“Looks that way.” He ran his hand through his lightly tousled hair, then just barely pressed his thumb in under my chin—before I swiped my arm across the ground and scooped up an armful of snow, hurling it at him in one giant poof of powdery white, a good amount going straight down his coat.
“Not fast enough,” I screeched, squirming out from in under him as he shook the snow out of his collar. This gave me enough of an advantage to run to the back of the house.
Scooping up and forming another ball of snow, I stepped behind the evergreen bush at the corner of the sunroom and waited…
And waited…
Just as I poked my head around the corner to see how close he was… WOMP! Graham leapt from the porch roof like a freakin’ spider monkey and tackled me to the ground, rolling us in midair so I was on top of him, cradling me so I didn’t get smashed by two hundred and sixty pounds of my every desire.
We rolled around for a bit just laughing, breathing heavily, throwing snow at one another, until we stopped and he rested himself over top of me, staring into my eyes, his gaze dipping to my lips then back to my eyes.
God, how I wanted him to kiss me—take me right there on the lawn—claim me.
The way the crisp air nipped at his cheeks made it look like he was blushing. Maybe he was.
“Maggie?” Hunter’s voice splintered the moment. “What are you doing?”
Shit!
Graham sighed and lifted off of me. I wiggled out from under him but still managed to scoop up one more handful of snow and smash it into his face.
He slapped me on the ass in passing as I bolted up to run to Hunter. I lifted myself onto my tippy toes and kissed him. “You’re back, baby!” I said, trying to catch my breath.
“Aye,” he said, his tone clipped. “What’shedoing here?”
“Oh, um…” I breathed. “Graham brought the tree home from the lot. It wouldn’t fit on the Gremlin. Then he was going to help with the lights.”
“And hanging the lights requires rolling in the snow?” he barked.
“Hunter, he’s a friend.” My heart thumped erratically as I wiped the snow from my pants.
He took my arm firmly, squeezing it just a little too tight, and guided me to the front porch. “A friend I’d like you to only have supervised visits with.”
I twisted my face at him. “Excuse me?” He couldn’t just demand I stop seeing Graham. Well, maybe he could, but I didn’t like it. I took a deep breath. Refocused my thoughts. If I was in his situation, I’d be jealous too. I owed it to Hunter to make him my priority. “Sure thing, baby.”
“I’d like some cocoa.”
“Oh… I guess I can make some when we’re done.”
Something flat settled behind his eyes. “No. Now, please.”
Hunter walked over to Graham, who was already up a few rungs of the extension ladder with the roll of lights on one arm. “Hey, mate, I got it.”
“That’s alright, it won’t take long. Almost finished.” Graham climbed another rung. “Besides, you wouldn’t want to wreck your manicure,” he said, letting his cocky grin loose.
Oh, god, here we go.
Hunter didn’t even wait—just shoved Graham off the ladder.
Shit.
Graham landed flat on his back with a thud.
“What the fuck did you just say to me?” Hunter growled.
I fled down the steps. “Hunter, stop!”
“Get inside, Maggie!” he demanded, his attention fixed on Graham.
