Chapter 44
44
RONAN
S omething stirs in my arms, and I open one eye to find Nicky sprawled out across my chest.
It’s morning, but there’s still a small fire burning next to us. We’re on the floor, wrapped up together and only half-lying on the lumpy cushions that must have scooted around during the night.
It’s still snowing outside but it looks like we ended up getting more ice than powder. Everything is so white and bright, it burns my tired eyes through all the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Carefully stretching my arm out, I try to not jostle my snoring Peach as I reach for my phone. Only, there’s no service. It looks like the phone lines might be down, too.
Fine with me.
I look forward to a people-less, tech-free snow day with the beautiful, feisty hellcat I’m falling for.
But then I hear a loud, rhythmic grating sounds coming from across the yard. When I twist my neck toward the window, I spot the guys from my yard maintenance and cleaning crew. They’re merrily shoveling the freshly-fallen snow from the surface of the skating rink.
For real? At this time of day? In this weather?
I’d practically forgotten that they were even scheduled to come by today. And I definitely didn’t remember to call and cancel the service. With the bad weather, I’d expected the guys to skip the day. But here they are, getting the job done despite the storm.
That’s work ethic. Good for them.
Letting my eyes close again, I pull my arms tighter around Nicky and decide to get a little more shuteye.This is bliss. This is nice.
But moments later, I’m jolted by the sound of keys jingling and the guesthouse door knob rattling.
Ugh!
“Go away!” I bark at the door.
I see the cleaning guys on the porch now. With their cleaning carts and their buckets and their other supplies.
“Seriously, go away!” I yelp again, starting to grow annoyed. Still, I keep a low profile behind the couch, deciding they’ll take a hint and leave.
“Who is it…?” Nicky twists in my arms, but I lock my biceps protectively around her. I want her to stay right here.
“Cleaning crew!” a voice calls through the door.
“Shh. Don’t move. Maybe they’ll go away.”
She starts to sit up, trying to cover herself with the blankets. “And what if they don’t? Ronan! We can’t—”
“Shh,” I insist.
There’s another knock at the door.
“Can they see us?” Nicky asks in a horrified whisper while clumsily putting on her underwear.
“No, they can’t,” I say dismissively as I reach for her again.
“Oh my god, Ronan! I think they can see us!” Nicky is wide awake now.
“No. No, of course they can’t see us,” I assure her.
Then I hear one of the men say. “Ooh! There’s a booty on the living room floor…”
“Oh my god!” Nicky shrieks hard enough to rattle the windows.
I shoot up into a sitting position. And I make eye contact with the trio of strangers with their faces pressed up against the windows, watching us tangled up on the carpet in this state of undress.
“Shit!” Nicky is patting around on the floor for blankets or pillows or anything to hide her peachy behind from view. “Where’s my shirt!?” She whisper-yells, crawling around on her hands and knees, tits gloriously on display.
I wish I could just sit back and enjoy the show. But I have wardrobe problems of my own. I rummage around too, searching for my own clothing between the heaps of blankets.
“Where are my pants?” I ask as I peel off my shirt and toss it to Nicky, allowing her to cover herself.
“Oh, I’m wearing your pants,” she announce.
I freeze, blinking at her. “Huh?”
“I got cold during the night. All I could find was your pants,” she explains with a shrug.
It’s painfully awkward trying to get dressed while these perverts are right on the other side of the glass wall, watching us.
“Um…You think we should leave?” I hear one of them ask.
“YES!!!” Nicky and I scream in unison.
Still, they hesitate. “We can’t leave. We’re under contract. What if we don’t get paid? I need my money.” A loud knock sounds on the door again.
Okay, that’s it!
I’m taking one for the team. A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. And to protect Nicky’s honor, I will gladly charge into battle.
Cock and balls a’swinging.
With a pillow held over my crotch, I boldly march to the door and swing it open, thoroughly startling the dipshits on my porch.
“Leave! Now! All of you! Or else you’re all fired!” I yell. “And I will make sure you never work in this town again.”
That’s something I heard Darius say once. It worked like a charm.
The men watch me with wide eyes, stumbling and apologizing and bumping into each other as they grab their supplies and run down the porch. Then they hightail it back up the path to their maintenance trucks. A moment later, I hear their vehicles pull away.
Was I too harsh? I don’t know. When the phone lines are back, I’ll call the company and have this all straightened out. But for now, my priority is protecting Nicky and her feminine modesty.
I head over to where she’s still crouched down beside the couch, gnawing on her bottom lip. “You okay?” I ask her.
“Huh? What? Sorry. Got distracted by your tight naked ass.” She grins with mischief.
I shake my head. “Geez. Remind me to never ask a designer for freaking glass walls ever again. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”
Nicky looks at me. I look at her.
And we burst into laughter at the ridiculousness of the morning so far.
We give up on finding the rest of our clothes and make quick work of eating what little food we find in the fridge. Most of it is stale and not very appetizing, but after surviving on only marshmallows last night, anything is better than nothing.
“I have a surprise for you,” I tell Nicky after we’ve emptied the meager refrigerator shelves.
She eyeballs me carefully. “You do?”
I excitedly hop up from the kitchen island and shove my feet into my shoes. “Don’t move a muscle.”
Then I dart right out the door—without a shirt—rushing back to the main house. Digging into the back of my closet, I grab the package that was delivered yesterday. Then I run back to the guesthouse.
Nicky is still sitting in the same spot, looking at me like I’ve lost my goddamn mind. I probably have. My sanity is definitely up for debate.
“Ta-da!” I say, proudly dropping the box on the floor in front of her.
When she tears open the packaging, she gasps, blinking up at me. “You bought me a pair of skates?”
“You said you wanted to get back into skating. I figured while you’re here, with access to a private rink, would be a great time.”
Nicky stares at the dang box for so long her eyes start to water.
“Are you gonna try them on?” I prod after a few moments.
She nods.
She slips her feet in and gets the skates all laced up. They’re the perfect fit.
“Okay then. Get dressed in something warm, and we’ll take them outside and test them out. What do you say?”
Her twinkling smile reminds me of a child on Christmas morning. “I’d like that…”
I lean down to press a kiss to the top of her head. She then snaps out of her haze and peers up at me. “Thank you, Ronan. You’re so good to me, sometimes it’s overwhelming.”
I cradle her cheeks in my hands. “I get that. That’s why we’re practicing, okay? We’re gonna get you accustomed to being treated the way you deserve.”
Holding my eyes with hers, she nods.
When we’re bundled up once more, we hit my backyard ice rink. I walk her through the basics, holding onto her hand at first. But Nicky catches on crazy fast.
“You’re a natural,” I tell her. “You skate better than some of my teammates.”
She laughs like she doesn’t believe me when I say that.
We skate around on the ice, spinning around and Nicky pretends to be a figure skater. She’s doing more of the twirling than I am. But I have to admit that it feels nice to be this carefree out here on the ice.
She’s a breathtaking sight to behold. Her cheeks are flushed, her hair is flying behind her, and she’s beaming from ear to ear. If I’d known that skating would make her this happy, I would have dragged her out here from that very first morning she sat behind that window and watched me practice.
“Come here,” I say, crossing over to her and meeting her in the middle of the ice.
I grip her waist, one hand on each side. When I lift her whole body over my head, she screams for dear life. “RONAN!!!” she squeals again, but when I manage to assure her that I’ve got her, she strikes a pose in the air.
“There you go!” I laugh, loving the way this feels, loving that she trusts me this much. Then I crouch down and bend my elbows a bit. “You ready for this?”
Then realization dawns on her face that I’m getting ready to toss her up into the air.
“No, no, no, no!” she yells. “If you throw me in the air, I will hurt you, Ronan Brighton! Deliberately and intentionally!”
Apparently, she draws the line at flying. It’s a pity …
“Okay, okay,” I chuckle, bringing her down slowly, until we’re chest to chest. “There. Safe and sound, Peach.” I kiss the crown of her head.
And for a moment, we just stay like that. Standing in the middle of the ice, wrapped in each others arms, my lips pressed to her forehead as the cool air nips at our skin.
If I could freeze this moment I would. I’d save this memory like a photograph. Something I could keep forever.
Even after she’s gone.
“You up for an adventure?” I ask Nicky after we’ve been on the ice for a while. “I want to show you something else.”
She watches me with a lifted eyebrow. “I’d like to say yes, but your adventures scare me.”
“This one will be the best kind of scary,” I promise her.
We change out of our skates, back into our boots, and then I lead her past the skating rink and through the trees. Hand in hand, we venture through the woods. From the ice to the snow to the occasional red robin, this whole place looks like a winter wonderland.
“It’s beautiful,” Nicky breathes.
“What’s beautiful is being able to witness you taking it all in for the very first time, Nicky Westbrook.”
Squeezing my hand, she rises on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. I love when she kisses my cheek like that.
After walking a couple of minutes, we make it to my hometown’s mystical waterfall. Growing up, I heard so many urban legends about this place. Even to this day, it’s one of the neatest features around Starlight Falls, any time of year.
“Oh my gosh. Ronan. This is…this is so stunning.” Nicky stares in awe, never letting go of my hand.
“I have to agree with that,” I tell her.
While normally a gushing stream of water, the falls are now frozen like an ice sculpture in the middle of the forest.
Not gonna lie. It’s pretty damn cool.
While I’m busy taking pictures of her with my phone, Nicky tiptoes over to the edge, the ground crunching beneath her feet. She reaches out to touch the ice. When she breaks off an icicle, I nearly jump out of my skin.
“Hey, don’t touch that!” I scold her softly.
She looks back at me. “What? Why?”
I nervously eyeball the frozen waterfall, unable to hide the alarm in my voice. “It’s just that—god, this is going to sound crazy—people say this waterfall has magical powers.”
Nicky hustles backward. “Magical powers? Like what? Like witchcraft?”
“Sort of…” I hedge.
She starts wheezing with panic. “Am I going to die or something?”
“Not exactly…”
“Well, what is it? What’s going to happen?”
I can’t believe I’m saying this out loud. I’m about to lose all my street cred in one conversation. “People say that this waterfall, well you know, makes people fall in love,” I sigh.
It sounds wacky to say it out loud. But it’s true. Every couple I know around town has some creepy story that involves this landmark.
Rather than turning and hightailing it back to safety, Nicky bursts out laughing. “Seriously? I never expected you to be that superstitious.”
A nervous chuckle escapes me. “Yeah. I’m just being superstitious. That’s it.” I chuckle again.
“Ronan, you can’t believe everything you hear.”
"Let’s get back to the house. How long have we been out here? It’ll start getting dark soon. If we’re lucky, the power will be back on, so I can make you a real dinner tonight.”
As we start walking back, Nicky reaches for my hand again, effortlessly intertwining our fingers. I sneak one last peek at the ominous waterfall as we make our way through the woods.
I’m just being superstitious. That’s right. Just superstitious.
But that pitter patter in my heart when Nicky squeezes my hand with hers? It’s more real than anything.