The Christmas Playbook (Shadow Valley U)

Chapter 5 Well, that fucking escalated quickly. One minute, my mouth is opening, and I'm telling the receptionist that Mira and I can share the cabin. Which, for the record, is one of my more impulsive decisions. I kind of regretted it immediately, but her shocked expression was worth it. Plus, I meant what I said-there is no way in hell I'm third-wheeling in my friends' cabins. Aaron and Willow are loud as shit. Don't ask me how I know. The vision of me sleeping with a pillow stuffed over my face flashes before my eyes. And Thorne and Briar? Still in the honeymoon phase, honestly.

They probably concocted some bullshit rule about no clothes in the cabin. I love Thorne, but I do not need to see his dick. And he'd punch me if I accidentally saw Briar's tits. But then-but then-Mira's sisters strolled into the lodge. I remember them, and I'm not too surprised by their catty conversation. A pang of empathy rolls through me. If I were her, I wouldn't want to share a cabin with them. Not after her outburst about being squished between a huge teenager and a two-year-old. That sounds like the opposite of a good time. Her gaze flicks to mine as she spins toward her sisters.

I rotate with her, and she leans on my chest. Her body heat goes straight through the thin shirt I snagged on the way out the door. "Marcus is wrong," she says to them. "I'm not single." I barely bite back my gasp. She has a boyfriend? Then why the fuck is she leaning on-oh. She's referring to me. This is not good. She's lying through her teeth, and I have half a mind to out her immediately just on the principle of the matter. So why the fuck does my hand automatically go to her hip? My hand is huge against her, splaying across her abdomen.

The sisters' expressions drop, their eyebrows lifting. They don't even seem ashamed that they were overheard. The fact that there's not an ounce of guilt in their expressions goes straight through me. What kind of monsters have they turned into? Yeah, they were always brats. They shunned Mira because she was a little awkward. Okay, a lot awkward. But that's why we got along. We were nerds together. We played alien cowboy space drifters-a made-up game that involved pretend guns and sprinting around our backyards. Her siblings would never.

Her parents didn't pay attention to her much either, come to think of it. I refocus on Mira's sisters. Their names are escaping me, but I don't know if Mira wants to out me as the ex-boy-next-door. It might be too cliche, then she'd have to deal with that ridicule. Besides, I look different. I grew a few feet, gained fifty pounds in muscle, lost the baby face... "You have a boyfriend," one of them says in disbelief. It's the taller of the two. She's stick-thin, and she may as well have just stepped out of a ski magazine. Her gaze darts to my face, then sweeps down my body.

I've been inspected before, but never with such skepticism. "Is that so hard to believe?" Mira asks. My fingers flex, but I have no idea what the appropriate response is. "Well..." The shorter, curvier one frowns. "It's just that you've never actually mentioned him." "Can you blame her?" I rumble. "You both look like you're sucking on lemons." Mira tries to cover her laugh with a cough, but I see right through her. I shuffle her to the side and put my arm over her shoulders. She's so much shorter than me that she tucks right in, like she was made for this spot. Her arm comes around my waist.

"If you'll excuse us, I promised Mira three earth-shattering orgasms before dinner." I wink at her evil sisters. They flush, which is a success in my book. I guide Mira away from them fast, propelling her forward. Back outside. Down the walking path back to our cabin. Our cabin. As soon as they're out of sight, Mira worms out from under my arm. She speeds on ahead, surprisingly fast for being so short. I lengthen my stride and catch up, resisting the urge to drag her to a halt to hash this out. I can wait a few minutes. The questions bubble up inside me, though. Like what the fuck, Mira?

And why did you do that? And how long is this ruse going to last? Find the newest release on find{n}ovel.net We make it inside, and I kick off my shoes. I grab her suitcase, which was abandoned right in the doorway, and drag it farther in. I set it next to my bags by the dresser. When I turn to face her, she's shed her jacket and glares at me from the middle of the cabin. "Why are you staring at me like that?" I question. "You just told your sisters I'm your boyfriend." Her jaw works, but she doesn't reply. "Why did you do it?" "You heard what they said." I roll my eyes. "Yeah, I did.

It was mean of them." "It's nothing new either." I know. I haven't seen her in years, not since we moved away from that neighborhood, but it doesn't matter. A tiger doesn't change its stripes, and clearly, emerging into adulthood didn't put Mira on even footing with her siblings. "What do you want?" "Three earth-shattering orgasms," she jokes. God, please be joking. I can't fuck her. Not that I would have to do that to bring her to a screaming climax... or three. I've got a magic tongue, and not just for talking. Or eating ice cream.

In fact, every ice cream cone I've devoured in my life has been in preparation for eating pussy. Just saying. "Strip, then," I say. She freezes. "Um⁠-" She was definitely joking. Oh, her cheeks are turning red. This is going to be fun. "Relax, Frostbite." I chuckle. "I knew you were kidding." "Oh, good." She relaxes. She even uncrosses her arms. "So..." I take a seat on the edge of the bed. My traitorous mind goes straight to what her body will look like naked. Sharing a cabin with her without seeing it is... delusional. Right? I'll get to see her naked, right, Universe?

Gosh, I'd turn in every fucking karmic brownie point I've ever earned to make that a reality. And it's not just because now I'm imagining what she tastes like. I've just been complaining about my friends getting laid for the whole trip, and I thought I'd have a cabin to myself to hook up with a random chick on vacation with her family... But now one's going to be living in here, and that's simultaneously hot and a cock block. "We should discuss this," she mutters. My eyebrows hike. "Yeah? Maybe in the hot tub?" "Did you bring swim trunks or⁠-?" "The nakedness was an impulse," I grumble.

Like telling her we could share this cabin, which suddenly feels like it's a thousand degrees. "Don't worry, Frostbite, it won't happen again." She's still beet red, but she shakes it off and goes to the little table. She drags out a chair and motions for me to sit across from her. I do, angling my seat so I can kick out my legs. I rest my forearm on the table and drum my fingers, my gaze resting on her face. Similar and different. Grown up. Pretty. No-beautiful. Blue eyes, long blonde hair, pink lips. She's not wearing makeup, but it doesn't fucking matter. "Okay.

So, um, my family will no doubt all know that I have a boyfriend by now." She can't face me. "Which means I either come clean to all of them that I lied, or..." Or, I go along with it. "What kind of commitment are we talking about, here?" She lights up when I don't immediately write it off. Color me intrigued. "Dinners, probably. At least two. We're here until January second. When do you...?" "Same." "Okay. Right. So, a couple dinners, just to satisfy their curiosity. I can make up something if you have plans with your friends. Um... skiing, too?

A few times, just to show them that we're doing stuff together." "I snowboard." I tilt my head. "That's not a problem, is it?" "I... no. I rented a snowboard, too." My eyebrows have a life of their own, because they shoot up. "When did you learn how to snowboard?" "I can get by." She scratches at her neck. "We always come here. It's our Christmas tradition. And every year, I get snowboarding equipment and..." I lean forward. "And what?" "Nothing." She clears her throat.

"I don't like being out there, but it's going to be fine for the show of it, right?" I'm trying to read between the lines, and the best that I can come up with is that Mira doesn't actually snowboard. The more I think on it, though, slotting her into her family dynamics, the clearer the picture becomes. They probably wouldn't even notice if she got all dressed up in the outfit, with the board, then slipped away before getting on the lift. My chest tightens at the thought of my family treating me that way. They'd never. "Some slope action, some dinners.

Anything else?" She slowly shakes her head. "I don't want to take you away from your friends." I snort. "They'll be fine if I'm a little absent. Now... about those orgasms?" "Not happening," she says immediately. "No sex. We're building a wall of pillows between us." I eye her. "Mira." "What?" "Your family won't believe that I'm your boyfriend if you don't kiss me." "And-" "And if you're not comfortable with me. Physically." Her gaze skips around the room. "I'm fine." "We'll discuss the orgasms at a later date," I decide. "But I require at least two public kisses. With tongue.

Or the whole deal is off." She glares at me, but I just smile. And after a beat, I hold out my hand for her to shake. For a second, she has me convinced she's not going to take it. But then her hand slides into mine, her cold fingers squeezing tightly, and my smile broadens. "Let the games begin, Frostbite."