Page 45 of Seeds of Christmas
She’s looking at my mouth.
I’m looking at hers.
My hands find her waist. Settle there. Fit there like they were made for it. She sucks in a breath. Her hips shift slightly, and—shit.
There’s no way she can’t feel it. I’m not bragging but I’m not exactlysmall.
Her eyes darken when she realizes exactly what she’s feeling pressed against her.
Move, Wolfe. Let her go.
I don’t move.
We shouldn’t do this. We’re research partners. We have days together in a tiny cabin. This is a terrible idea.
But god, I want to.
I lift my hand—slowly, giving her time to pull away—and brush a strand of hair away from her face. My fingers graze her cheek.
She sucks in a breath.
“Carter—”
The cabin door opens.
We both jerk our heads toward the sound.
A forestry guy is standing on the porch, looking extremely confused.
Rhi scrambles off me so fast I’m surprised she doesn’t fall right over again. And I’m left lying in the snow, hard as a rock, trying to remember how to form sentences. Fuck my life.
“Uh,” he says. “Are you the geology students?”
“Yes!” she says, her voice about three octaves higher than normal. “Yes, we’re—we were just—there was a snowball fight—we fell?—”
“Equipment check,” I supply, rolling to my feet and brushing snow off my jeans. “Making sure everything’s... durable. In snow conditions.”
The forestry guy looks at us like we’re insane.
“Right,” he says slowly. “Well, I’m Dave. I got the cabin set up for you guys. Fire’s going, supplies are stocked, thermal monitoring equipment is in the shed out back.” He gestures with his clipboard. “I’m heading out now, but there’s a radio inside if you need anything. Next check-in is in four days.”
“Great,” Rhi says, still not looking at me. “Thank you. We’ll just—we’ll get our stuff.”
Dave nods, gives us one more bemused look, and heads to his truck.
We watch him drive away in excruciating silence.
The moment his truck disappears around the bend, Rhi turns to me.
Her face is bright red. And not from the cold.
We stare at each other.
Her lips are still pink. Still perfect. Still way too close to mine in my memory.
“We should get the equipment inside,” she says finally.
“Yeah. Before it gets dark.”
