Straight Up [Frostbite Falls Christmas 4] Read online

  Her red hair twisted up on her head had his fingers itching to release it. To let all that hair loose and flowing down her back. He could still remember how soft it was against his fingers. He could only imagine what it would look like spread across his pillow, all fiery red against stark white. A perfect contrast. Just like her.

  He glanced over at his cousin, who was deconstructing a goat cheese, hummus, and sweet potato chip tower on his plate. Being with Victoria was the only secret he could remember keeping from his cousin in more than twenty years. Not since he’d broken Trevor’s Teenage Mutant Turtles pizza truck in third grade.

  He wasn’t even sure why he had decided to keep it a secret. They’d barely been in town a week when he’d found Vic a little tipsy at the Fourth of July festival. If he’d known who she was then, he probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere near her. But that night all he’d known was how gorgeous she was. Her fiery hair tumbled in soft waves around her face. Her tank top and shorts showed off enough skin to have his libido revving while still looking classy.

  He must have been tipsy himself on all that beer and whiskey. He’d never taken a girl into a barn before—which probably had something to do with growing up in the city and never being in the vicinity of a barn. He’d also never stuck his hand down a girl’s pants as she moaned on top of a bale of hay, but it was certainly something he’d like to replicate.

  With Vic he’d been almost possessed. From the second he’d seen her, downing her own beer, he’d had to have her. He’d had to make her scream and cry and come. It wasn’t a want. It was a need. And it had been glorious. It hadn’t been until a week later, after a few questions to the regulars at their uncle’s feed store—now their store, though it was still hard to remember that most of the time—that he’d learned her identity.

  And then everything changed. Once he learned the girl he’d fingered to screaming was the mayor’s daughter he’d knew he had to stay away. He couldn’t get involved with her. This was their last chance. His and Trevor’s. Maybe he could risk his own future for her. Maybe. But he definitely couldn’t risk Trevor’s future for a woman. Even a woman like Vic.

  A part of him had always thought he’d tell Trevor about Vic. Eventually. In the beginning, he didn’t know what to say. He figured there was plenty of time to tell his cousin about Vic once he figured out who she was and what she meant to him.

  Once he realized she was the queen of Frostbite Falls, he hadn’t wanted to bring it up. Sam had never been good at concealing his emotions, and once Trevor figured out how much he wanted her, he’d bug him about going after her until he wanted to punch him in the junk just to shut him up. Which would hurt them both in the end. Though admittedly it would hurt Trevor more than him.

  But Sam was realistic. He knew better than to think he could be with Vic.

  She was too special. Too important to this town. They already didn’t accept them. Calling him and his cousin city boys. Not even city folk, but city boys. Making sure they always knew their place in town—and it wasn’t with them, and certainly not with Victoria Willis.

  The ironic part was most of their lives they’d been made fun of for being country bumpkins. All through school kids had teased them for their country heritage. Laughing about how they only knew how to ride horses because they’d needed to rope cattle. To their prep-school peers that had been atrocious. It didn’t matter that his father had gotten out of ranching years ago and now worked for a successful hedge fund. His grandfather still came to all their school events wearing a cowboy hat, and that’s all anyone remembered.

  Now they didn’t belong because they were too city. Further proof they didn’t belong anywhere. Not the city or the country. Not in the tech boom or in the feed store. And definitely not in Frostbite Falls.

  But whether they belonged here or not, they had to make it work. One way or another. Even if he had to suck up to every old fogey in the state. They needed the town on their side. They needed to make this business work. Dating Vic—or even worse, going after her and not succeeding—would only turn the town against them even more. After the failure of their last business, they couldn’t afford to take any more risks. This was their last chance, and he couldn’t waste it on some woman. No matter how sweet, how beautiful, how wonderful she was.

  Trevor pierced his fork through some white stuff spread between two slices of zucchini. Sam wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but it didn’t look like meat. It was probably something closer to a vegetable, but he had no clue which one. “How long do we have to stay?”

  Sam had been thinking the same, trying to decide how long he had to endure this special kind of torture. To be near her, unable to touch her, unable to trust himself to talk to her. Before they’d arrived he’d planned to stay only long enough to greet everyone, have one drink—which now he saw was an impossibility—and then head out. The less time he spent testing his control the less likely he was to exceed his limits.

  But now that he was here, watching her walking around the room, smiling at everyone as she made her rounds, he didn’t know how to leave. Just the sight of her was enough to have him superglued to his fucking chair.

  He’d never thought of himself as a masochist before, but clearly he was.

  “I don’t know, once we’ve met everyone and made sure the whole town knows we’re here.” It was a dumb reason to stay. Everyone in town already had an opinion about them. No opinions would be changed by the two of them attending a party. But it was vaguely a satisfying answer, and explained why he hadn’t already hightailed it out of there and away from the woman whose mere presence was torture for him.

  “And when exactly will that be?” Trevor picked a cherry tomato off his plate and popped it in his mouth.

  “I don’t know,” Sam transferred some of the anger toward himself to his cousin. Which felt a lot better than beating himself up. “Stop being a child and eat your damn food already.”

  Trevor only stuck out his tongue. He never took anything too seriously, which was nice…most of the time. He picked up another sweet potato cake thing, cramming it into his mouth and chopping noisily. It was rude, but it allowed Sam to focus his attention back on the room—and one particular person. At the moment that’s all that mattered to him.

  He almost swallowed his tongue when he looked up and she was no longer by the door—as she had been for the last hour, shaking the hand of every person that entered the ball. Instead she negotiated her way through the crowd, her eyes focused in his direction. Sam’s heart almost pounded out of his chest as her gaze met his. Her dark blue eyes were like two giant sapphire guns pointed right at him.

  His mouth dried up. With the only option to drink the red cocktails on the table—or the more horrible-looking pink concoction he saw at the bar—he didn’t see that changing anytime soon. Even with his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, he still had standards.

  He flattened his hands on the tabletop, as his mind ping-ponged back and forth between complete dread and elation at being close to her again. She couldn’t be coming to see them. She had no reason to talk to him. She’d done her cursory civic duty, shaking his hand when they’d first walked in. They had no other reason to talk to each other. Running a feed store didn’t open up a lot of avenues to talk to the owner of Frosty Designs.

  Still, his cock thickened just at the thought of being close to her. His throat tightened so hard he could barely breathe. His body shook with anticipation of being close to her, even as his mind fought hard to maintain control.

  Any second and she’d veer off in a different direction, head toward her friends, hightail it to the bar for her own bright pink monstrosity. Any minute her eyes would leave his, and she’d walk off some other way, taking with her the smile that haunted his dreams. Which was exactly where visions of her should be left. To his dreams. His mind. And nowhere in his reality.

  But as she continued walking toward him with a glimmer in her eye, he knew he was really truly screwed. Once she got close, once she
was within touching distance, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. Which would be bad. Really, really bad if they wanted to make the store work. Which they did.

  So why doesn’t it feel bad right now?

  * * * *

  Victoria smiled as she walked toward the table where Trevor and Sam sat. A quick scan of the room showed her friends were all occupied. Lydia stood across the room by the largest Christmas tree. Both of the Manning brothers flanked her sides. Go get ’em, girl.

  Lydia acted like there were no men in town that could want her, when they all knew the opposite was true. Half the town’s male population had asked Victoria about Lydia and how she was doing. Victoria doubted they asked out of concern for her well-being.

  But the Manning’s weren’t one of them. Victoria was a little surprised to see them take an interest in Lydia, but they were both excellent choices. The town sheriff was a good guy. Definitely a nice match for Lydia. And Chase was just as sweet and noble, though not nearly as serious.

  Not that it mattered which one she chose. Lydia was completely distracted. That’s all that mattered tonight.

  A glance to her other side of the room where Grace leaning up against the bar, drink in hand while she talked to two men of her own. Victoria could only see their backs from where they stood around Grace, completely focused on her.

  They had to be from Frostbite Falls. Who else would come to the Christmas Ball but a resident? But with only a view of the back of their heads Victoria couldn’t pinpoint who they were. All she could make out was their wide shoulders filling up their jackets, maybe a little too well. They looked like they might pop the seams if they opened their arms too wide.

  Maybe one of them was her phantom texter? Not that it mattered. As long as they occupied Grace, Victoria didn’t care who they were.

  As predicted, Riley had taken up a spot at a nearby table with her best friends. The two of them were drooling over her so badly there was no way one of them wouldn’t make a move tonight. It wasn’t obvious which one would finally pull the trigger. And it didn’t matter. They were both completely focused on her, their big bodies blocking out almost all of Riley from the rest of the room. All Victoria could see was the flash of gold and the silver of her shoes kicking beneath the table.

  Everyone was occupied. Everyone was focused on their own romantic interest. Everything was falling into place. Just as she planned. All her friends were too distracted by their own men to notice her leave her own party, with not one but both of the Sullivans.

  Chapter Three

  “What do you think of your first Frostbite Falls Ball?”

  Trevor tried to pretend he hadn’t noticed the woman now standing beside him. Not that anyone could not notice Victoria Willis. Every time she walked into a room all eyes went to her. Especially his. But he had to pretend, or the truth of what happened between them would be out in the open. To his cousin, if no one else.

  Every second since they’d entered the room tonight, his attention had been focused on her. He didn’t want to be. He tried to focus on something else. The drinks, the decorations, taking apart his food to try and figure out what it was. But nothing could keep his eyes from shifting back to her. His gaze always found her black dress in the crowd like the worst version of Where’s Waldo? he’d ever played.

  “It sounds like they’re enjoying themselves.” He motioned toward the table beside them that was laughing so loud it could be heard anywhere in the room, regardless of the cheery holiday music pipped in over the PA system. The six empty cocktail glasses lining the table explained some of their behavior, but not all of it. At least not in his opinion. No matter how much he drank, Trevor never acted like that much of an ass. Some of it had to be natural.

  “Yes, they do,” she spat out between clenched teeth. The anger she directed toward the table with her stare had a smile tugging up the edges of his lips. He wasn’t sure what the man with the blonde bimbo climbing all over him had done to her, but he almost felt bad for him. From the look in her midnight eyes, he was going to pay, and pretty damn soon.

  He wished he could be there to witness it. If town rumor was to be believed, Victoria Willis was a force to be reckoned with when someone crossed her. He could almost see her, all fire and fury, her eyes bright as she took him down to size. He had to shift his knees a little further apart to make room for the boner popping up between his legs at the thought.

  Then she turned back to them, the anger replaced with a big bright smile. The Victoria most of the world saw. Calm, cool, and collected. “But what about you two? What do you think?”

  “It’s great.” Trevor would have lied to make her happy. He wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But he didn’t have to. It really was amazing. The room looked fantastic, all bright and red and cheery. Every inch of the place dripped with decorations, glass balls, twinkle lights, snowflakes, and evergreen bows, yet not too much that it looked gaudy.

  He could only imagine the time it had taken to hit just the right level of beautiful to have the whole room awing without being over the top. But that was Vic. She set just the right tone everywhere she went. Or more accurately, Vic set the tone, and everyone else followed along.

  “You did a phenomenal job.” The way Sam looked up at her detailed every ounce of what he felt for her. Sam had never been any good at concealing his emotions. Not from anyone but certainly not from Trevor. Which was exactly why this woman was off-limits. And always would be.

  Trevor had never stolen a woman from his cousin, and he never would. Sam didn’t fall fast. He wasn’t quick to love, or even like most of the time. If he wanted this woman, Trevor wouldn’t get in the way. Sam had always been there for him, even when he didn’t deserve it. That was far more important than any woman. Even Victoria Willis. No matter how good she’d felt pressed between him and a barn wall. He was a strong follower of bros before hoes.

  Sam smiled at her, every inch of emotion radiating from his gaze. “I think it’s the best Christmas party I’ve ever been to.”

  He was right about that. It probably was the best Christmas party Trevor had ever attended. Though with her standing before him, her black lacy dress detailing every inch of her gorgeous body, the best Christmas party he could think of was her and him naked beneath a sprig of mistletoe. He could wear a Santa hat if she needed a little more theme for the evening. As long as he wore nothing else, he didn’t care.

  “You like everything about the ball?” The mischievous look in her eyes set his blood pounding. A little bit of wild combined with enough brilliance to have him desperately wanting to know what she was thinking.

  Her eyes dipped to the red bubbly drink on the table before them. “Enjoying your Mistletoe Mimosa?”

  Sam glared at the bright red drink, swallowing deep. “It’s great.” His mother had taught him to be polite. To say please, thank you, and always tell the hostess of a party everything looked fantastic, even if it didn’t.

  “So you don’t want to try the bottle of whiskey I snuck in?” That evil smile of hers expanded a little wider.

  “Woman after my own heart.” Trevor clutched his chest. Half in play, and partially because it did feel a little like his heart might beat out of his chest. He loved a woman who could handle her booze, and one that brought the booze was even better.

  “You brought in a bottle of whiskey?” Their tastes had always run similar, whether it was video games, cars or girls. Trevor wasn’t surprised to hear the same admiration in his cousin’s voice that he felt for Vic. “Of course. I can’t stand these frilly drinks. I’m a whiskey girl through and through.” She looked around the room, checking to see if anyone was watching. “I left it upstairs in the mayor’s private room. If you’re interested, we could sneak a drink.”

  This was dangerous and Trevor knew it. But he’d never been good at fighting temptation. That was half the reason he and Sam worked so well together. All gas and no brake could be dangerous. But the offer of not only real booze, but time
alone with the woman he’d been dreaming about for almost six months, was far too much to resist.

  He was only human.

  One glance at Sam showed he was more conflicted. His eyes stared daggers toward Trevor, even as he maintained a smile in Vic’s direction. Trevor didn’t need to be able to read minds to tell what he was thinking. How much bodily harm he was threatening to visit upon Trevor if he didn’t tell Vic no.

  But drinking these frilly pink and red drinks wasn’t an option. Neither was spending the rest of the night in a suit with no alcohol at all. So his choices were limited. “Lead the way.”

  Her smile was worth all the shit he’d get from his cousin over the next several weeks, probably months, for saying yes. So was the possibility of being close to Vic again. Even if it was only a brief cordial few minutes in front of his cousin.

  “Follow me. And try to be discreet.” She winked as she turned from the table and toward the back of the room. Like two robots, he and Sam got up from the table to follow after her. The scratch of their chairs on the floor and the clink of the glassware sent a shiver of panic down his spine. Not that it could be helped.

  But Vic only continued through the room, negotiating around smiling people with an ease a dancer would envy. Never slowing down, yet she wasn’t able to completely evade the adoring crowds. Every step she took, someone else stood there, wanting to talk to her about how beautiful the party was. Or how much they appreciated her work with the Thanksgiving food drive.

  He’d learned their first week in town how important she was when his uncle had suggested they reach out to her to help with the transition of the feed store. At the time he’d thought it was ridiculous. What did a clothing store owner know about owning a farm and feed store? Now he understood it had nothing to do with the store and how it ran. It had to do with Vic and how well she knew the town. She was the heart of Frostbite Falls. Any change in town had to start with her.