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“Honestly?” Harry reached out and traced his finger down the curve of my cheek. His warm skin sliding against mine, like a flame melting a snowflake. “I had a chance to see you. Wasting it would’ve been absolutely idiotic.”
The things he said were so stinkingperfect. Like that. His words sifted into my brain and relaxed me, melting away any trace of a chill, melting until all of me felt his words. Until all of me warmed once more.
My gaze traced over Harry once more, the vaguely starry night a backdrop to his beautiful features. The chill of the snow made my brain slow down, almost like a brain freeze by association.
Harry lifted his hand and traced the curve of my cheek oh-so delicately, enough to cause me to shiver. “Are you cold?”
“No.” All of me burned.
The snow shifted on the ground again with a quiet hiss, and I found myself really,reallywanting to kiss him. We were close enough that leaning in would be easy enough, and the energy inside me made me feel like a star about to explode.
Harry’s touch trailed from my cheek to the side of my round jawline, the moment between us charging. “What are my odds?” he murmured then, words almost a whisper in the night.
We were thinking the same thing. “Pretty good.”
“Pretty good?”
Near perfect. It was time for Destelle to take a page out of Stella’s handbook.
Without giving myself a moment to chicken out, I stood on my tiptoes to cross those few inches between us, but Harry met me halfway, his gentle lips pressing against my own. His were colder than I’d been expecting, but so soft, scattering any thought in my brain in an instant. The smell of his sweet cologne tickled my nose. The sound of his little intake of breath as if he were surprised made my blood burn. His mouth on mine, a steady pressure I wanted more of, had me pressing closer.
Harry’s hand glided along the dip of my waist almost hesitantly, as if he were nervous to touch me. But I moved closer, folding my hands between us, resting them on the warmth of his chest. I could feel his heartbeat pound rapidly through his shirt, almost in tandem with my own.
After one last lingering kiss, he pulled back, only an inch. His eyes were closed, but his lips turned up, a smile unable to be tamed. “I swear, I didn’t come over for that.” His voice sounded lower than it’d been moments before. “Notthat I’m complaining.”
“You sure?” I murmured, touching my fingertip to his bottom lip. “Because there’s still time to take it back.”
That was an absolute lie. From here on out, there was no going back.
“I’ve never been more sure in my life,” Harry responded, and leaned closer, mouth closing over mine once more.
If I hadn’t been facing my house, I would’ve missed it. A light flicked on in one of the upper-level windows.
Jamie’s bedroom. And I’d looked up in time to see his curtains rustle.
I shoved Harry back toward the house, into the shadows that Jamie wouldn’t be able to see. My hand pressed flat against Harry’s chest, and I could feel his pulse through the thin shirt. “My brother,” I whispered, tilting my head toward the second floor. “His light just turned on.”
“He can’t know I’m here?” Harry guessed. I stood there in shock for the longest moment, my mind still numb from his kiss.
And then I heard it, a barely-there sound. “Destelle?” Jamie’s voice, muffled through the walls, shot through me. “Destelle?”
I grabbed ahold of Harry’s hand hard and tugged him after me, toward the fence’s gate. The snow angels—there’d be two of them. Not to mention the footprints we were leaving in the snow, or the footprints Harry would leave toward his car. Right now, though, that was out of my hands.
And really, hiding the evidence meant nothing if Jamie had looked out his window.
Once we got to the gate, though, I grabbed Harry’s jacket. “I’m having a love-hate relationship with breaking the rules,” I told him, shoving to my tiptoes and kissing him once more. I almost couldn’t bring myself to pull away. There would need to be more kissing, butlater.
“Trust me, this issonot how I want to meet your family,” he said, then he slowly eased the gate open, and thank God the hinges didn’t creak. With one last heart-stopping smile, Harry shut the gate behind him.
As quickly as I could, I hurried up the porch steps, trying to slip silently back into the house. I kicked off my shoes and slid them as far away from the door as possible.
When I turned around, Jamie stood there, his pajamas a size too tight, blinking at me. He didn’t look sleepy. Instead, he looked wide awake. “What were you doing?”
Okay, the words weren’t immediately accusatory. They weren’t “Who was that boy outside?” or “Why were you kissing him?” His question was easy to dance around. “I made a snow angel.”
“You didn’t wear a coat?”
“I was only out for a second.”
