Christmas in Coconut Creek (Dirty Delta, #1)

by Karissa Kinword

“I’ll text you then,” he decided. “I’ll text you every day. You should have my number.” “Oh, should I?” I laughed. “I don’t know how many more unsolicited dick pics I can handle.” “How many do you get?” “That’s none of your business.” “So…zero. Smooth way to admit you’d want mine though.” “I don’t.” “Phone, please.”

“Are you this forward with all the women you date?” A smirk tugged at the corner of his lip. “I haven’t dated anyone in ten years. I was with my ex for seven of them.” Ten years.

“I’ve never gone swimming in the ocean at night,” I said, taking a few steps into the water. “There are sharks in there.” Frankie bristled next to me, apparently hoping I wasn't about to do what it looked like I was about to do. “They’re all sleeping.” I laughed. “No—nope, I don’t think they are.” Throwing every caution to wind, I gave him a teasing wink and pulled the hem of my cover-up over my head, unveiling my bathing suit. The cool breeze sent a wake of goosebumps over my skin. “What are you doing?” Ignoring him, I tiptoed into the surf until the foam tickled my knees, and then sunk in even further, submerging the entire bottom half of my torso. Frankie stood with his hands on his hips at the shore, worry wrinkling the gap in his brows that I could see all the way from Alaska. “C’mon, O,” he complained. “Stop playing around.” “Join me, Francesco. The water’s fine.” “I won’t be doing that.” He swiped his hat off his head and scratched nervously at his scalp. “I’ll actually be standing here with the Hollywood Beach EMS on speed dial while you get your ass cheek ripped off by a great white.”

Giving the shoreline another quick onceover I hooked my thumbs into my bikini bottoms and shuffled the stringy material down my legs, bunching them into a ball then chucking them to land at his feet. “Better give them something good, then.” Frankie registered what was soaking on the ground in front of him in slow-motion. His eyes rounded and his pacing stopped. “Oh, you little cocktease,” he groaned.

“Me?” I pouted. “You,” he confirmed, unironically at the same time that I pulled the flimsy tie at the back of my neck loose and let my whole top fall. Frankie’s first instinct was to shoot a protective glance at the beach behind us to shield me from prying eyes. Such a gentleman. When he knew we were alone his eyes fluttered closed and I glanced down to appreciate the effect I had on him in his tightening swim trunks.

“Is this the type of show and tell where you pass it around the class, Ms. Brody?” “It’s more like the kind I leave on the table, if you want to come see for yourself.” “Hmm,” he hummed, getting another searing look at my chest and then using his size to his advantage—catching my wrist in his hand in one calculated reach. He pulled my body to his, arms winding around my lower back until my toes left the sand beneath the water and my entire upper half was pressed tight against his chest. His skin was warm, fever touched, and I could feel just how hard he was tucked into his waistband against my stomach. “You should lose the shorts,” I breathed. “It’s only fair.” “I don’t think you’re the authority on playing fair right now.”

“You’re very beautiful, you know that?” he said. I bit my lip. “This is a bad idea and we both know it.” “I’ve never seen a bad idea that looked this damn good.” My legs wrapped around his hips as his hands instinctively dropped to cup my ass, holding my pelvis against him. I sighed in unabashed approval. To hell with it. “Are you gonna kiss me now? Or are you still thinking too hard about it?” “Yeah.” He licked the seam of his lips in preparation. “Yeah, I’m gonna fucking kiss you now.” And he did with so much need that my eyes drooped closed on impact.

“I am so fucking hard for you right now, O. You’re making me lose my mind.” I tugged his bottom lip with my teeth and then grazed his chin, the patch of stubbly hair on his jaw, again on the lobe of his ear. I was completely in control of the situation, and hearing him react, unashamed to groan in that husky baritone of a voice, I was slowly becoming enraptured. I felt sexy. Frankie was making me feel that way. “This smart mouth of yours.” He prodded my lower lip with his thumb. “I just want to stick my dick in it. You have no idea how many times I’ve thought about you on your knees since I sat down on that plane.”

Frankie righted me immediately, his fingers tightening in my scalp to the point of pain. “You can play with it all you want, sweetheart, but I’m not fucking you until I can get you spread out on a hard surface. I’m not one of your little boyfriends.” Christ, he really was not. Frankie had outdone every man I’d seen in the last eight years in about eight fucking seconds. “I’ll play with you, too, though.” He snagged my lips between his for a balancing kiss. “You want me to play with you, Ophelia?” “Mm-hmm,” I managed, feeling the first brush of his fingers between my legs, before he abruptly pulled them away. “Use those words for me. I know how much you love to talk.”

“Play with my pussy, Frankie.”

“God damn,” he gritted out, then crushed his lips to mine. It was like his fingers and tongue were battling for my attention. Inside my mouth he swept that devious muscle in perfect circles, flicking it against my own, claiming me desperately. His hand that wasn’t wrapped in hair at the nape of my neck was cupping my sex, stroking eagerly at that throbbing bundle of nerves that had my thighs tightening around his hips. He unwound one of my legs from his waist and pushed it open, giving himself the access he craved, and I clung to his side. “I want to feel you from the inside so badly my cock is fucking aching, baby.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I swore. The thick slide of his finger touched every screaming pleasure point it needed to. I bucked into his hand, nails digging tiny slants into the skin of his shoulder. He pressed the pad of his thumb down against my clit and let me leverage myself on his hand. “Use my fingers.” He licked a searing line over my breast, then caught my nipple between his teeth and tugged on it. “Show me how your pussy likes to get fucked.”

Oh God. Is he…? “I-I think you’re gonna make me⁠—” “Yeah, Ophelia. I fucking know I am.”

“No,” Frankie protested, batting my hand away. “I’ll get mine, troublemaker. This isn’t for me.”

“There she is,” he teased, watching my lips shape into a soft circle. “I can feel you shaking, sweetheart. You’re gonna give me what I want, right? So close.”

I managed a half-lidded glance back at the shoreline, in time to see a trail of approaching headlights that gave me immediate pause. “F-frankie, fuck,” I gasped. “Th-there’s someone coming.” Without stopping for a beat, he assessed the obviously patrolling Jeep and turned back with an irritated grunt. “Not happening.” He shook his head. “No, no, no, you focus on me. You’re gonna show me how this tight pussy gives right now, O.” He kissed me again, stealing every worrying crease from my brow, any thought that wasn’t the grip of my tight walls around his fingers, buried under the heat of his assaulting tongue. “Tell me yes.”

“Ohhhhh, God.” My body trembled, then fell entirely slack. Still pulsing with aftershocks and unraveling from my vice hold on his hips, I hung on with enough self-preservation to find cover under the waves as those bright truck lights found us both in the wake.

“That’s what it feels like when a man makes you come. Don’t ever fucking forget it.”

When shit changed for me and I couldn’t fly anymore, I was lucky to make it out of bed in the old apartment before three p.m., let alone make it to a job. I was living in a den of self-pity, cashing disability checks and spending it all on booze, shutting everyone important to me out of my life—then watching all those relationships crumble. The last straw for Mateo was when he found me surrounded by a case of empty cans of Bud Heavy, passed out on the living room couch on my fucking birthday after I’d missed my own surprise party.

The truth was—yes. Obviously I was feeling something more for Ophelia, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. What she was giving me was the missing piece of all the other women I’d tried to get to know lately.

I wanted her. Plain and simple. I wanted to feel her again, and hear her again. The way Ophelia’s entire body reacted to me was one of the sexiest things I’d ever fucking seen. And we’d barely even scratched the surface.

“I appreciate how much you care about me, Cap.” I smirked at him. “I think we both realize it’s gotta be casual. I promise you, if things go south, I’ll be the first to admit that you told me so.”

“Are you doing it?” My mouth widened into a grin. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me toward the front door. “Yeah, brother. I think I am.” I patted him on the back, laughing. “Well if I’m losing you, we’re going out with a fucking bang.” “Vegas?” he suggested. “Over Tally’s dead body,” I joked. “We’ll all just have to go together.” God, shit was about to get so much crazier.

Frankie <3 Accurate. What does it say about how I am in bed? Me Disappointing, quick on the trigger, selfish I snorted to myself as I sent the message. My face was becoming numb against the half-moon pillow it was cradled in, and my arms under the massage table tingled like television static. Frankie <3 I’m gonna make you eat those words, sweetheart I began to reply but another text came through first. Frankie <3 And maybe those pretty red panties I stole too so your friend doesn’t have to hear it all the way down the hall

“Did you know Frankie actually speaks three languages?” I asked Nat. “English, Spanish, and desperate. Did you sext him after I went to bed?”

Frankie <3 You want to know what my most recent one was?

Me I promised Nat I wouldn’t sext you Frankie <3 I didn’t promise the same, so you can just listen then I flipped from my side onto my back in bed as I stared down the text bubble idling on the screen. Frankie <3 Because I haven’t been able to go twelve hours without fucking my hand over the way your pussy felt coming around my fingers Fuck me. I knew Frankie wouldn’t take it easy, but that one sentence sent me barreling back to the middle of the ocean with his hands all over my body like a brand. Frankie <3 I have never been so desperate to have somebody underneath me in my life, Ophelia and I’m laying here in bed right now, hard as a fucking rock over you again, but I won’t touch myself if you don’t tell me to

The ache between my legs begged for attention my fingers were too eager to give. Me Tempting…no Frankie <3 No? Me I’ll see you tomorrow night Frankie <3 Ophelia Me Goodnight, Frankie I was torturing myself just as much as I was torturing him. It must have been a whole minute of watching the screen flash with three angry dots over and over again before a final text came through. Frankie <3 Sweet dreams, Trouble

“Hey.” A deep voice rang out from across the room and I dropped the new scraper back into the metal bowl with a clatter. Frankie was leaning against the wall, the strands of dark hair around his ears still damp from the shower he must have just been in, and the shirt he had yet to put on bunched in his fists.

“Hi.” His gaze swept down my legs and back up again. The frilly cutoff Daisy Dukes I had on obviously doing the job I hired them for as I watched his tongue traverse his bottom lip. “You got everything, it looks like.” I gestured to the table and tore my eyes away from the man across the room. His blatant appraisal scorched the back of my neck and the tips of my ears. I felt completely naked under it.

“So I think we should start with the cookie bars because they take the—” I couldn’t finish the sentence before a warm, hard body settled at my back. Frankie’s impressive, sinewed hands came down right outside my own on the marble, and the tops of his thighs pressed my hips against the cold ledge. We both heard my breath catch. “You wore these shorts to torture me,” he whispered against my ear, nudging his nose through my hair. “Because you want me to look at you and forget how to keep my hands to myself.”

Naively, I’d assumed I would have at least a batch of snickerdoodles in the oven before my panties were around my knees—but, then again, I wasn’t exactly complaining. We had all night.

but instead of inching away I returned the pressure, rocking my hips back and forth slightly. “Don’t start something you don’t intend to finish, O,” he warned me. “If you’re gonna rub your sweet little ass against me like that, I’m gonna do something about it.” “They could walk in and see us.” His lips went to my neck, warm and wet, kissing my pulse point. “I don’t give a fuck.”

My hips ground more overtly and Frankie dropped his face into the juncture of my shoulder, groaning. “I’ve been strung out all day thinking about this,” he confessed. “You’re a devious little thing, leaving me throbbing like that last night.” “I don’t break my promises.” Frankie ran his hand up my arm softly and then threaded his fingers around the base of my neck like a collar. My heart boomed rapidly against the heat of his palm. “Promise me something, then?”

“The first time I make you come tonight, you’ll look me right in my eyes and say, ‘Thank you, Frankie.’”

“We have to talk,” he murmured. “Right now?” I asked breathlessly. What the fuck did he want to talk about so badly it couldn’t wait past an orgasm or two? “Right now.” He nibbled on the lobe of my ear, and a warm current buzzed beneath my skin like lights on a Christmas tree. “Because it’s the difference between what I’m doing to you at the moment and what I’m going to be doing to you next.” “How about a little incentive?” Jesus Christ, who am I? My body had apparently been abandoned and occupied by the Ghost of Horny Holidays Past. A short, amused scoff left his throat. “Why don’t we play teacher, Ms. Brody? Where I pull these shorts down and give you a very extensive lesson in anatomy.” His fingers found their way between my legs. “What warrants extensive?” “Touch.” He squeezed me there. “Taste.” Then licked my lips. “Start talking, Casado.”

I instinctively pulled away from Frankie and curled into myself, swiping my bottom lip with the back of my hand just as both our friends bounded down the hall together. Frankie glared at his roommate as Mateo weaseled to the island with the baking supplies and started opening bags of chocolate morsels.

Mateo glanced between us with a grin curling his lip. “Are we interrupting something?” “No,” I said at the same time Frankie answered, “Yes.” Nat hid a smirk behind a pair of oven mitts. “The more the merrier,” I quickly continued. “Now it’ll only take half as long.” I grabbed the pan from Frankie, pleading with him with my eyes to behave. His knuckles brushed over mine as I stared at him. “You’re killing me, woman.” “Yeah,” I agreed. “I’m killing me, too.”

I couldn’t keep my eyes off Ophelia across the table. Cracking eggs into a bowl, measuring vanilla extract, swiping her finger through the mixture to taste it on her tongue. There was really nothing quite like a beautiful woman making eye contact while she sucked her fingers clean. She knew exactly what she was doing.

Mateo made a clicking noise with his tongue to get my attention and vaguely nodded his head in the direction of the hallway. Yes, dumbass, I insisted with my eyes. “We’ll be back.” He grabbed Tally by the hand and pulled her toward the bedroom, mumbling something that made her laugh.

“Leave it,” I instructed her. I didn’t want her thinking she had to make a fuss over the mess, and I absolutely didn’t want to give off the impression I expected a woman to clean up anything in my kitchen. “It’s the least I could do,” she said with a soft smile. “Thank you for setting this up. I can’t remember the last time I made Christmas cookies for fun. I used to do it with my parents all the time before the divorce.” Her little smile evened out.

While my mind raced with the prospect of continuing that hot and heavy segment with Ophelia, I cared more about making her laugh again at that moment than anything. I cared more about making sure she knew I cared, rather than getting under her.

“I thought you wanted to talk…?” I walked over and dropped onto the couch cushion next to the bag of gifts, waving her over. “I can talk and tie bows at the same time.”

side of the wrapping off with Scotch tape. “Need some help?” I teased. “My fingers are much more useful for other things,” he grunted, tearing the tape and snapping his digits together until the clear plastic flung across the living room. “Who’s the poor kid that gets this sad wrap job?”

I liked looking at him way too much for my own good. With a hat on, he was brooding and boyish, but in this perfect orange lighting with his thick, shaggy, finger-combed hair—Frankie was fuckable. There was no better word.

With Frankie it was like zero to sixty with no breaks, and that was terrifying and exhilarating because I knew we were destined to hit a wall. A very large, hard, unmoving wall. But I’d rather take my chances on the airbags than not experience the ride.

He straightened his back with a weak grunt, and clasped his hands together on his lap. “Have sex with me.” I blinked rapidly, and my pulse stuttered. That was the most blatant way a man had ever tried to coerce me into doing him. It was also comical that this was what Frankie needed so desperately to talk to me about that he stopped doing the string of things that would have led directly to me having sex with him. I was so taken aback that the only real response I gave was a confused, nervous laugh. “Yes, Ophelia. Have a lot of mind-blowing, filthy sex with me.” “What’s the catch here?” I asked. “You’re saying a lot of things that I’m liking, but I know there’s something else rattling around in that head.” “It’s obvious that we’re in dangerous waters with each other,” he said. “I can’t look at you for more than ten seconds in those fucking shorts without thinking about what they’d look like on my bedroom floor.” Now I couldn’t either. “There’s no hiding that I have my shit with my ex. I’m just looking for someone to get me back on track, and I know you’re a hundred Olympic snowboarders deep in Colorado.” I snorted. “I fucking wish.” “The point is, both of us are in a situation where we can have some fun right now.” “Like, friends with benefits?” I raised my eyebrow. “Like friends with benefits.”

The only reason I was even moderately hesitant with Frankie was for fear of forming an attachment when we lived so far away from one another.

“I’m here to visit Florida and spend time with Nat. What happens when we’re done hooking up or she’s holed up with Mateo for the night?” “You know you’re welcome in my bed as long as you’d like, O.”

“No, if we’re gonna do this, let’s do it right. You want to start dating again, you need some help, some gentle nudges back onto the lady scene—let me be your crash test dummy.” Frankie narrowed his eyes. “You want me to practice how to date with you?” “The last time you casually dated, cell phones didn’t even have internet. There’s been an entire revival of women since then, and not all of them are falling for your broody pilot act.”