“Money talks,” I repeated slowly. “You bribed someone to drive you?”
“Technically, I paid someone for a same-day delivery service.”
“You made yourself sound like a package?”
She smirked. “If it gets me here, I’ll take the label.”
I stared at her, equal parts exasperated and awestruck. “You’re insane.”
“Probably.”
“Completely reckless.”
“Seems appropriate, given the town name,” she said, stepping closer.
Her voice dropped lower on the last words, and I swear the temperature in the bar jumped five degrees. I tried to play it cool, but my heartbeat had other plans.
“Let me get this straight,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “You couldn’t start your car, so instead of waiting for a mechanic, you found someone willing to drive four hours through a snowstorm just to get here?”
She shrugged, her lips curving into that infuriatingly sexy smile. “When a girl changes her mind, she commits.”
“Changes her mind about what, exactly?”
“You,” she said simply.
And just like that, I forgot every word I’d ever known.
The wind howled again, slamming against the building, but all I could hear was my pulse thundering in my ears. She was close enough now that I could smell her perfume and I couldn’t stop looking at her. Everything made me fall deeper for her, from the flush on her cheeks to the way her hair curled around her scarf and the spark in her eyes that told me she was done running.
I took a step closer, my voice dropping to a low rumble. “You’re gonna give me a heart attack, you know that?”
“Good,” she said. “Then at least you’ll remember I was worth the drive.”
That did it.
I reached for her before I could think twice, my hands finding her waist and pulling her in. She came willingly, her breath catching just before her lips met mine.
The kiss was electric—hungry, desperate, months of tension snapping all at once. From the moment I met her, she undid me. Melanie melted against me, her hands sliding up my chest, tangling in my shirt like she was afraid I’d disappear. I deepened the kiss, trying to memorize the feel of her, the warmth of herbody against mine, the soft sound she made when I tilted her head just right.
When we finally broke apart, both of us were breathing hard.
Her forehead rested against mine, her voice a whisper. “I thought about this the whole drive.”
“Yeah?” I murmured.
“Yeah.” She smiled against my mouth.
“What made you find a way?”
Her eyes met mine, steady and sure. “Because I realized I didn’t want to spend another Christmas wondering what would’ve happened if I’d just shown up.”
Something in my chest tightened. I wanted to say a hundred things, to tell her how I’d convinced myself she wasn’t coming, how it had almost broken me to believe it. But all that came out was a shaky laugh.
“You sure this isn’t just the snow talking?”
“If it is,” she said, her grin returning, “then you’d better take advantage of the storm while it lasts.”
The words hung there between us, heavy and charged.
