No Reservations

NO RESERVATIONS

Megan Hart and Lauren Dane

Standing, Kate took a deep breath and smiled tightly at the other women in the house. 'I'm going to go and read for a while. Good night, everyone.'

Adriennc, Dix's younger daughter, ignored her, continuing to chatter to her mother who'd ensconced herself on the couch, right where Kate had been sitting for the last four days. Yes, Eve, the girls' mother. Dix's ex-wife. Stil , Kendal , the older girl, got up and hugged her. 'Night, Kate.

Sure you don't want to watch this movie with us? Gerard Butler, tiny leather undies? Come on, what's to say no in that?'

Kate laughed, liking Kendal a lot. Stil , even her secret celebrity boyfriend in leather undies wasn't enough to keep her in this wood-panel ed room fil ed with memories and Eve Dixon who'd jus: shown up a few hours before.

Dix looked up from his paper, surrounded by the women in his life and met her eyes. He had that look in them. Oh no, he did not even think she was flicking him now!

'I'l come too." He stood, putting the paper down.

Kate took a step away from him. 'No. No, it's Pine. You don't need to. I'm going to sleep right away anyway.' She sent him a look which he conveniently ignored.

He kissed and hugged each one or his daughters and nodded at Eve before he turned back to Kate. Grabbing her, he pul ed her to his body and kissed her. It was quick but he made his point. Pickles. Kate's not-so-nice nickname for the ex-wife, saw it and her eyes narrowed. Kate stifled the desire to pop her one.

'Of course I don't need to. But I'm tired and I've already seen this movie with you four times. I can give time number five a pass.' The look in his eyes told Kate he wasn't going to be swayed. He wanted what he wanted and he was certainly not above turning her into a puddle of goo if he had to.

A brittle cough interrupted their little struggle. 'Wel OK

then! Gosh I sure do appreciate you sharing the holidays with me, Katie. It's lonely you know, being a mom without her babies,' Pickles chirped. 'It's just you and me, girls.'

Bitch.

Resisting, only barely, her urge to slap the shit out of Pickles for cal ing her Katie, Kate dug her nails into her palms and left the room. She climbed the stairs towards their shared bedroom, the heat from his body right at her back so she couldn't escape. Once inside, she glared at him but he'd moved to build a fire in the fireplace.

'I know you're mad. I didn't know she was coming. I'l talk to her tomorrow.' He spoke as he worked, his back to her.

'Don't talk to me with your back." She knew it sounded petulant but so be it. His ex-wire, a woman who seemed terminal y unable to do stuff like open pickle jars without his assistance, had just shown up on the porch unannounced!

And she cal ed her Katie. She was not a Katie. And if she was, that thundert wat downstairs would not have the privilege of cal ing her that anyway. Over [he-months she and Dix had been seeing each other, the woman had gotten worse and worse. It had gotten to the point where Dix spent most of their time together at her place since Eve wouldn't dare show up there. Unfortunately, she'd taken to showing up lots of other places and Kate found that distasteful as wel as pitiable. It was beyond over between Dix and his ex. That Eve was being so pathetic now with her attempts to break him and Kate up spoke volumes about how crazy or how clueless the woman was.

Finishing up, Dix covered the grate and turned to face her, the corner of his mouth twitching. 'There, it should warm up in here soon. For now, let's preserve our body heat, shal we? I hear two people naked are good for that sort of thing.'

He tossed his sweater to the side, tousling his hair and looking very tasty. Bastard.

'Wel , I'm sure Pickles wil be glad to snuggle up to you then. You may have noticed, Charles, I'm not in the mood. I'm going to read and then I'm going to sleep. Ful y clothed.'

'Do you real y want me to go downstairs to a woman I ceased loving a long time ago and have been divorced from for nine years now? When you're right here and clearly in need of a little exercise to work off your mad? I don't want her.

I want you. I always want you.'

Warmth spread through her at the way his voice lowered and then more as he traced the back of his knuckles down the line of her jaw.

I love you, Kate. I'm here with you. I am sorry she showed up, but that doesn't mean you and I are any different than we were before she came.'

She arched a brow at him. 'Stop being logical. I don't want that from you right now.'

His face softened, losing that predatory gleam he had in his eyes. He pul ed her into a hug, kissing her before looking into her eyes. Christ, he made her love him so much. It didn't scare her any more, but he stil needed to be fended off at times when he tended to try to take control of every situation.

How is it you're even hotter when you're being prickly? I need therapy, but I'd rather have you. I know you're upset. I'm sorry. Do you want me to go down and make her leave?'

She sighed. 'Gah, you're abominable. I told you I didn't want to be rational right now. And you had to go and be al nice.' She rol ed her eyes and kissed him. 'I don't want her here. I hate her voice. Her perfume is cloying and needy, just like she is.' Kate groaned and pul ed at her bottom lip for a moment. 'No. I know why you didn't make her leave tonight. I don't want you to put the girls in the middle.' Pickles had done that already.

You're a good woman, Katherine.' The predatory gleam was back as he made very quick work of her sweater and then her bra. She sucked in a breath as he palmed her nipples. 'A good woman who likes my hands on her nipples.'

She shrugged. 'They're just hands. Anyone's hands would do. And we are not having sex tonight. Not with her here.'

He pushed her back and she bounced as she hit the mattress. The sounds of the movie downstairs floated up and under the door as the fire began to pop and crackle. She was never sexier to him than when she put him and his daughters first. She didn't know of course, so it wasn't about her manipulating it like Eve had done by showing up.

It'd been hours since he'd had her last. Since they'd fucked, hard and fast, stil mainly clothed in the thick forest behind the house. Her breath had misted in the air as he'd backed her against a tree. Her body received him, the shock of her heat a stark contrast to the cold air. And stil , he'd wanted her, even as the sweat on the back of his neck had cooled.

Whatever it was about her, he wanted to possess it even as he couldn't help but let the strength of her fierce independence shine through. That she wanted to be with him, that she sought him out and let him hold her, thril ed him and comforted him at the same time.

Right then, as he divested her of her jeans and those tiny panties, but left on the over-the-knee socks she knew he got off on so much, he was far more thril ed than comforted.

'I love those socks. So sexy and sil y. Every time I see you I want to devour you in three greedy bites,' he said as he got rid of the rest of his clothes and returned to her. She was stil pissed, he saw it in the set of her mouth, but it made seducing her, making her want his touch, making her crave his cock in her cunt, even sweeter.

'I want to read.' But she hadn't moved, in fact her eyes were glued to his hands as he'd unzipped his jeans and pul ed them down.

'Hmm. I want to lick your pussy.'

In the low light, he caught the sound of her indrawn breath. He reached out to open the curtains, silvery moonlight flooding into the room, il uminating her as she waited for him.

His cock jumped against his bel y when she caught her bottom lip between her teeth.

He chuckled, taking in the way her nipples stabbed skywards and not because of the cold. Her scent, of desire flushed skin and her pussy, rose to meet him as he got onto the bed beside her.

'So, darling Kate, open your thighs for me.' He leant in and her hand rested gently against his shoulder. He wanted to laugh triumphantly, that hand was meant to push him back but neither one of them had the energy to play that game.

In the dark, in the quiet of the room with the night settled in al around, Kate couldn't help but arch into his mouth. He left hot, wet kisses down her neck and gooseflesh in his wake.

Halfheartedly, her hand rested on his shoulder where she'd been ready to shove him back. Instead, she breathed him into her lungs and let him touch her.

Any way he wanted to.

It was always this way with him, had been since the first moment she'd opened her hotel-room door to find him standing there nearly a year before. He touched her like he was meant to. Her body and her heart certainly agreed.

Charles Dixon was her favourite addiction, even if he was an arrogant man with an ex-wife who'd ensconced herself downstairs watching Kate's Geny Butler and probably trying to steal him, too.

'Quit it,' she managed to say, the words thick on her tongue as desire bloomed, slow like honey, through her veins.

Her nipples hardened, her pussy slickened and readied for him. 'You don't want me to stop.'

She didn't. But damn him, his ex-wife was under the same roofl '/ don't, but Eve does.'

He snorted just before he caught a nipple between his teeth, sending bright shards of pleasure/pain skittering through her. 'I don't care about her. Plus, I hate to break it to you, darling Kate, but she knows I'm having my way with you right now.'

'That is . . . oh, holy Christ, you're not playing fair.' His knuckles brushed against her labia, stroking against the slick knot of her clit.

He laughed, that dark, wicked chuckle as he inched downwards. 'I'm playing the way you like it. Hard, hot and bad.

I'm going to eat your pussy until you have to scream into the pil ow. And then I'm going to fuck you until every damned spring on this bed squeaks. I wil have you, Kate, and then I'l have you again and once more after that.' His tongue swirled decadently around her bel y button before he caught the ridge between his teeth briefly.

What could she say to that other than, Yay\ She real y should be firm with him but when he did that thing, oh yes, that thing with his tongue, wel she wasn't a saint. Plus she sucked at being firm with him. He was bossy and pushy and arrogant when it came to sex and their relationship. Truly it was part of his appeal. Though it did get exhausting sometimes. She'd dated a lot of men but Charles Dixon was a capital-M man and she loved it when he played at pushing her around. As long as he respected her, she sort of liked how he took charge.

He licked through her cunt, savouring her slowly. The palms of his hands held her thighs open wide and down. That bit of restraint flipped her switch.

Her fingers tunnel ed through his hair as she urged him closer, needing more and knowing he'd give it to her. He moaned then and it vibrated through her clit, up her spine, lodging in her brain, the sound/sensation fluttering like a moth.

The flat of his tongue slid back and forth over her clit.

Until he pul ed back. 'Mmm, you taste so fucking good. Now hush, you don't want anyone to hear you. You don't want anyone to know my mouth is on your cunt. To know I'm just about to make you come al over my face.' His voice was a breath of sound she barely heard above the water lapping the lakeshore and the wind blowing through the trees.

Stil she heard it and it did her in. Her gasp was involuntary and a shiver roiled through her. 'Get to it already.

Al talk, you,' she whispered back and he laughed.

He surged up her body, kissing whichever parts of her were within his reach. 'Tough talk for a woman so wet, her thighs are glistening.' He kissed her, owning her mouth, not letting her take refuge but instead making his point. She wanted him and he knew it. He knew just how to get to her, knew her buttons.

Their little game and she loved it as much as he loved him.

'God, what am I going to do with you?' she moaned and he nipped her bottom lip.

'I have many ideas. First of al , stop being so uptight. No one is going to hear us. The girls are watching a movie so loud I can hear it and I don't give a damn if Eve hears. She wasn't invited. Anyway, you're not usual y turned off\>y the notion someone might hear.' 'That's strangers, dumbass. This is a house ful of your women.'