Chapter Twelve
Seth was in the dreamy middle area between sleep and awake when a light roused him from his slumber.
He blinked slowly, his gaze drawn to the colorful lights on Andrea’s Christmas tree, glowing once more and heralding the return of power to the ranch.
A gentle humming filled the air as the heating system kicked in, and an appliance chirped back to life from the kitchen.
Soft, pale light filtered through the window, hinting at early morning.
Seth propped himself up slightly, breathing in the cool air.
The fire had dwindled down to a sprinkling of glowing embers.
After they’d made love again, Seth had vowed to stay awake and tend to the fire throughout the night, but he’d only managed to stay awake until Andrea fell asleep in his arms, and the steady metronomic rise and fall of her chest against his forearms had lulled him into a deep, satisfied slumber.
Talk about a room upgrade.
The warmth of their bodies under the heavy duvets had allowed them both to sleep in blissful unawareness that the room had cooled considerably as they slept.
It would take a while for the heater to bring the place back to a comfortable temperature, so Seth decided to light another fire in the meantime.
He moved slowly, trying to extricate himself from the covers without rousing Andrea.
He took a moment to admire the smooth, pale skin of the shoulder that was exposed above the blanket, and the soft fine hairs on her neck that he’d kissed only hours earlier.
She was asleep now, but the vivid memory of their night together was enough to arouse his already attentive morning situation.
Pulling the blanket up over her a little farther, Seth managed to get off the couch without waking her up.
He pulled on his jeans and sweater, which were in a pile on the floor, and quietly set about adding some kindling and two more logs to the fireplace.
He balled up some pieces of newspaper and placed them amidst the wood, then lit a match and watched as the flames curled themselves around the kindling.
Once the fire was going again, Seth moved to the kitchen as Andrea continued to sleep.
It didn’t take long for him to find where she kept her tin of coffee.
He set up the drip pot, then stood at the sliding door to the back deck off the kitchen, gazing at the thick blanket of pure white snow on the ground, sparkling in the early morning sunshine under a crystal-clear blue sky.
Sun was nice, but it also meant cold temperatures. He held his hand up to the glass, and this was confirmed. They were lucky to have power back again.
The door also looked out at the county highway that Seth knew passed by the ranch, but any trace of a road was invisible under the snow. It would take a few hours before the two municipal plows made it out this far. Downtown would be the priority.
Seth waited for the coffee to finish dripping, the pot sputtering and the nutty aroma of the grinds promising a quick escape from the fatigue.
He replayed in his mind the events of the night before.
The perfection of it gave him a moment of pause that it could only have been a dream.
But he’d awoken with her in his arms, and he could still feel her on him.
He pulled two mugs from the cupboard. One had a University of Alberta logo on the front, and the other, a pastel floral design.
He liked how nothing in her cupboard matched, unlike the expensive sets in his own kitchen, fine bone china in ecru that his mother gifted to him a few years ago for his place on the Triple T.
After pouring the coffees and adding a splash of milk to Andrea’s, he brought the mugs back to the living room and found her propped up on one elbow, looking out the window, her hair cascading down her back and sun lighting up the delicate angles of her face.
She turned her head as he entered the room, and the soft upturn of her lips as their gazes connected shook him right to his core. It was an image he wanted to remember forever.
“You made coffee,” she said. “The power’s back on.”
“Came on about fifteen minutes ago.” He approached the couch, then placed her mug on the table.
“I like your priorities,” Andrea said.
I like everything about you, Seth thought as he took a small sip of the hot coffee.
He sat on the couch opposite her, the one he’d been meant to sleep on, where the duvet still sat folded on the cushions. “How’d you sleep?” he asked.
Andrea pulled her blanket up slightly. Was she going to be uncertain again, defensive, the way she’d been before she’d let down her guard only hours earlier?
But instead, she sighed and laid her head back on her pillow and closed her eyes, and the vulnerability of the action told him everything he needed to know.
“I slept like…” She paused, then looked over at him.
Her blue eyes looked tired but so damn pretty they stirred something in him he wanted to bottle up and keep. “I can’t remember.”
Seth grinned. Fair enough. By the time he figured they’d drifted off—her mumbling something about not wanting the blanket to get too close to the fire, him doing everything in his power not to fall asleep and miss any moment of holding Andrea’s warm, naked body against his—they’d both been so exhausted, it was no wonder they’d slipped into a coma level of slumber.
“Can I make you some breakfast?” he asked. He didn’t really want to make her breakfast. What he wanted to do was shed his jeans and sweater, and crawl right back under the blanket with her and pick right up where they’d left off the night before.
“That would be nice,” she said. “But—” She looked outside again, then back at Seth. “But maybe we should go outside first. It looks so pretty out there. My first Tenacity snowfall.”
Clearly, she wasn’t thinking along the same lines he was, but he’d go along with anything she wanted to do. “What do you have in mind?”
“I got something in the mail last week,” Andrea said. She sat up, took another sip of her coffee, then stood up from the couch, the blanket wrapped around her shoulders like a queen’s cloak, her naked calves visible.
“I’m intrigued,” Seth said.
“I’ll be right back.”
Andrea disappeared down the hallway and returned with a cardboard box she slid across the floor toward the couches.
She grabbed her keys from a hook near the entrance, used one to slit the packing tape holding the box together, then lifted the top and extracted a set of snowshoes, then from underneath, another larger pair.
“Shall we get some warm clothes on and check out the snowfall outside?”
Seth would have preferred to remove clothes rather than add them, and stay inside where the fire he’d just started was now burning strong, but the sparkle in Andrea’s eyes was all he needed to nod his head and grin. “Sure,” he said. “Let’s do it.”
* * *
The new blanket of snow was soft and downy, not the thicker packing snow that could be used to build a snowman or a snow fort, but the wide planks of the snowshoes kept them near the surface of what must have been over two feet of snowfall.
Andrea slid her sunglasses from the pocket of her parka and slipped them on to guard against the brilliant light of the sun on the sparkling snow.
Seth trudged through the snow beside her, and as they walked quietly, breathing in the fresh, cold air, Andrea allowed her mind to wander back to the night before.
She’d had a moment, right before slipping into sleep, when she’d wondered if things would be awkward between them in the morning.
If she’d feel a pang of regret for how little willpower she’d summoned, how easily she’d given in to her deep desire for Seth.
But what she felt this morning was a sense of peace. Satisfaction. Seth had made her feel things she’d never felt before. In control, yet cared for. Powerful, yet soft.
There wasn’t a trace of awkwardness between them—not yet at least. But Andrea couldn’t shake the questions circling in her mind.
Where would they leave this when it came time for him to leave?
Was it a one-night stand for him? Was this something he did on a regular basis?
Did she want it to be more than a one-off?
She suddenly felt a need for some kind of definition for what they were, what they would be.
“You okay?” Seth said, and when Andrea glanced up to see the way he was looking at her, there was no doubt in her mind that what was happening between them wasn’t a one-night event. He cared about her. And she most definitely cared about him.
“I’m great,” she said. “I hope you didn’t have anything important planned today.”
“Just the usual Saturday stuff,” Seth said.
“And what’s that?”
“Drop in and see my mom. Get some groceries. Go to the gym. Check out a football game or two.” A slight breeze blew the top layer of snow off the ground, sending a light mist up into their faces. “I like this for an unexpected change of plans, though.”
Unexpected was right. Although if she were really being honest with herself, had a small part of her known exactly what she was getting into, going to the party with Seth?
Putting on a dress she knew he’d like, sinking into his arms on the dance floor, pressing her body up against his in such an intimate way?
When he’d entered the living room this morning, holding their coffees, his hair slightly messy in the sexiest way, it took everything in her not to take his hand and pull him back under the blanket with her in front of the fire again.
There was no doubt now that they were compatible in that way.
But what was next wasn’t something she could think through with his body so close to hers, soaking in the perfection that was Seth Taylor.
No. She had to cool off, and being outside was the best idea.
“So what’s next?” Seth asked.
“What do you mean?” said Andrea. Was he talking about them? Or the ranch?