There’s guilt in our shared gaze, but there’s also undeniable desire.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” Tripp says. “I got caught up?—”
“We,” I correct, trying to hide my panting. Fuck, that man robbed the very breath from my lungs, leaving me without oxygen. “I was just as much there as you were.”
“Let’s not tell Mandi about this, okay?” he says, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck as he rounds the kitchen island to give me plenty of space to attend to the cookies.
“Agreed.” I open the oven, spin the cookie sheet a hundred and eighty degrees, and reset the timer.
“Maybe I should check your Jeep,” he says, refusing to make eye contact with me.
“Yeah, sure.”
When the front door closes behind him, I let out the breath I was holding. Holy jingle bells, what the hell was that? I’ve been attracted to Tripp since the first night I met him months ago. And maybe I’ve had a few naughty fantasies about him I worked out with a battery-operated solution.
But the reality of the full-body kiss has nothing on any lusty daydream or toy.
I’ll never be the same, even if it can never happen again.
“Too bad I didn’t hang some mistletoe up in here so I could at least checkthatoff my list,” I mumble, wondering if it’s even worth going to the singles mixer now. I feel a lot less inclined to convince a stranger to kiss me now that Tripp’s magic lips have spun my world upside down.
If a single, handsy kiss can do that, I can only imagine what his cock?—
“I’ll get us there, Mandi,” Tripp says, talking into his phone as he closes the door behind him. He kicks the snow off his boots, and I realize I haven’t heard anything that might resemble an engine starting.
“Here,” Tripp says, holding out his phone to me. “Your boss wants to talk to you.”
“My boss?—”
“Harley, have you been paying attention to the weather?” Mandi asks, her tone hinting at concern.
“What is it with you two and the weather?” I tease.
“It’s winter in Alaska. You really should pay attention,” Mandi says, her mom voice coming out.
“I’ve already gotten the lecture from Tripp,” I say flatly.
“So you know then?”
“Know what?”
“That the storm blew in ahead of schedule.”
“What storm?” I move to the window blocked by the obscenely large Christmas tree and shove myself up against the glass. The mountains I admired earlier are nowhere to be seen. In fact, the trees near the cabin are lost to the windy white out. It looks like an all-out blizzard.
Well, damn.
“They cancelled the mixer,” Mandi adds. “So it’s probably best if you just stay put tonight.”
“Stay put?”
“With Tripp.”
I glance over my shoulder, discovering Tripp by the fireplace fidgeting with the Santa’s village I spent entirely too much time setting up. But it’s not the decorations that have my focus, it’s that tight ass wrapped in the best pair of jeans I’ve ever seen. I should thank Levi himself for that view.
I gulp a swallow.
“If he’s an ass to you, you just let me know. I’ll make sure Santa fills his stocking with coal instead of his favorite Caribou Creek Lager.”
