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“Thank you for sharing it with me,” Sean said.
“Always,” she said. “In the next few days, I’m going to hit the shops to get quotes for flowers and finger food for my open house, and I don’t want to do it by phone. I want to taste stuff, not order it blind.” Then she leaned her head back against the seat and glanced out the window beside her into the darkness. “It’s sure dark on the mountain. No streetlights whatsoever. Just a black screen of nothing except a white line in the middle of the blacktop and the car as your cursor.”
Sean was surprised by the imagery and her relating it to his work.
“So, where’s the next link? What do I click on?” he asked.
“The lights of the city. And after that my street, and then my house.”
He smiled. “You’ve played this game before, haven’t you?”
“I’ve thought about it. But there’s never been anyone before to play it with,” she said, and then glanced at his profile, highlighted by the dashboard lights.
Sean took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“Why do I feel like the focus of this game just changed and is sliding downhill faster than we are?”
Amalie shrugged. “Probably because life cheated us a little, and we’ve learned the hard way how fast happiness can disappear. I hold on to all things dear.”
The skin crawled on the back of Sean’s neck.
“Am I one of those things?”
“You are my sunshine,” she said softly.
“I have this overwhelming need to kiss you, and I need both hands on the wheel, and…I see lights down below!”
“I know. I’ve been ignoring them. I don’t want this day to end.”
“There will be others. And short of sounding like a stalker, I lost you once. I won’t let that happen again.”
There was a tightening in her chest. At any moment, she felt like she might burst into tears.
“Promise?” she asked.
“Promise,” he said.
As he predicted, the farther down the mountain they went, the less it was snowing. By the time he pulled up in her driveway, it was obvious it hadn’t snowed here at all.
They got out of the car in unison, with Sean carrying her bag of leftovers into the house and Amalie going ahead of him, turning on lights as she went.
“Just set the food on the counter, and thank you for bringing it in,” she said, then took off her coat and wrapped her arms around his neck. “One for the road? And don’t even talk about what we’re both thinking. No slumber party tonight. I want to know you’re home safe before the roads get bad up there, and for us, there’s always tomorrow. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. I found where I belong.”
The kiss was unavoidable. Supper had been foreplay. They had been dancing around this moment for hours.
But it went from gentle to engulfing within seconds. One moment Amalie was in his arms and the next thing she was against the wall, pinned between Sheetrock and a living, breathing wall of man and muscle.
She was at the point of coming out of her clothes when he suddenly lifted his head and stared straight into her eyes. She was still pinned against the wall, so close she could feel the jut of his erection. His breathing was shaky, and yet he hadn’t made a move beyond the kiss.
“Don’t want to leave you,” he said.
She put her hands on his chest, feeling the blood rush of his heart. “And I don’t want you to go, but you’re going to because it’s the sane thing to do, and right now we’re both too close to insanity to make the right choice.”
He nuzzled the side of her neck. “Beautiful. Sexy. And wise. I can’t fight that.”
“Text me when you get home, so I know you’re safe?” she asked.
“Yes. Walk me to the door, and then lock it fast before I change my mind.”
