All I Want for Christmas is You Read online

  Some rational part of David's mind proclaimed the whole thing dysfunctional. He should get her a psychiatrist to help her through what was plainly confusion and denial.

  There's no way to force her to see a doctor. She wasn't a danger to herself or others…at least not an immediate danger to herself, though the mind could only take so much abuse.

  The fact that he wanted Robin tormented him. If he refused to help her conceive and suggested mental health services, she'd feel he was dismissing her wants and needs, her well-laid plans.

  Just the thought of “well-laid” and Robin in the same sentence had him hard again.

  And she will be well laid by someone else, if I refuse her.

  That was even less of an option than letting Zach marry the woman David wanted. It had been bad enough when it was Zach in bed with her. Another man would be too much.

  A stranger, his mind taunted him. Someone who doesn't know Robin and doesn't care…past getting off with a beautiful woman.

  David was on his feet that quickly. He grabbed his quilted flannel off the hook by the door and launched into the cold. That seemed to snap sense back into him, as it had the last two times he'd started the seven-block walk to her house.

  She'll come to her senses. She'll be confused. She'll hate me for doing this.

  Or she won't. She'll use me to have Zach's baby and want to go on being friends.

  He stopped short at that thought. At least this time it hadn't sent him back to the sofa and the warm beer.

  David didn't question that he was going to go through with it. But he had to protect himself. Either eventuality had the capability of crushing him.

  “Hence the plan,” he muttered and forced himself into motion again. On the walk, he reran it in his mind.

  Don't forget what's at stake here. She wants a baby, not a replacement for Zach. Don't lose your head.

  Don't spend the night. After that, letting her go will be too hard.

  Don't ask for too much. According to Zach, their sex life was rather vanilla. You ask for too much, and you'll scare her off.

  She's confused. Take it slow, and be prepared for her to throw you out on your ass halfway through.

  Enjoy it while it lasts. As soon as she comes to her senses or conceives a baby, it's over. You know that.

  David stared up at her door, surprised he'd made the distance so quickly and without turning back again. As he reached for the lock, one more rule occurred to him.

  Don't let Ma and Pop get wind of this. If you were going to marry her, they'd be no more upset about this than they were about Robin moving in with Zach. Since there's no way she's going to allow that, it's better not to piss them off.

  ———

  Robin yawned, listening to the stillness around her. Something had awakened her, but what? A dream she didn't remember? A sound in the darkness?

  She scanned the room, passing over an oddly-shaped shadow, then returning to it. Just when she tensed to react, he spoke.

  “It's me, Robin.”

  She fought the urge to bury herself beneath the blankets. It was David. Why would he make her nervous?

  Because he's inexplicably in my home? “How did you get in?” Surely, he hadn't broken in.

  He raised his hand in the near darkness. The sound of keys jingling was unmistakable.

  Her heart eased, releasing the tension she hadn't realized was strangling her slowly. “Oh… Zach…gave you the spares.” She'd known that but had forgotten. Since she'd never lost her keys, she'd never had to recall that bit of information.

  “Have you thought this through, Robin?” There was something soft and unexpected in that, but she couldn't imagine what it might be.

  Her mouth went dry at the possibility that he was going to agree…or maybe the more likely possibility that he was going to refuse. “Completely.”

  The keys clinked to the top of the dresser. The silence stretched between them.

  He's going to leave. I've pushed him too far. “David, if I—”

  “If you want this, it's going to be me. It's going to be this way.”

  Her heart stuttered. It wouldn't have been anyone but David. If he had turned her down, she would have dropped the whole idea. Didn't he know that?

  “Robin? Do you want this?”

  “Yes.” It came out more a gasp than a word.

  She went lightheaded at his approach. In her mind, she argued that it was David. She knew David; she trusted him.

  Her body had other ideas. Memories of the kiss outside Mik's tantalized her with the knowledge that whatever happened next wouldn't be predictable, as Zach had always been predictable. That thought kept her off balance, overheated.

  As if he was thinking the same thing, David stripped off his T-shirt. The whisper of it landing on the floor was drowned out by the blood rushing in her ears.

  His knee settled on the mattress, and David leaned over her. Anticipating him pressing down on her, Robin sank back to the pillows.

  David was in no hurry to get there. As he had at Mik's, he slanted his mouth across hers, his breath making her weak and warm. When he held his ground, she levered her head up, closing the last inch of distance between them.

  This kiss was no less involved than the one earlier had been. David was less the marauder than Zach had been; instead, his mouth danced against hers, his touch light and teasing.

  Robin explored his chest and arms, moaning at the finely etched muscle of a working man. Zach had worked at a desk, and it had shown. There was nothing soft about David.

  Besides his voice and tongue.

  He retreated slightly and then began again the maddening kisses that heated her blood for more. Just when Robin thought she could stand no more, David trailed his lips to her earlobe and nibbled at it gently. She sighed, turning her head to give him more room to play.

  His whispers warmed her ear…then sent her body into overdrive for what she hadn't had in two years.

  “You taste so good, Robin.”

  She licked her lips, visions of herself sampling his taste almost more than she could bear.

  “You're thinking about it. Aren't you?”

  “Thinking…of?” Robin wasn't certain she was capable of thinking anything…of forming coherent and logical streams, as she normally would.

  “Of my mouth working your sweet body. Your breasts.” He traced the shell of her ear with his tongue, prompting a shiver of delight from her. “Your clit.”

  Robin pushed her hips up, encouraging him.

  “What do you want first, Robin? My mouth?” He pressed his hips against hers, stroking his cock in promise of more. “Or—”

  She cried out, pulling at him shamelessly. The teasing was too much.

  David grumbled something that might have been a curse. He backed away, dragging the blankets down her.

  Robin sat forward and worked at his belt. He lifted her short nightgown up her thighs, and she was abruptly glad that she'd shaved her legs and trimmed, just in case David agreed.

  He cupped a hand behind her neck and drew Robin into his kiss. She fumbled at the button and zipper on his jeans, and David growled. His arm and chest muscles tightened.

  His cock pushed out at his underwear, seeking escape. Robin tugged the jeans and underwear to his thighs and took his cock in her hand.

  Oh God! He's big.

  David was easily as long as Zach had been, but he was much thicker. So thick that her fingers barely overlapped.

  While she was rapt on that fact, David moved, sliding his cock in and out of the hollow she'd created. Robin squeezed lightly and stroked, teasing him, enticing him.

  He tore his mouth from hers and guided her hand away. Before Robin could question him, David was spreading her thighs. She grasped at his buttocks and urged him in.

  The first thrust stuffed her full, top to bottom and stretched tight around his girth. Robin rocked her head back, a weak cry she barely recognized as her own voice escaping her lips.

  David peeled
her nightgown over her head and off her trembling arms. Still, he didn't move.

  Robin panted in pleasure mixed with pain. “David,” she pleaded. He had to move. He had to do something…anything.

  “Slowly, Robin.”

  She shook her head, gasping out a plea for more. Robin didn't want this maddening stillness. She didn't want slow. She wanted more thrusts like the first.

  He slid back until only the crown breached her and then in again. Robin tried to drag him closer by gripping his ribs. Failing that, she raked her fingernails down his back, seeking an anchor.

  David grumbled something unintelligible. He performed one smooth glide after another, forcing Robin to a shattering orgasm.

  He roared, his cock jetting a heated flood of cum into her sensitized body. It was breath-stealing. Robin's hands tightened, driving her nails in hard, snapping at least one off at the nail bed.

  David growled. His back arched, and he drove himself to the hilt in her.

  ———

  David fisted his hand in her hair, his body and mind in a riot. He'd vowed to make it slow for her. What had happened to slow?

  He cringed, waiting for tears…for her realization that it wasn't Zach's cock nestled inside her. That it never will be again.

  Her breathing slowed, and he tensed in response. Robin was coming to her senses. Would she cry? Scream him out of her bed? Out of her life? He didn't know what would be worse: one of those three possibilities or the dreaded “baby daddy/friend” routine.

  Her head came forward, and her lips pressed to his jaw. She nibbled along the line, from below his ear toward his lips. It wasn't a sisterly move. It wasn't one that marked her as upset either.

  Her hands played over the scratches she'd left, and his cock renewed before it had a chance to fully subside. He'd dreamed of this moment for so long, it wasn't going to be difficult to keep him hard.

  Robin gasped, shifted…urged him back to his knees with her impaled on him and straddling his lap. She took control from there, using her grip on his shoulders to ride his cock.

  Her body gripped him tight, and David reveled in it. He'd known Zach was smaller around than he was. Boys being boys, of course they'd compared. Between her abstinence and his greater girth, Robin was almost painfully tight, the illusion of virginity in a passionate woman.

  He closed his hands around her hips and started thrusting into her. Her already frantic pace stepped up several notches into a blur of sensation and sound.

  “Yes! David, please.”

  The early compressions of her muscles, signaling the coming climax, worked like a cock ring would, slowing his release at the right moment. Her climax was punctuated by a scream.

  David followed her, reeling in the aftermath of his second orgasm of the night. It had been years since he'd come in such quick succession; he'd thought he'd outgrown that somewhere before twenty-five.

  Robin held on to him, and he waited for the teary realization of what they'd done together again. It didn't come. Her head dipped…rested on his shoulder, her breathing slowing and deepening. Her muscles relaxed, her hands dropped away from his shoulders, and she fell asleep in his arms.

  For a tense moment, the reaction offended him. Then his mind started functioning again.

  Come on. I did wake her up at sometime after two in the morning, and that wasn't exactly lazy-day sex.

  And she trusted him. Robin felt comfortable enough with David to fall asleep with him.

  She feels comfortable enough with me to have sex with me to conceive Zach's baby, too! That stung.

  Then again, it was supposed to. He couldn't lose track of what was going on here. If he did, the end was going to be all the worse.

  Still, he savored the moment. It might be gone all too soon. There wasn't time to waste them. He knelt there, allowing himself to go semierect, then soft enough to leave her body. Robin sighed at the change and snuggled against David's chest.

  It's time to leave. He hesitated. The last thing David wanted was to leave her.

  I have to. Whether Robin turned on him or wanted to be friends, there was near-zero chance this would be a long-term affair.

  He winced at the pun, then forged on. David had agreed to share his body, for as long as it lasted. What he couldn't do was risk more of his heart.

  That in mind, he lowered her to the bed and tucked the blankets around her. Getting dressed to leave was depressing for more than one reason. It wasn't just leaving her that bothered him. It was the fact that his jacket and shirt were the only clothes he'd managed to remove before fucking her.

  Chapter Two

  November 30, 2009

  Robin winced at the sound of her alarm. She batted blindly for the Snooze button, groaning at the idea of getting up.

  In the silence, she burrowed under the blanket. No one would begrudge Robin the day off. She rarely took them, and Mollie had cashed out at least ten of her fourteen every year, since she'd maxed out the fourteen they were allowed to carry forward in her first three years with Carson and Carson.

  Even after Zach died, she'd buried herself in work. Mollie and Cal had tried insisting she take time off. David had—

  David! Memories of steamy sex, coupled with the shocking realization that she was sleeping nude and the sticky residue on her inner thighs, stole her breath. That had been no dream. The pleasant ache attested that she'd never had a dream that good…of anyone, in her lifetime.

  Robin forced her eyes open and worked her lower lip at the sight of the empty bed. Questions warred in her mind.

  When had he left? Why had he? Had David left this morning to prepare for work? Had he slept with her at all? Had he wanted to?

  Much as she wanted to stay buried in blankets for the day, the fastest way to answers was going to work. David would be at work. Although he didn't spend much time in the trailer, and she didn't spend much out on the site, surely there would be time for a short conversation.

  That decided, she threw the blankets back and did the zombie walk to the bathroom. She went about her morning routine, all too aware of the aftereffects of intense passion.

  She'd always known David would be good in bed. There was something in the way he moved, the way he swaggered, that announced to any woman with a handful of hormones that he was available and good. But she hadn't counted on him being so avid and attentive.

  She paused with her hand under the shower spray, misery eating at her. She'd had daydreams of something more permanent with David. Now those dreams would mock her.

  ———

  “Problem, David?”

  Les clapped a hand on David's shoulder, sending shards of disconcerting pain through him. Before he could stop himself, David grimaced.

  His cousin stopped short, his eyes narrowing. A moment later, his smile widened, probably at about the time David's face started to burn.

  Les's chuckles warmed the chill morning air. “And what misadventure have you been up to?”

  David cleared his throat, his cheeks flaring to a high that would heat the enclosed work desk without the space heater. “Just an accident.”

  For some reason, he didn't want to admit what was making him sore, whether Robin's name came into it or not. This was private…personal.

  It can't be personal! It won't last. Remember the rules.

  He was so busy brooding, Les managed to grasp the back of David's T-shirt and unbuttoned flannel and yank them up to his shoulders. David wrenched out of his hands and smoothed the shirts down, shooting a glance around and sighing in relief that no one else had seen it. His face flamed at Les's hoot of laughter.

  “An accident? Yeah, I guess it is an accident when you're that good,” he taunted.

  David glared at him, his hand fisting in an automatic response.

  Les sobered, putting up a calming hand. “You've got it bad,” he muttered.

  “Got what bad?” The urge to slug Les hadn't faded. The only thing stopping him, besides the fact that his cousin worked for him, was the
fact that they weren't twelve anymore.

  “Yeah right. Got what bad,” he quipped. His mocking smile faded again. “I see…”

  “See what?” David snapped.

  There were no more hints at amusement. “You've finally found the one. Haven't you?”

  His hand loosened in sick resignation. Yeah, he'd found the one. Unfortunately for David, Zach had found her first. He was so screwed, it was pathetic.

  Les's voice dropped to a harsh whisper. “Who is it?”

  David ached to answer. After all, Les was a married man. Maybe he had insight that David didn't. But that would mean taking his cousin into his confidence, and that was problematic. He shook his head.

  “Come on, man. You can trust me.”

  He couldn't trust anyone with this. Certainly not anyone at Carson and Carson, most of whom were relatives, of one sort or another…all of whom were fiercely protective of Robin and loyal to Pop. There was no question about what his father would do, if he got wind of this…thing. Whatever it was between him and Robin.

  David glanced up at the Plexiglas wall, searching for the words to buy himself some time. Les was curious as a box of kittens, and the last thing he needed was Les asking questions David didn't want asked.

  Then he saw her, striding across the site…late, but here. Until that moment, David hadn't realized he'd been wasting time, putting off his rounds, waiting for Robin to appear.

  Terrified she wouldn't appear. Strange how he could only admit that to himself once she'd made the appearance in the first place.

  Robin looked his way. She faltered, smiled. Her hand went up in a wave. At his nod in return, she went into the trailer. When the door closed behind her, David realized he'd been rapt on her retreating ass.

  Without thinking, he licked his lips. If she were still willing, it would be his mouth first tonight.

  David turned, smiling…and came face to face with Les. He swallowed hard, steeling himself for his cousin's response. Damn it! How could I forget he was here? Easy…the brain that had been functioning at the time wasn't concerned with it.