Snowbound Christmas Cheer Read online

  “That’s really pretty,” he said as he picked up his drink again. “I love the snow.”

  “Me too,” Jo agreed. “It’s one of the great things about living outside of Detroit. We get a lot of snow.”

  “We get quite a bit in Peoria too.”

  “That’s right,” Jo said. “You’re from Illinois.” She remembered him saying something about it at the Halloween party, but frankly between the noise, the drinking and the vomit at the end of the evening, she didn’t remember all of the little details. “How long have you lived there?”

  A.J. shrugged. “Most of my life, I guess. My Dad works for Caterpillar.”

  Caterpillar was a good company, Jo knew. They built big construction equipment used all around the world. She wondered why A.J. hadn’t planned to follow in his father’s footsteps, but she worried it might be rude to ask him something like that flat out so she tried an indirect approach. “So why you’d come to Detroit for school?”

  A.J. was still trying to find a comfortable sitting position. He was twisted about so he faced her with his shoulder against the back of the seat and his right leg pulled up half beneath him. “I got a pretty nice scholarship at Wayne State, and well, it’s a good school, so…here I am. What about you? Where did you get your degree?”

  Jo wondered if A.J. knew you only needed an Associate’s Degree and a license to be an oral hygienist in Michigan. So she felt a little bit apprehensive when she answered. A.J. may think she was out of his league, but from Jo’s perspective it was the other way around. “I went to Wayne County Community College. They had the program I wanted and community colleges are a lot cheaper than universities.”

  “Makes sense,” A.J. agreed. “I wouldn’t have come to Wayne State without the scholarship. College costs too damn much these days. You can buy houses cheaper than the tuition for a lot of these schools.”

  Jo felt a surge of relief that A.J. seemed completely untroubled by her community college degree, but she shifted the focus of the conversation back to him anyway. “So what are you going to do when you finish at Wayne State?”

  A.J. shrugged. “I’m interviewing, but nothing’s happened yet. The economy sucks. Those politicians back in Washington better get their act together or this country’s going to be in real trouble.”

  Jo tensed, hoping A.J. wasn’t going to get into politics. She hated everything to do with politicians. They were a lying bunch of sleazebags who weren’t worth anybody’s vote. So she wouldn’t have to comment, she took another sip of her eggnog. The brandy still made the drink taste strange, but she liked the way it made her tongue tingle.

  “So what are you doing for Christmas?” A.J. asked her.

  She began to relax again. This was a very safe topic. “Oh, I’ll spend Christmas Eve with my Mom and Dad and all my brothers and sisters.”

  A.J. grinned as if he could easily envision the scene. “You’ve got a lot of them?”

  Jo matched his smile. “My Mom and Dad were teenagers when they got married and we have a pretty big family. There are seven of us—five girls and two boys and oh, I don’t even want to count how many nieces and nephews I have.”

  “That must be nice,” A.J. said. “I’m an only child.”

  “Now that sounds nice to me,” Jo said. “I used to dream about being an only child. When you have a lot of brothers and sisters, nothing is truly your own. You have to share everything.”

  A.J. started laughing. “And I used to dream about having an older brother to play with and keep me company. I guess the grass is always greener, isn’t it?”

  “I guess so,” Jo agreed. She took another sip of her eggnog, enjoying the fact that A.J. was so easy to talk to. Her whole tongue had that pleasant alcohol-induced almost-numb feeling now. Outside the vehicle, the snow continued to fall but with the heater blowing, even on low, it was almost too warm inside the car.

  A.J. seemed completely in tune with her feelings. “It’s getting hot in here. Do you want me to turn off the heater for a while?”

  Jo took a moment to consider what she was wearing under her ski jacket. There was nothing wrong with her Santa Claus t-shirt and she’d remembered to put on a bra when she left her apartment. She didn’t always do that if she was just running out and knew she wouldn’t be taking off her coat, but fortunately she had this time.

  She came to a decision. “That’s okay. I’ll just slip off my jacket.”

  “Good idea,” A.J. agreed, immediately following suit.

  Without the ski jacket, it was actually a little bit cold in the car, which made Jo’s nipples swell. Hopefully that wasn’t too noticeable.

  “Love the shirt!” A.J. said.

  Jo glanced down at herself. Santa’s bearded face was plastered across her chest.

  “I should have done something like that, but I didn’t expect to run into anybody,” A.J. told her.

  He was wearing a Wayne State t-shirt. There was nothing fancy about it, but it fit well over his muscular chest.

  When the silence began to stretch out between them, Jo broke it with another question. “Why are you waiting so long to fly home?”

  A.J. finished off his eggnog and reached for the bottle of brandy. “I had my last final exam today—Marketing Analytics.”

  “This late?”

  “Yeah,” A.J. confirmed as he reopened the bottle. “It was a bear. My roommates all got to go home yesterday or the day before.” He held the brandy out toward her cup. “You want me to top you up?”

  Jo considered that for a moment. They had said one glass, but what the heck. She finished off the rich creamy eggnog with the brandy burn concealed within it and held out the cup to him.

  A.J. added about a quarter inch of brandy—significantly less than the first time—then poured some more into his own cup. “You know, all things considered, I’m really glad the final was today. I’d have hated to miss the chance to run into you again.”

  Jo settled a little more comfortably into her seat. The last gulp of brandy had warmed her considerably and A.J. had a gift for saying nice things. “I’m glad too. I didn’t like the way things ended on Halloween.”

  A.J. capped the bottle and returned it to the backseat, picking up the carton of eggnog. “Me neither. What with all the vomit, we didn’t get to kiss goodnight.”

  That was something Jo had regretted missing also, but how to say that without A.J. taking it as an invitation to start making out with her in the car. Not that making out would be bad. She just didn’t want to look too easy sitting here in the Kroger parking lot. “Brad messed up a lot of things that night, didn’t he?”

  A.J. poured about three inches worth of eggnog into her cup. “He sure did.”

  She swished the drink around in her cup for a moment and took another sip. She didn’t usually have two glasses of eggnog in a row—the stuff tasted great but it was really fattening—but this was a special occasion and thanks to the brandy, she was starting to feel nice and mellow.

  A.J. refilled his own glass and followed suit. He slipped around in his seat so he was facing forward and took a long sip while watching the snowfall out the window. His hand slipped over across the seats and found hers.

  She gave his pale fingers a little squeeze with her darker ones and wondered if she should have encouraged him to kiss her.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” A.J. asked. “I find a snow like this very peaceful.”

  “That it is,” Jo agreed. She wasn’t certain if it was the brandy, the heater, or just being with A.J., but the temperature in the car was beginning to feel overwhelming.

  As if he were reading her mind, A.J. flicked off the blower. “Whew!” He blew out the word in one long breath as if he were trying to shake off the same infusion of heat that was suffusing her. “So tomorrow night you’re going to visit your parents. What will you do on Christmas Day?”

  Jo was fully aware that he’d pulled her hand closer to him as he turned again to face her, while he waited for her answer.

 
She twisted about in her seat to face him too. Blond hair really worked better for him than the dye job he had had on Halloween. A.J. had a great face—strong with just a trace of ruggedness in him. It was the kind of face that said he could take care of himself without making him look like a bully or a wife beater. And those brilliant blue eyes—Jo could sink into a pair of eyes like that and get lost forever.

  “The whole family goes over to my grandmother’s where all of my uncles and aunts and their families gather and we have a sort of day long Christmas dinner.”

  His brilliant blue eyes lit up as he imagined the scene. “That sounds wonderful, but I hope your grandma lives in a mansion with all of those family members coming to visit. How do you even eat together?”

  Jo loved this tiny bit of evidence that A.J. really was paying attention to her. “We can’t, of course. Heck, my parents’ generation can barely fit around the main table. Grammy had four children and all of them are still married, although Uncle Theo is on his third wife. All of them have kids—Uncle Theo from three different women—and well, most of the kids have kids too now. So the rest of us pretty much sit anywhere we can squeeze in—the family room, the basement, the three bedrooms, the finished attic—even Grammy’s enclosed porch. It’s crowded, but it’s Christmas!”

  The longer she described her family gathering, the broader A.J.’s smile grew. “I can’t think of anything better than that. At my house, it’s usually just the three of us and well, I love my parents, but except for the presents and the size of the meal, Christmas isn’t that different from any other day of the year.”

  Jo slid a little bit closer to A.J., wondering if he would notice. “That is so sad. Family gatherings are the whole point of Christmas. Don’t you have any family to visit?”

  A.J. took another sip of his eggnog, then set it down in the drink holder as he slipped his other arm around Jo’s back. It was a little bit awkward. She adjusted her position so she could lean up against him. The front seats of cars were not really made with snuggling in mind but she made it work and it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

  A.J.’s chest felt wonderfully hard against her torso. She wished she could run her hand over it, but it was probably too soon and she still had the cup of eggnog in it.

  He was saying something about his family. “My family came to Peoria from Mississippi when my dad got the job with Caterpillar. I’m not quite sure how all of that happened. I was maybe two-years-old. Anyway, all of our family lives in the deep south and we don’t see them very often. I’ve got cousins with children I’ve never seen in person.”

  “That’s terrible,” Jo told him. Not certain what to do with the cup, she took another sip of the eggnog. She’d have to drink it this way again. She loved the warm feel of the brandy sliding around in her belly. “Didn’t you miss your family?”

  “Not really,” A.J. admitted. “I guess a lot of it is what you grow up expecting. But I think what you’re describing sounds a thousand times better than the way we spent our Christmases. Although I can’t imagine how hard it is to prepare food for that many people.”

  He slipped his free hand onto her waist and Jo’s whole body tingled. She still had the damn cup in her hand and as he’d just refilled it, there was too much to just gulp down. “We, um, all bring something,” she mumbled.

  Heat radiated off his body into hers, making it hard to think properly. The windshield had fogged, masking the falling snow.

  A.J.’s fingers lifted off her waist and took the cup out of her hand. Evidently he was finding himself a bit distracted also. “That sounds…sensible,” he whispered.

  The red Solo cup found its way into the drink holder. His fingertips caressed her cheek. “I want that kiss now,” he whispered.

  “Good,” she whispered back. “I’m getting tired of waiting for it.”

  Chapter Three

  A.J.’s lips met hers and she opened to him. His tongue flicked out, tasting of eggnog and brandy.

  Despite her initial bad impression, Jo was really starting to like brandy. She closed her eyes and leaned into the kiss, her breast pressing against his hard chest. Now that her hand was free to touch him she hesitated at his side, trying to figure out if she should go up to his pectorals or down to his abdomen.

  His fingertips slid from her cheek to the line of her chin, tracing her jaw with feathery light strokes that were in just as exciting as the movement of his tongue inside her mouth.

  A.J. cupped her face, not precisely pulling her closer because their mouths were already locked together, but making their kiss feel more intimate just the same.

  Her hesitating hand finally figured out what to do and slid up his chest to feel the hard muscles beneath his Wayne State t-shirt. She’d never dated anyone who truly worked out before and she liked what her fingers were discovering.

  A.J. broke the kiss and sat there for a moment breathing just as hard as Jo was. She could hear him almost panting as he tried to get the oxygen flowing inside him again. “That was…even better than I’d expected,” he told her.

  Jo opened her eyes just as A.J. leaned in to start kissing her again. If he’d been thorough before, he’d also been patient. This time he came at her hungry for more. His mouth pressed against hers and kept on going, pushing her back in her seat as he kept coming after her. Her head settled back against the cold glass of the passenger door as A.J. greedily pursued her, mouth sucking hard at hers.

  He was half on top of her, holding up his weight with one hand on the seat cushion while the other embraced her body. His mouth and tongue sucked and thrust in turn. Her own hands were on his back—grasping, caressing, and working their way under his shirt to feel the smooth flesh of his back and the rigid line of his spine. Her whole body felt alive beneath him and heat radiated outward—not just from the obvious places like her breasts and pussy, but from the line of her thighs against her jeans, the flush in her neck and upper chest and even her arms and stomach.

  A.J. kept kissing her.

  His body kept seeking a more comfortable position in the tight confines of the car. He was on his knees now, still bracing himself with his strong left arm, his chest brushing her breasts without bringing all his weight to bear upon her.

  Her own legs were trapped annoyingly in the passenger side foot well with no easy way to bring them up and stretch them out beneath A.J. Maybe if they were in the backseat she could do it, but not here in the front. It was highly frustrating, but maybe good as well, because she’d already gone much further than she intended to when she agreed to this little date in the car.

  As she kissed back even harder, her fingers moving of their own accord to the waist of A.J.’s jeans, she wondered in the back of her mind what had come over her. She’d always wanted a guy, but she’d never intended to move this quickly with him. Even if you counted the Halloween party as a first date, this wasn’t really a second one. They were just sitting in his car. What was she doing making out like this?

  Her hand slipped onto the jeans and her fingertips glided onto the curve of his firm ass. She desperately wanted to clutch it, squeeze it in her hand, get a good chunk of it between her fingers and—

  The brandy!

  She hadn’t had that much of it, but brandy wasn’t beer. No wonder she was acting all giddy and wanton.

  As A.J.’s free hand began to leave her back, creeping stealthily toward her breast, Jo found the strength to reassert some self-control.

  She let go of his fine rear end and pushed lightly but firmly on his chest. It wasn’t a shove, just a clear sign that she wanted him to ease up for a minute. At the same time she turned her mouth away from his and stopped kissing him. “I think we need to slow down a moment.”

  A.J. immediately pulled back from her and into his own seat. It was a good sign in many ways. Back in her junior year in high school, Jo had dated Ray Junior and reached this moment. Ray hadn’t been so willing to give up his chance to explore her breasts. She’d had to get angry, which had gotten him even more up
set and they’d ended up breaking up on the spot. Ray hadn’t even driven her home. It was nice to have a guy understand that she got to set her own limits.

  “Whew!” A.J. breathed. “That was…you are…whew! I think I need another drink.”

  He picked up his cup of eggnog from the drink holder and took a large mouthful, which it looked like he had to force down his throat. He put his drink back and offered Jo her own cup. “Careful with this, it was great when we started out, but it feels a little thick now.”

  Jo was still trying to catch her breath. Her face felt flush. Her nipples were pressing hard against her t-shirt, and a fire raged down below in her pussy. She couldn’t believe how turned on she was right now. The last thing she needed was a little more brandy, but she took the cup from A.J. anyway and took another sip. Perhaps she was looking for the strength not to stop him next time.

  She wished that Keisha, her roommate, wasn’t back in their apartment. That’s where she ought to take A.J. They could get out of this overheated car and she could slow things down by fixing a little dinner and then they could settle in front of the television and see where the evening brought them. She still wasn’t certain they should do much more than they already had, but my oh my how she’d like to see the chest beneath that t-shirt—or feel A.J.’s wonderful lips on her nipples.

  A.J. found her hand again and enfolded it in his. “I am so happy I ran into you tonight—and so frustrated with myself for letting Brad’s idiocy scare me away from calling you.”

  Still holding the cup of eggnog, Jo turned in her seat to get a clean look at him. A.J. did look so incredibly happy. He had twisted sideways in his seat just as she was sitting. His face and neck had a slight flush still visible and there was sweat glistening on his skin and darkening the collar of his t-shirt. It made her realize how damp her own skin was. “Do you think we could lower the windows for a minute? It’s really hot in here.”

  A.J.’s hand reached for the buttons on his door without taking his eyes off her. “I should have thought of that myself. It’s probably not all that safe to be sitting in here with the car running and the windows up anyway. Carbon monoxide can sneak up on you.”