Chapter 10 #2
“Just a little longer,” Cole says.
“It’s not good for you to stay in a sauna for longer than fifteen minutes.”
“They’re fine, babe,” Megan says, shooting me a smile that says, Sorry, as she pulls him toward the door.
“I’m just trying to be helpful,” he says as they head inside and the door shuts.
I turn to Cole.
“You know what I think it’s time for?” he says.
“No clue.”
“Drastic measures.”
I give a scoffing laugh. “I’m not spiraling.”
He puts his finger in the water, his eyes fixed on me as he swirls it around and around and around. In a spiral. Complete with a taunting half-smile.
I grab his hand to stop it. “You’re seeing things.”
“And you’re only seeing Megan and Brady.”
I blow out a big pfft.
“Are you still in love with him?” The question is softer, sincere.
I meet his gaze. I almost wish I could tell him that I am still in love with Brady. I almost wish I was. Then I wouldn’t be falling for Cole. “No.”
“Then what is it?” His eyes scan my face. “What makes you look like that when you watch them?”
I swallow. I can’t tell him the truth—that I want him to hold me like Brady was holding Megan. That I want him to whisper in my ear with a smile on his lips. That I want him to kiss me again like he did under that mistletoe.
That I want it to be real this time.
“I don’t want Brady,” I say. “I just…envy what they have, I guess. And yeah, I’m a little hurt about how they got together. But not because I have feelings for Brady.”
Cole watches me for a second, and I meet his gaze, wondering if there’s any tiny part of him that wants something like that too. Is there any sliver of his heart that wasn’t satisfied with one perfect kiss under the mistletoe?
I can’t stand it, so I get up. “It’s freezing out here.”
Cole follows suit, and we both get out of the hot tub.
I glance at him, noting the pensive look on his face. I don’t want him to think I’m pouting over Brady and Megan—over anything, really.
What happened to my plan to have fun this weekend?
I keep losing sight of it through the fog of my feelings, and Cole can sense it.
Enough being in my head. Cole’s pulled more than his weight keeping things light and spontaneous. It’s my turn.
I wrap my towel around my waist, folding over the top to keep it in place, then snatch Cole’s before he can.
His hand pauses in midair, and he looks at me like maybe taking his towel was an accident.
Maybe it was, since I’m left watching the warm water from the hot tub snake down his neck, chest, and torso, his upper body literally steaming.
Welp, in for a penny, in for a pound.
I put the towel over my shoulders and smile. “Whaddya know? Chivalry isn’t dead.”
His surprise shifts, his mouth lifting at one edge. “Is that right?” He takes a few slow steps toward me.
I see chase in his eyes, and it gets my heart pumping in a wild, new way. A way that makes me want to run. To be chased.
I spin on my heel and take off, salt chunks from the deck sticking to the soles of my bare feet as I hurry to the stairs.
I don’t even consider heading inside. Instead, I poke foot-shaped holes into the snow as I grip the towel around my shoulders for dear life with one hand, the towel at my waist with the other.
The crunch of Cole’s footsteps punctuates my own as I feel the sting of glacial air hit my thighs, telling me the towel at my waist is no longer secure.
It flutters behind me like a flag as I try in vain to grasp the fabric and cover my frostbitten leg.
Cole’s grip finds the towel, bringing me to a jolting stop. If I was in my right mind, I’d let go of it, but I’m in a panicked state, a giant grin on my face, the cold enhancing the energy in every muscle.
Next thing I know, I’m being spun around, then pulled flush against Cole.
He smiles just as widely as me, and our hearts thud against our chests like two rabid wolves on either side of a fence. My lungs heave for air, but all they get is ice crystals.
“What happened to chivalry?” I say breathlessly.
“Alive and well,” he replies, breathless. “I’m keeping you warm.”
That he is. Every part of me that isn’t touching him aches with cold, and my body pulses with the need for more of the warmth his body promises.
His breath makes a warm cloud in front of his mouth, and my cold lips urge me to let them closer to it, closer to the source. As if I needed one more thing to persuade me to kiss him again.
But I don’t want another fake kiss. I can’t survive another one.
“Fine,” I say. “Keep the towel.”
His brows lift. “Really?”
I nod.
“This towel?” The press of the fabric against my back lets up, and I’m suddenly exposed.
I take a step back, willing myself not to shiver. Maybe I’m past that point now.
“And what if I want that one too?” He nods at the one around my shoulders.
There it is again—the chase in his blue eyes.
This time, I run because I need to. I need to put distance between me and the ever-growing desire for Cole.
I haven’t taken more than two steps when his arm wraps around my waist.
My feet slide against the snow as I try to escape, and then we’re falling.
A thousand microscopic icicles pierce the bare skin of my legs as we roll. I end on my back, eyes clenched tightly shut. When I open them, Cole’s face hovers over me.
“You okay?” he asks.
I’m lying half-naked on a hard blanket of frozen needles, but the answer to that is a yes that echoes all through the Cascades. “I’ll survive. But I can’t say the same for you.”
He smiles but doesn’t move.
I don’t pursue my threat. I’m too mesmerized by him, too curious what his next move will be. He’s got me caged in. The move has to be his.
His eyes rake over my face, and the teasing starts to give way to something more serious and intense, melting like the snow under my legs. “You know something?”
I shake my head. It’s completely empty of everything but how much I want him.
He tucks a hair behind my ear. “You drive me crazy.” He lowers his head, stopping just shy of my lips.
I can feel the haze of warmth they’re giving off, like the glow of a fire on an arctic ice cap.
I wrap my hand around the back of his head and pull his lips to mine.
There isn’t an ounce of protest or resistance from him, and the heat of his mouth meets mine. It’s a small contact point, but my entire body floods with warmth, melting me from the inside.
His lips are insistent and real. He wants me. I can feel it. There’s no audience driving this, no plan we agreed on beforehand. It’s pure, mutual desire.
Against all reason, I shiver.
He deepens the kiss, then slips his arm behind my shoulders and rolls us to the side. His lips never leave mine, but the second towel drapes over the exposed parts of my skin before he lowers my back to the ground again.
Unlike me, he’s unprotected from the elements, and I’m torn between a desire to pull back and tell him we should continue this inside and the fear that, if I stop this, it’ll be the end of it.
It can’t end. I need it to go on and on and on.
I try to move my hand to his cheek, but it collides with his. He slides his fingers in the spaces between mine, then pins my arm next to my head.
The wintry air bites and nips everywhere it can, but his mouth is fire, and I have no idea whether the cold or heat is more dangerous.
He pulls back just enough that our breath tangles in front of our lips. “We should stop.” But he kisses me again, and I make it my work to convince him stopping isn’t an option.
The brief break in our warm kisses must have been a reminder to my body, since it shudders, rattling me from head to toe.
Cole pulls back, but I keep my eyes closed a little longer.
When I open them, there’s a little smile on his lips.
“Come on,” he says. “Let’s get you warm before you freeze solid.” He pushes himself up, then helps me, snatching the towel that tries to drop to the ground. Grabbing my hand, he tugs me to the hot tub.
We’re not more than twenty steps from the tub, but with the whipping wind and none of Cole’s body heat shielding me, it feels like an eon before we finally get there.
“This is gonna sting,” he warns me, leading me into the water and wincing.
It hardly registers. I’m still reliving those moments in the snow.
I’ve found a new love for the cold.