Page 3 of Kiss Me

Once firmly planted inside, he put my seatbelt on, closed the door, and made his way to the driver’s side. Leaning back in my seat, I looked out the windshield to see my car for the first time. Its whole front end was smashed in to the point that, from my view point, it looked as if there was only about a foot of space between the pole and the non-existent windshield. It wasn’t until then that I realized how lucky I was to have gotten out of there without being seriously injured. Yes, I was in pain, but that was most likely from the impact and the whiplash I was sure I had suffered during my icy adventure.

“I’m Jaxson Stone. My friends call me Jax,” he said, looking over at me briefly as he put the truck into drive and pulled around my now ruined rental car.

With my head slightly turned toward him, I replied, “I’m Gabriella Santina. My friends call me Gabi.”

“Nice to meet you, Gabi.”

“You too, Jax.”

3

Gabi

“So where are we headed?”Jax asked as he expertly navigated the icy road.

“Oh shit! The address is on a piece of paper in my purse, back in the car. How could I forget my stuff?”

“Right here,” he patted the space beside him that had my purse sitting there underneath the blanket he had retrieved from the back.

“Can you hand it to me, and I’ll find their address?”

“Yeah, sure.” Being a responsible driver, he stopped at the stop sign before handing it over.

I rifled through all the junk I kept in my purse. It may take me forever to find anything, but I was always prepared. Or almost always. From now on, I’d have one of those battery chargers, so that if my phone went dead, I could charge the damn thing.

“Here,” I called out, holding it in the air once I found it. I watched as he put the address into his phone’s GPS and waited for it to calculate how to get to the Sandström’s house.

“It won’t take us too long to get to your friends’ house. What time were they expecting you?” Jax asked as he turned up the heat a little higher after another shiver wracked my body.

“They aren’t expecting me. I had other plans that fell through and decided to take them up on their offer of letting me stay until after New Year’s.”

He hummed to himself, but I knew what he was thinking, and he was right. He was thinking I was stupid for not letting them know. At the time, I thought it would be a fun surprise.

“It was stupid. I know,” I grimaced. “I had no idea I’d be coming into a winter storm. If I had known, I would have stayed home and enjoyed the warm weather and sun.”

“This storm system seemed to pop up out of nowhere and provided little notice. How were you to know?”

“It’s my luck. I should have known it would all turn to shit.” I grumbled before resting my head against the cold window. At least my body seemed to be thawing out. The shivers that had been wracking me were becoming fewer and further between, and I was getting the feeling back in my toes.

I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, Jax was nudging me awake with a gentle shake.

“There you are.” He smiled at me once my eyes focused on him. “Are you sure you’re okay? You might have a concussion.”

“I’m fine. I haven’t been sleeping well lately, and then I got all toasty warm.” I answered with a big yawn at the end. “See? Just tired.”

“You can be tired and still have a concussion. Just tell me if you start to feel nauseous or anything like that, okay?”

“I will. Thanks.”

Jax was only lit by the dashboard lights, but with even that small amount of illumination, I could see the kindness in his dark eyes. It had been too long since I had last seen that emotion aimed at me.

“So,” he drew out as he moved back to his side of the truck, and then looked out the windshield. “We might have a problem.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me. What happened?” I asked as I kept my eyes on him.

Jax pointed out the windshield to a closed gate.

“Shit. They have a gate. Of course, why wouldn’t they?” I grumbled to myself.

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