Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Epilogue

Also by Hunter King

The Flirt Club

Sarah

Hands gripping the wheel, I have to remind myself to watch the road. Snowdon, Massachusetts, Is everything I always heard it was. Covered in this heavy snow, it almost looks like an Alpine village. There’s even a horse and buggy, prancing along on the main road through town. The place is so perfectly decorated, it almost seems like a gingerbread city.

Knowing I still have a way to go, I pull my Ford Pinto into the lot of a cute little place called North Pole Coffee Shop. With that name, I’m not surprised to see old man behind the counter who should apply be a mall Santa if he isn’t already. From the twinkle in his eye to his white beard to his round belly, this man is the closest thing to a perfect Santa I’ve even seen. He’s not wearing a Santa suit, but he dam sure should be. I feel like a kid again when I step to the counter and he asks, “What can Santa and his elves make for you, my dear?”

“How about a man who’s loyal and cares as much about his woman as he does himself? Is that too much?”

Santa looks at me with concern. “Broken heart?”

I swallow my anger and disillusionment. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about it. I don’t want to lose my Christmas spirit. Can I get a large coffee with cream and sugar to go, please?”

He smiles warmly and says with a wink, “I’ve got something better. You’ll just have to trust me.”

He goes to the back, returning a minute later with a white paper cup with blue glitter stars on it. “This is our Christmas special. Take a sip and tell me what you think.”

One sip and I know he’s ruined coffee for me forever. This stuff is achingly delicious. From what I can tell, it’s some combination of coffee, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon and who knows what else. It’s warm and thick, sweet and amazing.

“What do you call this nectar of the gods?” I ask.

“It’s my heartbreak special. Guaranteed to make you feel better in twenty-four hours or your money back.”

“Well, if it works, you should patent it. What do I owe you?”

“No charge, Sarah. It’s on the house.”

I thank him and rush through the snow back to my car. The resort I’m headed to is only forty-five minutes from here, but I’m sure this snow is going to slow me down. As I reach the city limits, it occurs to me that the Santa guy called me by my name. I chalk it up to him reading my debit card, but then I remember I didn’t pay for this amazing holiday concoction. I finally decide that I must have misheard him, because no other explanation makes sense.

Two hours later, I make the final turn, and just in the nick of time. A few more minutes of white-knuckle driving in the snow and I would have pulled over and screamed with all my might. My drive has taken me from an Interstate to a rural highway to a blacktop road, and now finally, a gravel road. If I hadn’t just seen the sign reading, “Awtenbush Springs Resort,” I’d think I was hopelessly lost. This place is the very definition of “middle of nowhere.”

It’s not where I had imagined spending the week before Christmas in the Bicentennial Year of 1976. But this remote resort is exactly what I need right now, to be away from everyone I know so I can begin to pick up the pieces of my shattered life.

The resort’s main building is decorated and lit up for the holiday season, and a quick glance around reveals knee-high plastic candy canes lining the walkways. I can see some of the cabins, and they’re decked out in an equally festive manner.

With today’s heavy snow, it’s truly a winter wonderland. Sure, it’s not Snowdon, but it still feels like magic.

My stress levels are sky-high from the tense snowstorm driving, but I feel myself already relaxing a little as I park my car and grab my weekender. I step through the front door and begin to shake off the snow while looking at the large Christmas tree in the lobby and all the gifts underneath. A woman behind the front desk says, “What’s your name?”

“Sarah Vickers,” I tell her from thirty feet away.

“Hi, Sarah. Robby just left to give the last check-in tour. Drop your things here and go catch him. You can come back and check in when you’re done.”

I leave my bag with her and follow her pointed finger to the back door. I just finished knocking the snow off my boots, now it’s right back into it again. I can see the tour group ahead of me, about a half-dozen people, and I hurry to catch up.

“Hang on, we’ve got a straggler,” the guy in front says when he sees me approaching. Thanks for being a dick, Robby. There’s nothing more irritating than being singled out on a weekend where you just want to be by yourself.

The others turn in my direction. Two couples, holding gloved hands, and one guy by himself.

I follow in the rear as Robby takes us on a half-hour tour of the small resort. We see the forty little cabins, each set a hundred feet or so from the next. He then leads us down a short candy-cane-lined trail toward the riverbank. It’s breathtakingly beautiful in the muted mid-afternoon sunlight. The tall white pines are covered in snow, and the ground is a thick white blanket. The snow absorbs the normal forest sounds, leaving the resort eerily quiet.

We round a turn to see a large wooden tub, at least fifteen feet across, with steam coming off the water and disappearing as it floats upwards. Four couples are sitting up to their necks. Some of the people turn and smile as we approach.

“Awtenbush has three soaking pools,” Robby says, “all fed by the geothermal springs below and pumped to the surface by that big waterwheel you see over there in the river. No electric power is used for the pools, except for the lights. This is pool number one.”

It looks positively blissful. The tub is made from smooth rocks and surrounded by a concrete perimeter. There’s a single wooden wall with hooks for hanging towels and robes. Shoes are scattered about in the snow that leads up to the edge.

As heavenly as it looks, I can’t help but wonder about the inevitable freezing cold walk back to the cabins afterward.

We continue to a second similar tub. “This is pool number two. It’s a bit hotter than number one.”

This time there are only three smiling couples in the water. Jesus, I know some people consider Awtenbush a romantic resort, but aren’t there any single people besides me and this one other guy in front of me? I suppose it doesn’t matter, though, since I’m here to get away from romance. I just wish there weren’t so many happy couples here to remind me about my being alone.

“Pool number three is this way,” Robby says, pointing.

A sign at the beginning of the trail reads, This Way to Nude-Only Pool. Ah, yes, I was warned about the naked pool. My friends who have been here say it’s awesome and extraordinarily relaxing, and that there’s no creepy nonsense because the people there are always polite and respectful.

We reach the pool and Robby waves to four couples whose naked bodies are almost completely hidden by the steam rising from the hot water. Everyone is smiling and looks relaxed and happy. The setting, back up against a sheer rock hillside, is gorgeous, and I decide I’m going to be brave and try it out later. For some reason, I glance over at the single guy and catch him looking at me. He smiles, then quickly turns away. I wonder what his deal is.

The tour continues on an uphill trail made slightly treacherous by the snow. It leads us back to our starting point, behind the main building.

“This building is the lodge. There are board games and a library inside, but no TV. The dining room is to your left. All the food is healthy and delicious, prepared by our own chefs and served buffet-style. Breakfast is from 6 to 9, lunch from 11 to 1, and dinner from 6 to 8. Beware: If you’re late, you don’t get food.”

Robby leaves us at the lodge’s back door. I step in, shake the snow off my clothes and boots, then return to the front desk. The woman who checks me in tells me there’s another wave of snow headed our way. “It’s supposed to be really heavy later, and the temps will be in single digits tonight. That’s crazy. The weatherman on the radio called it a polar vortex.”

“The cabins are heated, right?” I ask, feeling stupid that I hadn’t checked into that in advance.

“Of course,” she says. “Fireplace heaters in every cabin. Not real fireplaces, though; the risk of a fire would be too high since the cabins are totally wood.”

I smile and take the key, then put my boots on again and slog through the snow to my cabin. The temperature is dropping quickly, and when I step inside, I have mixed feelings about the fake fireplace I see. It’s nice and warm inside, so I have that to be thankful for, but dancing cellophane “flames” and the fake crackling coming from the tiny speaker just make me sad.

I take a few minutes to unpack my stuff, including my three self-help books.

Fuck it, I think. I don’t need a romantic wood-burning fire. I need solace.

I’m not here for romance, I’m here to rebuild my life.

I’m here to get over Tim.

Josh

A fake fireplace? That’s what I get for all that money?

Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas and Happy Fucking Holidays.

Whatever. It’s not like I’ll be entertaining anyone.

I pour a shot of bourbon into a Styrofoam cup and take a sip. Then another.

That’s more like it. I begin to relax, which is part of why I’m here. My business is failing, and that’s despite it being the only thing I’ve thought about for the last couple of years. It occurred to me a few weeks back that I needed a few days of total relaxation and distraction. I’ve been trying like hell to think my way out of trouble, and that had gotten me nowhere. Maybe what I really need is to not think about it at all for a bit.

It was either Awtenbush Springs Resort, which I’d read about in an in-flight magazine, or Jamaica. As expensive as Awtenbush is, a Caribbean weekend would have cost twice as much.

I feared the worst when I drove through that overrated tourist-trap, Snowdon, on the way here. That place is a monument to the how out of control this whole holiday season has gotten. It used to be that Christmas was celebrated for two days. TWO! Nowadays, on December 1 the store decorations go up and the radio starts playing the stupid songs. By the time the year 2000 rolls around, they’ll be starting the Christmas season tight after Halloween.

As you can imagine, I drove through Snowdon with only a quick stop for something to drink, then never looked back.

Even “bah humbug” doesn’t quite capture how much I detest the way people get this time of year.

I reach over to close the blinds on my cabin’s only window and see the woman from the tour, the other single person in the group. She’s struggling as she tries to open the door to the next cabin over from mine, and I weigh the thought of bundling back up and rushing to her rescue. I’m already slipping my boots back on when she disappears inside and no longer needs my help.

Good. I didn’t really want to go anyway.

I finish my drink, then decide to check out the pools before dinner. A nice long soak in that hot water would be a great start to the weekend, followed by dinner, then back to the cabin to hang out with my buddy, Jack Daniel’s.

I undress, then slip into my swimsuit. The resort supplies plus bathrobes for the guests, but seeing as how it’s freezing outside, I know that won’t be enough. I put on a long-sleeved shirt, a sweater and some jeans and boots, then put the robe on over that. That should be plenty to get me a couple of hundred yards to the pools.

Once I step outside and walk a short distance, though, I know I’ve underestimated the weather. I’m immediately freezing my ass off. Jesus, how cold is it? It’s dark now and the snow is coming down harder than before as I carefully make my way down the path to the tubs. The first pool is packed with people, which makes sense because it’s the closest to the cabins. By the time everyone gets to this point, they’re dying to get in the hot water.

But I have zero desire to hang out with a lot of people.

The second pool is less crowded; only two couples are there. I consider it for a moment, but my eyes land on the sign pointing to pool number three. In my twenty-seven years on the planet, I’ve never gone to any kind of no-clothing-allowed anything. Not a beach, a nudist resort, an orgy… nothing.

You only live once, Josh. Do it.

My adventurous side wins the short battle with my freezing side, who wanted to jump in the hot water now. I head down the path and around the next bend I see the beautiful setting for pool number three, back against a rock wall. Like everything else, the area is covered with snow and looks idyllic. I make my way to the pool and nod to the four couples and one single woman there, their naked bodies obscured by the rising steam.

Hell, this isn’t so bad—it’s not even like you’re really exposed.

That thought disappears instantly when I approach the wooden wall where I see everyone’s clothes hanging. I’ll be totally exposed from the moment I strip down until I get into that water. But hey, when in Rome…

I take off the robe and am hit with a frigid breeze that puckers my skin immediately. The soles of my feet start to get numb the second they touch the concrete. I pull off my sweater and shirt and hang them up, then as quickly as I can, slip off my jeans and swimsuit in one motion.

Great: shrinkage. The one thing every guy dreads.

I quickly step down into the pool. As I do, I glance up to catch the single woman looking, and she quickly averts her gaze, trying to pretend she wasn’t curious. I recognize her as the woman from the tour, my cabin neighbor.

Taking a spot directly across from her, I smile at everyone as the hot spring water warms me up again. Someone says, “Damn, this was so worth the frozen walk to get here.” The rest of them all laugh in agreement, and just like that everything seems almost normal. Just a bunch of naked people in a giant hot tub in the middle of nowhere.

The next half hour is filled with intermittent discussion about the resort and the weather, and I do my best to avoid interacting. Three couples had been here to the resort before, and the other couple and the single woman hadn’t. One of the couples was older, probably in their sixties, and I admired their spirit. Two were probably fortyish, and the other looked young, maybe early twenties. The woman seemed about my age.

After a while, the conversation is more attention-getting than the fact that nobody has any clothes on. Even when the two fortyish couples climb out and rapidly get their robes around them, it’s no big deal. I start to understand that at a real nudist resort, it wouldn’t feel weird to be naked because everyone else is.

The older couple leaves just minutes later. The remaining four of us talk for a few minutes, then the young couple exchanges a few words between themselves. The guy says, “Time to go,” as they exit the pool. None of these people were models, just regular folks with regular bodies. To be honest, I’m by far the fittest of the men because working out has been my primary method of relieving work stress over the past couple of years.

Within five minutes, what was a half-full pool has become just two single people. I look at the woman. She’s quite lovely, with freckles that give her an air of fresh-scrubbed innocence.

“Where are all the couples rushing off to?” I laugh. “Are they offering holiday dance lessons?”

The woman smiles. “Dinner. Remember, the tour guide said it’s exceptional.”

“I wonder what time it is.” I honestly have no idea. It gets dark so early in the Pacific Northwest during winter.

She looks at me strangely, then rises out of the water, quickly turning her back to me in the process. I catch a glimpse of what looks like a very nice breast, then half of a beautiful ass as she reaches into her shoe.

“7:15.”

I’m guessing she was looking at a watch. I can’t say for sure because I was staring at her slippery body. I watch as her tits sink back into the water, then quickly look away before she catches me. Wow. What a great body.

“What do you think about the fireplace in the cabins?” I ask, tying to deflect the awkwardness.

She laughs heartily. “They’re so damn cheesy!” After a pause, she adds, “But hey, they work really well. My cabin is perfectly warm, even in this weather.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s the important thing.”

“I’m Sarah,” she says. Her damp curls frame a freckled face with big brown eyes and heart-shaped lips.

“Josh.”

“Nice to meet you, Josh.” She gives me another strange look. “Well, I’m really hungry and I have to dry my hair in the cabin first, so I should get going, too.”

Seconds later, Sarah stands and passes right by me, since I’m sitting next to the steps. I try in vain not to gawk at the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen. Then she climbs the steps, taking her sweet time. Once the cold air hits her, though, she rushes to the wall for her clothing.

As I watch her, I feel my own temperature rising. My god, Sarah is damn near perfect. She’s not very tall, maybe five-four, with just enough meat on her bones. It’s the type of body I love on a woman, and hers is truly spectacular.

I only have a glimpse of her tits and the brown hair between her legs, then I get to watch that gorgeous ass until she slips on a robe and steps into a pair of boots.

“You going to dinner?” she asks. That certainly sounds like an invitation. She secures the robe’s belt and reaches for her clothing, then looks expectantly at me for an answer. She’s truly adorable in that white robe and brown hiking boots.

I guess not. I can’t get out of the pool with this boner you’ve given me.

“I think I’ll stay in another few minutes,” I say. Damn it, I’d love to go to dinner with her, but this appendage of mine has a mind of its own. And it’s obviously thinking that it likes what it just saw. Plus, it’s been a while since I’ve had sex, which just makes it worse.

“Suit yourself,” she says. “Or continue to un-suit yourself, in this case.”

With a grin, she disappears down the path into the heavy snow. I watch her go, then wrap my fingers around my cock. It’s as hard as the rocks that form this pool. I laugh at the situation and start to get out, since now there’s no one to see it. I can get into my robe and hold my clothing in front of me as I walk back to my cabin. If I hurry, I can find this Sarah woman in the dining room and I won’t have to eat alone.

Just as have that thought, I hear voices and see another couple walking towards me. They say hello, and as they strip down, I realize I’m stuck in this pool until my swollen dick decides to un-swell. No telling how long that will take. Good thing it’s invisible under the steam.

This new couple are complete physical opposites. The woman is way too skinny, and her man has a giant belly and is covered with enough hair to make a bear jealous. We talk a little and they mention that they just had dinner and can’t get over how amazing the food was. Meanwhile, my stomach continues to call for attention.

I mostly let the other guy do the talking. Every few minutes I check to see if I’m still erect. He talks about how wonderful Snowdon is, blathering on and on about its magical setting and heightened holiday spirit. I quickly reach the point where I’ve had enough. I bid them goodnight and step out, still half erect, and put on my robe as fast as I can. After getting into my shoes, I grab my things and head up the trail without ever looking at those two again.

I’m cold as fuck by the time I reach the other pools and realize that this frigid weather is the perfect antidote to an aching hard-on. The heavy snow is blowing right in my face, and I push through until I reach my cabin. Once inside, I find my watch to see how much I need to hurry.

7:57

Perfect. My erection has cost me dinner. Looks like it’s going to be a long, hungry night.

With no hot food in my belly, I’ll have to rely on my bourbon and this fake fireplace to keep me warm.

Like I said, happy fucking holidays.

Sarah

Back in my cabin after an amazing dinner, I shake off the cold and get into my wool pajamas and thick socks. Ignoring my self-help books, I climb under the covers with a romance novel. The little lamp next to the bed has pictures of cowgirls on it and I almost feel like a little girl at summer camp—if summer camp were freezing cold and covered with a couple feet of snow.

I was thinking that reading a romance would get my brain into a fantasy world and away from Tim, the guy I dated for the last six months, until he decided that he’d rather be with a woman with gigantic tits he met through his work as an electrician. Of course, the loser didn’t mention he was already sleeping with someone else—I learned about that from a mutual friend.

Part of me knew all along that Tim wasn’t the right guy for me long-term, but a different part thought I could mold him into that. I could not have been more wrong. Now I just need to get past this broken heart so I can start to breathe again before I resume dating.

The steamy romance novel does the trick, because by the time I get to the first sex scene, I haven’t thought of Tim once. Oddly enough, though, when the woman in the book watches her man undress for the first time, my mind keeps flashing back to the guy I met at pool number three, Josh, and I can’t help but replace every detail of the scene with what I witnessed with my own eyes a short while ago.

When the man on the page removes his shirt, in my mind I see Josh removing his to reveal that absolutely ripped body I saw. His chest, his ribs, his stomach, were all tight and defined without being too big and muscular. I felt like I was violating some unwritten code of hot springs ethics when I watched him take his pants off, but by that point I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

My little fantasy falls apart when the book mentions the woman seeing the man’s “giant man-serpent” for the first time. With naked Josh standing in as my model, I just remember seeing an average-size cock. Nice enough to look at, but neither giant nor serpentine. Reading what the character did with his dick-dragon, though, kind of makes me wish for a nice, no-strings-attached romp.

If I were more aggressive, I’d knock on Josh’s cabin door and invite him over for hot chocolate. Then again, he already shot down my innocent dinner invitation earlier.

I continue reading until I feel my body growing frustrated with the lack of attention it’s receiving. Setting the book down, I slide my hand into my pajama pants and under my panties. My fantasy has be thoroughly wet, and I spend the next few minutes trying in vain to bring myself to orgasm. For some reason, it just isn’t happening. Then I begin to imagine myself with Josh and within seconds know I’m going to get there. When I think about holding his trim waist and looking into that face as he plunges his hard cock into me again and again, I come so hard I squeal with pleasure and hope nobody can hear me.

Now fully relaxed, I turn off the cowgirl lamp, then quickly fall asleep with a big smile on my face.

Josh

I’m climbing a mountain with two friends from my childhood. Both are in their late twenties now, like me. We spot a large cloud headed towards us and hurry to avoid it, but it catches us anyway. Within seconds, the side of the mountain gets ridiculously cold. I turn to say something to my buddies, but they’re both gone. Vanished completely.

Suddenly I realize I’m naked except for my climbing gear. I chastise myself for leaving my clothes somewhere else. What the hell was I thinking? I rapidly become so cold that my teeth begin to chatter, and my fingers feel numb. I start to panic because I can no longer grip anything and am in danger of falling to my death.

That’s when I wake up. At first, I’m relieved that I wasn’t really on a mountain naked, but am instead wearing underwear and a shirt, safe and snug in my bed in the cabin. Something’s wrong, though: My teeth are chattering, and my fingers are ice cold, as are my nose, cheeks, and ears.

What the fuck?

I sit up in bed and instantly know the electricity has gone out. A simple test of the lamp on the bedside table proves my hunch. Knowing I can’t spend the night like this, I hurry to get dressed in the dark, putting on the warmest clothing I brought with me. Then I venture outside to go to the lodge and report this outage.

Although the snow has stopped falling for now, it’s already piled three feet high out here in the woods. Even the path between the cabins and the lodge has a foot of snow where people have tamped it down by walking on it.

And the cold! There’s a cold wind blowing, with gusts that threaten to freeze my balls on the spot. I’ve been skiing in much warmer weather than this. After thirty seconds outside of the cabin, I’m thinking I’ll just sleep in the library if the electricity is on there.

As I approach the building, though, I see it’s completely dark, save for spots moving around inside, obviously flashlights. I navigate the treacherously iced wooden steps, and just before I reach the front door a guy steps out, flashlight in hand.

“Don’t bother,” he says angrily. “They can’t do anything.”

He turns and aims the flashlight at a thermometer hanging on a post at the top of the stairs.

“Holy fuck, we’re in for a long night,” he seethes. I look at the thermometer and see it’s two degrees Fahrenheit. “I’ll sue these motherfuckers,” he says as he stomps away.

I enter the building to see what’s going on for myself. Several employees are running around, bringing supplies to the lobby. My heart sinks when I realize it’s about as cold in here as it is in the cabin.

A woman there sees me and shines her light in my direction. “We’re so sorry,” she says. “We’re doing everything we can to fix it.”

“What happened?” I ask.

“Blackout,” one of the other guys replies. “The cold and snow must have taken out some lines or something. We spoke to Atlantic Coast Power and Electric and they said there’s no power for miles.”

“Are they coming out to fix it?”

“Yeah, but they’re still trying to determine where the damage is,” he says before disappearing down a hallway with his flashlight lighting the way.

“They said they’re throwing every spare worker at it, and have called in emergency crews,” the woman says, “but they estimate it’ll be at least three hours, maybe twice that.”

“What do we do in the meantime?” I ask. “Is there a real fireplace in this building? Or does the kitchen have gas stoves?”

She just shakes her head. “No fireplace anywhere on the property. The stoves and ovens are electric.” Nodding to the gathered supplies, she says. “We have a few spare blankets and water bottles, but we need to make sure they go to the oldest people here, or anyone who is sick or disabled.”

Great. Guilt me into not taking one. “Can I at least get a flashlight?”

She sends someone in search of a spare, and he comes back with a small one. Realizing it’s better than nothing, I take It.

“We’re sorry!” the woman calls out behind me as I walk out into the frozen night.

Bah humbug indeed.

Back on the path to the cabins, I see a couple of employees carrying blankets to some of the guests. My teeth are chattering hard as I pass the cabin I’d seen that Sarah woman enter earlier. I pause for a second, wondering whether I should check on her. Suddenly her door opens just enough for her face to emerge.

“Oh, hi,” she says, undoubtedly thinking I’m either a stalker or a pervert. “What’s going on? My cabin is freezing!”

“They all are. Power outage. The people at the lodge said the power company is working on it, but it’ll be a few hours.”

I shine the flashlight on my face, then realize I probably look ghoulish and shine it on the side of her cabin, which illuminates us both just a little.

“Holy shit. Can we go to the main building to wait it out?”

“Power’s out for miles, no electricity anywhere. It’s just as cold in the lodge.”

“Don’t they have gas stoves?” Her teeth are now chattering like mine.

“Nope. We are fucked. I was just coming to check on you.”

“What are you going to do?” Sarah asks. Even with blue lips, she’s still quite lovely.

“Wait it out in the cabin, I guess. Try to stay as warm as possible.”

“I’d give my left tit for some hot chocolate,” she says.

I laugh at her exaggeration. “No need to do anything quite that drastic. I have the next best thing.”

She frowns at me. Oops. “No, not that,” I hurry to say. “Bourbon. And because alcohol doesn’t freeze, it’s still drinkable.”

“That sounds like heaven,” Sarah says, her frown turning into a smile.

“Can we drink it in your cabin? I’d hate for you to have to come outside even for a few seconds.”

She looks at me like she’s appraising my trustworthiness. Either she’s satisfied by what she sees, or her desire to be warmed up from the stomach outward wins the battle.

“Sure, bring it over.”

Sarah

I don’t care that I came here to get some distance from men—I’m freezing my ass off and a little alcohol might help to keep me warm until they get the damn power back on. I don’t really have any better options at the moment.

Josh knocks on my door and I let him in. The cabin would be pitch black if it weren’t for the glow from the little battery-operated lantern the resort provides for its guests. Walking to and from the soaking pools after the sun goes down would be a dicey proposition otherwise.

“Jesus, it’s beyond freezing out there,” he says.

“It’s not much better in here,” I reply as he sets down two Styrofoam cups, then opens the bottle of bourbon and pours two healthy shots.

He looks up and grins. “The opposite of the song, right?”

“What song?”

“You know,” he passes me a cup as he starts to sing, a little off-key. “Baby, it’s cold outside. Only in our case, it’s: Baby, it’s cold inside.”

“Haha. So true.”

I lift my cup to touch it to his, then we each take a big sip. I fight off the urge to cough, then feel the burn of the bourbon making its way down my throat into my stomach.

“That’s so good,” I say. “Thanks for sharing.”

He takes a seat in the cabin’s lone chair while I sit on the edge of the single bed. “You’re welcome. Better than freezing alone, right?”

“Definitely. So, what’s your story, Josh? It seems like we’re the only single people at Awtenbush this weekend. What brings you here?”

His eyes seem to glow in the dim lantern light. Are they green? It’s hard to tell.

“I’ve been stressed lately, work-wise,” he says. “The harder I try, the less things improve. On top of that, I’m not much one for holiday spirit.”

“Steer clear of Snowdon, then,” I warn.

“Too late. I drove through on my way here. Only stopped to get something to drink, though, so I wasn’t there long enough for the magic to infect me. Anyway, I thought maybe a weekend here at Awtenbush would distract me for a while.”

“Is it working?” I ask.

“At the moment, definitely,” he says. I feel a little rush of… what is it called, that feeling when you realize someone is flirting with you? It doesn’t matter, though, because it vanishes with his next sentence. “Right now I can only think about how frozen I’m becoming.”

“Take another sip, then.” I don’t know why it stings a little that he doesn’t consider me a distraction, but it does.

We each take another sip.

“How about you?” Josh asks. “What brings Sarah out into the wilderness by herself the weekend before Christmas?”

I sigh. Just picturing Tim’s face makes the pain return. “A breakup.”

“Ouch. Sorry to hear that,” he says.

“Well, hopefully one day soon I’ll see that it was for the best.”

“So he’s the one who did the breaking up?” Josh asks. “And feel free to tell me to shut the hell up if you’d rather not talk about it with a complete stranger.”

“We’re not complete strangers; we’ve seen each other naked.” It almost looks like he blushes. Again, it’s hard to tell. “Anyway, let’s change the subject.”

“Fair enough. Maybe we could talk about… hey, wait a minute.” His eyes grow wide. “The pools!”

“I thought about that earlier, but I’m assuming they get cold once the pumps stop bringing the spring water to the surface.”

“Didn’t you hear Robby say that the pumps are powered by the river’s current? No electricity needed!”

“Oh my god,” I say. “You’re right. I’m willing to stay in there for however many hours it takes for the power to come back on.”

“Finish your bourbon,” he says. “To keep you warm until we get there.”

I down it all in one gulp, not willing to wait a moment longer to feel that hot water. Josh does the same, and we stand simultaneously.

That’s when I realize I need to put my swimsuit on. Now that I actually know this man a little, I’d rather not get in the naked pool with him again. Oddly enough, it seems like it would be much more awkward than when we were complete strangers.

“I need to change, first. Getting naked in this freezing cold cabin is going to suck.”

I’m hoping he gets the hint. He does. “I have to change, too,” he grins and says. “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. I promise if I find you frozen stiff, I’ll carry you to the pools to thaw you off.”

Then he steps outside, a fresh blast of artic wind entering the cabin. I take a deep breath, then begin to strip, thankful for what little warmth the bourbon is giving me. I know my body temperature hasn’t changed at all, but it feels like it, and that’s just as important right now.

When I’m down to my panties, I think about Josh walking back in and catching me like this. It’s not a horrible thought, to be honest. He seems like a good guy, and he’s certainly handsome enough. Maybe a weekend fling would be just the distraction I need from Tim.

The point is moot, as I’m fully dressed again by the time Josh knocks politely. “Ready?” he says when I open the door.

We head down the trail toward the pools, both of us carrying our robes with us, despite being bundled in winter wear. I don’t know about him, but there’s no way I’m walking back to my cabin afterwards wearing only a robe and shoes. I’ll dry off in the freezing cold, then use my robe as a makeshift dressing room as I take my wet suit off and get my clothes back on.

The lantern Josh is holding lights the way as we descend the slight slope through the snow. We round the bend to see the pool number one, which is light by a circle of lanterns placed around it. Inside, couples are stuffed like sardines. They look at us and I know instantly that they don’t want us even trying to squeeze in there.

“Pool number two?” I say, my teeth already chattering. Josh nods and we continue down the trail.

Pool number two is the same: lots of lanterns, but no space.

“Well, shit,” Josh says. He looks at me to see whether I’m game.

“Let’s try pool number three,” I say. “Anything for hot water.”

As we approach the third pool, I’m surprised to see two couples climbing into the water wearing swimsuits. I guess the rules get thrown out the window in an emergency.

But when we get closer, we can see this pool is even more packed than the others. While we were drinking bourbon, everyone else had the idea of staying warm in the hot springs.

“What now?” I ask. I’m disappointed and on the verge of being distraught.

A guy in the pool sees us and says, “They’ve got a fire pit going in the parking lot in front of the lodge.”

“I guess that’s our only hope,” Josh says, leading me up the last part of the trail toward the lodge. We round the corner to see a roaring fire, and the flames look so inviting, I feel like a moth.

Unfortunately, there are three tight rings of humans circling the fire. Josh and I pull up behind them, but barely feel any warmth. We stand there for a minute, then he takes my robe and wraps it around me and adds his own robe on top of that. It’s a noble gesture, but it doesn’t help.

Meanwhile, my teeth continue to chatter so loudly I feel like an idiot. This is insane. I wonder if we’ll all die out here, to be discovered in the morning, frozen like statues around the ashes of a fire.

Josh pulls something from his jacket and holds it up with a smile.

It’s a flask! I nod and take it, slugging back a big gulp of bourbon. Again the warmth helps a little, if only in my mind. Josh takes a long slug himself.

Some of the others are talking amongst themselves, and I see a bottle of tequila being passed around. The two of us don’t seem to be in the talking mood but continue trading the flask. The air around us is frigid, and a stiff breeze has picked up to make it seem even colder, if that’s possible.

“Your lips are blue,” he says as I hand him the flask. “Are you okay?”

His concern is sweet. “I’m so fucking cold,” I whimper. I look at Josh and a thought pops into my brain out of nowhere: I like this guy.

He removes the robes from my back, drapes them over his own shoulders, and slides behind me. His arms wrap around my upper chest, covering me once more with a robe as he pulls me back against him.

“I’m freezing too,” he whispers close to my ear. “I know this is kind of awkward, but maybe it’ll help us both.”

I don’t object in the slightest to his bold move. First of all, I’m shivering pretty hard. And secondly, I’ve always liked strong men who take what they want. Sure, this is the survival-in-winter version of that, but I can’t help but be a little turned on by it.

Josh and I remain like that for a few minutes, neither of us talking. Slowly my body stops shivering and my teeth are no longer chattering.

“Look,” he says, pointing his chin upwards. “It stopped snowing.” I follow his gaze and see an ink-black sky filled with what look like a million twinkling stars. It’s breathtaking.

“So beautiful,” I say softly, my breath a little cloud.

We gaze at the stars for a moment. When a shooting star crosses the sky, I turn to Josh to make sure he saw it. His expression tells me he did. It’s a sweet little shared moment that endears me to him.

I rotate in his embrace until we’re facing each other. “This side now.”

His eyes reflect the fire behind me. He’s so very handsome. I wrap my own arms around his waist and pull us tightly together.

“It’s not really that awkward,” I say with a sly smile. “And I think it’s working.”

The tequila-fueled crowd has begun to get louder and we’re still not close enough to the fire to benefit much from its warmth.

“Maybe we should go back to your cabin,” Josh suggests.

I don’t hesitate for a second. “Yes, we should.”

Josh

Sarah and I hurry back to her cabin, quickly shutting the door behind us as a strong wind blows a big gust of loose snow into the room with us.

I hang the lantern on the wall, then turn to look at Sarah’s lovely face. Her lips have already turned blue again and the shivering is back.

“I know what you need,” I say, lowering my face and pressing my lips to hers. She doesn’t resist, whether because of the cold, the bourbon, or a real attraction. Probably a combination of all three.

The kiss starts out tame, just two people warming each other’s lips with an old-fashioned chaste movie-star kiss. That quickly gives way to a passionate one as I slide my tongue gently between her lips and she parts them to let me in. When out tongues touch, it’s electric and the heat between us rises quickly.

When we finally come up for air, I have a hard-on and am glad for the layers of clothing that are keeping it secret. I don’t know if it might scare her off to know I got an erection the first time we kissed, but I haven’t had sex in a while. Not to mention that I’m insanely attracted to this gorgeous woman.

“Well, I’m no longer shivering,” she says with a smile. “When I invited you to bring your bourbon over, I pictured an awkward hour of freezing while drinking.”

“But you invited me anyway,” I say.

“I didn’t want to freeze by myself. Plus, you have the bourbon.”

“Speaking of which…” I pull the flask out and offer it to Sarah. She sits on the edge of her little bed and pulls the blanket around her. Looking at me, she pats the bed next to her and opens the blanket on that side.

“Get in here,” she says. I take a seat, our thighs touching, and she pulls the blanket over both of us, then takes a big swig and passes me the flask.

Just as I’m about to drink, my stomach growls audibly, eliciting a giggle from Sarah. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything to snack on, would you?” I ask, laughing.

“I only brought hot chocolate mix,” she says, sliding her free gloved hand into mine. “How can you be hungry after that amazing buffet earlier?”

“I missed dinner,” I say. “I was still in the pool.”

She squeezes my hand and says, “Should’ve gotten out with me when I offered.”

I consider telling her why I missed dinner, but don’t know how she’d react. “That wasn’t an option.”

“Dinner with me wasn’t an option?”

Great, now I’ve painted myself into a corner.

“I had to stay in the pool for a while,” I say, hoping that will suffice.

“Well, you didn’t actually have to. You chose to.”

“It wasn’t a choice, I assure you. Can we drop the subject?”

She looks at me with curiosity. “What’s going on here? What are you not telling me?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know. Really.” I laugh, despite myself.

She squeezes my hand again and says, “Like I said earlier, we’ve already seen each other naked. What do you have to hide?”

“That’s the problem. I saw you naked.”

Now she’s confused. “That’s a problem?”

I blurt out the truth. “Sarah, I had to stay in the pool because I was excited.” There, it’s out in the open now.

“Excited?”

I suppose I have to spell it out for her. “I had an erection.”

“No, you didn’t,” she says, matter-of-factly. Then she realizes what she’s just said and adds, “Oops.”

“You peeked, did you?” I tease.

“Everyone peeks, it’s natural. I saw you peeking when I was getting dressed. Admit it.”

“I definitely admit it. That’s when the problem arose, so to speak.”

“You’re just saying that,” she says.

“No, I swear it’s true.”

She looks skeptical. “Just like that? You see five seconds of naked lady-flesh and you get all excited?”

“Apparently, your lady-flesh is particularly erection-inducing.”

“You’re such a pervert, getting a boner in the nude pool!” she taunts.

We both laugh, and she says, “That’s kind of cute, actually.”

“You should take it as compliment.”

“If you say so.”

We both have another couple of drinks. Sarah takes a slug from the flask, swallows, then looks into my eyes.

“Is it now?” she asks.

“Is what now?”

She rolls her eyes with mock exasperation. “You know. With us this close to each other? Are you…?”

“Now? No. Earlier by the fire, though, to be honest. When you hugged me back.”

“A guy doesn’t get an erection just from hugging a girl, especially not when it’s this freezing cold.”

“I don’t know about other guys,” I say, “but I know I did. And it happened again a few minutes ago, when we were kissing.”

Sarah looks at me. “Did it really? During the kiss?”

I nod, beginning to feel a little weird about my admission.

“What about right now?” Her voice is low and sexy. “Right this second?”

“No, not now. You’re safe.”

Sarah ignores my little joke and slips a hand behind my neck, pulling my face down to hers. A split-second later, we’re kissing again. This time she’s quite aggressive, playfully entangling our tongues over and over. Her breathing gets louder and she releases a sexy little moan against my lips.

She breaks the kiss and stares into my eyes. “How about now?”

“Yes.” I hold her stare and add, “As a rock.”

She removes her hand from my neck and places it in my lap, feeling around.

“You’re such a liar,” she accuses playfully.

“It’s down there somewhere,” I say. “Under all those layers.”

Sarah arches an eyebrow skeptically.

“You need proof of the erection you just gave me?” I ask incredulously.

She nods. “Seeing is believing.”

“It’s freezing cold.”

Sarah makes a chicken sound.

Okay, now it’s a dare. Even if I were the kind of guy to decline a dare—and I’m not—I’d be stupid not to show this woman the hard-on she induced. It’s pretty obvious what that would lead to, and I’m certainly up for fucking someone as beautiful and fun as Sarah.

I stand and face her, then begin to unzip my heavy jacket. I have to take off my gloves, and my fingers are instantly cold as hell. I lift my two sweaters, then fumble for my belt and undo it. By the time I get my fingers on my zipper, I’m hoping I’ll still be as hard as I was a moment ago. It’s kind of impossible to tell.

I unzip, then look at Sarah for final approval to actually do this. If this was a joke-dare, I don’t want to be the flasher who takes it too far.

“Don’t you dare stop now,” she says, then lowers her eyes back down.

She’s got a good view from her seat on the bed as I slip my numbing fingers into my briefs and pull out what is—thankfully—a very solid erection, pointing upwards toward her at an angle. An erection that is immediately cold but nevertheless holds its position.

“Oh, my,” she says breathlessly. I see a lust in her eyes matching my own, then she looks up at me. “I’m on the pill.”

I stand there for a second, pants undone, my cock pressing against the fabric of my briefs in an effort to gain its freedom again. Then I rip off my jacket and let if fall to the floor.

“Take your clothes off,” I command her as I pull a sweater over my head.

Sarah quickly removes her own coat and tosses it aside, then peels off a sweater as I work my way out of my second sweater. She stops momentarily as I begin to unbutton my plaid flannel shirt.

“All of it?” she asks. “We’ll freeze to death.”

“We’ll be fine,” I say, pulling off my T-shirt and exposing my bare chest to the elements. Suddenly, I’m not quite as concerned with the cold. Bourbon and a beautiful, willing woman can do that to a guy.

I kick my way out of my boots and look at Sarah in time to see she’s wearing only a tank top and her jeans and is working on her own boots. While she struggles, her hard nipples push against the fabric as her braless tits sway, and I feel my cock strain anew.

She gets her boots off and looks up to see me standing there naked, waiting for her to finish so we can get under the covers. I grab the two robes and the blanket, then watch her peel off her jeans, then her tank top and panties.

“Holy fuck, it’s cold,” she says, climbing under the covers and scooting to her side of the bed. I throw the blanket over her, then the robes, and climb in next to her.

I won’t lie, it’s still cold as fuck.

But the moment our naked bodies touch, the temperature becomes less important than what’s about to happen.

Sarah

This all happened so fast. It’s been less than two hours since the power went off, and now I’ve got an incredibly hot, shamelessly naked man in my bed.

And one with a very big cock, at that.

When I glimpsed Josh’s member by the nude pool, I would never have thought it capable of reaching the size of the one I saw a moment ago. The one I’m currently wrapping my own fingers around, with no glove to prevent me from feeling its soft-yet-so-hard shaft, it’s long and thick, and feels so, so warm in my hand.

So why are my teeth beginning to chatter again? Then Josh touches my shoulder and within seconds, I’m in the middle of a quite nasty chill, convulsing like crazy.

“Shh,” he says, wrapping his arms around me and pulling my body against his. Our flesh touches as he whispers in my ear, his breath warm. “Give it a minute until the blanket traps our heat.”

I love the thought of he and I creating heat together. Josh kisses me, his tongue sliding blissfully between my lips where I greet him with mine. That incendiary kiss, with my hand still firmly wrapped around his still-hard cock, removes the worst of the cold from me. He kisses his way across my jawline to my neck, then up towards my ear. When I feel him nibble my earlobe, a warmth spreads outward from between my legs.

A noticeable throb brings my attention back to his hard-on, and I stroke his thick shaft. Josh works downward, leaving kisses over my collarbone and his head disappears under the covers. When his fingers brush against my breast, they’re still cool enough to instantly pucker my skin, and his lips quickly close around my stiff nipple. His tongue glides across it, over it, around it, until I can’t stand it.

Josh traces a finger from my knee, slowly up the inside of my thigh. I can already feel the wetness by the time he’s half-way to his destination, and I part my legs to give him access. He toys with me, pushing a finger just right inside my opening before bringing it back out again. Then he moves up to my clit and I nearly detonate right then when he touches it with a gentle fingertip.

All this time, my face is freezing, while the other parts of my body are still quite cold. I reach under the covers and pull Josh out. “I’m cold, Josh. Warm me up from the inside.”

I don’t have to tell him twice. He moves his hips between my legs, and I grab a hold of his sides and hang on tight. I feel his big cock slide between my wet lips, then pause. “It’s okay,” I reassure him. I’m on the pill and really want him inside of me right now.

A second later, he pushes just slightly inside, maybe an inch. “Tell me you want it,” he commands.

“I want it,” I moan. “Give it to me.”

“More.”

“I want it bad,” I say insistently, my voice hoarse with need. “I want your cock in me.” I’ve never talked to a man like this before, but he’s pushing me and everything I’m telling him is the absolute truth.

“You want my hard cock?” he asks gruffly.

“I want it so much, Josh. Fuck me now.” I grab his ass with both hands and pull him into me, tilting my hips to give him the perfect angle.

Josh responds by driving that big cock into me, then he slowly begins working it in and out. It’s absolute heaven the way he fills me up just enough, putting exquisite pressure on my walls. I spread my legs wide and urge him to get as deep as he can.

Holding onto his tight body is just as blissful. My hands roam from his tight ass over his back, up to his shoulders, then across his chest. Everything about this man is taut and lithe. Between his skillful thrusts and the way his body feels under my fingertips, I find myself floating faster and faster towards the big orgasm I need.

Josh is close, too, I can tell by his breathing and the short, deep moans that vibrate his body. Just hearing that from him takes me closer. I hear a moan escape my lips when that familiar tightness takes hold of my lower abdomen. My pussy feels like it’s on fire in a good way.

“Fuck me hard,” I urge.

Josh responds by pounding me, hammering his cock into me again and again and again, each thrust taking me that much closer.

“Harder,” I tell him. “I’m close.”

“Hurry,” he says. “I can’t hold back much longer.”

“Don’t hold back. Come with me.” I moan again, this one loud. I’m almost there. His cock feels so amazing in me and I slip steadily toward—

I suddenly come hard, seconds before I expected to. It’s like someone lit my fuse and it couldn’t be stopped, and my entire body shivers, this time in a good way. Wave after wave fires through me as my muscles spasm all at once. I forget all about the cold and my entire focus is on the big, hard cock that Josh is hammering into my eager pussy.

“I’m coming,” Josh says urgently. Then I feel him start to withdraw from me while I’m still coming, my muscles continuing to spasm.

“No, don’t!” I half-scream at him. “Come inside of me.”

He hesitates, then drives all the way into me. Four or five times he pounds me like that, then he moans loudly, and I feel his hot liquid inside of me. It’s such a gloriously sexy sensation that I fall right back over the waterfall, only this time I’m coming even harder.

“Oh my god!” I yell as Josh continues to pour his thick seed into me.

Suddenly the room fills with light and for a split second I think my massive orgasm has ripped my consciousness wide open.

Then I see the most handsome face ever hovering over mine. A sheen of sweat covers his brow and his heavy breaths turn into condensation when he exhales into the frigid air.

“Don’t stop,” Josh urges me, still moaning himself. I hold his shoulders and ride the blissful waves as long as I can before slowly coming to a stop at the same time Josh does. His cock throbs inside my cunt, sending a final shiver through my body.

I have only been vaguely aware that the cowgirl lamp on the nightstand is on, illuminating the cabin with a diffused yellow light. Then I feel a distinct warmth on my left cheek.

“The power’s back on,” I whisper, my voice a satisfied croak. His lips land on mine and his tongue gently coaxes mine again. This time there’s even more passion in our kiss because of what we’ve just experienced together.

I give him a sly smile and say, “Since the heater’s working, I guess I can send you back to your own cabin now.”

Josh stares into my eyes and I know his lust hasn’t been sated yet. “I’m not going anywhere until I’m done with you,” he says with just the right amount of insistence. I love the idea; I could do with another round of this.

I haven’t even thought of another man since Tim broke up with me. Until tonight, and now I’ve just had the holy hell fucked out of me by a man who just might ensure I never think about Tim again, even if we only have this one night together.

Josh

What a strange, amazing, wonderful, magical moment.

Sarah and I are right in the middle of a furious simultaneous orgasm, when the lights suddenly come on. Instantly, I’m looking at the most beautiful brown eyes and the cutest freckles I’ve ever seen.

And she just came hard. Sarah’s going to remember that orgasm for a long, long time, as I’m sure I’ll remember mine. It was that incredible.

She smiles at me and says, “Until you’re done with me? Do you think I’m just going to lie here and let you do whatever you want to me?”

I look her in the eye and reply, “No, first you’re going to get on your hands and knees for me.”

I pull out of her and she immediately gets in position. In seconds I’m holding her hips and easing my still-hard cock back into her again. I fuck Sarah for a while like that at a steady pace, enjoying every single thrust as I part her open again and again. Slipping a hand around her front, I search for her clit and find it easily. I quicken my strokes, using both my cock and my fingers to work her toward another orgasm.

Just when I sense we’re both getting close, she stops and says, “I want to get on top.”

The idea sounds delicious, so I lie on my back and use both hands to hold the blanket over her. She straddles me and places her hands on my chest, then slowly guides my throbbing cock back into her tight little pussy. She begins to rock back and forth. I watch her face as she fucks me, and I love how aggressively she’s writhing on my engorged dick. My god, this is perfect. I don’t know if I’ve ever enjoyed sex this much, despite the frigid temperatures.

The blanket slips off of her and I realize the air in the cabin has warmed a bit. It’s no longer coat weather inside, but it’s still sweater weather, a fact Sarah’s suddenly hard nipples attest to. I lean up and takes one in my mouth, which causes her pussy to clench hard around my cock.

Within seconds, she moans and says, “I’m close.” I raise my hips ever so slightly and hold them perfectly still. Sarah rocks back and forth on my cock, grinding her clit against him. I moan again, then a third time.

“Open your eyes and look at me,” I say. She does, and I see the intensity in her eyes. Seconds later, she’s transported into what looks like another giant orgasm. She keeps rocking and grinding on me, and her moans just get bigger and louder as we maintain our visual connection. When she’s finally done a full minute later, she sighs contentedly, then collapses in a heap on my chest.

“That was amazing to watch,” I whisper.

“And you were amazing to feel,” she softly retaliates. “Can you just leave that thing inside of me for a few days?”

“This?” I contract my muscles to make my cock swell inside of her for a second.

“Mmm, yes. That perfect cock of yours.”

“I’m glad you like it,” I say, then my stomach rumbles loudly and we both burst into laughter.

“Hungry?” Sarah asks rhetorically.

“Starving now. How much longer till breakfast?”

Sarah

Wow.

Wow, wow, WOW.

This perfect stranger really did turn out to be perfect—in bed, at least. He fucked me masterfully for a long time without needing a break, and he gave me two huge orgasms.

And the poor guy wants to know how long it is until breakfast ‘cause he hasn’t eaten since lunch yesterday. I grab my watch from the nightstand. “It’s 4:20, so we’ve got a bit of a wait. Breakfast is at 6:00.”

I lower the blanket from my shoulders and Josh looks appreciatively at my full breasts, the nipples still hard. It’s the first time I’ve seen his eyes this clearly; they’re steel gray and ludicrously expressive.

“Not warm enough yet,” I say, pulling the blanket back over us. “At least not without a sweater or two.”

Those eyes light up. “Hey, I have a great idea. Now that the power’s back on, people are probably back in their cabins, trying to warm up. I’ll bet there’s room in one of the pools now.”

Is he crazy? “You want to get all bundled up again and go right back out in that frigid weather?”

“Remember how hot that spring water is, and how great it felt to soak in it? We can hurry down there and jump in. We’ll be in the cold for about two minutes, then it’ll be total bliss. And by the time we get back here, the cabin will be nice and toasty.”

I give him the side-eye. “Did you just invite yourself to come back to my cabin again?”

“Maybe,” he grins. “We can decide while we’re soaking in hot water. Come on.”

Josh and I spend a cold but rewarding few minutes gawking at each other in the light as we put our clothes back on. His body is even more spectacular than I thought, and his face gives me a certain warmth inside.

“Here,” he says, holding out the flask as I push my arm through the sleeve of my down jacket. I take a nice, long slug to warm myself up, although the electricity running through my body after having sex with Josh is already doing its part.

Clothing on, we open the door and are hit with an arctic blast that immediately makes me sorry I agreed to this. Josh takes my gloved hand in his and pulls me along, holding the lantern with his other hand.

He was right: There are only two couples in pool number one. The lights are on around the pool, so they obviously know the electricity is working again. One of the women sees us and asks, “Are the cabins warm yet?”

“They’re getting there,” Josh says. “Won’t be long.”

He tugs my hand and we continue down the path. There’s a single couple in pool number two, and they smile as we approach. This time, I’m the one who tugs Josh’s hand. I have no intention of dealing with a wet swimsuit. I’d rather be naked in the pool, then quickly dry myself off and keep all my clothes dry except the robe.

We reach the third and final pool and find two couples in it. Everyone says hi, then Josh and I go to the wooden wall and start to disrobe. I’m already freezing by the time I get my sweater off. When I see Josh shirtless, his hands on his pants, I gently touch his wrist. He looks up at me and I whisper, “Are you…?” then look at his jeans.

He smiles. “We’re about to find out.” I pull my tank top over my head, then glance over to see his cock dangling between his legs, definitely not erect. He waits, a naked gentleman, while I get my own pants off, then takes my hand and leads me into the water.

“Was your cabin warm when you left?” asks one of the guys.

“It was warming up pretty quickly,” Josh says. “Thank God they got the power working again.”

“Yeah, we’ve been in here nearly two hours,” his girl says, holding her pruning hands for us to see. Her great big breasts immediately catch my attention.

The woman of the other couple looks sweaty and miserable. She’s not happy being out here for so long, and she tells her guy as much. They step out and quickly get into their clothes, then bid everyone goodnight before leaving.

“I hate to break up the party, but that’s more than enough for us, too,” Big Boob’s man says. He escorts her out of the pool. They giggle like kids as they’re getting dressed, then say goodbye and disappear into the darkness.

I immediately look Josh in the eye and say, “Stand up on the step.”

“Why? It’s nice and hot in here,” he says, baffled at my request.

“Just for a second,” I tell him. “Now quit being a baby and do it.”

He crosses to the steps and climbs up, the water level at his belly.

“One more.”

He takes another step and I see his cock, still hanging peacefully.

“Okay,” I say.

He slides back into the water and asks, “What was that all about?”

I smile at him. “I just wanted to see if the big tits on that woman gave you a boner. You passed the test.”

“You want to know what makes me hard?” he asks, his voice low and sexy. “These.” His hands caress my breasts under the water, playing with my nipples. “And this,” he says, spinning me around and running both hands over my slippery ass. He spins me once more so I’m facing him again. “And especially this beautiful face and these mesmerizing eyes.” He reaches up and places his thumb on my bottom lip. “And these lips that I can’t stop imagining around my dick.”

My heart thumps a little harder as he softly traces his wet thumb over my lip. This man really knows how to turn a woman on.

Josh grins. “Those are the things that make me hard.” Then reaches under the water, finds my wrist and places my hand on what is suddenly a very erect cock.

“I did that do you?” I ask, smiling widely.

“It’s all your fault,” he says.

I stroke his rigid shaft up and down. It feels so enticingly big. “Then I’d better do something about it. It wouldn’t be fair to just leave you like this.” I look around the pool and see the coast is clear. Everyone is probably in their re-heating cabins now, trying to catch a little sleep.

“Think you can brave the cold for a few minutes?” I ask.

Josh gives me a suspicious look.

“Sit right here, on the side, with your legs in the water.” I give him a lustful look. “I’ll keep you warm.”

He guesses what I have in mind and decides it’s worth the momentary cold. Turning his back to me, he places his hands on the side of the pool and lifts himself up, water pouring down over his gorgeous ass. Then he turns and sits on the edge. The water is only up to his knees and the rest of him is completely out of the water. More importantly, his big hard-on is perfectly at face level.

“Holy fuck it’s cold,” he says, bracing himself against the frigid breeze.

“Then let’s heat you up.” I move in front of him and grab his thick shaft in my hand. I grin and say, “If you promise not to hold back, I promise to make sure this is short and sweet.”

My eager mouth drops down over his cock, where it stays as I put all my effort into giving Josh the best blowjob I’ve ever given. I must be doing everything right between my mouth, my tongue, and the hands fondling his balls, because he starts to moan in less than a minute. Seconds later, he groans and fills my mouth. I happily take it all, then pull him back into the pool with me.

“So was it worth it?” I tease.

“Definitely worth it,” he replies in a post-orgasmic haze. “But I want another one just like this one back in the cabin, where I can take my time and enjoy it.”

We relax in the hot water for a while, holding hands but neither of us saying anything. I suddenly realize I’m happy, happier than I ever expected to be this weekend. This resort trip was supposed to be me slowly beginning to get over my breakup. Josh has done that in a matter of hours. Now I know that I’ll be okay again, that there will be a better man at some point in my future, and I have Josh to thank for that.

“The sky’s not so dark anymore,” I say, thinking to myself that there’s dual meaning in the phrase.

“Can you check the time again?” he asks.

I laugh. “No way. You just want to gawk at my ass again like you did last night.”

“I want to know how much longer my stomach has to wait,” he says, “but yeah, I am absolutely going to stare.”

I turn and lift out of the pool as I reach across to my boot and grab the watch I left in it. The cold is biting, but I give him a few seconds to look before I turn around and lower myself back in the water. “It’s almost six. Let’s go now; by the time we get dressed and get up the hill, they’ll be open. We can leave our robes at the front desk and get new ones on the way out.”

* * *

Breakfast is even more amazing than dinner last night had been. Josh eats ravenously and can’t stop talking about how delicious everything is. The hostess was so sweet; when she saw my damp hair, she sat us close to one of the heating ducts.

“I’m definitely coming back here,” he says. “And I’m going to bring you with me.”

“I like that idea.”

“I take it you enjoyed last night?” he asks quietly, a wicked grin on his face. He’s even more handsome with a little stubble on him.

“It was heavenly, Josh. Seriously. You helped me forget about my breakup for a while.”

“Good. My job here is done.”

I shake my head and swallow a bite of rosemary croissant. “Not yet, it’s not. Unless you have other plans for the rest of the weekend.”

“My only plan is to keep you in either my bed or yours,” he says.

“Excellent plan,” I reply. “So we’ve talked about my breakup anymore. What’s this problem you mentioned with your work? And what kind of work is it?”

“I own a business that sells mini-computers,” he says. “But they’re incredibly expensive, and it can take forever to convince big corporations to spend that much. Sometimes months go by in-between sales. It’s absurdly stressful.”

I watch as he takes a bite of his omelet. “I can imagine. Too bad you can only sell to businesses. It would be easier if you had smaller computers you could sell to individual people.” I laugh and add, “Though I have no idea what good a computer would be in someone’s house.”

Josh looks at me thoughtfully. “Maybe one day. I don’t think the technology is ready yet.”

We finish our delicious breakfast, and Josh eats enough for two people. Meanwhile, the manager stops at our table to personally apologize about the power outage.

“Don’t you love this place?” I ask as the manager walks away from our table. “I want to come back during the summer. I came here for distraction, and Awtenbush is exactly that.”

I look him in the eyes and give him a sexy smile. “Especially what we did last night.”

“You’re saying the sex was so good it made you forget about your ex?”

“You want the truth?” I ask.

“Sure,” he grins, setting down his fork.

“It was beyond good, Josh. It was perfect. I’ve never had sex that amazing before. Ever. And it was freezing in that cabin. You’re such a great lover, it’s going to be unfair to every other man I sleep with for the rest of my life.”

He looks stunned by the compliment. “Same here, Sarah. I loved every second of it. You’re fucking phenomenal in bed.”

“Well, Tim apparently didn’t think so.”

Josh reaches across the table and takes my hand in his.

“Tim is an idiot,” he says. “You’re the kind of dream woman every guy wants.”

He’s right; Tim is an idiot. But it’s the other half of Josh’s sentence that hits me square in the heart and remains there.

It’s snowing again as we walk back, this time to Josh’s cabin, which is now toasty-warm as we enter.

We climb into bed for another round of mind-blowing sex, this time on top of the covers so we can clearly see each other’s bodies. After we come, we quickly fall fast asleep in each other’s arms and don’t wake up until mid-afternoon. Even then, we remain in bed, naked and cuddling, talking about everything and nothing.

As Josh nuzzles my neck, his hands exploring my breasts, my eyes happen to land on his nightstand. There I notice a white paper cup with blue glitter stars on it. It takes me a second to remember where I’ve seen one before.

“Did you get that in Snowdon?” I ask, pointing.

“The cup? Yeah, I pulled over to get a coffee.”

“From the North Pole Coffee Shop?”

His eyes narrow suspiciously. “How did you know?”

“Because I stopped there on my way here, too. That Santa guy gave me the most delicious drink. And free!”

“The nutmeg-cinnamon coffee? Wasn’t it amazing? I don’t know how he makes any money if he gives away his drinks.”

We both laugh. What a strange coincidence that of all the places we could have stopped in that festive little town, we went to the same one.

“Here’s the weird thing,” Josh says. “The Santa dude knew my name. It freaked me out.”

My pulse is suddenly stronger. “Wait a minute. Really?”

“Yeah, he said it was a lucky guess. But what are the odds of that?”

“He knew mine, too.” My voice is suddenly shaky. “I told him I was heartbroken, and he guaranteed the drink would make me feel better in twenty-four hours.”

“Did it?” Josh asks. He’s excited now, too.

“I met you in pool number three just a few hours later, Josh. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet.” This is insane. “Did he promise you anything?”

“He handed me the cup and said, ‘Keep an open mind. There’s magic in the world.’ I thought he was a crazy old guy who happened to make delicious coffee drinks. But now…”

We stare at each other, trying to comprehend this weirdness.

Eventually we decide there has to be some explanation. The existence of a magic that would somehow work to bring the two of us together is a pretty big stretch.

On the other hand, the magic that Josh and I created in the freezing early morning hours is definitively, blissfully real.

* * *

Josh and I spend the next two days and nights soaking in the pools, eating delicious health food, and having the most incredible sex two people can possibly have. Together we re-write the rules of pleasure and end up in positions that I’m pretty sure weren’t covered in the Kama Sutra.

And throughout it all, we have an insanely fun time just hanging out and talking about life.

Josh had booked two more days at Awtenbush than I had. On the morning of my check-out, we exchange numbers and we finally learn each other’s last names.

Josh Temsik. It has a nice ring to it.

I tell him I’d love to have him visit me in Boston, and I mean it with all my heart. Josh tells me to come down to Manhattan for a weekend and sounds sincere when he says it. It’s a bittersweet moment, for sure.

“Have you changed your mind about the holidays now?” I ask.

“There was definitely something magical about what happened here,” he replies. “I hope you get everything you want for Christmas, Sarah.”

“I already have,” I tell him. And I mean it.

We share one last passionate kiss before I climb in my car and drive off. My heart is both heavy and light as I drive along, thinking about everything that happened at the resort.

When I reach Snowdon, I decide to stop in and see that Santa guy again. I want to know what his deal is, because something tells me there’s more to him than meets the eye. I pull into the parking lot and can’t find the North Pole Coffee Shop. Looking around, I get confused because I’m positive this is the same place. The shop was right here at the end of this strip center, next to Aladdin’s Pet Store.

Now there’s only a space with a big “for lease” sign in the window.

I park the Pinto and peer through the shop’s dirty window. The interior is dusty and there are construction materials strewn about. It looks as if it’s been like this for months, but I know I was inside just a few days ago.

Thinking maybe the pet store owner will know something about it, I go into the shop and ask the woman there.

“A coffee shop?” she asks. “No, there used to be a bait shop there, but they moved out months ago. It’s been vacant ever since; the guy who owns the building has trouble renting that place because it’s so tiny.”

“No, this was last Wednesday, just four days ago. The guy had a fluffy white beard and a big belly. Kind eyes.”

The woman is frowning at me. “I think I would remember if Santa Claus was working next door to me last week.”

Her tone is snotty enough that I know she won’t be any help. I think her and leave, stopping one more time to look inside the vacant shop. Amidst all the debris scattered around the floor, my attention is draw to one item: a crumpled blue paper cup with white glitter stars on it. I’m confused and more than a little sad when I resume my drive back to Boston.

When I woke up this morning, this time in his bed and cabin, I lay at Josh’s side and studied his handsome face in the dim light of dawn as he slept. I had to remind myself that as much as I’d loved what happened between the two of us over the last few days, it was a total fluke. It was nothing more than a wonderful three-night stand that helped me create some much-needed separation from my last boyfriend.

And Josh did that in spectacular fashion. As I drive through the snow-white countryside, I have a distinct feeling I’ll never see him again.

The thought saddens me, but I can live with it. What happened at Awtenbush this weekend was a magical thing that appeared out of nowhere at a time in my life when I most needed it. Josh was a gift, sent to me by the universe to even out my bad luck, and asking for it to be something more would be ungrateful of me.

One day, when I’m old and gray, I’ll remember him and what the two of us had at the resort, and my heart will grow as warm as my cabin was cold that night.

Josh

No, I didn’t let her get away! Are you fucking nuts?

Seriously, when you find the love of your life, you do everything you can to lock her before someone else shows up and snatches her.

I didn’t even stay at the resort those last two days. A couple of hours after Sarah left, I checked out myself and drove home. I called her that night and asked her to come to Manhattan for New Year’s Eve. We rang in 1977 together in Times Square, then proceeded to spend nearly every weekend together, either in New York City or in Boston. She was pleasantly surprised when I made reservations for two at Awtenbush for Valentine’s Day weekend. And she was shocked when I proposed to her.

“We would be stupid to think our both showing up alone here that week was just a cosmic coincidence,” I told her in our cabin on Valentine’s Day. “Some force bigger than the two of us made sure to get us both here. Even more obviously, it led us into that number three pool, where our lack of clothing made sure we couldn’t ignore each other. Serendipity of that magnitude shouldn’t be ignored.”

I pulled the little black box out of my weekender. Dropping to one knee, I presented it to her and said, “I want us to spend the rest of our lives together, Sarah. I want us to have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I want to have you by my side every possible moment from now until forever, and then some.”

I opened the box and presented the ring I’d had custom-made for her. The largest, best diamond I could possibly afford reflected the light into her eyes as I said, “Sarah, will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

Sarah was speechless. I mean, literally speechless. She was unable to make any sounds other than noises associated with crying for a solid minute before she gathered herself long enough to accept.

She gave notice at her job the following Monday and moved in with me in Manhattan two weeks later.

That was forty-two years ago, and I doubt there have been a dozen days in that span where I wasn’t blessed to look into her beautiful face. Not once in all that time have I ever doubted that she was the perfect woman for me, and I marvel that she’s still thrilled to be spending her time with an old guy like me.

Over the years we managed to have four wonderful kids who’ve blessed us with seven grandkids and counting. Life is about as perfect as can be.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot…

Sarah’s comments over our first breakfast together sparked me to begin looking into the then-nascent microcomputer technology. I recruited an engineer friend and we came up with a design for a computer that could be used in homes and small businesses and cost a fraction of the mini-computers I’d been selling. Sarah soon joined us as our Director of Finance and Operations, and Pegasus Computers was born. It was rough going for a few years, but in the mid-eighties, things took off and we never looked back.

Pegasus now employees nearly a hundred thousand people worldwide, and we have a gorgeous home on the shore of Lake Washington in the Seattle area. There’s also a private jet and a yacht, as well as another home in Manhattan and smaller vacation homes in four countries.

These days, I’m removed from the day-to-day operations of Pegasus, and Sarah helps me oversee our charitable foundation.

As I said, our life together is pretty damned perfect.

Sarah and I have talked many, many times about the mystery of the North Pole Coffee Shop in Snowdon, MA. We still have no answers, but both of us are certain there was something quite strange about what we experienced there.

I doubt we’ll ever know the truth, but some things are better left unexamined.

“Could you use some company?” I turn to see the love of my life walking across the lawn holding two tumblers. “And maybe a little bourbon?” The bourbon is courtesy of our oldest son, Zachary, whose craft bourbon distillery has become a success of its own.

Sarah arrives at the dock and hands me a glass, then sits next to me. At age sixty-seven, she remains the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

“What are you staring at?” she asks. “Wait a minute… I know that look. You want to get in the hot tub, don’t you?”

I grin as I reply. “Anything to get you naked, my love.”

Also by Hunter King

Baby, It’s Cold Inside

is the debut story from romance author Hunter King.

Stay tuned for much more from Hunter in 2020.

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Copyright © 2019 by Hunter King

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations used in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual living persons is purely coincidental.

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