“Looked like a smile.” Dave ribbed me as we walked in and found some seats. “Seen that more in the past week on you than I have in the past year.”
I grunted. He might be right. But I wasn’t smiling right then.
Violet was up front and center, her hair all blow-dried out, her heels and full makeup and attitude projecting L.A. powerbroker. I knew her well enough by then to understand that she was nervous about tonight. She’d put on her armor.
But me sitting in the way back, her up there with that coworker of hers, Sam, plus the mayor, it didn’t sit well with me. It reminded me too much of all the shit in between us.
The town hall forum got started up and people started talking, but I’d learned in life to not listen so much to the words people said as to how they said them. First the mayor gave an intro and I didn’t get much out of him, he was all slick polish that one. Or at least he wanted to be. Then Sam said a word or two and if Violet hadn’t been about to speak next I would have up and walked right out. Sam was a snakeoil salesman with a mean, cold glint in his eye. I wouldn’t trust that man as far as I could throw him. Probably less. I could throw him a good distance.
Then Violet started talking and the air in the room changed. People went from rustling around and clearing their throats, to still and silent listening to every word. She showed us some footage from around town. I guessed camera crews had been filming. There was our covered bridge with the sunset behind it framing it just so. There was the local brewery, a couple of folks enjoying the mighty fine hard cider. Helga got on camera and had us all laughing as she kept directly dressing the cameraman, asking him nosy questions, completely disregarding instructions about ignoring the filming.
“You’ve got so much to share,” Violet concluded, her eyes glowing, her cheeks flushed. “I hope you give us the chance to film here in Watson. I’d love to help people discover everything that’s so special, so amazing about this town.”
Her eyes flickered over to mine just before she sat down. I gave her a brief nod, letting her know she’d done well. She gave me a relieved smile.
In the debate that followed, it seemed most people were excited about the show. Shopkeepers wanted to expand their businesses. Restaurant owners raved over the free advertising. The mayor, of course, was over the moon.
I knew I was a cranky motherfucker, used to keeping to myself like a grizzly in hibernation. But that was the value of majority rules. Seemed like the majority wanted a reality show in Watson. And who knew, maybe my misgivings had been off base? Maybe I’d been wrong?
“What do you think, Heath?” Harriet was finishing up speaking, saying how much she hoped the town would vote to approve filming the pilot. She’d talked about all of our local artisans and how many struggled to make a living, how a show broadcast to millions could change their lives.
I cleared my throat and stood up, reluctant but understanding she wanted my voice in there, too. I appreciated that she respected my opinion.
“I’ve been worried about what filming a show here would to do Watson. The exposure, the cameras, all the hype. And I’m still worried about it.” I looked up straight at Violet. I could tell she was holding her breath, gripping her water bottle so tight her fingers were denting the plastic.
“But the kind of show Violet’s talking about? I could see that being a good thing for Watson.”
A smile broke out over Violet’s face like sunshine through the clouds. People started applauding and a few hollered out cheers. People wanted this here in Watson. And who knew, maybe they should?
The vote passed soon after, a clear majority sounding out loud and clear. The good people of Watson, Vermont offered up their town on a plate to the Fame! Network to film their next hit reality show Hot Off the Grid.
CHAPTER 15
Violet
Kissing, pulling at each other, grasping hair and jackets, laughing and gasping, Heath and I tumbled into his cabin after the town hall meeting.
“That went—” I started to say something about the forum, maybe thank him for his words of support, but what I did was lunge at him like a new vampire so I could run my tongue along his incredibly strong, corded neck.
“Yeah, you—” he cut himself off, too, cupping my ass with his hands and walking me over to the nearest wall where he crushed me between his huge body and the wooden planks. I didn’t mind being made into a sandwich at all. What a way to go. I wrapped my legs around his thighs and ground against him, my hands up roaming his shoulders, his hair, his neck again. Maybe I was turning into a vampire? I’d never wanted to suck and bite someone so badly.
“I meant to…” Heath fumbled with words as he let go for a moment to fumble with his jeans, unbuttoning them and pulling them roughly down. “I should have mentioned—” He pulled off his shirt and my mouth about dropped open. Seriously. I’d seen that chest bare many times now but it made me come apart at the seams every time. I’d been on movie sets and let me just tell you, those actors might look good on screen but in person they rarely measured up.
Heath? He was the real deal and then some. I reached up to touch because how could I not? He was like a work of art and a naughty one at that. Heath went to work on my jeans, pulling them apart, down and off with minimal assistance. Like a superhero, I tell you.
He ripped my panties right off. That was like the second or third pair.
“Maybe I should just stop wearing them,” I giggled, running my hands along his insanely delicious abs.
“Now you’re talking,” he agreed, taking my breasts into his large hands and caressing them. “But what I meant to talk to you about—”
I couldn’t help it, I bit his shoulder because it was a like a nice, ripe apple only bigger than a regular apple, more like a freaking watermelon and he completely made me lose my mind.
“Fuck,” he groaned, pressing me back into the wall again, his hands opening me up, pushing my thighs apart.
I reached my hands out, one grasping his cock, one against the wall to steady myself for his assault. I couldn’t wait.
“No condom,” he grit out.
My eyes opened. “What?”
“Are you protected?” he asked, his bare cock right there at my entrance. It looked so huge, veins bulging along its length, so ready for action.
“Yes!” I gasped. I was on birth control, but my partners always used condoms, too, that was part of the deal. It had never seemed like a burden before. Now, with his bare cock right there bulging and about to impale me, I wanted nothing between us so badly I could barely see straight.
“I’m clean,” he assured me. “I meant to talk with you about this before…when we weren’t…”
I groaned, hitting my head against the wall. Too much talking, not enough fucking. I needed him up inside of me and the thought of feeling him come deep in me, pulsing out into my core nearly made me orgasm on the spot.
“I’m good. Fuck me bare!” I cried out, not able to take any more of this.
“Are you sure?” he asked and I nearly hit him with something, only I would have had to leave his side to get something and there was no way in hell I was going to do that.
“Please, Heath,” I begged, shameless. He brought his swollen crown to my slick entrance.
“God, this is going to feel so good,” he groaned, and I nearly passed out. Until he finally eased himself in, pushing in past my entrance as I cried out in intense ecstasy. An orgasm tore through me as he filled me completely, his bare cock directly in my pussy, sliding in my wet walls, claiming me with nothing between us.
He closed his
eyes and stayed completely still while I came, clawing at him like a wild animal.
“You make it hard,” he grit out, finally opening his eyes as I clung to him, panting. “But this is so good I’m going to make this last.”
True to his word, he fucked me nice and long up against that wall, thrusting into me again and again, using his cock to drill me until I screamed and gasped and begged for it all over again. The feel of him, so massive, supporting my weight with his hands, holding me right there at exactly the right angle to fuck me, kept me completely hostage. I never wanted it to end. Until I could feel it build up in him, tense, his breathing rough and jagged. His balls full as he slapped into me over and over. He needed to come.
“Are you going to come in me?” I breathed, so excited, feeling another orgasm waiting to engulf me.
“You want my come?” he asked, holding my thighs apart with his huge hands as he fucked me relentlessly.
“Yes!” I cried out, already imagining how good it would feel. And then I didn’t have to imagine any more. He shot out his full, hot load like a fucking firehose, right into me and without the barrier, without a layer between us. It was the most intense orgasm I’d ever had. I felt like we were so intimately connected as I could feel each shudder and thrust from him. My body milked him, clutching at him, holding him inside, welcoming every last drop.
Just as I was about to collapse, he picked me up and carried me over to the bed. I don’t remember falling asleep. My last thought was a crazy one. I wished I wasn’t on birth control. That way maybe I could get pregnant and have this big mountain man’s baby.
The next morning, I opened my eyes to his bedroom in his cabin. It had high, vaulted ceilings with exposed beams and a window above the bed, then a wall with three giant windows overlooking the woods and valley below. I felt him stir next to me and wondered if he’d been up a while, holding me while I slept.
I turned to him and smiled. “Morning.”
“Morning, gorgeous.” The sexy smile on him, his bed head messing with his dark, unruly hair, if I hadn’t already been a complete goner, that would have pushed me over the top. It was just the icing on the cake that he made me feel beautiful right when I woke up, no makeup, no hairstyle. I couldn’t help but beam at him.