Page 9 of Snowed In With You

The pink in his cheeks deepened and I couldn’t pull my eyes away, ‘Yeah, I, um, got lost.’

‘You’re such an idiot, Fletch.’

‘Well, I didn’t want hunger to give you an excuse to be grumpy with me,’ he said with a roll of his shoulders after peeling off his coat.

‘I don’t think I really need any more excuses, do you?’

We fell silent until my stomach grumbled loudly and he laughed. ‘Good thing I went out and got us some food, otherwise you’d be forced to eat me.’

Don’t blush. Don’t blush. Don’t blush.The tell-tale sting of my cheeks horrified me as I remembered consuming himveeeeryslowly the last time I’d seen him. Fletch coughed to cover a laughbut mostly ignored my reaction as he carried bags towards the kitchen.

‘What do you want?’ he called behind him and I froze between steps as I followed him into the small kitchen. ‘For dinner,’ he amended as he stuck his head out of the doorway to look back at me and then rolled his eyes. I couldn’t help but read into every single thing he was saying – why was he not as freaked out as me that we were stuck in here together for at least the next few days with nothing but each other, the past, and our libidos for company? ‘Okay, well, I’m thinking soup because I’m not really sure how to use this oven or anything yet.’

‘Sounds good,’ I croaked and sat down at the dining table big enough for ten, it ran the length of the back wall in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, at least we wouldn’t have to sit next to each other.

Fletcher emerged from the kitchen a few minutes later with two bowls and spoons in his hands, setting them down on the table before plopping himself down next to me.So much for separation,I sighed.

‘I hope tomato is okay, they didn’t have a huge selection and I wasn’t sure what you liked.’

It was disconcerting that he cared enough about me to think about soup that hard, what was his angle?

‘Tomato is good, thanks.’ It was quiet for a moment as we ate in silence, I kept my eyes on the room in front of us, trying to ignore the demanding presence right next to me. It was very pleasant in here really, there was a large white mantelpiece above the fireplace which was already stacked with logs. The sofas were large and plush in a sweet cream colour that was soothing against all the dark wood in the room –

‘Are you going to ignore me forever?’ Fletcher asked, his voice a little quieter than usual, and I chanced a look at him to find his eyes on his soup and a frown tugging at his bottom lip.

‘I just don’t understand you,’ I said honestly. ‘We sleep together and you leave the next morning, telling me to forget it ever happened via anote, but suddenly you care enough to want to know what sort of soup I like? I don’t buy it. If you’re just trying to sleep with me again–’

He cut me off with a sigh, running his hand across his face before looking up at me with a stark expression, ‘I never meant to leave.’

I choked on a laugh, what did that even mean? How could you accidentally write a note and walk out the door? His eyes roved over my face, his jaw tightening at whatever he saw on it.

‘What I mean is, I was always going to come back.’

I stared at him, not sure if he meant what he was saying or just trying to ease the tension seeing as we were now stuck together for the next few days.

He continued on when I said nothing, ‘I was still drunk when I left, I barely remember scrawling you that note and I definitely didn’t mean it how you took it – or how I wrote it, I guess.’

‘Why leave at all?’ I finally managed through my dry mouth.

‘I needed to talk to Rob. I’d gone behind his back and–’ Fletcher glanced at my mouth and then away, clearing his throat, ‘I needed to do it all the right way. I had no intention of coming to your room that night but, well, you’re very charming when you want to be.’

I wasn’t sure I believed him, but God,I wanted to– and that was what made it worse. Even if what he said was true, how could I trust that he wasn’t going to leave again as soon as our stint in this snowy-prison was done? My head was spinning with his words and I pushed away from the table with a quarter of my soup still left in my bowl.

‘I-I need to think about… things. I’ll see you in the morning, all right?’

‘Sara–’

I shook my head and made my way up the stairs to my room. I had a feeling I was going to have a very sleepless night ahead of me.

Chapter Eight

Sara

I’d hoped that with yesterday’s early start I would drop off to sleep quickly, instead I laid in bed staring at the ceiling in the dark with Fletcher’s words swimming around in my head. Every time I would get close to dropping off my thoughts, unbidden, would turn to the way Fletcher’s hands would feel on my body. The remembered heat of his mouth on my skin, and my eyes would fly open as I took my frustration out on the mattress, beating my fists down on either side of me until I was ready to attempt sleep… only to repeat the process. My phone had read 5AM by the time I’d finally succumbed to exhaustion, my mind sinking gratefully into nothingness. Until now.

I’d slept most of the afternoon away, getting up only to open the curtains slightly to let in some natural light and a view of the snow. It was sunny but I could hear the high winds creaking the lodge and the one leg I periodically stuck out of the duvet quickly chilled from the cold air.

I’d been reading for the last hour or so when my e-reader beeped at me again and the screen went dark. I guessed that meant it was officially time for me to get up and face the music. Or… I thought back to the gorgeous main bathroom on this level and the huge bath in it that I had spotted while exploring yesterday.Wow, had it really only been twenty-four hours ago?

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