The Christmas You Crash (Going Rogue #2)

Chapter 13

thirteen

RYDER

Being snowed in with Lexi Cross is pure and utter torture.

She’s off-limits. I know this. Although Coach seems like he’s not the best father, he’d still kick my ass if I crossed the line with his daughter. When push comes to shove, all dads are protective of their little girls, right? And even though Lexi clearly doesn’t need anyone to fight her battles, I’m still fairly certain Coach would punch me in the face if he found her wrapped in my arms with her ass pressed against my very hard dick.

It took some convincing to get her to pull a mattress into the main room with me last night, but after twenty-four hours of no heat or power to the cabin, she eventually caved. Besides, we’d spent most of the day cuddled together for warmth, so what’s the big deal about sleeping next to each other for the same reason?

Turns out, the big deal is that Lexi has zero inhibitions while she’s sleeping. She was like a heat-seeking missile. As soon as she started snoring away, her body pressed itself to mine. Her legs tangled with my legs, her hand found its way beneath the hem of my hoodie, and she nuzzled against my neck. Her lips were practically pressed to my skin as her warm breath fanned across my collarbone. She must have turned over during the night, because now I’m the big spoon, and it’s impossible not to notice how perfectly she fits in my arms.

It doesn’t matter that she fits perfectly in my arms. It doesn’t matter that she’s funny and sweet or that being so close to her yesterday nearly drove me to madness. None of that changes the fact that Lexi Cross is forbidden fruit and I don’t think she’s into me.

The woman in my arms lets out a soft groan and shifts in her sleep. Her round, perfect ass grinds against my dick, and it’s all I can do to hold myself still. Biting my lip, I keep my own groan contained. I want to press myself into the curve of her ass. I want to slip my fingers beneath her shirt and play with her pretty, perky breasts.

Fuck . This is torture.

“Mnff,” she mumbles incoherently. Then her ass does a little wiggle.

Lexi’s head is pillowed on my left arm, but I use my right hand to grip her hips and hold her still. She grumbles something else, still half asleep, and tries to wiggle again. This time, when I grip her hip to hold her still, she ends up pressed against my hard-on. Lexi stops moving and her body goes rigid.

“Quit squirming,” I murmur in her ear. My voice comes out raspy and thick, and Lexi shivers against me. It’s probably just from the cold .

“Um…” She giggles, but it sounds nervous. “Could you let me go?”

I could, but I don’t want to. My fingers release her, and I lift my hand away from her hip. “Sorry. You were…” There’s no good way to finish that sentence.

Lexi lets out another nervous laugh and scoots away from me before turning around. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes are hooded, and she’s pulled her bottom lip taut between her teeth.

She looks like sex and bad decisions.

We stare at each other for a moment, both lost in our heads. Me, thinking about how this must be close to what Lexi looks like when she’s freshly fucked. With her tangled hair, pink cheeks, and hooded eyes. Lexi is likely thinking about how she wishes she was tangled up with someone else.

“Morning,” she finally says. She sounds shy, and her voice is slightly raspy from sleep. She’s cute as hell. Which means I need to distract myself before I do something I regret.

“Good morning,” I reply. Then my stupid hand reaches out to tuck a strand of blonde hair behind her ear without my brain’s permission. Right. Time to get up . “Uh, looks like our fire died. I’ll get another one started.”

Her chest rises and falls heavily as she watches me leave the comfort of our stack of blankets and the warmth of her touch. “Right. Thanks. I’m going to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth.” She gives me one last look before fleeing to the bathroom.

I watch her delicious ass sway as she retreats, then berate myself for it. She’s off-limits, idiot. It doesn’t matter if she’s beautiful and driving you crazy. You can’t do anything about it. You need your spot on the team.

After throwing the last few logs we’d brought inside on the fire and carefully stoking it, I shove my feet into Coach’s boots and pull on my coat. My stomach drops when I see how few cut logs we have left. It won’t even be enough to get us fully through the day, let alone another night without power. My attention goes to the door leading outside. It’s still snowing, but it seems the worst of the blizzard is over. Fat, lazy flakes float down from the sky in haphazard trajectories. At least two feet of snow covers the ground, though it might be more.

I’ll have to go out there and cut more wood for us.

My injured hand flexes, as if preparing for the discomfort that will accompany the chore. I’ll have to pad my palm with some fabric to minimize the impact the blows will have on my wound. Even then, it’s still going to suck.

“Ryder?” Lexi’s soft voice floats through the house.

“In the garage,” I call back.

Her hair is brushed and pulled back into a low ponytail when she peeks her head around the door. Lexi takes in the way I’m running my uninjured hand through my hair and the tight set of my jaw, then asks, “Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” I tell her. “I’m just psyching myself up for cutting firewood this morning. We’re running low.”

Those beguiling green eyes of hers go wide as she takes in the dwindling pile of cut logs and the snowy outside world. “Crap.”

“It’s okay. I’ve been lazy since getting here. It’s about time I did something close to a workout.”

Lexi narrows her eyes. “You’re injured, Ryder.”

“I’ll make sure most of the impact goes to my left hand.” I try to sound nonchalant, but I’m dreading chopping these stupid logs.

Her full lips purse, then she turns on her heel and heads back inside. “Just wait, okay?” she calls over her shoulder. Amused, I do as she says, and a few minutes later, Lexi strides back into the garage, all decked out in jeans, her boots, her puffy pink coat, a hat, gloves, and a long scarf that’s looped several times around her neck. It makes me feel unprepared for the weather in my jeans, coat, hat, and gloves. “You can help if I need it, but I’ll be chopping the wood this morning.”

My eyebrows have a mind of their own, and they’re inching up my forehead before I can school my expression. Of course, she notices and glares at me.

“I know how to chop wood.” She snatches the axe with a cute little noise that’s probably supposed to be a growl of frustration, but once again, she sounds like a kitten purring.

Grabbing the wheelbarrow, I follow her out into the frigid morning air as we struggle to trudge through the snow to the tarp-covered stack of logs on the side of the house. The snow is taller than my boots, and it’s not long before I’m shivering and glad I pulled my pants down over the boots, rather than tucking them into the top. “What, do you watch that lumberjack guy on social media or something? Is that how you learned to chop wood?”

She makes another annoyed sound as she hefts a large, unsplit log on top of the stump that’s clearly used for this purpose. Her fingers barely wrap around the entire width of the handle, but Lexi doesn’t let that stop her. All of her focus is on the log before her as she lifts the axe, inhales deeply, then lets it swing downward in a perfect arc. The sharp blade embeds deep into the log, but it doesn’t split. I watch, surprised and kind of turned on as she wiggles the axe and dislodges it before swinging it again. A sharp crack cuts through the silence of the snowy morning as Lexi’s perfect aim brings the blade down on the same spot as before and the log cleaves in two.

“Damn,” I whisper, more to myself than her.

She doesn’t look at me, just repositions the two halves of the log before repeating the motions and quartering them. “The lumberjack guy is hot,” she finally says. “But my dad taught me when I was younger. Then, when I got older, cutting the firewood always fell on me because he couldn’t be bothered to take time off work and come to the cabin with my mom and me.”

Lexi moves to grab another log from the pile, but I beat her to it. When I try to catch her gaze, she avoids meeting my eyes. Clearly, I’ve hit a sore spot. I wish Coach were here so I could shake him. If I were lucky enough to have a daughter like Lexi, I’d drop everything to spend time with her.

“He’s an idiot,” I say before she brings the axe down once again.

The unaffected shrug she gives me in response doesn’t fool me one bit. She may be used to her dad’s absence, but it still stings. “It is what it is. Anyway, that’s how I learned how to do this.” Another crack slices through the muted morning. “But I’m not sure I’ll be able to cut as many logs as we need. All the yoga in the world doesn’t really build the muscle groups used for chopping wood.”

“I think you’re stronger than you realize.” I put another unsplit log on the tree stump for her and toss the quartered logs into the wheelbarrow.

“Maybe.”

We slip into a silent dance as Lexi continues to split another six logs, and I continue to stack them for her. By the time she’s done quartering the tenth log, she’s breathing heavily and her arms begin to shake. She goes to lift the axe once more, but I stop her.

“Hey. You’re going to hurt yourself. Let me do a few.”

Green eyes blink up at me. “I can do it.”

Carefully peeling her fingers away from the axe’s handle, I crowd her when her lower lip trembles slightly. Setting the axe down, I do something incredibly stupid. I lift my hands to cup her cold, pink-tinged cheeks. My words are soft and low as I brush a thumb over her quivering lip. “I know you can. But you’re not alone this time.”

A single tear slips down Lexi’s cheek, and I break. Forget that she’s off-limits. That she’s Coach’s daughter. Forget that she could do so much better than me. Dipping my head, I press my lips to hers with desperate need.

Lexi is stiff for only a moment before she melts into me with a sweet little gasp. It’s all the invitation I need to sweep my tongue inside her mouth. She tastes like wintergreen and possibilities, and her body feels like heaven pressed against mine. With my hands still gently gripping her face, I walk her backward until she’s pressed against the house. The breathy mewl she makes when I cage her body in with mine drives me wild, and our kisses grow more desperate.

One of Lexi’s hands fists my coat, while the other snakes up my body and over my shoulder. Her gloved fingers scrabble to grab hold of my short hair. When she finally gets a good enough grip to tug on it and send a jolt of slight pain down my spine, I groan into her mouth and press a knee between her tempting thighs.

“Be a good girl,” I demand against her swollen lips before nipping at the bottom one.

She moans at that, and I grin against her mouth. When I press her harder against the wall, Lexi’s hips buck, and she grinds herself against my thigh. I don’t think she meant to do it, but the little whimper she lets out tells me it felt good. Emboldened, I press my thigh harder against her jean-covered core, earning another whimper. Lexi’s hips roll as she grinds her hot little center against my leg again and again while I kiss the hell out of her.

I’m hard as steel, lost in this woman as we dry hump each other in the still-falling snow. My brain is blissfully empty of everything, save the taste of her lips and the feeling of her body flush against mine. Dropping her face with one hand, I grip her hip and encourage her to ride my thigh. I need to know what she sounds like when she shatters. I need to show her she’s not alone, and since burying myself in her wet heat isn’t an option, I can at least bring her pleasure this way.

“That’s it, baby. Ride my leg. Make yourself feel good.”

Lexi gasps and whimpers as I guide her to rub her center against me. She’s almost there. Her back arches and her grip on me grows painful. She’s so close to her release, so blissed-out from the friction between us, that her head falls back against the house with a soft thud .

Leaning down, I pepper the column of her throat with kisses and gentle nips. Her hips move faster, her movements urgent with her impending release. “That’s my good girl. Take what you need.”

Those words tip her over the edge, and I watch with deep satisfaction as Lexi shatters. Her eyelids flutter, her body shakes, her breathing is ragged, and she comes with a strangled cry. Gripping both of her hips, I press her harder over my thigh. She cries out again as I draw out her orgasm for as long as I can.

When she sags against me, I wrap her up in my arms and hold her tight.

That was the hottest thing I’ve ever done, and we didn’t even get naked. In fact, we’re both fully covered in several layers of clothing. I didn’t even touch her pussy or kiss across her breasts. All it would have taken was another of those sexy moans of hers, and I would have come in my pants like a teenage boy.

When Lexi’s breathing evens out, I take her lips with mine in a slow, sensual kiss. It’s too cold to stay out here. I need to get her warm. “Come on, OTG. Let’s get you inside.”