Chapter Fourteen
F or the fifth morning in a row, Gabe kissed Lucy goodbye and left the house, crossing the bridge to his cabin. Five days, and already he felt like he belonged there with her.
They’d moved to her bedroom after the power came back on two nights ago because there were a few things he wanted to do with her that were easier done in bed. Otherwise, nothing had changed since the storm. She seemed as eager as he was to spend time together. Still, it was best they have some space during the day, even if he spent most of that time thinking about her.
Not surprisingly, his cabin was freezing. He’d come back last night to stoke the woodstove, but this morning they’d made love in the sleepy dark before dawn, then fallen asleep again for hours, limbs tangled. Starting the fire up again was a small price to pay for that.
Burst pipes would have been a small price to pay.
He got the fire going, then headed outside to work on the fallen branches that needed to be cut down into smaller pieces to move. He’d been at it since the blizzard had ended, and he was nearly done. It was more fun when Lucy helped, but she was on deadline and had needed to get back to her writing schedule.
Sometime around noon, Lucy, accompanied by Hilde, came out of her cabin with snowshoes and poles. The snow was so high, once Lucy descended the steps, all he saw was her pom pom hat until she emerged on the driveway. He turned off the chainsaw and headed over, his smile big enough to make his teeth ache in the cold.
“You two heading out?”
“Heck, yeah. We’re raring to go.”
Hilde gave him a few sniffs before darting down the driveway as far as her leash would let her. A few seconds later she came partway back, ears perked up and tongue lolling, clearly wondering what the holdup was.
“You should come out with us sometime,” Lucy said.
“I’d love that if you’re sure you want company. I know you like going alone.”
“I’ll like it even more with you,” she said, smiling.
“How about tomorrow?”
“It’s a plan.”
He watched her until she was out of sight, amazed all over again at the difference in her since she’d arrived. Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined how intrepid she’d become. In only two months, she’d gone from being too terrified to walk on the trails to a die-hard explorer. The scared woman he met that first day was nowhere to be found.
He spent another hour clearing, then went inside to eat lunch and work some more. Lucy came back soon after, her pace slower but her smile wide.
She’d probably get in the hot tub once she got out of all those clothes. The thought of it made him hard, even in the cold, and it was all he could do not to head over there and join her. But he didn’t want to crowd her.
He finished dealing with the last of the branches and headed inside to shower.
The man looking back at him in the mirror was less wild than when Lucy arrived, but nothing to write home about. His last haircut was growing out, and his beard had turned scraggly. He was lucky Lucy let him within ten feet of her.
Pulling out his electric trimmer, he worked on his beard until he had uneven patches of scruff left. Then he pulled out his razor and shaving cream and shaved himself clean, unearthing his former self.
He looked younger, more...visible. He’d grown the beard when things like personal grooming had stopped mattering, but maybe there was more to it than that. Maybe he’d been hiding behind it. His confidence wavered, but it was a little late for that. At any rate, he had to stop staring at himself. He’d either get used to it, or he’d grow it back.
He was at work on his laptop an hour later when Lucy knocked at the door. She stared at him, her mouth falling open.
“Gabriel.” She took off her mitten and raised a cold hand to his cheek. Her eyes filled with tears. “What are you doing to me?”
“I thought you’d like it.”
“It’s just...you were already so beautiful.”
“Lucy...” he trailed off, embarrassed.
She gave a shaky laugh. “I’m being silly. Don’t listen to me.”
He pulled her inside and took her coat, oddly nervous. “The coffee’s hot, if you want some.”
“That would be great.”
She kept glancing at him and then away again, as if she were being caught out. He’d had a dark-haired girlfriend who dyed her hair blonde one day without warning him, and she’d seemed like a different person. Maybe that’s what was happening with Lucy.
He poured her coffee, setting it on the table along with the milk and sugar.
“You look younger,” she said, those soft brown eyes taking him in. “I think that’s part of it.”
“How old did you think I was?”
“I don’t know. Thirty-nine or forty.”
“Thirty-four.”
She nodded, taking this in. Adjusting to it. “I feel a little bit like I don’t know you.”
He cupped her face in his hands. “I’m the same guy. I can act like an ass if that’ll help.”
Her smile was wry and a little relieved. “It might.”
He kissed her then, harder and hungrier than he meant to. She responded instantly, pressing her body to his. He stroked into her mouth, swallowing the sound of her moan, drinking her in.
“Your bed,” she said, pulling him into the other room.
They tumbled onto the mattress together, mouths locked, hands reaching. He already knew the things that made her moan and sigh, how she rose into him when he ran a hand under her back or parted her thighs. But there was more.
He wanted to unravel her endlessly.
Kissing her, he tasted her sweetness and compassion, her quirky humor, her uncertainty and hunger. He wanted it all. He kissed her with all the intensity of the first time, but with his own desire banked enough that he could pay attention to what her body told him.
He kissed her until they were both breathless before moving to the warm column of her throat with its musky scent and salty tang. Lower to the hollow of her collarbone, the pale curve of her breast and its tight little bud begging for his mouth. He took his time there, methodical even as she began to writhe beneath him and pull his hair.
He moved lower still, kissing his way down her stomach until he was settled between her legs.
“Gabriel,” she whimpered. A plea and a demand.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured.
She was hot to the touch and so wet and ready, he could have taken her then. He breathed deeply, inhaling her scent, and licked into her. She rose up to meet him, quaking and panting, and as desperately as he wanted her, he wanted to make it last as long as possible. She pulsed against his tongue, and he took her higher.
Then he let her fly.
He slid into her while she was still quaking. She was spent and pliant for the first few strokes, and then she moaned and tightened around him. He growled when she came again, the feel of her around him sending him to his own release.
She stroked her thumb along his jaw. “It almost hurts to look at you.”
He was starting to doze off. “Hmm?”
“Nothing,” she whispered. “It’s probably best you don’t know.”
He fell asleep before he could ask what she meant, waking a little while later when she stirred.
“You bought my book?”
He sat up, scrubbing his face, and saw she was holding her book. His face heated like he’d been caught at something. “I bought it at the book signing.”
“That’s so sweet.”
He cleared his throat. “I read it, too.”
“Are you serious? It’s not...it’s really more for girls, so it’s okay if you didn’t like it.”
“I liked it a lot, or I wouldn’t have read the whole thing.” He wasn’t embarrassed anymore. He was too busy being annoyed she didn’t think more of her own work. “Maybe it’s meant for girls, but a good book is a good book. Besides, I liked getting a peek inside your brain.”
“Oh.” A smile, sweet and uncertain, bloomed on her lovely face. “Thank you.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. I guess I didn’t want you to know I was such a goner for you.”
She kissed him. “I think I get it.”
He smoothed a hand down her arm. “Do you want to go back to your cabin for dinner?”
“Actually, I had another idea. Did you know it’s New Year’s Eve today?”
“Huh. I’d completely lost track of the days.”
“There are things happening all over town. What do you think? Do you want to go?”
He’d been avoiding these exact kinds of activities for the past year, but she looked so eager, he couldn’t say no. “Sure. Let’s do it.”
An hour later they were in his truck and heading toward town, Lucy practically bouncing off the seat. As soon as they turned onto Main Street, everything exploded into light and color.
After the isolation of the past week, not to mention the last nine months, being among so many people was disconcerting. But Lucy’s face glowed, and when she turned her smile on him, all his resistance melted.
He still didn’t exactly want to go, but he wanted to make her happy. And in the end, it wasn’t bad. They got food from sidewalk vendors and listened to music at bars. He’d been here a couple times before on New Year’s Eve and done these same things. Walking around with Lucy was like traveling back in time to his old self—happy and social, content to enjoy whatever came next.
He stood with his arm around her as they watched an ice sculptor carve a man on skis flying over a jump, and he smiled at the look of wonder on Lucy’s face.
It wasn’t a memory of happiness. It was happiness itself.
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