Page 113 of Major Love

“Even in the snow?” I whisper softly, swiping at my cheeks as the flakes pelt faster. We’re pretty high up so the snowfall is heavier up here, coming hard and fast despite what the weather app told us this morning.

“It’s not a blizzard yet. We can make it.”

And then his striking irises hold mine, waiting for confirmation that we should head back to his place.

I hesitate and bite my lip as I realise how wet our clothes actually are. I was so distracted when we were rolling around in the snow, only thinking about the heavy weight of his body on top of mine, that I didn’t even register the freezing ice melting its way through my clothes.

“How far is the shelter?” I ask him breathlessly, inhaling shakily as he repositions us on the snowmobile. He heaves himself down from the wide black seat and turns me around so that I can ride behind him.

Because even though he had said that I could ride, in this weather he needs to be the one to take the reins.

He passes me my gloves and I wriggle them on as he pulls up his own, grabbing our helmets from the back and crouching in front of me so that he can help me into it.

“The shelter’s real close, but it’s fucking freezing in there,” he says, as he places his helmet between my splayed thighs. “Would rather get you back to my place – get a fire going, get you warm.”

And then he carefully eases my helmet over my cheeks, watching me with total concentration as I adjust it until it’s comfortable.

A handsome smile tugs at his mouth as I give him the nod that it’s on securely, and he hunches down so that he can reach forward and brush a kiss to the side of my helmet.

I fight back my smile, my heart thundering at that.

He slips his own helmet over his head, his frame enormous in his search-and-rescue gear, and the snow whipping all around us as he gets ready to mount the vehicle.

But being with Jason? I’ve never felt safer.

And as I look up at him through my visor, he can tell exactly what I’m thinking.

He nudges the forehead of his helmet down against mine, allowing us a few seconds of respite before he takes us back down the mountain.

“I trust you,” I whisper, caressing my hands up the muscles of his quads, and making his whole body shudder as he watches me with increasing hunger.

Then he’s straddling the seat in front of me and tugging my arms tight around his chest, squeezing my thighs roughly in his large hands before kicking the vehicle to life.

He swipes his forearm over his helmet, clearing the snow as I clutch him tighter.

“Keep your arms around me, just like that,” he orders deeply. “This is gonna be rough.”

Chapter 27

Sunday

Jason backs the snowmobile into the wooden shelter beside the large workshop, my fists loosening from his snowsuit as he kills the engine, his shoulders heaving.

He tugs off his helmet and his gloves, hooking them over a handlebar as he dismounts, and then he turns his body toward me, instantly reaching for my hands so that he can help me down.

I step cautiously off the vehicle, the snow beyond the shelter whipping fast and heavy.

My boots meet a soft pile of snow, and I look up as Jason tugs me closer, unfastening the helmet from beneath my chin and then easing it over my head with surprising tenderness.

I laugh quietly as I feel my ponytail loosen from the band, and I slip off my gloves so that I can reach back and reaffix it in my hair.

But before I can reach it, Jason moves my helmet to his right fist, gripping his left hand around my nape, and he hunches down to kiss me.

He’s so gentle that I giggle, wrapping my arms tightly around his broad shoulders, and he caresses my mouth slowly with his, the action both reassuring and possessive.

It’s the kind of kiss that promises what else he can do.

When he pulls away from my lips, his large chest is pumping hard, and I brush my snow-soaked curls away from my cheeks, shivering involuntarily as the storm rages on behind him.

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