We’re both soaked to our skin, but he keeps reaching across the center console to touch me. He sweeps his fingers across the back of mine, but I trap his hand between both my palms instead. He heaves out a shaky breath.
“I know you are, and I forgive you.” Other than the stinging disappointment that it felt final, I was mostly fine with being used and kicked out. “Doesn’t mean it didn’t bruise,” I add softly, because if we’re doing honesty now, I may as well jump in the deep end.
I know he’s got demons. What they are, I’m not sure, but I figured if I kept being my annoyingly charming self, I’d disarm him eventually, and he’d give in.
He floors it through a yellow light, like he’s being chased, or running from something… someone. But part of me hopes he’s running toward it instead.
“Are you in a hurry?” My voice betrays my amusement in the darkness as he swerves around a corner and basically abandons the car outside the now-familiar looking house. Fairy lights have been wound around the wooden posts and the wraparound porch. It’s gorgeous.
Artemis nods as he throws his door open, his teeth chattering so loudly it can be heard on the heavy night air. He slams his door and pulls mine open with such force the damn thing groans under protest. “I need to get you inside before you freeze.”
Shit. Those chattering teeth were mine.
A wall of heat meets us as soon as he pulls the door open, making me look at him. He gives me a sheepish, half-smile as he ushers me in from the street. “I turned the heating on from my phone.”
I have seen many faces of Artemis de la Peña, but I think bashful might be my favorite.
As soon as we’re inside the door, he’s stripping my wet clothes from me. His trembling hands fumbling over the buttons. The way he grunts in frustration at the wet fabric sticking to my wet skin makes me laugh out loud.
“What’s so funny?”
I tip my head at him. “You look so angry at my clothes that they’re stopping you from getting me naked.”
His eyes darken, swirling to something molten, something dangerous, something so fucking enticing it steals my breath.
“I need you warm.” He hums. “Though I’d like you naked too. To be clear.” His gaze drags down my body like heat itself, contradicting every noble intention of getting me warm and dry. Yeah, coy Artemis is my favorite Artemis.
“I don’t want you thinking I dragged you here again just for…” His eyes leave mine, and a shiver slithers through my cold bones at the absence of their heat.
“As long as I’m the only man you kidnap, fuck over thearm of the sofa, and kick back out onto the street.” I shrug. “I’m not that mad about it.”
A flicker of genuine hurt flashes through his expression before he schools it away, and it lands like a boulder in my gut. He chews on his bottom lip like he’s keeping something inside as he holds me steady while I step out of my sodden clothes.
He hands me a massive, fluffy towel from a pile suspiciously placed near the door. I tilt my head in question as I wrap it around my body and shimmy my wet boxers out from under it while he’s getting himself undressed.
“I had set them out before I left to get you. And I lit the fire. I figured it was a fire and cocoa kind of night.”
Well, fuck me pink and call me… well… anything you want to be honest. Is the one and only Artemis de la Peña… wooing me?
Woo on, my dude. Woo fucking on. If this is him wooing, I’m about ten seconds from swooning, like a character on an episode of Bridgerton. Where’s my fucking fan?
Because the idea of sitting by a roaring fire, cradling hot chocolate, and being wrapped in warm, fluffy blankets, might be the most fun I’ve had in a long time. And it hasn’t even happened yet.
I nod eagerly, letting my childish excitement hang out for him to see. “Is this a date, Artemis?”
He hums again as he collects all of our wet clothes. “I like to think of it as a bougie kidnapping.” His voice dips on ‘kidnapping’ like he knows exactly what it does to my blood pressure.
His lips quirk as he passes me. “Considering I didn’t ask your consent, it can’t really be a date, right? I abducted you in my car and took you somewhere no one will find you.”
I fan myself with my hand. “So hot.”
He jerks his chin to the room he fucked me in. “Go get comfy, I’ll put all this in the dryer.”
“I can get drinks?”
He shakes his head. “I’ve got it all covered.” He’s not wrong. When I walk into the living room, the furniture has been moved around a little from last time. There’s a picnic blanket set up on the floor in front of the huge TV screen I don’t remember being there last time. My chest does a stupid little lurch, the kind I usually blame on bad sushi or emotional repression.
I stand, mostly dumbstruck, holding the towel against me as I take in the scene. This man… this… fucking… Ice Prince. What can I say? He’s got game.
