Chapter 3
Garrett’searswerestillringing from the roar of the printer as he rolled down the sleeves of his shirt and buttoned them. The hour had crept past midnight when they finally finished printing and binding the newsletters, and his nose was running from the chill in the room. “Ben left some firewood by the stove, but I’m going to see if there is anything on the woodpile outside,” he called, shrugging into his overcoat.
Sadie’s head was down and she didn’t bother responding, so he shoved open the front door—
And smashed directly into it. With a hiss, he rubbed his forehead and pushed again with more force. The door crunched forward, leaving just enough room for him to step out under the faded awning stretched above the threshold, tiptoeing to avoid the inch-thick sheet of ice that had pooled under a hole in the awning.
The sidewalks and street glittered like they’d been iced by some cosmic baker and crystallized. A few trees scattered down the block hung low, their branches straining towards the ground as though pushed down by an invisible force. He winced as an icy pellet struck him just below his eye.
“Did you find any—”
Garrett swung around to stop her, but was a beat too slow. Her booted foot landed on the icy stoop, and, with a shriek, she sailed past him and went airborne. He lunged forward and caught her below the arms from behind. As heroic as his rescue might have been, he ruined things when his own feet slid out. He fell with a heavythudon his backside as the sound of tearing fabric split the night air, and Sadie collapsed directly on his lap.
As Rose would say,bloody hell.
Now that he was fully outside the awning’s protection, the surrounding darkness was no longer still and quiet. Unearthly creaks and groans rattled down the street as fire escapes and trees strained under the weight of the ice. A chorus ofpingsprovided an eerie backdrop as freezing rain blanketed every surface. With each passing moment, Garrett became more aware of the rising chill on his backside.
And the rising heat on his front side. “Sadie,” he muttered, willing his cock to be a gentleman and ignore its present predicament, “don’t try to stand. There’s an inch of ice on everything.”
She shuddered, and he clenched his teeth. Did her bottom have to be so deliciouslysoft?
“We’ll freeze if I don’t get up.” Her breath sawed in and out of her chest, and the arm he still had wrapped around her middle tightened.
“You’ll break a limb first, then you’ll be whining and freezing.”
She smacked the hand off her belly and pushed away from him, sliding further along the stoop and closer to the sidewalk. “Did you collect any firewood?”
“Of course not,” he scoffed. “I took two steps before nearly breaking my neck.”
Her nose wrinkled as she contemplated the Icy Stairs of Death and Dismemberment. “We don’t have enough coal to keep the furnace going.”
Garrett grabbed the banister and tugged, pulling himself into a half-standing, half-hanging pose. “Yes, as I’ve been telling you. This is why coal stores would have come in handy.”
She had managed to get onto her hands and knees and faced him, her rump high in the air. “I didn’t know we were going to have an ice storm!”
“It’s winter. In New York. The weather is only bad on days that end iny.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re attempting to be clever, and now is not the time.”
“No, I am clever, and you need to get inside.”
She winced, and he realized her bare palms were splayed on the frozen step. With an ungodly twist of his body and a flailing not unlike a spider on skis, he got himself mostly standing. One hand on the rail, he extended the other towards her.
After a brief hesitation, she huffed out a breath and tentatively lifted one hand. His fingers wrapped around hers and he pulled gently. She slid closer in increments until he could almost lean down and touch her shoulders. “That’s good,” he breathed, “now give me your other hand, too.”
“Absolutely not. I’ll fall and take you with me.”
He shook his head as she wrenched her hand out of his grip. “Won’t happen. I am the model of stability.”
“You’re hanging off a pole and—” she pointed towards his bottom half, “—I think you’ve split your trousers.”
Fuck. “That would explain the chill.”
She sat up on her haunches, and the sight of her on her knees made him temporarily lose consciousness. “Fine. You can try to pull me up.”
As she leaned forward again, her knees slid out until she fell prone on her belly on the ice, a low keen escaping her lips.
Garrett struggled to swallow his rising panic. “Upon further thought, I think standing is a poor plan.”
