Chapter 8
Aspen snapped awake at 4:59 the next morning. Exactly one minute before her alarm was set to go off. Were it any other morning, that loss of a minute’s sleep would have been annoying, but on this particular morning, she found she didn’t mind. Partly because Kyle was covering for her, so she didn’t have to get up and hustle to the airport, but mostly because, despite Eve’s assertion that she liked to sleep on the left side of the bed, the beautiful redhead had moved during the night and was now draped on top of her, with one leg thrown over her hips and her head pillowed on the plane of her chest.
It was, without a doubt, the best way to wake up that Aspen had experienced in years.
Hell, possibly ever.
It was also, without a doubt, the unluckiest, because she hadn’t turned off her alarm and, with Eve on top of her, she couldn’t get to her phone to kill it before—
The alarm chittered merrily to life and Eve, who’d been sleeping so peacefully, protested the intrusion with an adorable little whine as she snuggled closer and tried to bury her face in Aspen’s chest to escape it.
Aspen wrapped her right arm around Eve’s waist to hold her in place as she twisted her upper body just enough that she was able jab at the screen to turn it off.
“It’s okay, beautiful girl,” she murmured against Eve’s hair as she settled back into place beneath her. “Go back to sleep.”
“S’okay,” Eve murmured as she relaxed against her, her breathing slow and even and body heavy and boneless in a way that signaled she was already on her way back to dreamland.
Aspen ducked her chin to press a gentle kiss to the crown of Eve’s head, and closed her eyes as she lightly dragged her fingers along Eve’s arm that was draped across her stomach. The day before had been a lot , and if she was feeling that way, she knew Eve had to be feeling it a thousand times worse.
Too used to being up and running from the moment her alarm went off, Aspen never quite fell back asleep, but instead dozed off and on for the next few hours while Eve slept. She was a blessed to be able to make a living ferrying people around the mountains she loved, but her schedule could be grueling at times. Summers were generally pretty laid back—on her busiest days she took out two charters, one around lunch and the second at dinnertime, to get a bird’s eye view of the mountains with a stop to enjoy a breathtaking Rocky Mountain picnic. But once the snow started to fall, her business model shifted to heli-skiing, and that meant early starts and long days in the cockpit. The money was great, and she loved the backcountry drops, but she was in perpetual motion from the moment she woke up until she got home at night, but it was a lot.
So, even though she’d argued with Michael about this favor eating into her schedule, she was honestly kind of grateful for the opportunity to enjoy a few days off.
She might have been awake at zero-dark-thirty, but she actually felt refreshed when Eve finally stirred a few hours later, and she smiled against Eve’s hair as she resumed idly caressing her arm. “Morning, sleepyhead,” she teased softly.
Instead of pulling away like Aspen expected, Eve pressed closer with a groan to hide her face in the crook of Aspen’s neck. “Good morning.”
It was, without a doubt, the sexiest thing Aspen had ever heard.
“I’m sorry I smushed you,” Eve apologized as she pulled away.
Aspen sighed. She was warm and comfortable and perfectly happy to stay where she was, but she obligingly relaxed her hold so Eve could escape. She wanted to tell Eve that she wasn’t at all sorry about waking up with her in her arms, but the playful, flirty comment died on her tongue when she remembered the way Eve had frozen when they’d returned to the room after dinner. She has a lot on her plate , she chastised herself. Don’t be an ass and make things worse.
“You didn’t smush me,” Aspen murmured. Her heart fluttered as she drank in the perfection that was Eve Morrison in the morning, still a little groggy with sleep and all her walls down, and smiled as she reached up to tuck a rogue strand of hair behind Eve’s ear. And if her voice was a little breathy when she said, “There you go,” well, she was only human.
The fluttery feeling in her chest wasn’t helped by the way Eve’s gaze softened and warmed as she whispered, “Thank you.”
“Anytime,” Aspen murmured, daring to believe that Eve must have felt something similar by the way she stayed there, half-propped on her elbow against her side as she stared down at her, but she didn’t press her on it. They had time. And, okay, maybe not so much on this trip, but this thing percolating between them felt too real and good and precious to rush. She stroked Eve’s wrist with the tip of her finger and smiled at her reassuringly. “I really was comfortable if you want to lie back down.” When Eve didn’t automatically resist, she added playfully, “It’s poor form to be up before eight when you’re on vacation.”
“Oh really, now?”
“Yup.” Aspen made a show of wiggling deeper into the bedcovers and grinned up at Eve invitingly. Her heart skipped a beat at the slow, soft smile that quirked Eve’s lips as their gazes met and held, and she held her breath as Eve stretched out beside her.
“Is this okay?” Eve asked tentatively as she rested her head on Aspen’s shoulder.
“More than,” Aspen assured her softly.
Eve sighed and relaxed further against her side. “Tell me something about you?”
“Well, let’s see…” Aspen huffed a laugh. “You know, this would be easier with some kind of a prompt.”
She swore she could feel Eve’s cheek crinkle with her smile as she said, “Okay. what’s your favorite color?”
“Orange. And before you knock it—”
“Why would I knock it?” Eve laughed.
“Because everyone is always like ‘eww, orange’, like it’s some subpar color or something.”
“I like orange. It’s warm and reminds me of sunsets.”
And, well, Aspen had never really had a reason why it was her favorite so much as it just was , but now it was her favorite for exactly the reasons Eve just said. “What’s yours?”
“Blue. Boring, predictable, blue.”
Aspen shook her head as she pictured Eve’s brilliantly colored eyes. “Blue is anything but boring.”
“Maybe, but everyone always says blue. It’s like, the pumpkin-spice of the color wheel.”
Aspen sniggered at the comparison. “Well, first of all—no, it isn’t. Because I hate pumpkin in all forms, and blue is my second-favorite color.” Which was something of a lie, because she hadn’t honestly had a second favorite color until this conversation, but the newly created position was absolutely held by blue. “And second of all, even if that were the case—which I’ve established it isn’t—you can always pick a different favorite color, you know.”
“I know,” Eve grumbled, sounding adorably put-out by it all. “But I really do love the color blue.”
“So basic,” Aspen teased. She yelped when Eve’s fingers dug into her side with devastating precision, and laughed as she caught her hand to still the playful torture. “Be warned that tickling is akin to a declaration of war, Eve. And you do not want to start a tickle war with me.”
“Oh?” Laughter danced in Eve’s eyes as she tilted her head to look up at Aspen. “And why not?”
That, Aspen had to admit, was a very good question. Why would she do anything to discourage Eve from touching her? “I…” She blinked. “I seriously can’t think of a single answer to that question right now.”
Eve smirked, looking positively radiant in her victory. It was a very good look on her. “And why’s that?”
Aspen licked her lips as she lifted her left hand to caress Eve’s cheek. Her stomach fluttered at the way Eve’s expression softened as she leaned into the touch. Because you are unfairly beautiful, and all I can think of when you look at me like that is how much I want to kiss you, she thought. And because that was an entirely inappropriate answer for the moment, she instead replied, “Where’s the coolest place you’ve traveled to?”
“Changing the subject, I see,” Eve teased. “Fine, I’ll allow it.”
“So magnanimous of you.”
“I know, right?” Eve sassed. “And to answer your incredibly smooth change of topic, probably Iceland.”
“Nice. I still haven’t checked that one off my bucket list. Did you go to take pictures of the Northern Lights?”
Eve nodded. “And I spent a week on a ship diving and photographing Orca pods.”
“Seriously?”
“They really aren’t a danger to humans,” Eve defended. “And they’re absolutely majestic in the wild.”
“I’m not judging,” Aspen assured her. “I’m being jealous. That sounds badass.”
“Oh.” Eve smiled. “Sorry.” She smoothed her hand over Aspen’s hip. “What’s the coolest place you’ve traveled to?”
“Oh, geez,” Aspen delayed. “I dunno? Fiji was pretty sweet. But I got to spend a week on leave in the Baltic before we finished our deployment to Afghanistan, and that was pretty awesome too.”
Eve’s hand stilled on Aspen’s hip. “Did you like being in the military?”
“At times.” Aspen caressed the back of Eve’s forearm. “I mean, between school and the time I was in, I have lots of good memories. There’s just…” She let her voice trail off instead of saying a lot of not so good ones, too .
Eve hummed as if she’d understood anyway. “Can I ask why you left?”
Aspen sighed heavily. “I just couldn’t handle it anymore. The constant stress. Alarms going off at all hours of the night. Taking off and never knowing if that was going to be the time I didn’t come back.” She sniffed quietly. “It got to the point that any loud noises sent me into a panic attack. Crowds too, for that matter. Which, you know, is less than ideal when you’re living in a fucking war zone. So when my last commission was wrapping up, I decided to call it and retire.”
“So that’s how you knew how to handle my panic attack yesterday.”
“Yeah. I’m mostly better now. When I’m here, anyway. Traveling back to Boston to visit my family can get a little sketchy, but…yeah.” She pulled a face. “They’re not exaggerating when they say war is hell, y’know?”
“I’m so sorry.”
Aspen raked her lower lip through her teeth. “Thanks.”
A long, pregnant silence stretched between them then until Eve broke it with a softly murmured, “Do you want to hear about the time Michael begged a cop to handcuff him?”
Aspen snorted in surprise. Out of any of the million ways this conversation could have gone, that was certainly the least expected. “What?”
“Well, do you?”
“Oh my god, yes.” Aspen nodded. “I absolutely do.”
“It was his twenty-seventh birthday,” Eve began, and Aspen was immediately pulled into the story as Eve’s fingers started to draw random, swooping shapes across her hip and stomach. “We were at some club in Manhattan—I can’t remember which one exactly, but I do remember that it was too loud and had far too much neon. Michael, of course, loved it, and he was absolutely shitfaced by the time we were leaving.”
“Sounds like Mikey,” Aspen muttered. “And were you?”
“I was definitely not feeling any pain,” Eve allowed delicately.
“I bet that was a sight,” Aspen chuckled.
“ Anyway ,” Eve huffed and swatted Aspen’s stomach in playful warning. “When we were leaving, there was a cop—young guy, fit, but definite ‘cop’, y’know?—giving some guy a ticket right outside the club, and Michael…”
“Michael has a thing for men in uniform,” Aspen supplied knowingly. “I got him a stripper for his twenty-third birthday dressed like a firefighter.”
Eve giggled. “Oh, I bet he loved that.”
“A little too much,” Aspen confirmed, smiling as she remembered the way he’d ripped the stripper’s tearaway pants off him. “But, to be fair, the guy did, too. I left before things turned too X-rated, but yeah. Anyway, Mikey sees the cute cop, and…”
“Strips off his shirt, hands it to me, and proceeds to do his best drunken sashay into the street with his wrists held out in front of him singing, ‘Mister Officer, arrest me! I’ve been such a bad boy!’”
Aspen barked out a laugh and buried her face in Eve’s hair. “He did not,” she said, even though she could totally see her cousin doing exactly what Eve just described.
“He totally did.”
“What happened? He didn’t get arrested for soliciting an officer or anything, did he?”
“No, thank god. I mean, I don’t think it would have come to that anyway, but the car we’d ordered arrived just as the cop was trying to figure out what to do with him, and I shoved his ass into the backseat and told the driver to get us out of there.”
“That’s…” Aspen laughed and pressed a kiss to Eve’s head before resting her cheek against it. “Amazing. Ten out of ten. Only thing that would make it better would be video.”
Eve’s smile was evident in her voice as she murmured, “You’ll just have to imagine it, I’m afraid.”
“That’s fine,” Aspen chuckled. “I’ve got a good imagination. I guess my only follow-up question is, how epic was the hangover?”
“God, so bad,” Eve groaned.
Aspen smiled. “Yeah, I’ve had a few of those, myself.”
“It was seriously the worst,” Eve whined.
“Yeah, but the stories that go with them are usually pretty good,” Aspen countered with a little laugh. She sighed as her gaze drifted toward the windows opposite the bed. The sun was now well above the ridgeline, and depending on what Eve had planned, they might need to head out soon. Winter in Aspen was always a little chaotic, but the week before Christmas was even worse than usual as the town was overrun with holiday travelers. “So, any idea what you want to do today?”
Eve shrugged and glanced out the window at the mountains beyond. “You seemed pretty keen on the idea of snowboarding when you were packing yesterday. We can maybe get breakfast somewhere and then hit the slopes?”
That sounded great to Aspen, but she could snowboard any time. She wanted to do something that Eve wanted. She tapped Eve’s hand to get her attention, and arched a brow when clear blue eyes flashed back to hers. “Is that what you want?”
“I want you to do something you like.”
“And I like to make you happy,” Aspen said. It was a playful quip, but she meant it. She’d wrestle the keys to her helicopter from Kyle, tell the clients who’d booked today’s trip months ago to fuck off, and fly Eve anywhere she asked if it meant Eve would keep smiling at her like that . “I am totally down for hitting the slopes if that’s what you want, but I’m fine with just staying here all day, too, if that’s what you’d prefer.”
Eve blushed prettily. “I’d like to go skiing.”
Aspen nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”