I think that I would understand this better if it wasn’t so out of character for him,” she admitted finally. James looked at her over the rim of his coffee cup, eyebrows up, then nodded and set it aside.
“That’s true. He’s been good to us both up until now. Some guys, they’re decent folks until it comes to the whole women thing.”
“Maybe that’s it.”
James had made it very clear, in as many ways that he could, that he didn’t think it had a single thing to do with her. It amazed her. The moment she had finally given into her feelings for him was the moment she had stopped feeling as if her life was over. Now, after their first night together, she looked at him, and she knew that she had almost thrown her life away over something that now felt...a lot less valuable. Because it wasn't mutual. “But he was our friend before all of this. Maybe I need to ask him what the heck is even up before I do anything else.”
James let out a grunt and nodded once. “I’ll try and make sure you get first crack at him. I’m not sure I can trust myself just yet.” He gave her a pointed look.
James’s cell phone went off. He blinked and dug it out of his jeans, putting it to his year. “Yeah.” His face fell, and she sighed quietly as he tried to keep his voice even. “Yeah, Boss, go on.” He listened, brows drawing together. “The snowcat? No, I only took the one. How the Hell could I even drive more than one?” He blinked. “...Yeah, I’ll come up.”
He hung up and stood. “That whole snowcat issue. There’s some kinda wrinkle. I gotta go talk to him.”
She stood as well and went over to him. “Okay. Try and keep your temper. I’ll be close.”
They kissed once, lingering, and then he forced himself away from her and out the door. She heard his booted feet clomp down the hall, and sighed, hand over her heart.
What in the world is going on now?
There was only one way to find out. She hurried next door to her own room, and quickly got dressed before sneaking upstairs. Last night the thinness of that damned door had told her ugly truths. Now she expected to hear even more through it. She moved close to it, and quietly listened to the familiar voices in mid conversation.
“...entire fleet was stolen. That’s six total. I know you just took the one. Thing is, the security camera didn’t catch you, but it caught these four other guys.” Henry sounded baffled.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Boss, except I’m obviously a better thief than them.” James sounded almost proud.
“Yeah, how did you stay off the cameras, anyway?”
“Trade secret.” James’s voice was a drawl.
“Okay, well, the point is, until I called them they thought these other guys took it. Now I’m in a weird position where they’re asking me about these four other snowcats and think the two of us have something to do with it.”
“...crap.” James sighed. “Well, I know that if they call the cops, they’ll mess this whole thing up and we’ll both go down. I’m not sure about this one, Boss, might be time to call a damn lawyer.”
“Maybe. But that still leaves me wondering who has the snowcats.”
James grunted. “If folks stole a bunch of snowcats, it could be a rescue like it was with me, or it could be a way to get in and out of a place without anyone else being able to follow them.”
“Some kind of crime, you mean.” Henry sighed. “Guess there’s no way of knowing until they turn up. Meanwhile, what do we do with the one we have?”
“I say hang onto that sucker in case things get really bad here. It’s not like the Parks people can expect us to drive it over to their depot and then walk back.”
“Good point.”
Anna leaned against the wall next to the door, sighing in relief. They weren’t at each other’s throats. There was something weird going on with the stolen snowcat, but at least they weren’t--
“You heard from Anna yet today, Boss?” James’s voice had the tiniest edge to it, and she winced.
Oh come on, James, you said you would try to keep it together.
“Anna? No, why?
“Just noticed. The two of you seemed plenty cozy when I picked you up yesterday, but you’ve been shooin’ her off ever since.” His voice lowered to a growl. “Don’t think those are her panties hanging’ off your bedpost there, either.”
“Oh Hell--” Henry rushed awkwardly across the room, feet clattering. A drawer opened and closed. “You know, that is really none of your business!”
James’s voice was hard but steady. “You make that sweet girl cry, I make it my business.”
Henry went quiet. Anna nervously put her hand on the door, wondering if she should push it open and interrupt. Or would that be like trying to put out a fire with gasoline?
James went on. “You have got to be out of your goddamned mind tossing a girl like Anna aside.”
“Wait--what do you know…?
How
do you know?” Henry actually sounded a little panicked. The situation had fallen out of his control and he didn’t seem quite able to handle it.
James took two hard steps and Henry gasped; there was a rustle of cloth. “Because I’m the one that found her crying in the goddamn snow after she overheard you with whoever left those behind. That’s why! You son of a bitch.” Another rustle and a slight stumble.
“She overheard me? Oh God!”
Anna started to shake, her cheeks hot and her heart pounding. She should have been in there fighting her own battle, but the sight of those panties had set James off and she knew now that he couldn’t love her as well as he did and not say something. Meanwhile, Henry seemed mostly focused on having been caught.
“Yeah, she did, and it broke her goddamn heart, and if I hadn’t have found her out in the snow in hysterics when I did
she would have frozen to death.
” James’s breath came harshly as Henry swore under his breath. “So yeah, I’m the one that carried her back in, and I’m the one that looked after her, and now I’m the one in your goddamned face asking you why. Why the hell did you break that girl who loved you like that? What the hell gives you the right?”
Henry was quiet for a few moments. Then he said softly, “I didn’t want to break her, but I couldn’t get attached either.”
“Why would you not want to get attached to someone like that?”
Henry sighed. It wasn’t even noon yet but she heard the unmistakable sound of him pouring himself a drink from the wet bar. Her eyes widened.
Henry, what is going on?
“You know, I tell everyone I had a bad breakup and that’s why I don’t date. Truth is, I did have a bad breakup, and it was for the same reason that I stopped dating seriously. And the reason’s...pretty compelling. I mean, Anna’s a great kid. I was really tempted to make an exception, especially when I realized how much she likes me.”
Liked,
she thought resentfully, but just kept quietly listening.
“But the more she likes me, the more reason I shouldn’t be stringing her along by getting serious with her.”
“...what?” James sounded very skeptical. “That sounds like you're doing the opposite of what's good for you.”
“Yeah, I guess it would.” Henry sighed, and she heard him go over to the window and draw the shades aside. “Truth is, I’ve been fighting cancer for a long time now, James.”
Anna froze inside as she heard James suck air. Tears brimmed in her eyes as her view of reality shifted on its foundations.
“...Jesus.” James sounded breathless. “I had no idea.”
“That was kind of the point.” Henry paused. “I set up the foundation and gave guys like you work because I wanted to at least go out having accomplished something I was proud of with all this cash. But the whole time I did it, it was in part because I knew I was living on borrowed time. Oh, I have the best doctors, and I kept healthy the whole time pretty much, but…” he chuckled humorlessly. “One day you just know you’re going to get that one doctor’s phone call, and that’s kinda that.”
“Then you’re….?”
“Yeah, that was what the phone call with my doc was about. The son of a bitch practically left it on my answering machine. These New York doctors. They have the bedside manner of coroners.” The hollow cheer in Henry’s voice tore at Anna’s heart, and the tears spilled down her cheeks.
“Jesus, Boss. How long?”
“Long enough that I can wrap up getting you the help I promised, with your son. And make sure you’re not on the hook for the snowcat thing. The bonus I promised for your last job is going to take a few days to process fully. Don’t worry about that, I handled it today--”
“That’s all very goddamn nice, but for fuck’s sake…” James trailed off, voice weakening.
Henry went on, talking rapidly. “I’m passing the restoration company on into good hands. The best hands. She’s very trustworthy. I’m sure you’ll like her. And don’t worry about your job or anything.” He almost sounded like he was apologizing for admitting he was dying. “I just have some more paperwork to get done, and some stuff I’ll have to have Anna notarize….”
He trailed off slowly, and hitched in a shivering breath. “I really made a mess of poor Anna, didn’t I?”