Trapped - Christmas Bonus Page 3
I can hear the smile in his voice when he says, “We’re here. Maybe this will cheer you up and get your mind off sex for a few minutes.”
I sputter in protest as he pulls the car into a long driveway made of gray pavers in front of a brick-and-stone-faced, two-story house.
“What are we doing here?” I ask as he turns off the engine.
He opens his door. “I want to get your opinion on it.”
I follow him out of the car and up to the front porch. “Is it one of your designs? Is it for sale?” I look around the well-kept, dormant lawn but don’t see a for sale sign.
“Sort of.” He fishes keys from his coat pocket and proceeds to unlock the front door.
He steps aside and motions me in ahead of him. In the front foyer, I’m surrounded by warmth and the clean scent of pine and…newness. The house smells new. As in that never been lived in scent that accompanies new wood floors and carpeting.
Directly ahead, a wood-and-wrought-iron staircase curves to the second floor. I look up at Mitch. It’s exactly the kind of staircase I’d said I’d wanted in our dream house. My breathing quickens.
No, it can’t be. There’s no way. No way, I tell myself as I advance down the hall. The first room to our right is the living room, the chandelier hanging from a trey ceiling. Up a bit farther is the family room, the centerpiece, a gorgeous floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace.
I gaze at it all in silence, my jaw slack, my eyes wide. I turn to him and ask, “Is this your design?”
He nods, an enigmatic smile edging his lips. “With some help from my dad.”
“But this is—this looks like our house. The one you said you’d build for us one day.” I continue to look around, unable to believe what I’m seeing. Our dream house come to life from architectural drawings Mitch has been toying with the past year. But while we’d dreamed about owning a house like this, we wouldn’t be able to afford it for years.
“What do you think?” he asks, following my gaze as I soak in the sight of dark hardwood floor as far as the eye can see and a kitchen that has me practically salivating.
“I think I’ve died and gone to heaven,” I say on one long breath.
Walking up behind me, he places a possessive hand on my waist and pulls me back against him. “It’s close to both our jobs and there’s enough room in the back for a pool if we decide to put one in one day.”
I spin around to face him, my hands resting on his broad shoulders. “You mean it’s ours?”
He nods, his grin going from ear to ear. “Merry Christmas, babe.” He kisses me on the lips.
Oh my god. Ohmygodohmygod. It’s hard to breathe, my heart is beating so hard.
I break the kiss and shoot another look around. High-end appliances, cherry kitchen cabinets, granite counter-tops, and ridiculously expansive molding and woodwork throughout.
“But Mitch, we can’t afford this.”
“Babe, it’s a gift. From my grandparents.”
I place a hand on my chest to prevent my madly racing heart from escaping. “But—but they can’t give us a house.” Who does that? Nobody I know.
“I tried to talk them out of it but my grandparents insisted. They said why should the government take half of their money when they’re gone when their children and grandchildren can make use of it when they’re still alive.”
He pulls me back into his arms and I melt into him. “Plus, I made a deal with them.”
Tears sting my eyes as I peer up at him. “What deal?”
“That I’d let them give us the house as long as we paid for the wedding. My parents would only agree if I agreed to let them pay for half of it.”
Then he thrusts his hand in his pocket and I hold my breath as he pulls out a black velvet-covered box. He opens it with the other hand.
The sight of the beautiful princess cut diamond ring flanked by two smaller diamonds on either side elicits a gasp from me, one that echoes in the large empty room. It’s the one I’d wanted. The one I’d tried on when Mitch had taken my hand and led me into the jewelry store when we’d been shopping in the mall during the summer.
“Paige baby, will you marry me?” Not that Mitch’s voice wasn’t already deep and delicious enough to constantly set my panties ablaze, but those words coming from his lips is a question I’ll never forget for as long as I live.
I nod frantically, crazily. “Yes. Yes. Oh God Yes.”
He smiles and slides the ring on my finger. The white gold is cool against my flesh and feels so right. It fits perfectly and looks as if it were made for my finger.
Once it’s on, I launch myself into his arms and pour all the love and passion I have in me into the kiss. And after too long without, we practically devour each other whole, our breathing ragged and our clothes in disarray when we finally come up for air minutes later.
“We have to stop,” Mitch rasps, reluctantly removing his hand from my breast.
My body couldn’t disagree with him more. But he’s right. Right place, wrong time.
I straighten my bra and sweater. As I watch him wince as he adjusts his junk, all I can think is that I can help him with his problem.
“Keep looking at me like that, and I swear, we’ll christen the house right now.”
I jerk my gaze up to his face, and the hunger in his eyes tells me he’s not joking. “Is there carpeting upstairs?”
He laughs and enfolds my hand in his. “Why don’t we take a look.”
First he finishes giving me a tour of the first floor before we climb the gorgeous staircase to the second. Upstairs there’s a total of four bedrooms and a small playroom that connects two of the smaller rooms. The master suite is twice the size of the one we have now, which puts it in the humongous range.
When Mitch had been coming up with a design, I’d let my imagination run wild. Must-haves and been mixed liberally with would-be-nice-to-haves and in-my-wildest-dreams. This house—our house—has almost all of them: A reading nook with a window seat in the master suite, and an office, a mudroom and a laundry room on the first floor.
Right now, I’m overcome by all of it. Overcome with love for my ridiculously hot fiancé and overwhelmed by how truly blessed I am.
In the middle of our future bedroom, I turn to Mitch and wrap my arms around his waist. “I don’t know what to say.” Emotion clogs my throat.
“I love you will be more than enough,” he teases softly.
Silent tears roll down my cheeks. “Kiss me.”
His eyes close on a groan. “Babe, I’m not going to want to stop.”
“Then don’t,” I whisper.
His nostrils flare as he peers down at me from between half-lidded eyes. “You want to christen the house right now?”
I answer by stroking him through his jeans. He’s hard and thick, and I’m instantly wet and ready for him again.
That stroke to his cock is like fire to tinder, his control snapping as his mouth comes down on mine. We kiss as if we haven’t kissed for days, weeks, months. We kiss with the knowledge that it won’t end with both of us aching and hungry.
He pulls his tongue out of my mouth long enough to pant against my mouth, “Panties. Off.”
He pushes my coat off my shoulders as I unfasten my jeans and shove them over my hips and down to my knees, taking my panties with them.
Once I’m bared to him, my sex waxed just the way he likes it, Mitch tears his mouth from mine, his gaze glued to the perfect triangular patch of hair between my legs. “Fuck,” he breathes. “You’re killing me.”
He quickly shrugs out of his coat and spreads it on the carpet, his scorching hot gaze never leaving me. Then I’m on my back and he’s over me, his jeans and underwear just clearing his narrow hips.
He’s hard and I’m so ready to have him inside me, I’m nearly incoherent with need. Clutching his shoulders, I wait for the first delicious probe at my entrance but all I feel is the tip of his cock running along my seam. Pleasure courses through me. I lift my hips and moan his name.
“What do you want?” he murmurs against my lips. It’s clear what he wants is to torture me.
“You know,” I whimper.
“Do you want me to make love to you?” His voice is softly seductive because he knows that’s what I like to hear.
“No, I want you to fuck me. Hard.”
His head rears back in surprise. And then his eyes go wild, his desire, his hunger now a living, breathing thing. He slams into me, going all the way in a single thrust and hitting all the pleasure spots.
God, he feels so good. But as much as I want to savor the fullness of his cock inside me, I can’t. My body won’t let me. It demands satisfaction. And Mitch is as frantic for release as I am, pounding into me hard, just the way I told him I wanted it.
We don’t last another minute, my orgasm hitting first and wringing a helpless cry from me at the blinding intensity of it. Mitch’s takes him seconds later, a hoarse, strangled sound falling from his lips.
Sated, he slowly lowers himself down beside me and tugs me tight to his side. I turn to look at him. He kisses me gently on the mouth and traces my bottom lip with his tongue.
“That was worth the wait.”
I smile, nodding happily as I cup his bristled cheek in my palm.
“I love you, Paige, and I always will.”
I feel an ugly cry coming on. “I love you too. And I always have and always will,” I choke out.
He kisses me again, and there’s nothing I’d rather do than lie here with him in this big empty house for another hour or two.
The ring of his cell phone makes sure that’s not happening. While he pulls up his jeans and digs it out of his front pocket, I hurry and put my panties and jeans back on. I’m in the process of zipping up when he says, “She said yes.” He smiles at me and mouths, “Mom.”
In the minutes that follow, the whole story unfolds. The plan had been for everyone—including my mom and Randy—to come here later this afternoon in the guise of taking the kids to see the biggest Christmas tree in Georgia. There we’d be presented with the house and then Mitch was going to propose to me in front of our families. Erin’s predicament had thrown a wrench in those plans.
And things couldn’t have worked out more perfectly.
After Mitch gets off the phone, he looks at me, a mischievous light in his eyes.
“What?” I know something’s up.
“Mom says my grandmother’s moratorium on unmarried people sharing a room in her house doesn’t include engaged people, so tonight you’re getting a new roommate,” he says, waggling his eyebrows.
Giddy with happiness, I pull his head down for a quick kiss. “First the house and now this? This is officially the best Christmas ever.”
Mitch stares into my eyes, his expression tender and brimming with love. “Babe, we have a lifetime of more just like it.”
I blink back tears. Again. I’m an emotional wreck today.
Smiling, he drops a hard kiss on my lips. “C’mon, let’s go pick up Erin.”
*****
Picking up Erin is not the same thing as picking up milk or a loaf of bread on your way home from work. No, this task is ten times harder. Milk and bread don’t talk back.
“I’m not arguing with you, Erin. You’re coming with us.” She knows me. I can be just as stubborn as she is.
She opens her mouth—I assume—to do the thing I just told her not to when Mitch interrupts our back and forth.
“It’s Christmas, Erin. Why don’t you save us all thirty minutes of our lives we’ll never be able to get back. Go change and pack your stuff so we can go.”
“Guys, I know you mean well, but honestly I’m fine right here.”
“Mitch proposed. Do you or do you not want to see the ring and the other huge present we got?” This is what you have to do with stubborn friends, fight dirty.
Her eyes go wide and her lips part as she gapes at me. “Show me,” she demands in a strident voice.
I push my left hand deeper in my pocket and smile smugly. “Not until we’re in the car. And by the way, our other really really awesome gift is a twenty-minute drive from here. So it’s your choice. Do you want to see my ring, be my maid of honor—”
She gasps as if shocked that I’d use that as a bargaining chip to get my way.
“—see our fabulous gift or spend Christmas alone?”
“You’re heartless,” she says, sulking. But I know she’s happy that she has a friend who would do this to her. For her. Care about her this much.
“Which is why you love me so much,” I call after her as she starts up the stairs.
She stops and turns around, looking down at us from halfway. “Did you really propose?” she asks Mitch.
He lets out a short laugh. “I did, cross my heart.”
To prove we’re not lying, I pull my hand out of my pocket and flash my ring, before quickly returning it to its hiding place. “Now hurry, if you want to see it up close.”
With a kind of skip/hop and a squeal, she dashes the rest of the way up.
Once she’s out of view and out of earshot, I peer up at Mitch. “So when do you think we should tell her Josh’ll be over for dinner tomorrow night?”
He grimaces. “I’m thinking maybe never.”
Yep, that sounds about right.
THE END…FOR NOW
Other Books
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New Adult Romances
Unforgettable You Series
Book 1 - ONLY FOR YOU (Olivia & Zach)
Book 2 - ALL OVER YOU (Rebecca & Scott)
Book 3 - ALWAYS BEEN YOU (April & Troy)
Book 4 – FOREVER WITH YOU (Emily & Graham)
TBD
***
Connecting series
Trapped
Free Prequel - THE TRAP (Paige & Mitch’s Beginning)
Book 1 - TRAPPED (Paige & Mitch’s HEA)
Book 1 - TRAPPED Expanded Edition (Includes The Trap)
Book 2 - PLAYED (Erin & Josh)
TBD
* * *
Historical Romances
The Elusive Lords series in chronological order.
SINFUL SURRENDER (James & Missy)
A TASTE OF DESIRE (Thomas & Amelia)
ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE & SEDUCTION ( free novella)
(Derek & Elizabeth)
AN HEIR OF DECEPTION (Alex & Charlotte)
Connecting series
The Temptresses
TWICE THE TEMPTATION (Lucas & Catherine)
THE ROAD TO TEMPTATION (Prequel – Meghan & Rhys)
TBD
A WICKED TEMPTATION (Meghan & Rhys)
TBD