Chapter 7 #2
He lifts the helmet from my head and places it on the seat but doesn’t drop my hand. I take a tentative step forward.
“You got a strong grip.” Jamie chuckles.
“If I fall, I’m taking you with me.”
“Don’t people in the city pay hundreds of dollars for cold plunges?”
“Not me.” I’m shuffling my feet at a snail’s pace. I can’t get the image of plunging through the ice out of my head, but his easy confidence is strangely comforting. “So, what do the reindeer eat out here?” I ask, distracting myself.
“Some of them come back to the barn for meals, but they love to eat moss. Any type of moss that grows on the tree trunks. In the spring, they eat berries.”
We reach the edge of the lake, and I sprint off and onto the firmer snow, letting out a triumphant laugh. I spin around to face him.
“Keep away from—” Before he finishes his warning, I step back and sink waist-deep into a drift of snow.
“You gotta be kidding me!”
Jamie chuckles. “You and snow don’t really mix, do you?”
I run my hands over my face, pushing back my hair. “I swear to God, I’m buying a portable heater and melting all the fucking snow in this state.”
“In all of Maine?”
“Yes!” I scream, trying to pull myself out, but I only sink deeper. “A little help?”
Jamie hurries toward me and pulls me up. But as he does, he loses his balance and falls backward into the snow, taking me along with him. I tumble forward and land squarely on top of him.
For a heartbeat, neither of us moves. My limbs are frozen in the most uncomfortable—and dizzying—way while his hands grip my waist solidly.
I press up, and my eyes flick over him. This close, his peppermint breath skims against my cheek, and I can see his crooked bottom tooth and the curve of his jaw beneath the shadow of stubble.
I guess all my falling into the snow during the last forty-eight hours has been training me for this very moment.
“This is…awkward.”
His gaze drops to my lips and then back up. “Your eyes are beautiful, Joy.”
“They’re just brown.”
“In the sunlight, they look endless.”
I gulp. That’s the nicest thing a man has said to me in a long time, and it’s all the consent I need.
I lean down and kiss Jamie.
His mustache bristles against my lips, surprisingly ticklish.
My chest tightens. When our mouths meet, it’s nothing like the quick, efficient kisses Parker and I had over the last year.
This one lingers, unhurried and exploratory, like Jamie is basking in the taste of me.
His tongue nudges at the seam of my lips, and as I let him in, I realize just how much I’ve wanted to be kissed like I’m desirable.
The cold bites my exposed skin, but I don’t care. My brain empties of everything—the clinic, Parker, my to-do list—until there’s only this. Only him. Only the way he’s kissing me like I’m something precious he’s been waiting for.
I don’t think I’ve ever been kissed like this.
He lets out a low whimper, and the sound sends a shiver down my core.
His grip tightens on my hips, bunching my jacket under his palms. The warmth and weight of him radiate beneath me, solid and unyielding.
His cock presses hard and insistent through his denim, and I can feel the curve of him against the side of my leg.
Jamie’s as affected as I am.
My body shudders, desire thrumming through my chest, craving to move closer, to linger, to dissolve into this moment without ever pulling away.
Though I’m on top, it feels like he’s in control, his presence commanding in the delicious press of us together.
Every touch, every kiss, drags me deeper, tethered to him in ways I can’t resist.
Then, just as I’m losing myself in it, he jolts. “Sorry—” He freezes, a shadow crossing his eyes. “I haven’t kissed anyone since—” His voice catches.
I blink, my stomach lurching. Oh. Right. His wife. Fuck. He’s still in love with Tessa.
I try to disentangle myself, flustered and fumbling, when a cold, wet nose nudges my cheek.
I glance up to see a huge buck staring at us.
He stands there, head cocked, a singular antler curved like a frozen branch.
Puffs of smoke drift from his nostrils as he sniffs, one ear flopping lazily to the side, giving me a look that’s more bemused than threatening, like he’s a parent that’s just caught us skipping school.
“Uh—hi there,” I say, using Jamie’s chest to push myself onto my knees and off of him. My hands land in the snow next to me.
“Kayo, scoot.” Jamie stands, eyes darting everywhere except mine. The reindeer shuffles back a few steps.
“You okay?” I ask, still kneeling, cold seeping into my pants. I wiggle, trying to figure out how to get out of the snowbank without ass-planting again.
“Yeah…fine. You?” He rubs the back of his neck and snatches up his hat, tapping it against his leg to knock off the snow, before offering me his hand.
I let him pull me upright, careful not to stumble again.
Honestly, I’d rather take my chances with the icy lake than keep fumbling through this any longer.
“Good.” I say, wiping snow off my jacket. I’d disappear if I could.
“Great.”
“So.”
He clears his throat, glancing at the reindeer surrounding us. “What do you call a snowman in the summer?”
My eye twitches. “What?”
“Water.”
“Excuse me?”
“Because the snow melts.” He taps his fingertips together, grinning bashfully.
How is a girl supposed to react to being kissed by a man who looks like he already regrets it and then follows it up with a dad joke? Do I frown? Laugh? Throw a snowball at him? Offer up an equally bad joke?
“Jamie—”
“I gotta get the girls to school.” He shrugs, pretending to be oblivious. Then he turns and strolls toward the snowmobile, snow still clinging to his jacket and jeans.
I stay frozen, shivering from the cold and whatever awkward hell I’ve fallen into. I want to say something clever—anything—but the words refuse to form. Every part of me is painfully aware that I practically threw myself at Jamie, and now…now I have to work with him for the next month.
I’ve ruined everything.