Page 26 of Christmas Spirit
“Roland, I—”
The heavy strike of the reception clock, loud and booming, shuddered through Georgie, each strike like an extra heartbeat.
“I can’t find him anywhere, and I’m not prepared to wait any longer,” Roland said, stepping back, his voice overloud as he scraped his fingers through his hair. “I’ll leave some money and my contact number. If there’s more to be owed, they can call me. Come on.”
Georgie didn’t say anything as he watched Roland count out a bundle of notes. He bit down on his lip, embarrassed by how much Roland was leaving as payment for their time in the hotel. He plunged his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out his battered wallet.
“I don’t feel right not contributing.”
“Then you’ll just have to live with it. I told you I’d take care of the room.” Roland threw him an impatient glance before he fished out a business card and a pen from an inner pocket, and scribbled a note on the back for Nicholas.
“But dinner last night, and breakfast—”
“Don’t argue. Right, let’s get going.”
They pulled open the heavy wooden door and both gasped as freezing air hit them.
“Jesus,” Georgie said, his teeth already beginning to chatter as he pulled out a woolly hat and some gloves.
Roland didn’t bother to answer him as he trudged over to his Land Rover, nothing more than an indistinct lump under the thick covering of snow. They were going to have to clear it before they could go anywhere.
“The snowploughs must have been out last night.”
Georgie nodded to the driveway, clear except for the thinnest layer of snow, leading away from the hotel and disappearing into a tunnel of densely packed, snow-laden trees. He clamped down on his lip, pulling in his brows as he stared at the trees, his scalp tingling with he didn’t know what.
“Good, it means the roads will be clear. Help me shift the snow from the car so we can get away.”
Between them, they pushed off most of the snow from the roof, and the windscreen, with the wipers and de-misters doing the rest. Moments later, Roland put the car into gear and they trundled their way along the path as Georgie watched the hotel grow smaller and smaller, then disappear as the path took them into the woods.
Chapter Fifteen
Roland glared at his satnav. It was top of the range, a signal guaranteed in any condition, supposedly, but the screen was nothing more than a blank, white square on the dashboard.
“We’re going to have to retrace our steps from yesterday, and it would help if this thing was working.”
He rapped his knuckles on the satnav screen, in the vain hope it would jump into life, just like his gran had done to her old TV to clear it of the crackle of static. If you thumped something hard enough it would fall into line, had been her philosophy, and it hadn’t only applied to cranky, ancient TVs.
Next to him, Georgie silently stared out of the window. His lips were puckered, almost pouty, and Roland quickly switched his attention back to the road. He remembered the wet heat of those lips as they’d slid all the way down his cock, as his hands gripped the bedsheet and his toes curled, his hips ramming forward as he—
The car lurched hard, throwing it to the left, and he and Georgie with it, as it bumped over a ridge of compacted snow. For a second the wheel ran away from Roland’s grip, but a hard wrench brought the car back in the right direction. It stalled.
Roland let go of a long breath.
“You okay?” he asked.
Georgie nodded. “The seatbelt almost garrotted me, but yeah.”
Roland restarted the engine and they set off again. He kept his eyes trained on the driveway, and attempted to keep his mind as blank as the path they were trundling along, pushing all thoughts of that strange, disturbing and pulse-raising dream, where he and Georgie…
Stop. Right. Now.
The driveway was slippery. The thin layer of snow that had settled, after it had been cleared at some point in the night, had made it little more than a skating rink.
On either side of the driveway, woods hemmed them in, thicker and denser than when they’d first entered. Their boughs dipped low, heavy under the weight of snow, making it seem as though they were leaning forward and reaching out for the car. He hadn’t noticed the woods the night before, but then he’d hardly been aware of anything other than following the sign to the hotel.
“I don’t remember these woods.” The words burst from Roland
“What?”
