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“Yeah, there sure as fuck is,” he confirmed with a smile. “Our hometown, Snow Valley, was up for sale last year, and a big corporation was interested in buying it.”
“Whoa,” I breathed, my eyes going wide. “That sounds like a plot straight out of a movie.”
“Brace yourself for a major plot twist,” he teased with a grin. “Christopher’s mom was worried about the company taking away the small-town feel, so Christopher and his brothers were going to pool their money together to buy it instead. But it turned out the town’s founder had put a stipulation into place way back when that only someone married could own the town.”
I shot up to a sitting position, turned around to face Lincoln, and straddled his lap. “Let me guess. None of them were married.”
“Good guess, baby.” His approval felt almost as good as it did when we were having sex and he called me his “good girl” for obeying his commands. “His mom came up with a plan to fix that, though. She found them mail-order brides.”
I snorted, picturing how my brothers would react if our mom told them they were getting married, and she’d ordered the women to walk down the aisle. “I’m willing to bet her idea went over like a lead balloon.”
“That’s a wager I wouldn’t take because you’re right. Christopher wasn’t thrilled with the plan, and the only way he was willing to go along with it was if his marriage was in name only.” He stroked his hands down my back and rolled his hips, rocking his hard-on against my core. “But then he met Winter, and his plan flew out the window because he couldn’t keep his hands off her.”
I grinned down at him. “Kind of like how you are with me.”
“Yeah, I definitely owe Christopher an apology.” His hand dipped under my shirt, and his thumb stroked my bare skin. “I gave him a ton of shit for falling for Winter so quickly, and now here I am, doing the same thing with you. So be prepared for him to have a lot to say about our relationship when you meet him.”
I loved how he seemed comfortable talking about us as though we’d be together in the future, but I wasn’t sure how we were going to make that happen. Lincoln traveled a lot for his snowboarding career, and I couldn’t travel much because my job was a twenty-four-seven kind of gig. I usually only took off one week a year, which meant the only time we’d have together would basically be when he could come see me in Winter Falls. Not that we’d had an actual conversation about what was going to happen after the blizzard. I might have been assuming too much, but I was afraid to ask because I wasn’t ready for the possibility that we were just a holiday fling to him. Except time was quickly running out for me to keep my head in the sand since the storm was winding down and we’d be leaving our little bubble soon.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let your friend tease you too much,” I promised.
“Thanks, baby.” He wrapped my hair around his fist and pulled me down for a passionate kiss that left me breathless.
Things were starting to heat up between us when my landline rang in the kitchen. “No,” I cried, dropping my forehead against his.
“You better get that, little one.” He released my hair and gripped my hips to lift me off his lap. “It might be an emergency.”
It amazed me that I’d found a man who wasn’t intimidated by my position of power and didn’t give me any crap about it interrupting our time together. In fact, I was pretty sure I was more annoyed than him.
“Stupid job,” I grumbled as I stomped into the kitchen to yank the phone receiver off the wall. “Hello.”
“Hey, Bethenny,” Hayden greeted. “Since it looks like the snow is going to let up overnight, I thought I’d check if you’ve already confirmed with Mike that he’s going to send the plows out in the morning.”
Mike was the head of the streets and sewers department, and they were responsible for snow removal. “Not yet.”
“Are you coming down with something?” His tone was filled with concern.
“No, I’m perfectly healthy. Why do you ask?”
“You just don’t seem like yourself. I expected you to call me a few times a day to ask for status updates, but you didn’t reach out a single time since the storm hit,” he explained. “At first, I thought you were feeling blue because your family had to cancel their trip and you were alone for the holiday, but you’re not the kind of person who would let you get that down for this long.”
“Um, yeah. Sorry.” Lincoln had followed me into the kitchen and leaned his hip against the counter. I met his gaze as I conceded, “I guess I’ve been a little off my game the past few days. You’re probably right, and it’s just because I’m missing my family.”
“Do you want me to call Gavin, too? See if they need any help on the mountain?” he asked.
Gavin headed up the ski patrol for Winter Falls Resort and was a good friend of my brother Benjamin’s since they were the same age and had gone to school together. Because of our connection, it would’ve made more sense for me to be the one to reach out to him, but judging by the determined expression on Lincoln’s face, I wasn’t going to be available for a little while.
7
Lincoln
Inarrowed my eyes, a frown creasing my face when Bethenny told her deputy she’d been out of communication due to missing her family. Without mentioning me. I had no intention of hiding or even being discreet about our relationship. And, from the guilty look in her eyes, she knew exactly where my mind had gone.
When she hung up, I prowled over to her and took her chin in a firm grip. “Care to explain?”
She licked her lips, and my cock hardened at the image of those sexy lips wrapped around me. But we needed to deal with this first, so I pushed those thoughts away.
“I wasn’t sure if we were ready to share our relationship. And we haven’t really talked about what happens next.” I raised an eyebrow, and she shrugged. “Not with any real detail or plans.”
