Finn's Christmas Dilemma (Holiday Hunks Book 3) Read online

  Another man came in and stood at the door. Griffith acknowledged him with a nod and a curt wave. The man wore shades and tight black leather gloves—had to be his driver. And judging by the guy’s huge muscular build and his stance and pugnacious presence, she would bet he also doubled as a bodyguard.

  After the driver went to the counter and put in an order for black coffee, he took a seat at the same table as Griffith.

  Trinity looked down and stared into her coffee and wished she had long hair she could pull forward to cover her face.

  “You okay, Trinity?”

  Thanks, Finn. Thanks a lot.

  Did Griffith hear that? The guy would have to be deaf not to, but even though there weren’t that many women named Trinity around, that didn’t mean he—

  “Trinity? Wow. I can’t believe it.” He stood up and stepped toward her. “It’s Griffith Koons. You remember me, don’t you?”

  Unfortunately, yes. “Sure. Nice to see you.” Lie.

  Finn looked curious but pulled back, no doubt assuming this was an old friend or boyfriend of hers. Her stomach clenched.

  Griffith’s hand came out. Not to shake hers but to touch her back. And stroke it. Ick. She sat forward.

  “I wondered what happened to you,” he said with a leering perusal of her. “Don’t tell me you’re living out here now? Or are you just passing by like me?”

  “I live here.”

  She could read the tension in Finn’s brow. His radar had to be telling him this guy was an asshole whose attention was not wanted.

  “We had fun on the yacht that week. Didn’t we?” Griffith said with a half smile.

  Trinity wanted to crawl under the table. Exactly what she was afraid might happen. It would be bad enough to deal with on her own, but to have Finn here to witness this before she had the courage to talk to him about it was a disaster.

  Just then Caroline showed up—bless her. Was it coincidence or did she sense Trinity’s discomfort? She was always so intuitive. “Better come and get this while it’s hot,” Caroline said as she set the eggs and espresso down on Griffith’s table.

  “Talk about hot.” With a quiet snicker, he turned and flashed a cheeky grin to his driver. “One of our girls,” he said, nodding at Trinity.

  Trinity felt the blood drain from her face.

  As Griffith turned back to his table, Finn shifted his gaze from Griffith to Trinity and back again to Griffith, a mix of confusion and anger behind his eyes. He leaned forward and whispered, “He bothering you?”

  She shook her head and murmured, “No. It’s just someone, I, um, knew, um…I’m fine. In fact, I better get back to work,” Trinity said, thinking this might get Finn to leave and that going back to the kitchen would help prevent any further contact with Griffith.

  But obviously she did not convince either Finn or Caroline, who both stayed put near the two tables while Griffith stood again and followed Trinity toward the back.

  Oh no. Instead of taking her move as a dismissal, he must have thought she meant it as a signal for him to come talk privately to her. Well, it was not going to be so private because Trinity felt her two friends following close behind.

  “So, you work here?” Griffith said at her shoulder.

  “I own this place. It’s my business.”

  He smiled. “Anything interesting going on upstairs that I might want to get in on?”

  She froze and glared at him and ground out, “No.”

  “You sure about that?” Griffith, discreetly reached down and was about to caress her ass, but she managed to move in time. Portrait of a rich lecherous whoremaster who was used to having his way. “You remember me. There are people I know. They’d pay big sums for you and your services.”

  “This conversation is over.” She turned to leave, but he clasped her by the arm. “Of course you’d get a big cut of the action.”

  She yanked her arm away. “I think you should leave.” Trinity’s hand went to her stomach that was threatening to empty out right now. She could barely breathe.

  Griffith moved closer. “I’ve got my Lamborghini outside. Why don’t I have Mitch take us for a ride. Just a blow job. Come on, I’ll give you a thousand for it.”

  It happened so fast, she hardly saw it, but suddenly Finn’s right fist landed in Griffith’s face and he went down. Out cold, he was still for a moment, but in that moment the guy named Mitch was grabbing and shoving and pummeling Finn.

  The guy was clearly a trained bodyguard, and while Finn got a couple of shots in, he was no match for this pro fighter twice his size. Finn’s face was already bloody and the blows he took to his stomach made her scream.

  She raced back to the counter and reached down way below to retrieve her late father’s old rifle, which she kept there in case of emergencies.

  And judging by the beating Finn was taking from that monster Griffith brought with him, this was an emergency.

  “Stop or I’ll blow your legs off!” Trinity shouted as she marched closer and aimed her rifle at Mitch’s lower body. “And your dick.”

  He paused, his head turning to her, and she just hoped if he was carrying a gun that he did not use it on her. “Put your hands wide,” she said in case he had one under his jacket.

  What should she do now? Would Griffith do something to ruin her business? And if she called the police, would her secrets get out and sink her?

  As if sensing her hesitation, Mitch said, “Your friend hit Griffith first.”

  Then Caroline stepped forward, her phone held up. “But he was defending Trinity from an illegal offer. Griffith was soliciting, which is illegal. I’ve got the whole conversation on my phone and I’m a lawyer. But if you take your guy and go, we’ll forget the whole thing.”

  Griffith was just coming to and Finn had stumbled back and sunk into a chair.

  “Okay,” Mitch said, then grabbed his employer under the armpits and walked the dazed man out the door.

  Trinity stood there gripping the rifle, too freaked out to put the gun down before she was sure they were gone. When a good ten minutes had passed, Caroline’s hand touched her shoulder and Trinity lowered the barrel, squeezing her eyes tight.

  “Put the gun away and take Finn upstairs to clean him up. Unless you want to go to the clinic.”

  Trinity nodded, then glanced at Caroline. “A lawyer?”

  “Hey, I took a few law courses when I was getting my MFA. But it is true that I’ve got his conversation on my phone.”

  “And Finn punching him out.”

  “The recording got accidentally shut off when that happened. It’s his word against yours, but I don’t think it will come to that. He’s not mafia or anything, is he?”

  “No, just a spoiled rich guy.” Trinity heard the front door shut and noticed Finn was gone. “Oh no.”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “He moves so quietly.”

  “You better go after him and make it right.”

  * * *

  Trinity raced from her car to Finn’s door and pounded on it until he opened it. As soon as he did, she blurted, “I’m so sorry,” and pushed her way into the house. “I should have told you about what I went through, but I didn’t want you to see that weak, ugly part of me, Finn. I already hate myself. I couldn’t bear it if you hated me too.”

  “I could never hate you, Trinity. Don’t you know that?”

  “Then why did you leave? Are you mad at me?”

  He turned and walked into the living room. Trinity closed the front door and followed him. Was this it? Was her dream of finally being with the only guy she’d ever really wanted about to come crashing down?

  “Finn, you didn’t answer me. Please, I—”

  “Getting pummeled in front of your girlfriend isn’t great for a guy’s ego.” His thumbs went into the pockets of his jeans. “I’m a dancer, not a fighter.”

  “You knocked Griffith out cold!”

  “But then I got my ass handed to me.”

  “By a professional bodyg
uard who is a trained fighter. Why do you think guys like Griffith hire them?” She reached up and touched his cut lip. “Have you put anything on this?”

  “Soap and water. That’s all it needs.”

  “Looks like you’re going to have a black eye too. And you have that performance coming up.”

  One side of his mouth quirked. “That’s what makeup is for.”

  “Oh, Finn, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

  “Hey, you saved my bacon with that rifle, sweetie. Remind me never to surprise you when you’re alone at the cafe.”

  They fell into an awkward silence as they stood in the middle of his small living room next to the freaky orange-blue-and-green sofa.

  Finally he asked the question she knew was coming. “What was he talking about, Trinity?”

  She stepped to the sofa and sat down, patting the place next to her. Finn sat and she said, “I wanted to tell you, but I was waiting to see if…” She shook her head.

  “To see if you could trust me?” Finn said.

  “No. No, that is not it at all. I have always trusted you and always will, but I…” How could she say she wanted to first see if he loved her so her stupid mistakes would not end everything before they had a chance to reconnect? “I was afraid you would be so disappointed in me you wouldn’t want to know me anymore.”

  He reached over and took her hand in his, and it felt so good all she wanted to do was crawl into his lap and be held and kissed and make love to him.

  “Try me,” he said.

  “What?” she said, startled, as if he were replying to her thoughts instead of her words.

  “Tell me what you think is so bad and see if what you’re afraid of is true.”

  How did he do it? How did Finn always have a way of taking what was crazy and bringing it down to earth?

  She took a breath and said, “I was addicted to both drugs and alcohol. I spent the better part of a year in rehab.”

  No sign of shock on his face. “I noticed you said you don’t drink.”

  She gave him a small grin. “Ironically, that’s how Brina and Caroline and I are connected. Brina is an ER nurse and had been volunteering at a center where I got treatment. She just works at North Cove General Hospital now. Caroline and I met in rehab. She’d had a rotten husband and some really bad luck.”

  “And you had a rotten fiancé?”

  “You knew I was engaged?”

  He simply nodded, and Trinity could not help wondering what he had felt when he found out. Did he care? Every time she saw him on the net with a woman on his arm a piece of her heart shattered. She would scour the web for any notice of his marriage and laugh with glee when she saw he’d broken it off and switched to a new lady.

  “My so-called fiancé was horrible, all right, but that was not my only problem. The modeling profession has an underbelly that nobody likes to talk about. Some women can get through unscathed, but those of us who get taken in at an early age are really susceptible.”

  “Susceptible to what?”

  “Coercion, persuasion, intimidation. And the hypnotic allure of rich men and how they live. Men who will pay big money just to have a fashion model go to dinner with them. Some agents are hooked in with high rollers and they make money off their roster of girls.”

  “That’s how you met Griffith.”

  “Right. He hung out with a guy who had hired me to spend a week on his yacht—at fifteen thousand a day.”

  “Holy shit.”

  “My agent took a chunk of it, and I spent the rest on cocaine and clothes.” Trinity shook her head in disgust. “I’ve never had sex with Griffith, but I was sleeping with the man who owned the yacht. That’s why he invited me. My agent insisted I had to be paid. Was I a prostitute? The lines were blurry and I was so drug addicted at the time that I just did whatever my agent told me to do. Including getting engaged to a jerk I did not love.” She turned her head and looked right at him. “Hate me yet?”

  “I told you I could never hate you. I think you let yourself go in some foolish and dangerous directions and made some idiotic decisions, even way back in high school. It’s one of the problems with being born beautiful. You start to see yourself as nothing more than the surface beauty others see you as. And you lose touch with the person inside that you really are.”

  Tears streaming from her eyes, she took the tissue Finn handed her. “Thank you. Thank you for not condemning me or judging me harshly. Believe me, I have enough self-hate to last a lifetime.”

  “Have some compassion for that young girl you were who’d never been out of her small town. I think it’s great that you have your coffee roasting business here and are so involved in a community that does not know those sordid things but remembers you as the innocent and beautiful queen of the Strawberry Festival.”

  She brushed his cheek with her fingers. “How is it you’ve always been able to understand me?”

  “Because I’ve been in love with you since we were kids.”

  Her breath caught. “Are you saying…”

  “Relax, I don’t want to put any pressure on you. I’ve been living with this my whole life, so if you want to keep things between us on the friendship level, I’ll get by.”

  “How can you say that?” She landed a soft punch on his shoulder. “Friends, my ass. I’ve been going crazy since you got back, desperate to figure out how to make you fall in love with me. Don’t you know you’re the only guy I ever really wanted?”

  “Gimme a break. You dumped me and went off with the popular crowd when we got to high school. Even dating the guys who made my life miserable.”

  “I’m not proud of that.”

  “Hey, I get it. When you hit puberty you blossomed into this unbelievably gorgeous phenom and everybody wanted a piece of you.”

  “Except you.” She pursed her lips. “Okay, yeah, my vanity sent me into wanting the popular girl dream, but it was also because you hurt me.”

  “How could I have—”

  Her hands flew up. “I tried so hard to get you to kiss me or hold my hand or put your arm around me or just plain ask me to be your girl, but you rejected me at every turn. The final blow was when you were supposed to meet me at that outdoor concert and you showed up with that dancer girl. It was bad enough you didn’t want me, but you had to go and show me you had somebody else.”

  Finn rubbed a hand over his face. “She was just a friend, Trinity. I brought her along because I was scared.”

  “Of what?”

  “You. Things were changing too fast for me. I’d always thought of you as my buddy—your gender didn’t really matter—but suddenly you had become somebody else. You had big round breasts and a butt so pretty I couldn’t help staring at it. You started wearing lipstick and putting stuff on your eyes. In bed at night with my dick in my hand I had loads of brave ideas about you, but when I came face to face with you, I didn’t know what to say or what to do. I didn’t know how to talk to this new person who made me feel all kinds of things I’d never felt before.” He tilted his head and gave her an adoring look. “And believe me, I wanted to so badly.”

  Unable to hold herself back, Trinity threw her arms around his shoulders and smashed her lips into his, murmuring, “I have wanted to kiss you for so, so long.”

  * * *

  Finn almost came in his jeans when Trinity dove at him with such fervor. As he pulled her into his lap, his mouth never leaving hers, she straddled him and began rubbing her clit against his rock-hard shaft.

  “Slow down, Trin, or I’ll be done before I get your clothes off.”

  “That only means I’ve got to hurry up and get your pants down.” She slid back and attacked the zipper on his jeans. Finn laughed and lifted his hips, as he helped her slide them and his briefs down.

  She wrapped a hand around his hard-on, and when she stroked it he used all the control he could muster not to orgasm then and there. But then she said, “When we were ten years old I saw your dick when you were changing out of y
our bathing suit, and later that night I drew a picture of it. For scientific purposes of course.”

  Finn threw his head back and laughed, for a minute taking his mind off his raging need to come. Trinity fished his wallet out of his jeans, pulled out a condom, and rolled it onto him.

  “How did you know I’d have one in there?” he asked.

  “Every guy over twelve carries one in his wallet. And while you may be a rare bird with extraordinary gifts beyond the norm, when it comes to ‘ordinary,’ I know you embrace it fully.” She pulled off her shoes and quickly took off her trousers and panties.

  “Next time, I get to do that,” Finn said.

  “Promise, but right now I can’t wait to be…here.” And she impaled herself on his shaft, her arms around his shoulders, her knees outside his thighs.

  And Finn nearly saw stars.

  Without prelude, she rode him hard and fast, and he cupped her butt cheeks, pulling her close as he drove into her again and again.

  “Omigod. omigod! I’m gonna come, Finn. You with me?”

  “You bet, Trin.” And he slammed into her even harder. When her core muscles clamped around him inside her, it sent him over the top.

  Trinity called his name as she exploded along with him.

  Who said Christmas wishes didn’t come true?

  Chapter 6

  “I better call Caroline and make sure she is okay,” Trinity said, sitting up in bed after she and Finn made love for the third time.

  Earlier, when they had proceeded to his bedroom, they’d both taken time to admire each other’s naked bodies. Finn was so glorious, with muscles everywhere, that she had to get her tongue on his abs—and yeah, on his generous package too.

  She loved the way his eyes glowed with desire when he looked at her, his hands and mouth exploring her from head to toe. Her mind was still reeling from what he’d said—that he had been in love with her all those years.