AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You are not in my way, Rosie,” he rumbled again and gently tightening his arm.
A thrill tingled down my arms, even down to my toes.
I relaxed and felt it: something prodded my butt cheek. Tom was aroused.
Neither of us said anything for a long moment.
I cleared my throat. “I need to visit the outhouse.”
“Right.” He removed his arm and shuffled away. “Zip’s on your side.”
I made quick work of getting into my boots, then coat, beanie and scarf, and darted out the door, torch in hand, to the outhouse.
After I was done, I gasped at the silent landscape.
Snow.
It was an icy wonderland, twinkling in the moonlight with a break in the clouds.
I quickly went into the hut. “Tom! You have to see this.”
He paused banking the fire with more wood, and pulled on his coat.
“Woah.”
Everything was silver white.
And then snowflakes began to fall in the stillness. My chin wobbled for the second time this evening. I was getting emotional about snow.
Tom found my hand and squeezed. “It’s beautiful.”
I turned to him, but he wasn’t looking at the snowfall. He was looking at me. Like I was the thing that was beautiful in this moment. No doubt I was trainwreck with flyaway curls and yet—
We both jumped as a block of snow fell from the hut’s roof with a wet splat at our feet.
“Want some tea? And biscuits?”
I nodded to tea and Mrs Turner’s biscuits.
I couldn’t imagine sleeping right now. I was too energised by being witness to this rare and breathtaking landscape that had been so deadly earlier, and now had been transformed into a Disney-esque movie setting.
Tom checked on the animals while I put the billy on to boil, and tended to the fire, adding more finer kindling to help it along.
If there was one thing I hated, it was unknowns. I liked statistically significant analysis, peer-reviewed, double-blind studies with conclusions, and spreadsheets that added up.
Being with Tom post-discovery of Amanda’s betrayal felt strange, to say the least. My feelings were a rollercoaster.
Did I want a second chance? After Richard, it was too soon to even think about men and dating but … this was Tom.
How soundly I’d slept in his arms.
How good it felt lying with him.
And I couldn’t deny how aroused I was.Stillwas. From the moment of waking up, pressing back against him. The surreal, feverish dream of being tangled up with a man – Tom – and then waking to find him wrapped around me.
The snow was still falling. We couldn’t drive the sheep through this to the low country today. We were snowbound. Another night, at least.
Another night of sleeping together with this fire between us that refused to extinguish.
