Page 9 of A Winter Wedding Adventure
‘I’m going to get some food. Do you have any… sensitivities?’ Her word choice struck her.
The door flew open, startling a squeal out of her. And then her vocal chords – and most of her synapses – gave out entirely.
His hair formed wild, sodden curls around his face. His shoulders were even broader than they’d looked in his dapper coat, bony and glistening, the water highlighting dips and rises. A gold chain hung around his neck with a small pendant. He didn’t have the sculpted torso of a climber. There was even a little softness around his middle. But half-naked, precariously covered by a towel he held bunched just below his belly button, he made Kira think of intimacy and touch – vulnerability, closeness.
Her brain was such a mess. And Mattia was cute, standing there, dripping, in the doorway, his chest rising and falling. She wondered what he would look like singing without a shirt on. She’d like to see that – as would probably a whole auditorium of opera fans.
‘Why do you have blue hair?’
His blurted question snapped her out of her meandering, inappropriate thoughts. ‘What?’ She was too hungry to keep up.
‘The colour matches your eyes.’
Heat rushed up her throat. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Oh, I—’ The fist gripping the towel squeezed reflexively. ‘Sorry, I was just wondering – thinking about…’
Me, while you’re in the shower. Kira choked back that thought. Clearing her throat, she forced her gaze up to find him regarding her with his head at an angle. He looked much better – colour in his cheeks and the brightness back in his eyes.
‘I dyed my hair blue because I felt like it. Because I don’t care,’ she admitted.
‘About your appearance?’
‘What other people think of my appearance,’ she clarified.
He gave a thoughtful nod. ‘Thank you – for the shower.’
‘You’re welcome,’ she replied with a shrug. ‘Oh, I got you another keycard.’ Hauling in a much-needed breath after she’d stepped away, Kira kicked herself for her slightly wobbly legs as she fetched the card.
‘Would you mind getting my suitcase? The fridge—’ He gestured to his ear with a grimace.
‘Sure. Give me a sec.’
Escaping down the hall, she entered his dark room and immediately noticed the low hum of the mini-bar fridge. She never would have registered the sound if he hadn’t mentioned it. With a deep sigh, she fumbled behind the desk until she found the plug and yanked it out. The room fell eerily silent.
Rolling his suitcase back down the hall, she knocked on the door and braced herself for the view of all that skin once more. But she hadn’t prepared herself for his wide smile. He was too much – of everything. There wasn’t enough air in this hotel.
‘I’ll just get dressed,’ he said quickly. ‘And then can we go back to the Christmas market to eat? It was so beautiful and I didn’t get a chance to enjoy it. If we’re stuck here, we might as well make the most of it.’
His expression was adorably earnest, but Kira was starving.
‘Please? We can get a cab back there. I can get dressed quickly.’
She couldn’t exactly say no. ‘Don’t you need to take your time putting your make-up on?’
‘I don’t wear make-up unless I’m performing,’ he said with a pout, working out only belatedly that she’d been joking. ‘But I could put some eyeliner on, if you like it,’ he teased her back. ‘I promise I’ll be quick.’
‘You know how good you look in eyeliner,’ she grumbled as she took her coat from its hook, pausing when she realised what she’d said aloud. She risked a glance to find him biting his lip over a grin, his cheeks pink.
‘I’m going to remember you said that.’ His tone was light, with a breathy laugh of disbelief.
‘I’ll see you downstairs.’ Shoving her hands in her pockets, she stomped in the direction of the lift, whirling around when she thought of one last thing. ‘Oh, I heard the fridge in your room.’
His head appeared around the door-frame, a droplet of water catching the light as it fell from one of his curls. ‘You did?’
‘I pulled the plug out. It’s switched off now.’
She didn’t think she’d ever been rewarded with such a captivating smile for something so simple.
