Page 7 of Married to Her Yeti
Mari was going to come. As if sensing this,Nima angled his hand to let her grind against him with her own rhythm. When his wide, raspy tongue flicked over her ear piercings, and he pinched her nipple through her sweater and bra, pleasure flashed through her body. She climaxed, silently shaking against Nima as her orgasm ripped through her.
Holy. Hell.
Mari’s chest rose and fell as she sagged against Nima, her whole body tingling with sensation.
But a moment later someone yelled up the stairs, “Ryan, dude, you up there?”
The new, loud voice doused Mari’s lingering lust like a bucket of slushy water on a winter bonfire.
Awareness crept in, and Mari’s pulse quickened.What did I just do?Her body stiffened as panic threatened, and she drew ever so slightly away from Nima—the guy who broke her fucking heart. How convenient of her traitorous hormones to forget that major detail this evening.
From the bedroom, the man called, “Be right down.”
As if in a trance, Mari watched the couple shuffle back into the bathroom. He worked his fly, splashed water on his face, then helped the woman untangle her leggings. Once she’d dressed, he smoothed herhair and gave her a slow, sweet kiss before they walked out hand in hand.
It won’t last!Mari’s inner cynic heckled. Young love rarely did. She and Nima were proof of that.
Mari had to get out of there. She should never have come. While sweat pricked at her forehead, Nima’s arms loosened around her. He felt it too. He shouldn’t be holding her. They’d let their hormones take complete control.This is so fucked up!
After the rustling plastic sheet announced the couple’s exit, Mari, anxious pulse now making her whole chest shake with every beat of her heart, forced herself to ignore the hot wall of muscle at her back, and slowly counted to ten. She gave the couple time to descend the stairs and rejoin the party.
As soon as she hit ten, she burst from the closet and fled the bathroom without a backward glance. If someone saw her come down the stairs, Mari didn’t notice through the welling tears in her eyes. She made a beeline for the front door, shoved her feet into her boots, and stormed outside.
CHAPTER FOUR
Turned out being trapped in a closet with the only woman Nima had ever loved was, well, hot.
Though fully dressed, Mari had come against his hand. He’d smelled her arousal, and the sweet scent had heightened his own desire. She’d ground against him, placed his palm on one of her now-larger breasts, fitting his hand perfectly, like they were made for each other. He’d kneaded and rubbed until her nipple pebbled from his caresses, just like it had years ago. He still knew what she liked, and had pinched her hard peak as she’d climaxed, leaving her shaking and limp in his arms. Her reaction to his touch had nearly made Nima release in his pants.
But fuck, what had they done?
All these years he’d fantasized about being back with Mari and rekindling the love they once shared. But this was wrong. All wrong. Mari knew it too. She tensed as if ready to bolt. He loosened his hold, but should he let go of her? What message would that send? He didn’t want to fuck this up any worse than it already was.
Before he had time to stress further, Mari pushed open the closet door and flew out of his arms. He followed, whispering a plea for her to return, but in the blink of an eye she’d fled the bathroom, crossed the bedroom and ducked behind the plastic sheeting.Fuck!Nima could only take a few steps after her, stopping as if an invisible wall held him back. He couldn’t call out to her or trail her into the party.
Nima stood in the center of the bathroom, fists clenched as anger and frustration boiled within him—all while Mari’s sweet scent faded. He had to make things right with her. He had to.
He wrenched open the squeaky cabinet, not caring about the awful noise the door made, and grabbed his phone out of the tool bag. Shoving it deep in a pocket, he crossed the room. Boots scuffed against the porcelain as Nima stepped into the jetted bathtub to access the window.
The outside temperature hovered near zerodegrees, but Nima cranked open the window anyway. Hopefully, the house-sitter noticed and would close it later. But right now, all Nima cared about was finding Mari.
He swung one leg over the windowsill, then ducked to squeeze his shoulders through, eyeing the snow-covered ground two stories below. Stars twinkled in a clear, cold sky, and a crescent moon illuminated the snow, creating a silvery winter landscape. It would have been beautiful under other circumstances—when Nima hadn’t been stuck in a closet with his ex, when his dick hadn’t dropped, when she hadn’t climaxed in his arms after not speaking a word to each other in ten years, and when she hadn’t fled afterwards, as if in regret. And when his heart wasn’t threatening to pound right out of his chest.
He quickly scanned his surroundings. Music and noise from the party filtered through the night. Voices rose from the other end of the house where the driveway met the garage and front door. Through snowy trees, he watched as a truck’s brake lights illuminated, the headlights switched on, and it pulled forward, driving away.
It could have been anyone, but in his bones, Nima knew it was Mari. She wouldn’t have stayed after what had just happened between them. Plus,the partiers were too young, not her crowd. He was absolutely certain she only came to see his tile work because she thought he wouldn’t be there.
Nima wedged the rest of his body through the open window—no small feat for a seven-foot yeti who could stand to do a little stretching now and again. Then he jumped, hoping nothing hid under the snow on this side of the house—like a lawn mower, grill, or a pile of construction material from a previous home project. A lot of Alaska yards had stacks of supplies. Up in the frozen north, people hung on to extra materials.
He landed feet first in deep snow—no hidden objects beneath him, thankfully. He quickly extricated himself from the impact crater, then, using his elbows, belly-crawled over the drift. The maneuver caused his T-shirt and flannel to ride up and coated his fur in icy snow. He normally loathed the unpleasant cold, wet sensation as it melted, but tonight he hardly noticed.
Once on his feet, he double-checked that his phone was still in his pocket before slipping around the front of the house, keeping low so partygoers wouldn’t see him. He snuck behind a large stack of covered firewood, then trudged through deep snow until his truckwas in sight.
Luck was clearly not on Nima’s side. Two vehicles had blocked him in, plus he had to duck as an approaching car’s headlights flashed over his location. He might not have been lucky, but his body practically vibrated with a fuck-ton of adrenaline pumping through him right now. And he wouldn’t let anything stop him from speaking to Mari tonight. He’d heard she lived at her grandparents’ old cabin. It was miles away, and he’d have to travel there on foot, but he didn’t care.
As a boisterous group spilled from the newly arrived car, Nima retreated behind the trees, then sprinted through the snowy forest toward the cabin. He’d hike uphill through chest-deep snow if it meant finally talking to Mari.
“Nima’s stuckin the closet, Tseten,” Mari said into her phone as she paced her kitchen, annoyed that her voice still shook with emotion. The drive home had done nothing to settle her nerves.
