Chapter Nine
Florence
Christmas Eve
After being too tired to literally do anything after dinner, we went straight to bed. And waking up next to him, but in my bed instead of a couch this time, has me a little giddy. Sure, he snores, and he’s a little bit of a blanket hog, but he held me periodically through the night and got up to check on the fireplaces for me a couple of times.
So when I realize he’s still asleep, I decide to crawl under the covers and wake him up the way he deserves. He’s only wearing the sweatpants we found for him yesterday, and I slowly tug them down over his hips, just until I can free his soft cock. It doesn’t take long to get him going, though. A few light touches, a few kisses on his hips and thighs, and he’s already growing hard for me.
Briggs is a tall man, with plenty of muscles from working on the grounds for so long, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when I first saw how large he is. But it still caused a little jolt of fear to run down my spine. But now, it just gives me a challenge. One that I am very happy to accept. I lick from his base to his tip, where precum has already started to collect.
A soft groan comes from his chest, and then his hips begin to roll as I take him deep into my mouth. I don’t have much of a gag reflex, but if anyone is going to trigger it, it’s Briggs. I swallow, fighting the urge to gag when he taps the back of my throat. Then, his hands run over my arms and up into my hair, where he holds it back out of my face. The covers are pulled back, and his dark eyes lock onto mine.
“Look at you,” he says, his voice rough from sleep. My clit pulses at the gruffness. “I knew you’d look so fucking pretty with your lips wrapped around my cock, princess.”
Ugh, god. I love it when he calls me that.
I pop off and lick my lips as I palm him, continuing to stroke him from root to tip. “I just wanted a taste,” I tell him, a coy smile playing on my lips.
When I take him again, his head falls back on the pillow, and his jaw hangs slack. I love the way I can affect him. I watch as his chest rises and falls, his abs contract, and his hips thrust. When I run my hand up over his stomach and onto his chest, he grabs hold of it, hanging on tight as I continue to work him into a frenzy.
It doesn’t take long before he’s pulling me up on top of him. My pussy is soaked, and I roll my hips as we kiss and kiss and kiss. His cock slips between my lower lips and strokes my clit in the best way. Pleasure builds low in my belly as he tugs my oversized shirt over my head and tosses it to the side. His arms wrap around me, holding me close as he rolls to his side.
My leg wraps around his hip while we continue to lazily kiss and explore each other’s bodies. The other night was a collision of overwhelming tension and passion that neither one of us could stop. But this is slow and sensual. We’re taking our time together, getting to know what the other one likes and how. His hands run all over my body, his nails tickling my back and arms, while I focus on pulling him as close as possible, my fingers digging into the hard muscles of his ass and thighs.
The tip of his cock presses against my entrance, and he teases me, thrusting just enough to slip it in and out, over and over again. His dark eyes lock onto my own, and one of his annoying little smirks plays on his lips as one of his hands grabs hold of my ass. He spreads me further and then presses slowly inside of me. My mouth drops open, my eyes close, and I let my forehead rest against his as he fills me so fully.
“This what you wanted, Ren?” he asks as he bottoms out inside of me.
I nod, brushing my lips against his, and then work my hips to make him fucking move .
“Eager, eager,” he whispers, a breathy laugh escaping his mouth.
But he gives me what I want anyway, pulling out and pushing back in, his cock hitting that same sweet spot he discovered last time. Briggs holds me tightly, kissing me in between breaths and whispering sweet nothings that turn my insides to jelly. The pleasure that was building earlier is back, and it coils tightly until I’m afraid he might actually break me this time.
And yet, I don’t. He works me through it, building me up and giving me a safe space to fall apart.
“My god, you are stunning,” he tells me as I cry out his name, my muscles fluttering and pulsing around him. “I want to watch you like this forever.” He kisses my cheeks and my jaw, nipping at my lips before looping his arm under my leg, lifting it higher for a better angle.
“I wouldn’t fight you on that,” I tease, my voice breathy from the orgasm I’m still coming down from.
“Yeah?” he asks, his hips beginning to pick up the pace, almost slamming into me each time. It’s hard to catch my breath or even keep my eyes open. The pleasure is an assault on my senses. “You want me to take you like this every morning?” he continues. “Eat you for lunch, then bend you over the table for dinner?”
“Oh, god,” I gasp as that slight curve in his cock hits an even deeper spot.
“That’s my girl,” he coos. “Come with me. Show me just how much you need this.”
I hold his face, our eyes locked on one another’s, and let the rest of the world fade into the background. Right now, it’s just me and Briggs, enjoying each other’s bodies and company. It’s just us in this secret little snowed-in world. There’s no one watching us to see what will happen, no one to gossip to, no one to make me second-guess myself. There’s just us and this moment we’re in.
As both of us come, we hold on to each other. It’s probably the most intimate moment I’ve ever shared with another person. If I let the anxious voice in the back of my head have control, I’ll start to panic that this is all happening too fast—too soon. But we agreed we’re on the same page, so I push all of those thoughts away and just enjoy the feeling of connecting with him.
After lying in bed together until almost lunchtime, we decided to watch Christmas movies like my parents and I used to do. There was no decorating any of the Christmas trees, since that had all been done before I got here, but he did find cookie dough in the fridge. And for premade dough, those things were amazing.
As the day went on, we decided to dig through the several deep freezers in the back of the home—which, why do we have so many, may I ask?—hoping to find a good amount of ingredients that we could make a Christmas dinner with. Briggs tells me that the plows won’t really bother with working until after Boxing Day, so we’re definitely stuck here until the twenty-seventh. Not to worry, though, because we have four deep freezers full of food.
Apparently, my great-aunt was a bit of a hoarder.
“We always do pizza on Christmas Eve,” Briggs says, lifting a turkey the size of a small toddler out of the chest freezer. “And while I love this time with you, I think I’d kill for a Christmas Eve pizza right about now.”
I laugh, pulling out a frozen bag of rolls from the one I’m digging through. “With all this food, we can surely find the shit to make a pizza or two. I know I saw marinara in the pantry and some fresh mozzarella in the fridge.”
We carry all of our findings back to the kitchen, laying everything out on the table. Between the pantry and the freezers, we found turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, and one lonesome blackberry pie that Briggs swears has been there for at least a year. I’m not complaining, though. It’s been frozen, so whatever. I just want some pie.
“Also,” he says, smirking as he walks over to where I’ve hopped up onto a counter, “I may not have found any pizza dough, but I did find…” He whips out a red-and-yellow box. “Garlic bread!”
“I used to make these when I was in college,” I tell him. “Mini pizzas made out of garlic bread?” I kiss my fingers. “Perfection when you come in late from a night out.”
“Oh, yeah?” He tosses the box onto the counter next to me and then cages me in with his arms. I’m just taller than him from this angle, and I lean forward to rest on my palms, putting us back on the same eye level. “You a party girl, little duck?”
“Now?” I laugh, placing my forearms on his shoulders and playing with his hair that brushes his neck. “God, no. When I hit twenty-five, my body just stopped accepting alcohol. It was like overnight I couldn’t hold it any longer. I’d throw up almost every time.”
I make a face, and he mimics it, scrunching his nose and barely containing a laugh. “I was never really a big drinker.” He shrugs. “I’d go out and get some beers with my friends every once in a while, but Dad was a nightmare at times. I knew I had to be at this place bright and early five days a week, even when I was a teen, and a hangover from my off days would not be a good enough excuse to get out of it.”
He smiles at the memories, while they sound awful to me because, if I’m honest, I was spoiled as hell. I was my parents’ only child, so they coddled the hell out of me. I don’t think I had a job until I went to college. Mom always told me I needed to get one in high school to help pay for my car and the insurance for it, but Dad was such a pushover that it was never enforced. So to know Briggs was working his ass off even as a teenager kind of makes me sad for him.
“Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun was had,” I say, the twinge of pity showing in my tone.
“Ah,” he says, dismissing the thought. “It might not have always been at the time, but looking back, I’m glad I got all that time with him.” Briggs smiles and leans in for a soft kiss. “I take it you were the spoiled angel child?”
My head falls forward as I laugh. “Yes.” I pull back and shake my head, rolling my eyes. “Of course, I would never complain about how I grew up. I know I was very privileged, and clearly still very much am. But I do wish they had forced me to do a bit more than they did. When I lost both of them, I suddenly realized I didn’t know shit about fuck all.”
“Shit about fuck all,” he repeats, his voice filled with humor. He grabs my hands, folding our fingers together. “That’s a new one.”
“It’s true!” He steps between my legs and brings one of my hands to his lips, kissing my knuckles as I speak. “I didn’t know the first thing about taxes, interest rates on credit cards, or how to even fill out a W-2 for my job!”
“What’s a W-2?” he asks, his brow pulling together.
“It’s a thing Americans have to fill out for the IRS. Estimates how much they should be taking out of our paycheck, shows them that we’re legal to work, et cetera.” I shrug. “I think, anyway. I still don’t fully know.”
He kisses the inside of my wrist and looks up at me from under his annoyingly long eyelashes, making the butterflies in my belly start fluttering again. “Good thing you have me, then, eh?” His grin is frustratingly handsome. I swear, every time he smiles, it just transforms his entire face. “I’ll keep you in line over here, make sure you don’t run this place into the ground.”
I scoff, shoving him in the chest as he laughs. “I’ll have you know that I read every single document the lawyers gave me.” I look down my nose at him, holding back my own smile. “My roommate even made me flash cards so that I could memorize certain things.”
He softly touches my face and then cups either side, his eyes bouncing back and forth between my own. “I have not a single shred of doubt, Florence Donahue, that you will be amazing in this new phase of your life.”
It’s so sincere and said in such an intimate way that I have to swallow at the sudden pain in my throat and blink back the tears that start to form. I can’t remember the last time someone so wholeheartedly believed in me. And to know it’s someone who has only known me for a few days makes a pretty big impact.
I lean into him, kissing him roughly on the lips before whispering, “Thank you, Briggs.”
He just smiles and captures my mouth again.