Chapter One
Krystal
“But you go with me every year, sweetie. You’re the prettiest girl in town and the only one I want on my arm. It’s you who gets me re-elected, don’t you know?” Dad croons, blushing as he looks down at his feet.
I stifle a sigh, creasing my lips.
Any other year, any other campaign ball and dinner of daddy’s, I’d be there in a heartbeat, but for the first time in living memory, the annually elected mayor of our little town has a real contender.
James Silverthorn.
The very thought of him makes my knees weak. The single notion that I’ll go to a dinner and dance, seeing him up close?
It’s too much. Too much for my nerves and twitching sex to take.
I’ve already changed once today because I thought about him too hard when his picture leaflets were delivered to my dad’s office by mistake along with Dad’s by the printer’s.
Never being one to even look at myself naked, let alone touch myself… the very sight of the man.
My god, I felt myself almost come before I had to fight the uncontrollable urge to finger myself. Hard.
Plus, if I did meet him and he looked at me like most people do for the first time. I’d just die, I know it.
Those eyes scanning me up and down, thinking one word and feeling sorry for me.
Nice girl, pity she’s so…
But I can’t think like that. Not today. I won’t let anything spoil my little fantasy.
Instead, I volunteer to run the leaflets over to Mr. Silverthorn’s campaign office.
Maybe to test my theory. If he doesn’t run a mile at the sight of me, I might go to the stupid ball.
But I don’t realize such a simple errand will be such a life-changing experience.
Okay, Krystal. Back up a little.
Lemme explain just a little more about James Silverthorn.
And our tiny little town.
My dad’s been Mayor ever since I can remember, longest-serving in living memory. Everybody loves him. Local accountant before running for Mayor and now the savior of our town ever since.
Giving a little backwater town a voice and some calm which helps with local industries like the lumber workers, mill, and all the local land owners.
Enter James Silverthorn, newest resident of our town and self-made man who wants to add some local politics to his resume before maybe running for governor, who knows?
And to be frank. Who cares what his motives are?
The man’s a freaking god.
News of the first serious opposing candidate was brushed off with as much humor as chipper, friendly local opponents who do it every year to give dad a better platform. That was until his picture was on the local news.
Then his flyers arrived at my dad’s office.
I tremble to even think about it, seeing his picture for the first time which is nothing compared to the man himself.
Okay, so I’m making my way over to his new office which he’s rented to deliver his flyers, telling myself I’ll meet a stuffy secretary or some sort of campaign official that’ll brush me off…
But it’s the man himself who opens his office door once he sees me struggling up the steps to the French doors.
Before he even reaches the door I can feel his presence, see how big he is in real life.
He has on an immaculate white shirt with suspenders that stretches over his huge chest.
His massive arm reaches for the door giving it a dollhouse appearance.
He’s so big, it’s like no building, and no world could even contain him.
Thick, dark hair with a sheen of gray flecked at the sides that shines in sunlight sits atop the most powerful, masculine face I’ve ever seen.
His photographer should be fired.
Or maybe he deliberately toned down the man’s appearance for the sake of women’s laundry?
I feel an instant flush of heat to my stiffening chest and then my groin once his smoldering hazel eyes lock on mine; the perfect grill of white from his smile set firm in a concrete jaw that draws a whimpering sound from me I hope the creaking of the door disguises.
I can feel myself rocking.
Swooning as he lurches forward, eases the heavy boxes from my hands as if they weigh nothing before I feel his other hand on me.
Supporting me.
I know I’m done for.
It’s like an electric current straight to my core, right through my heart, my mind and all the way down to the business end of biology I know has complete power over me now.
Love at first sight?
I dunno about that, but I do know my body wants this man inside me like nothing else.
Like right freaking now.
And I hope that shimmer of light in his dark eyes is broadcasting the same message because he seems just as interested as I am helpless right now.
“Are you alright… Miss?” he asks, easing me inside with a strong arm I find myself leaning heavily against as he guides me to a sheet-covered couch.