Page 149 of Ice Princess

“It’s called ‘moral support’. I can stop if you want…” She starts to unwind her hands and I quickly touch her wrist to stop her.

Rebel settles against me again. As she hides her face in my back, I feel the indent of her smile.

“Sit when you get tired,” I say as gently as I can.

“Mm-hm.”

I get started on the cups first. Rebel’s body is soft against mine and her shampoo fills my nose with pleasant notes of cherries. The thunk of cups hitting the sudsy water and the swish of the cloth is all that can be heard for a few moments.

I feel full enough to burst. With Rebel, I feel extremely happy doing something as ordinary as washing dishes.

“Gunner,” Rebel says.

I look back at her.

“You said you’ve liked me for a long time. How long is that?”

“Still can’t tell you, Bell.”

“Oh, come on,” she whines. “Why is it such a big secret?”

Among all the secrets I’m keeping from her, the exact timeline of my feelings is probably the least complicated. But I still don’t want to reveal it.

“You’re just keeping me in suspense to be dramatic,” Rebel says, sliding away and leaning against the counter. “I’m going to take a guess. Since you said it was a long time, could it be that you liked me the day you asked me to be your fake girlfriend? No, you couldn’t have. We barely spoke to each other then.”

I finish washing the last of the dishes and twist my body toward hers. Arms out, I trap her against the counter.

Rebel backs up, watching me with eyes crinkling at the corners.

“I’ll give you a hint.”

She nods eagerly.

I tilt my head and lean in, stopping a breath away from her lips. “It was before then.”

Her blue eyes, alive with shock, are the last things I see before I swoop in and take control of her mouth. She’s as sweet as the dessert I have stowed away in the fridge and I just can’t get enough.

The angle of the kiss changes and I sense Rebel rising on the tips of her toes to kiss me back passionately. My vision blurs, the edges of the kitchen melting into oblivion as my pulse roars in my ears.

After a while, we both ease away.

Rebel’s breathing hard.

I’m barely breathing.

The air feels heavier, my limbs light enough to float me straight to the ceiling, untethered and lost in the moment.

I rest my forehead against Rebel’s, my heart beating fast.

“Gunner?”

I look at her.

“I really,reallylike you. And I have for a long time too.”

CHAPTER

FORTY-THREE

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