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It took way more effort than it should to get back to the actual subject at hand. Spiders. Hundreds of baby spiders.
“But… the tree?” She had to admit the thing was gaudy as all get out with its fake-snow-flocked branches.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t get the lights back on. Or the snowflakes. Tomorrow we can—”
“I gotta say… I think the gum tree is growing on me. This one is kind of hideous!”
Heath let out a laugh. “Yeah, can’t disagree with you.” He reached for one of the bottles on the coffee table and held it out to her. “Cider?”
“Don’t mind if I do!” She plunked herself right next to him, her heart taking his proximity as a cue to start up its gymnastics routine again.
In the shower she’d decided: maybe she wasn’t going to force anything, but she was going to be clear. She liked Heath, despite his gruff exterior and the way he pulled away from her every time she tried to get closer. She was ten out of ten attracted to him.
“Any sign of spiders?” She took a swig of the apple cider, the taste bright and fizzy, with just the tiniest bite of alcohol that lingered on her tongue.
He cleared his throat, but he didn’t scoot away from her, and Copper leapt up onto the other end of the couch, so she was basically hemmed in. “If any are left, they’re hiding good.”
“Cheers to that!” She held her bottle out to him, waiting until he reached for his own beverage and clinked bottles with hers. “And to new friends.”
“Cheers indeed.” For the briefest second their eyes met and he might as well have been running his fingers through her still-wet hair, because she was breathless again and she wanted so many things. She wanted him to take her hand like he had the other night, just before he’d scooped her up into his arms. She wanted him to rip his shirt off the way he had outside. She wanted to drag her shirt up over her head and feel his heated gaze take in the black lacy bra she’d put back on just for him, so he could take it off and cup her breasts in his big, warm hands. Then she wanted him to put his mouth all over her, kiss every single one of her most sensitive parts.
He didn’t do any of those things.
He cleared his throat, then looked back to the TV. “We watched my favourite earlier. So what’s yours?”
“Elf, of course! Smiling’s my favourite!” She needed to keep things light, breezy. She was already way too heated, sitting this close to him.
He gave her a blank look that made it clear he had no idea what she was talking about.
“Don’t tell me. You’ve never seenElf?” She couldn’t help bouncing up and down a little and clapping her hands. “You’re going to love it!”
Heath didn’t say a word. Instead, he kept his intense focus on scrolling through the TV Christmas offerings, avoiding eye contact with her, keeping the wall up between them. She wasn’t having it. She wanted more. She was sure he did too. She leaned into him.
His immediate reaction was to stiffen—and not in the way she’d been hoping. Though to be honest, she wasn’t near enough to that part of him to be certain. But immediately it made her second guess everything. She was gripping too hard, trying to grasp at a man who was pushing her away, like she’d done with Zach. She needed to let him go. Release him, the way she took pride in doing with the horses, letting them choose to be with her. She sat back. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
Heath selected the movie, but he didn’t press play. Instead, he set the remote control down on the coffee table, every movement controlled, deliberate.
“Lena…” His voice was gravelled, rough with what she hoped was the same need she was feeling. She loved the sound of her name when he said it. In what seemed like slow motion but probably wasn’t, he turned back to her. “Are you trying to make me think things?”
“Maybe.” Dang if he didn’t have her holding her breath and leaning towards him, so she saw the moment his pupils widened with desire. “I like you, Heath Fletcher.”
“I like you, Abilene Snowden.”
She launched herself at him then, straddling his lap, a hundred things happening at once, her senses alive with everything and nothing, all of it tumbled together. The heaven of his fingers in her hair. The heat everywhere they touched. The scent of his soap. The scratch of his scruff against her as his mouth found hers. The softness of his lips and the thrum of energy underneath that told her he was holding back. The way he stiffened—the right part of him this time, pressing against the right part of her.
And the kiss…
It was an ocean wave, running for the shore and then crashing into, only to do it again and again. It was the moment a racehorse found its stride and then lengthened even more, driving hard for the sheer joy of it. It was full of longing and hope and more hunger than she’d ever felt with Zach—with anyone.
When Heath’s hands found their way under the hem of her t-shirt, she breathed out the one thought that had filled her head since the moment he first touched her, since his first heated glance had taken her in. “Yes.”
And she kept saying yes, when he picked her up, just like she’d wanted, and carried her through the bedroom door, and long after he’d laid her down on the bed and caged her body with his.
12
PLAN ON ME
DECEMBER 16
