“Guess we’re about to find out.”
CHAPTER 3
QUE
Iran a hand over my head, pushing my hair off my forehead and swiping up Rudy’s leftover come from my face. Fucker was messy. I liked it when he got messy. Meant that stick up his ass had dropped a bit lower and was close to turtling out.
I gave my fingers a quick lick and then leaned my arm high up on the frame as I used my free hand to offer the cabin door a few light raps. The usual smirk tipping up my mouth so that whoever was on the other side got a front-row seat to my biceps, perfect jawline, and bleach-white teeth.
The ladies loved me. The guys loved me more. And I loved me the most. What could I say? Couldn’t be this good-lookingandhumble. Had to save some of the attributes for the rest of 'em.
It only took our mystery woman a quick peek through the peephole before she was tugging the door open and peering at me from the other side. Red hair piled on her head, powdered sugar kissing her cheeks, and wide greeneyes that might as well be screaming:the better to eat ya with, my dear.Or however the nursery rhyme went. Reading bedtime stories wasn’t my thing, not when there was much more fun shit I could be doing under the covers.
Point was, I was the Big Bad Wolf and Miss Riding Hood here wouldn’t even see me coming.
She continued to stare at me while I could feel everyone else’s eyes on my back from where they were watching our interaction by the tree line.
Good thing I thrived under pressure.
“Hey there, Red. Hate to intrude, but my friends and I got stuck out in this storm. Car’s dead and none of us got any cell service.” I gestured a thumb behind me. “The big guy over there is getting hitched next week and this was supposed to be his last hurrah—beer, paintball, ya know, the works. You got a landline we can use so he can call the missus? Hate to worry the poor girl for no reason.”
I grinned, slipping my foot between the door and the jamb before she could slam it closed. Just in case. At the same time, I dropped my arm from the frame, her eyes following each ripple of muscle as I flexed more than necessary.
I reached up and rubbed at the back of my neck when another gust of wind came blistering through and rose the little hairs at my nape. “It’s awfully cold out here. Ain’t ya gonna invite us in? Pretty please with powdered sugar on top.” I swiped up a glob of the white stuff from the tip of her nose and made a show of licking my finger clean.
I must not have done a good enough job of that the first time, because it tasted like candy and come. Which also happened to be my favorite flavor combination.
The girl shook her head and blinked a few times as ifbreaking out of a daze. “Sorry, come on in. Do you like fresh-baked cookies? I made way more than I can eat on my own. Granny always did say my eyes were bigger than my stomach,” she rambled on while ushering me farther into the little cabin.
I tossed out a thumbs-up, signaling for the guys to follow me. “Ain’tyour grannyever tell you not to open the door for strangers?” I leaned over the wooden island that now separated us from our eager hostess and attempted to snatch a cookie off the cooling rack.
Red swatted my hand aside and narrowed her glare at me. “If I listened to everything Gran had to say, you’d be stuck out in the cold all night, now wouldn’t ya?” She then plucked a spatula from the metal bowl in front of her and took a tentative lick—confirming it met her standards, I suppose.
“Touche,” I replied before taking her up on her offer as she tipped the spatula in my direction now. I swallowed it whole, from rubber tip to wooden handle, brushing my lips over where her fingers were still clutching it at one end and pulling back again.
I pushed off the counter and tilted my head to watch as her cheeks turned redder than her hair, rolling back on my heels so that the only thing that seemed threatening about me were mykillerdimples.
She cleared her throat and crossed her arms over her chest. “Also, we ain’t got no phone.”
“We?” I questioned as Rudy stepped up behind me. I didn’t have to look. I could feel him there. Like a big grumpy presence that sent a delicious chill down my spine.
“Me and Granny. This is her place.” The girl hummed as she spun around and dropped the dishes into the sink,oblivious to the fact that she had a bunch of escaped convicts standing in her living room. “Name’s Nickie, by the way, and you are?” She glanced from face to face, her smile never dropping despite what I knew she saw there.
Scowls and scathing glares—mostly from my Rue-Rue. Who really was just a big ol’ teddy bear. I glanced over my shoulder.Okay, a grizzly bear. Same, same.Both had claws and teeth. One just used 'em more.
“I’m Que—short fortoo fucking cute to be so painfully single.” I reached an arm back and locked it over Rudy’s shoulder. “And this here is Broody Rudy, our blushing groom-to-be.” Without bothering to look around, I started naming off the rest of our group one by one. “That there is Dash, Dane, Vix—the twins, Con and Don—what was their mother thinking?” I peered over to my right, pressed an imaginary joint to my lips and made a huffing gesture. “Blitz—I’ll give ya one guess as to why we call him that—and…” I double-checked the math in my head, coming up short twice over. “Hey, anyone seen Prat?”
CHAPTER 4
RUDY
Prat is missing?
Fuck. No man left behind. That idiot was the one to tell us how to get here. How could he get lost in the snowstorm?
While Que continued to woo the gullible red-haired woman, I walked around the small cabin trying to get my bearings. There was that strange smell again, mixed with pine sap wafting off the makeshift tree in the living space, and the sweet desserts on the baking tray. My attention got away from me, though, when my eyes caught on Que with her finger in his mouth, those damn hypnotizing eyes glittering like the shitty ornaments on the twig in front of us.
“Didn’t take long at all, did you, Thumper?” I murmured, using the nickname I’d given him after that first time we’d fucked and the fucker just kept going. I ran my hands along Que’s back where the woman couldn’t see.
