Chapter 7

Seven

SOREN

T he howling wind and rattling of the house dragged me out of a restless sleep. I tapped my phone on the nightstand, and it lit up, telling me it was two in the morning.

Lying back down, I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but a loud bang shook the walls, and I jackknifed up in bed. I tossed back the covers and jumped off the mattress. I was a second away from opening my door when I remembered I didn’t have any clothes on. Cursing, I sprinted to the dresser and pulled out a pair of boxers before yanking them on.

Another deafening crash sounded from the side of the house, and I ran toward it.

“What is that?” Cammie asked as she burst out of her bedroom.

I glanced back at her as I answered, “I don’t know, but?—”

Motherfucker.

My eyes roamed over Cammie’s naked body, drinking in the sight of her heavy breasts, coral nipples, flat stomach, and long, toned legs before locking on her bare pussy.

Son of a bitch.

Nothing hid her sweet, plump lips from my view, and my mouth watered at the thought of burying my head between her legs and tasting her until she screamed in ecstasy.

“Cammie,” I croaked. “Go back to your room.”

“What? No, we need to figure out?—”

“Cammie!” I barked. “Baby, you need to go put on some fucking clothes before I lose my damn mind.”

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her eyes went wide and round as she glanced down at herself. Then she squeaked, “Oops!” and turned, giving me a perfect view of her juicy ass as she ran into her room.

I blinked a few times, trying to focus on anything but my hard, aching cock and the knowledge that only a flimsy door separated Cammie and me.

Cammie’s door opened, but before she stepped out, another thump broke through the whistling sounds of the wind, though this one wasn’t as booming as the last two had been. A second later, we were shrouded in darkness.

“Shit,” I grunted. We’d lost power shortly after I’d run off to my room like a fucking coward. The darkness meant something had happened to the generator.

“The generator,” she groaned. “Dammit!”

“I’m going to check it out,” I told her, fumbling my way toward the front door to get my coat off the hook.

“Are you mad?” she snapped.

“At this temperature, you’ll have maybe two or three minutes—tops—before you develop frostbite. You’ll take longer than that just to find the damn generator.”

She was right. When the sun went down, the temperature outside had dropped to over forty below and with the wind chill, it was even colder.

“It’s going to get fucking cold in here,” I muttered.

“Relax,” she said, her tone calm. “I’ve been dealing with this stuff my entire life. I’ve got this handled.”

I chuckled. “I grew up four hours from here, baby. This isn’t new to me either.”

“Oh. Well, good, then. I’m going to get the emergency kit out of the closet so we have flashlights.”

“I’m going to bring in the firewood from the porch so we don’t have to keep going out in the cold, then I’ll build one in here,” I said, putting on a hat and gloves.

Cammie agreed, then I heard her footsteps fade as she searched her way to the storage closet in the kitchen.

I waited for her to pass me an emergency lantern, then hung it on the door so I could see the stack of wood. I dropped the few loads right inside the door in order to get done as quickly as possible. Once it was all inside, I shut the door and bounced on my toes for a few minutes, trying to warm up.

When my blood was pumping, rather than frozen in my veins, I stacked all the logs in a corner before taking off my coat and hanging it back up.

Cammie walked back into the room carrying a box of emergency supplies. There were flashlights, as well as a couple of lanterns, so she’d set one in the dining area, and one on an end table in the living room. Just until I got the fire going, so we didn’t waste battery power.

“We should probably just sleep in this room tonight,” I said as I built up the flames. It made little sense to light the fireplaces in the bedrooms and try to heat the entire house when we could just as easily stay in the front room and conserve firewood. Eventually, we’d run out of the supply inside, and it was too dangerous to be out in the cold for more than a few minutes, which ruled out going to the pile by the shed for more.

By the time we’d got the fire roaring and did a quick inventory, we were exhausted. Thankfully, we had enough supplies to last without electricity for a week. But with the bitter cold outside, it would still get chilly inside the cabin.

There were thermal blankets in the emergency kit that trapped warmth in weather like this. Most people who lived in climates like ours kept them in the back of their cars in case they were stranded.

We also had all the linens from the bedrooms and sofa bed, plus extras from the storage closet. Theoretically, once we’d make a bed in front of the fire with a heap of blankets, we didn’t need to rely on each other’s body heat for warmth.

That didn’t stop me from pulling Cammie into my arms once we were under the covers. She didn’t try to move away or speak a single word, so I wrapped myself around her and fell into a peaceful sleep.

The storm blocked most of the daylight, so it seemed more like dusk when we woke up. There was enough light that we wouldn’t need flashlights or candles if we left the front room, which was also illuminated by the fire.

At some point in the night, Cammie had turned to face me and was cuddled up against my chest. Her hands were under my shirt, splayed on my chest for warmth, and one of her legs was sandwiched between mine.

Her head rested on one of my arms while my opposite hand was curled under the top of her bent leg, keeping her plastered against me and nestling my hard cock in the apex between her thighs.

The thermals she was wearing were thin, and my boxers were certainly not any kind of barrier, so the heat from her pussy surrounded my shaft. It was taking all of my control not to rock my hips into her.

I moved my top leg off her and scooted slightly backward, but she followed and wrapped herself tightly around me.

“Cammie,” I groaned. “Baby, you need to wake up.”

She muttered something unintelligible and wiggled closer.

I didn’t know if I was in heaven or hell.

“Cammie,” I said, a little louder. “You need to let me get up.”

She slowly blinked a few times before lifting her chin to look up at me. I knew the moment she felt my arousal because her eyes grew wide—and filled with lust, nearly pushing me past my breaking point—and she let out a little squeak before scrambling backward.

“Crap! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to?—”

“Babe, calm down. It’s no big deal.” Liar, liar … “Sharing body heat was the smart thing to do.”

She sat up and blew out a breath as she ran her fingers through her hair. “Right. Um. Okay, well, I’m going to go get dressed…oh.”

“Right,” I commented, remembering her predicament. “You need clothes.”

Which was why she’d slept naked…so the images haunting me and making me hard as hell were my own damn fault. If I hadn’t hidden away in my room like a fucking asshole…she wouldn’t have been left to clean up—I’d thought she would just leave it for me, but I should have known better—and sleep naked.

I climbed to my feet and padded around the couch, making my way to my bedroom. With the heat out and choosing to only light the one in the living room, the bedroom was cold as hell. I shivered and hurried to my bureau, grabbing a pair of sweats and pulling them on before almost freezing my balls off when I used the bathroom. After hastily searching through my clothes, I cursed when I couldn’t find anything that would even remotely fit Cammie. We’d have to tie up the pants and—Lulu!

A memory popped into my head, and I sent a grateful thought to my sister for being so forgetful. The last time she visited me, she’d forgotten one of her bags, and it was still in the closet.

Lulu was a size or two bigger than Cammie, but they were of a similar height, so the clothes should work just fine. When I opened the closet, I saw the bag on the top shelf.

I took the suitcase to my bed and dumped out the contents, looking them over. There were several warm tops, a couple pairs of pants, and some thick socks. “Perfect.”

To my surprise, my cell phone rang as I gathered the clothes. Considering we had no power, I was astonished that I still had cell service. I shifted everything to one arm and picked up the phone with my free hand, practically dancing on my frozen feet because I’d forgotten to put on socks. Lulu smiled at me on the screen, and I hit the green button to take the call.

“Hey there, little sister,” I greeted.

“Hey, big brother. Merry Christmas Eve.”

Grinning, I greeted my sister. “Give me a second, okay? Just hang on.”

“Sure.”

I set the phone on the bed and carried the clothing to Cammie’s room. A quick glance told me she wasn’t in the living room, so I knocked.

“Come in,” she called. I pushed open the door and stepped inside, but didn’t see her.

“Cammie?”

“I’ll be out soon. Damn, it’s cold,” she said from inside the bathroom. “Did you find something that won’t swallow me whole?”

I chuckled and set everything on the bed. “Actually, I found something even better.” With Lulu waiting on me and not knowing how long the cell service would last, I didn’t want to linger. “Everything is on the bed, babe. I have a call I need to take.”

“Okay,” she said as she opened the bathroom door, rubbing her arms and bouncing up and down for warmth. She glanced at the pile of clothes, and her brows dipped. “Um, thanks.”

She was probably curious why I had women’s clothes in my cabin, but I’d explain it to her after I spoke with my family.

I returned to my room and retrieved my phone, putting it between my ear and shoulder as I grabbed a pair of thick wool socks and sat on the bed to put them on.

“Okay, I’m back. You know, I almost forgot it was Christmas Eve.”

“I’m so sorry we can’t be there, Soren,” my sister groaned. “Maybe we could just drive to Winter Falls. Not up the mountain but?—”

“Forget it, Lulu,” I snapped as I walked out of the bedroom. “It’s too dangerous.”

She sighed. “I hate the idea of you spending Christmas alone.”

“Yeah, well, I hate the idea of you and the kids traveling in this weather. Have you been watching the news, woman?” My voice was cocky when I quipped, “I win.”

“By default!” she cried, making me laugh asI moseyed across the room to stoke the fire.

Lulu and I had been close our whole lives, but we had one constant sibling rivalry—even to this day. Whenever one of us got our way, we declared, “I win!” It had driven our mother crazy because she couldn’t understand that it was a silly joke and a way of saying “I love you” to each other.

“Don’t be a sore loser, Lulu,” I teased. “You know you love me.”

She laughed. “Sometimes. But seriously, though, are you sure you can’t make it out to us?”

“I’ll come visit you guys as soon as the storm clears. Even if you drove out here—something you would regret when I got my hands on you—the town has closed the roads.” I didn’t mention the lack of electricity, or she would freak the fuck out.

“Are you sure it’s safe to be there?”

Once the fire was roaring, I went to the kitchen to look for food. It was warmer than the bedrooms because of its proximity to the fire and lack of door between the kitchen and livingroom.

“The cabin is stocked with food and supplies. I just chopped a fuck ton of wood, so I’ll be warm even if the emergency generator goes out.”

“But if the blizzard knocks out the cell towers, you won’t be able to call for help.”

“Stop worrying yourself into a panic attack, Lulu,” I said soothingly. “Take a deep breath.”

Ever since her asshole of a husband decided he wasn’t “cut out for monogamy,” my sister had been having panic attacks. She had techniques that kept them mostly under control, but in situations when she got worked up and didn’t see it coming, they could hit her like a ton of bricks. So whenever we saw the little signs, we did our best to help calm her. The divorce had become nasty because Trent was being petty and caustic, hurting her even more than when he announced that he no longer loved her.

He’d demanded alimony since Lulu was a very successful screenwriter. And because Lulu’s job made their lives more than comfortable, and she could get very busy near a deadline, he’d stayed home with the kids rather than getting a job. Not that he would be able to since the jackass had no fucking skills.

He also demanded half their assets even though she’d either brought them with her into the marriage or paid for them afterward.

To make matters a million times worse, the motherfucker was attempting to gain full custody of their three-year-old son and two-year-old daughter. He claimed it was because Lulu’s job kept her from being able to care for their kids full-time, but the truth was, he just wanted child support. With half their assets, alimony, and child support, Trent wouldn’t have to get a fucking job. He’d live off my sister while he fucked around because he was too selfish and immature to keep it in his pants.

I’d always struggled to find any redeeming qualities in Trent, but I’d at least thought he was a good father. However, using his children to get to Lulu’s money…that was lower than low. He didn’t deserve those amazing kids and didn’t have what it took to raise them alone.

He was using all of his meager resources to dig up dirt on my sister, and we weren’t about to give him any ammunition to gain full custody. Luckily, I had deep pockets and had thwarted all of his attempts to twist everything Lulu did into proof that she was an unfit mother. The only thing I hadn’t done was break the law. But I’d come really fucking close.

“I told you before, all the cabins are equipped with landlines,” I assured her. “I’ve never seen a place run so efficiently. Caleb’s wife and her partner are more than prepared for the storm. I’ll be fine, and I’ll touch base with you frequently, okay?”

“Okay,” she sighed, sounding less frenzied.

“Now admit it.”

“Admit what?”

“I’m the smartest, most awesome big brother you’ve ever had.”

Lulu laughed brightly, and I smiled at the sound, hearing the anxiety gone from her voice.

“You are,” she admitted.

“I win.”

She gasped, and I snickered. “You’re my only brother, you punk! You can’t keep winning by default!”

“Sure I can.”

Lulu sighed melodramatically, then muttered, “Avery and Owen want to say hello.”

The phone switched to a video call, and my nephew’s cute face filled the screen. He grinned at me, and my heart melted. I didn’t want kids, but I loved my niece and nephew like they were my own.

“Hey, sport!” I greeted him jauntily.

“Uncle Sowen!” His cute little face morphed into a sad frown. “Mommy says we can’t come foh Cwismas.”

“I know, sport. But it’s not safe for you to come here in this weather right now.”

“But we were gonna ski,” he pouted.

“We will,” I promised. “You should be able to come see me a few days after Christmas, and I’ll take you and your sister all over the mountain.”

“Yay!” he shouted, dropping the phone on the floor and doing a little happy dance over it.

Suddenly, Avery’s face was in front of the screen, so close that I was practically looking up at her nose. “Unca So!” she squealed.

Laughing, I told her, “Not so close, sweet girl. I can’t see your face.”

Lulu gently pulled the phone back and showed Avery how to hold it.

“There’s my girl.”

Avery’s smile was huge, and while I didn’t really care about spending Christmas alone, I missed their tight, happy hugs.

“Santa’s come! Kissmas!”

“Yep, Santa’s coming soon! Are you being my best girl?”

She nodded enthusiastically, then screeched when Owen grabbed the phone again.

“How will Santa find you, Uncle Sowen?” He looked panicked, and I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing.

“Don’t worry, sport. He’s magic.”

“Oh yeah,” he agreed matter-of-factly. “’Kay. Love you, bye!”

Avery grabbed the phone, glaring at her brother, then put it right up to her face again. “Ludjew Unca So!”

“I love you, too, sweet girl,” I murmured. I heard the creak of a floorboard just outside the kitchen and glanced behind me, assuming Cammie would be there, but I didn’t see anyone.

Lulu took the phone from Avery and smiled sadly at me. “I really wish we could be together. The kids are really bummed you won’t be here for Christmas morning.”

“Me too,” I sighed. Christmas morning with those munchkins was a stitch, and I was just as disappointed that I was going to miss it. “Tell my munchkins I love them, and we’ll have our own little Christmas morning soon.”

“I will. We just miss you and wish you were home.”

When I heard the floorboards creak again but didn’t see Cammie, I frowned. “I’m going to go, but make sure you call me tomorrow morning. Do you still have the number for the landline?”

“Yes. Be safe. We love you. And Merry Christmas.”

“Ditto.”