Mistletoe & Kisses (28 page)

Chapter Four

I WAS DOWN to my underwear in the walk-in closet area of our room, contemplating taking a warm bath before bed.  I heard Brad behind me, and he grabbed me around the waist, pulling me into the warmth of his body.  “Whatcha doin’?” he asked.

I smiled, opening a drawer where I’d put my pajamas and underwear.  I wasn’t big on wearing pjs, but until the kids got older and didn’t sleep with us anymore, I was going to at least wear minimal ones.  “What does it look like?” I teased.

“Hmm.  Looks like you’re getting ready for bed.  Clearly, you didn’t remember I have other plans.”

My smile grew wider.  “Really?”

“Yeah.”  He moved the hair off my neck and kissed it, then said, his lips still touching the delicate skin on my neck, his hot breath sending a shiver through me, “I lied.”

“About what?”

“Locking up.  I called room service for a bottle of champagne.  I hope you’re not getting too comfy.”

I leaned my head back on him as his hand roamed up my belly to cup my breast.  Even through the fabric, his touch was scorching.  “Then we better skip the champagne.”

“Too late.”  That was when I felt like a bad wife.  I hadn’t been thinking any romantic thoughts about this little vacation, probably because I’d been feeling pretty stressed before we’d left, worrying about my weird stalker.  I noticed, though, that I’d been feeling better about everything since arriving here, and I was more relaxed now than I’d been in a month.  I needed to appreciate the opportunity to unwind and I most definitely wanted to spend time with Brad alone.

His lips’ continued assault on my neck helped me forget all the negative thoughts as a vibration charged through my body.  I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t felt that Brad was attractive but I’d been so blind to what was in my heart.  I’d been hung up on Ethan for so long that I couldn’t see Brad’s perfection.  I’d also felt like a relationship with Brad would ruin our friendship, but now I knew it strengthened it instead.

My nipples grew tight as he rubbed his thumb over the fabric of my bra.  I let out a breath, letting go of the drawer and the pajama top in my hand so I could thrust my fingers into Brad’s hair.  I arched my back at the same time, filling his hand with my breast.  His other hand that had been pressed against my belly moved lower and he began fingering the hem of my panties.  I relished the feel of his torso against my back, but I could also feel his erection, and I was pretty sure at that point that the champagne was going to be dessert rather than a warm up.

His fingers lifted the edge of my panties while his other hand slid off my breast, across my belly, and behind my back.  I heard Brad unbutton his jeans and pull down the zipper, but my focus was on his other hand as his fingers began inching lower underneath the silky fabric of my panties.

I turned my head to the side and sucked Brad’s lips into mine.  He kissed me hard and our tongues danced as his finger reached my clit and I almost froze while my body melted into his hand.  I regained my senses, though, and took one hand out of his hair, and lowered my arm, reaching behind me to touch the skin on his back.  I pulled him closer to my body and his hard on dug into me.  I gasped around his tongue, feeling weakened by his touch.  I started to turn around and he said, “No, stay like that, babe.”  I nodded.  “That okay?”

“Yeah.”  His finger kept a steady motion while his other hand slid my panties down with an aching slowness.  I moaned as I felt him guide his cock inside me, making me feel full and taking me to the brink in just a few strokes.  “Oh, Brad.”

“Yeah?”

“God, you feel incredible.”

“You do, too.  Un-fucking-believable.”  I moved against him, accelerating the action, needing a release.  He made a small noise behind me that sounded almost like a growl and he moved his finger in a swirl instead of the up-and-down motion he’d been doing, and that was when my brain collapsed and I began moaning against my will.  In all the years since I’d experienced my first, I still hadn’t figured out how to keep my orgasms quiet and somewhere, in the back of my mind, I hoped the movie in Gracie’s room was loud enough to drown me out.  We were far away from the door to the main rooms, tucked in that closet off the bedroom, and I hoped it could absorb the noise, because my soul couldn’t help but sing to Brad.  Joining with him made me feel connected to the universe and I often imagined my cries of pleasure almost like whale song, something I was sharing with the collective unconscious:  this is my man, my love, and I will be his, all his, forever and always.  It was more than pleasure I felt; it was closeness, love, and something spiritual.  It wasn’t just animalistic; with Brad, it was and would always be more.  It was like we spoke a second language when we made love.

His mouth was open on my shoulder and he clamped down when his orgasm overtook him.  He wasn’t biting but I could feel his teeth.  One of his hands held my hip steady as he pushed one last time.

My legs were quivering then as my breathing slowed, and I felt his warm breath on my neck.  “Shit.  Never stops being great, does it?”

He’d read my mind.  I turned around and kissed him gently as a soft smile spread across my face.  “Nope.  Never.”

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, I could tell from the eerie overcast gloominess that it was still snowing outside.  Brad and I had had one glass of champagne before bed, but I was exhausted and fell asleep curled up against his chest.  In spite of how tired I’d been, though, I was the first awake, and I took a long, hot shower.

The fact that no one was up when I got out was testament to the fact that the day before had worn us all out.  But when I got out of the shower, wrapped in a robe and wearing a towel around my head, I walked into the bedroom and saw Hayley curled up with Brad.  She was my early riser and on this particular morning, she’d sought out her daddy.  I walked closer to the bed.  Brad’s eyes were closed, so I couldn’t tell if he was awake, but Hayley was in his arms.  She was facing him, touching his face.  He wore a bit of a goatee these days, but the rest of his face he kept clean shaven.  Hayley did
not
like when he had stubble, so she was touching the softer hair of his goatee and then moved her finger up to his nose.  They were too cute together.  I started to turn away to leave Hayley to her daddy when I saw Brad, in a flash, put her index finger in his mouth as though he were going to bite it.  That incited a rash of giggles from my daughter, and she pulled her finger out of his mouth to touch his nose again.  Once more, he snatched her finger into his mouth, making her burst into another laughing fit, and that was when he opened his eyes to look at her.  He kissed her on the nose and she put her hand on his cheek.  So sweet.

I wanted to tell them both I loved them, but I didn’t want to interrupt their time together, so I decided to do my own morning thing.  I noticed the champagne on the dresser and grabbed the tray.  I left the bedroom and stopped in the kitchen, placing the bottle in the fridge, and then walked to the front door so I could put the tray with the ice bucket and glasses on the floor outside.  When I did, I noticed a newspaper on the floor in the hallway right in front of our door, so after placing the tray against the wall out of the way, I snatched up the paper.  Once back inside, I made my way inside the kitchen area, setting the paper on the table, and making a pot of coffee.  Gracie wasn’t big on coffee (unless it was the Starbucks variety), but Brad and I had always enjoyed drinking coffee together, even when we had been just friends.  When he and Hayley got out of bed, I knew he’d appreciate a hot cup of java.

After getting the coffee going and finding a mug, I glanced over at Gracie’s room.  The door was wide open, maybe because Hayley had crawled out of bed, but I wanted to peek in on Chris while I waited for the coffee to finish brewing.  Sure enough, he was still out cold, his body splayed out like he was frozen in the middle of making a snow angel, his mouth open wide.  That little guy
was
an angel, and I doubted he would ever know how much he meant to me.  Ethan and I might have been oil and water, bringing out the worst in each other, but Chris was the fusion of the best parts of us.  When I looked at Chris or held him tight, I remembered the things about Ethan that I loved, and that was why I couldn’t hate the man anymore.  He’d found himself and discovered a reason to live, something I had never managed to inspire him to do, in spite of the flowery words he would write me.  I hadn’t cared for Jenna at first.  I’d thought she was just another one of his junkie whores, along for the ride as long as the cash and blow flowed, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.  I credited her with saving Ethan from slowly killing himself.

I smiled, looking at my little boy.  His hair was turning a little redder every single day, making him look more and more like his dad.  I shook my head and left the room.  He’d be up soon enough, and who knew what the day would have in store for us?  Since it was still snowing, I thought maybe we’d just want to stay snuggled inside, maybe eat lunch at one of the restaurants in the hotel, definitely play some games, watch some movies, maybe even curl up and read one of the books on the shelf in the living room while Hayley took her afternoon nap.  Deep in thought, I walked across the room and pulled the curtains aside so I could watch the flakes fall.  Yeah…the snow continued to descend from the gray skies—big flakes blanketing every surface.  It was stunning the way it adorned the trees in this paradise.  I was glad I could stay inside and just watch.

The coffee pot sputtered, signaling that it was just about done brewing.  Once it finished, I poured myself a cup and sat down at the kitchen table, pulling the newspaper toward me so I could glance at it while sipping my hot coffee…but what I saw chilled me to the bone.

Chapter Five

BRAD WALKED OUT of the bedroom.  He was wearing the blue flannel pajama bottoms I’d bought him the Christmas before and holding Hayley.  I barely registered it because I was still in shock.

“What’s going on, Val?  You’re as white as a ghost.”

I blinked several times, almost unable to speak.  Finally, I sucked down a deep breath as Brad rushed to my side and I pointed at the newspaper.  “He’s here.”

He looked confused at first, but then he looked at the bottom half of the paper, after the fold.  Written in blue ballpoint ink were the words
I AM HERE FOR YOU.  Always.

It looked like the same stilted writing from the note I’d gotten before, like someone who was actually right-handed was trying to write with his left, and it was the same creepy message—nothing actually
threatening
but bone-chilling as hell.

Suddenly, my brain felt like it was going to collapse in on itself.  I’d been feeling stressed and edgy the last few weeks at home, and the past twenty-four hours had been heaven—soothing, no adrenaline pulsing through my veins like I needed it to live, utter calmness.  But in just a few seconds, reading those six words made my blood pressure increase and my body go into hyper-vigilant mode again.  Where exactly was this fucker and why wouldn’t he leave me alone?  Why the hell had he followed us here?

That told me my stalker was a lot more serious than I’d initially thought.  It was much worse and lots scarier now.

Brad went into protective mode.  “Hold the baby,” he said, handing Hayley to me and double timing it to the door.  He was wearing nothing but the pair of pajama bottoms and had no weapon.  He was in a guard mindset, moving on instinct and base emotion.  He should have at least grabbed a knife out of the drawer before bolting out the door, but I hadn’t been thinking either.  Once he made it to the door, he unlocked it and threw it open, so if nothing else, he had the element of surprise.

I might have been holding Hayley, but it didn’t stop me from following Brad.  By the time I got there, he was walking quickly down the hall toward the area where there were no rooms.  Instead, the space overlooked a large open area around a spot where there were meeting and conference rooms, no doubt for corporate guests who couldn’t resist turning their vacation into a tax deduction.  He held onto the railing while peering over, trying to see into the hallway below and then he continued walking down the hall to the glass door at the end.  I called to him.  “Brad.”  He was a man on a mission, though, storming through the door.

I looked behind me toward the other end of the hall.  Honestly, this moment would be the perfect one for someone wanting to get at me.  At this very moment, I was vulnerable.  My baby was in my hands, so I wouldn’t be able to defend myself.  Instead, I would have to protect my child.  Our door was wide open as well, and even though I stood right next to it, someone determined would have no problems getting past me or getting
to
me.  Those thoughts were rushing through the back of my mind, but consciously I was worried about my husband.  He was moving purely on impulse; there was no rational thought behind what he was doing, and it was foolish.  If he actually went outside wearing nothing but pajama pants…well, that was but one tiny worry.  I was more concerned if he ran into my stalker.  If that person seriously wanted to be my everything, Brad stood in the way of that.  That was when it dawned on me that Brad was probably in more danger at that moment than I was.

I was still shaking when he walked back through the glass door.  I knew then that he couldn’t have gone outside, must have stopped in the entryway, because most of the doors could only be accessed with keycards.  Then again, I was pretty sure the door downstairs leading to the meeting rooms was probably unlocked during the day…and it was well into morning.

Brad looked pissed…and worried but satisfied that whoever had written on the paper was long gone.  My mind was racing, though—what if that person was renting the room across the hall or next door?  There was no way of knowing, because I had no clue who was behind the sinister notes.  Sure, the words didn’t
read
as sinister…but there was a very real threat in them that was almost palpable…that this person didn’t love
me
, as he claimed, but instead loved the vision of me in his head.  If that person ever managed to work up the courage to capture me, I had no doubt in my mind that I would be a trophy—I might even become a literal one, stuffed and mounted on a pedestal, gracing the corner of that person’s house.

I felt an invisible shudder tremble through my spine as we walked back in our suite.  Brad’s mind was racing, so I didn’t want to speak yet.  I wanted him to work through whatever he was processing.

He got a cup of coffee and I picked up a banana off the counter and a table knife before sitting down.  I peeled the banana halfway down and then cut a couple of slices, setting them on the table in front of me so Hayley could munch on them.  Brad, way ahead of me, found a small glass and poured her some water as well and then he sat next to us.

He was still deep in thought when I said, “You know, honey…what you did was dangerous.”

“What do you mean?”

I blinked and touched his hand with my fingers.  “If this person is really serious about me…and it seems he is, then I think you’re in more danger than I am—
especially
if you do something like what you just did.  You ran off after this person unprepared.  What if the guy had had a knife and was just waiting for you to go into that alcove at the end of the hall?”

I saw his jaw ripple, much like I imagined the earth buckling under the pressure of two plates fighting for dominance during an earthquake—his teeth were at war in that way, but he was instead resisting the urge to
say
something.  He sighed, still thinking it through, and after another couple of minutes, he said, “Okay, so what should we do?  I’ll be damned if I’m just gonna sit around and wait for this psycho to make a move.  We need to do something.”

I agreed.  “Yes, but we can’t keep running.  This vacation was the perfect getaway, the best way for us to enjoy the holidays before all the bullshit gets in the way.”

“And what kind of vacation will it be if something serious happens?”

I knew he was right.  This person might never make a move, but there was always a chance…and what if he did something to my kids instead of me?  I didn’t want to take that chance.  “So then what do we do?”

“I don’t know.  At the very least, I think we need to call Manny and ask him to come up here.”  Manny was Manuel Escobar, our “usual” bodyguard.  He owned his own security business.  The guy had a history of untold badassery, and Brad trusted the guy with his life.  Manny had been a cop, prison guard, and bouncer, and that was after an eight-year stint in the military, part of which had been spent in the Middle East during Desert Storm and Desert Shield.  I nodded.  Manny would definitely help us all sleep easier and maybe he could scare off the asshole stalking me.  “We might consider alerting the authorities here in Eagle County too—let them know something about what’s going on.”

“Yeah, but we’ve got nothing.  We have a few words written on a newspaper.  Why would they believe us or even care?”

“They could confirm with law enforcement back home.”

“Maybe.”  I was feeling doubtful, though, because law enforcement thus far hadn’t been able to do much—not that I blamed them, but it seemed like a futile move on our part, especially since we were only going to be there a few more days.

Gracie walked out of the other bedroom.  “That coffee smells good,” she said, walking toward the kitchen area.

“Help yourself,” I replied, grinning.

She scrunched her nose.  “I’ll make some tea.  You remembered tea bags, right?”

“Yep.”

Brad gave me a look and then said, “Gracie, we need to tell you something.”

“What’s that?”  She filled a pot with water at the sink while looking at us.

“Well, there was some weird stalker stuff that was happening back at home.”

“With Val, you mean?”  I didn’t say anything, but then I realized I hadn’t been able to hide what had been happening with myself as well as I’d thought I had.  I’d wanted to keep my fears from the kids and I’d just assumed I’d kept the happenings hidden from Gracie as well—but apparently I’d failed.  I’d been planning on divulging it all to her sometime today, but now it seemed unnecessary.

“Yeah.  Well…it seems as though our friend has followed us here.”

Her eyes grew wide.  “You mean…Val’s stalker?”

I felt a chill settle on my shoulders.  I hated that term: 
Val’s
stalker…like I’d invited and wanted this person in my life.

Brad brought her up to speed with what had happened that morning before she got up and then said, “Just…be aware of your surroundings.  I think we
all
need to be more observant.  At home, it was harder—more people, more stuff going on, but here, I think we need to keep our eyes open.  If you keep seeing the same person over and over at the same places where we are, then that person’s suspicious.  If it gets to that point, I say we get the cops involved.”

I nodded.  Brad was right.  “And Manny, right?  You’re calling Manny?”

Brad stood and started walking toward our bedroom.  “I’m on it.”

I knew that if Manny left home right after Brad called, he could be here in less than two hours…and that made me feel better than I would have expected.  Maybe our vacation could be salvaged.  That was my hope.