Page 28 of Rookie Season
Awareness prickles low in my stomach.
I’m imagining him focused on me instead of that tree. There’s a sweet ache low in my stomach. I can’t remember when it started, but it’s growing every minute.
“Get ready,” he says.
I blink. “For what?” My voice is rough.
“The tree’s going to fall that way.” He points my direction.
It does, but a little more angled than I expected.
“Ryan…” my voice rises at the end.
I’m paralyzed. I can’t move.
Fucking move.
He dives for me and knocks me out of the way. I hit the ground hard. Or at least I would if there weren’t a foot of snow on everything.
The sun burns the backs of my eyelids. Breathe.
“Sierra.” Ryan’s urgent voice comes from above me.
Close.
I nod because I can’t speak.
It’s agonizingly long before I manage to suck in air. “Just got the wind knocked out of me.”
I crack open my eyes to see him over me. He’s straddling me, his weight on his hands and knees.
“It was worth it to have perfect Christmas decoration,” I pant.
Ryan laughs, and it feels every bit as good as anything I can remember. “I forgot mistletoe,” he admits.
I snort. “My first kiss ever was under the mistletoe at a Christmas party.”
“Ahh. And it was so bad you’ve hated the holidays ever since.”
“No!” I laugh. “I was ten. I had a huge crush on this guy, Dustin.”
“And he laid one on you?”
“I kissed him.”
“I like a woman who knows what she wants.”
Snow sneaks in under the back of my jacket, getting on my skin and ripping me from my thoughts with a shocking cold. I screech an embarrassingly high-pitched sound.
Ryan immediately sizes up what’s happening and rolls me so I’m on top. “Better?”
I’m over him, my mittens braced under his arms because he’s too tall for me to reach above his shoulders. Every part of us is touching.
Damn, he’s huge. I’ve seen him like this before, but it’s different now.
“Ryan…”
A clump of snow hits the back of my head.
