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“If you’re sure,” he said, aware of Tess’s watchful eye from the other side of the wall.
Crouching down, trowel in hand, Anna continued smiling, in what he assumed was at least a speck toward his expense—she couldn’t bethatperfect—as he stabbed the snow wall where she’d suggested he should. Snow groaned and shifted around his hand as he began sawing the bottom of their door into being. He must have held his breath the entire time, because his lungs burned once he’d completed that part of the unnervingly terrifying act.
“Now, up, make a domed top, and back down.”
He did as he was guided, and soon, but not soon enough for his trepidation, he’d made them a doorway. With Tess pushing from the outside, they scooted the snow slab he’d cut into the igloo. Waving at him through it, Tess joined Anna in smiling at him.
Ring five went up, then six, then seven. With each one, Tess now filled in the gaps from the outside. Inside the igloo, the more the blocks tilted toward the eventual meeting point at the dome of their roof, the more Liam took on the task of propping the blocks up while Anna ensured they would remain stable when they moved on to the next one.
He was tired, he was freezing, and he was hungry. But he didn’t say a word. He was sure Tess and Anna were suffering just as much, just as he was sure they were all united by their motivation to finish before the sunlight vanished. They could all sense how close to completion they were, and they only had about an hour of decent lighting left. Their plan for numerous breaks fell to the wayside and was forgotten.
One more. One more block of snow. They’d completed the final ring. At shoulder height if he stood up, there remained a single opening left to plug. Anna had done most of the true construction, and he’d done the door.
So, it only made sense who should put the finishing touch on the dome.
Tess smiled as she was called to crawl inside and join them. For the past several minutes, impatience had gnawed at Liam while Anna had cut a ventilation hole into the upper wall at the back of the igloo, which would solve an apparent issue with oxygen and carbon dioxide build-up while they were inside of it. Finally, however, she finished the task, and she and Tess traded places.
“I’ll cut a longer piece of snow for this and then pass it to you,” Anna explained before heading off to what remained of their snow pile.
On their knees inside the igloo, Tess and Liam faced each other. It was their first true time alone since what had transpired inside his garage, and his heart picked up speed just because of that flash of memory. The igloo was also finally doing some of its job, collecting their body heat and warming the dome’s interior, though it wouldn’t truly hold in all the heat it was supposed to until they plugged the natural chimney above them.
“This has been a lot of fun,” Tess whispered, brushing snow off her thighs. “I’m glad we did it.”
Liam nodded along. “Yeah, today’s been great so far.”
Tess blinked once, and then she held him captive with her gaze. With what little light could eke into the almost completed igloo, her eyes absorbed every drop. Dwelling in those deep ocean blues of hers as he did, he grew even warmer.
“I agree,” Tess eventually said. “Today’s been wonderful.”
Liam swallowed, licking cracked lips, which the cold had battered mercilessly throughout the day. He gave only a single nod; it was all he had the time to do before Anna returned with the dome’s capstone.
Once the longer piece was pushed inside, Tess grasped it and slowly raised herself, maneuvering it long ways out of the hole at the top of the dome. Afterward, she tilted and gently laid it on the rest of the dome. With Anna’s guidance from the outside, just a voice behind a wall to Liam, she began guiding Tess on how to shave it and make the final piece flush with the rest of the dome.
Inside the dome, kneeling on the igloo’s floor and watching Tess work, his eyes slowly fell. She wasn’t fully facing him, but she wasn’t fully facingawayfrom him either.
Could today still get better?
Liam’s heart raced as he scooted himself around behind Tess. Her long, supple, toned legs kept his gaze glued to every lean muscle, every aggravatingly attractive inch. His eyes fell, and then they lifted again.
With her arms over her head, it dragged her coat higher than usual. Standing in a tall crouch as she was, it left her butt lower to the ground than usual.
Confidence was important, and he deserved to feel confident. Those were Tess’s words, not his.
So, when he reached his hands forward and set them on the back of Tess’s enticingly firm thighs, beginning a slow but steady journey upward, she only had herself to blame.
Unsurprisingly, the gorgeous brunette’s immediate response was one of shock. Her lovely eyes dashed down to him, forgetting all about the block of snow she was supposed to be paying attention to.
“Liam!”she hissed in a frantic whisper, face flush with color. “Not now!”
Not now. Two beautiful words. Because they meant hewouldbe allowed to do something like this later. Nonetheless, he still ignored them.
His hands climbed higher, and he flexed his fingers in a languid stretch as they reached Tess’s sexy ass.
“I’m just doing as ordered,” he whispered back, sinking his hands into her leggings and the fullness of skin and muscle underneath it.
“I ordered no such thing!” she growled.
“A little more on the right side,” Anna’s voice called, causing Tess to fling her gaze back to the block of snow above her.
