“Brodie—”
“Just do it. Then open your eyes.” He steadied her, hands on her shoulders.
She opened her eyes. And saw stars. What seemed to be hundreds of tiny stars embedded in the sky above them. It was magical. So completely perfect that for a moment she almost expected to hear sleigh bells and see Santa and his reindeer speeding across the night sky.
“Wow.” She tipped her head back farther, looking at it from different angles. She could feel his hands, strong on her shoulders and was surprised by how good it felt. “Well, who knew a starlight walk could actually be a thing.”
“I only do this for special guests.”
She turned to look at him and for a split second saw the same heat in his eyes that she was feeling inside her. Anticipation was sharp and sweet, and then he pulled her in and kissed her.
There was a moment of shock, and then she sank down into a world that was nothing but sensation. She felt the brush of his thumb across her cheek, the gentleness of his touch a contrast to the deliberate purpose of his mouth. This kiss wasn’t tentative or questioning. It was a declaration of intent. A teasing, tantalizing promise of more to come.
They kissed until she lost all sense of place and time, until there was nothing in her world but Brodie, and stars, stars, stars.
And then finally the cold penetrated and she gave an involuntary shiver.
He felt it and lifted his head, cursed softly and dragged her close, hugging her and warming her.
Dizzy, she put her hand on his chest to steady herself. Her first coherent thought was that Brodie McIntryre might be clumsy at a number of things, but kissing wasn’t one of them. Her second was that she didn’t want this to stop. “Do you only do that for special guests, too?”
He cleared his throat. “That’s a bespoke activity. You said you wanted to see stars when you were kissed. That kind of thing puts a lot of pressure on a guy, so I thought I’d hedge my bets. If you hadn’t closed your eyes when I kissed you, you would have seen stars over my shoulder.”
She rested her head against his chest, laughing. Then she wrapped her arms round his neck and looked up at him. “So tell me—where did you learn to kiss like that?”
“I don’t—I’m not—ah—” He gave a quick smile. “You’re teasing me.”
“Teasing you is fast turning into my favorite activity.”
“I can go along with that. I might even do some teasing myself.” His gaze dropped to her mouth, his head lowered again as if drawn by some magnetic force, and then he shook his head. “No.” He drew back. “We have to get indoors.”
“Brodie—”
His eyes darkened. “We have to—Oh hell—” His mouth slanted over hers again in a brief, hungry kiss. “We shouldn’t—”
“Don’t stop—” But her shivering grew more pronounced, and he pulled away and yanked the zip of her coat up higher.
“Here—” He pulled off his scarf and wrapped it around her neck. “You’re freezing—I’m selfish—let’s go. We’re going inside. Right now. It would help if you didn’t look at me. Definitely don’t kiss me.” He grabbed her hand and half pulled her back through the snow to the cottage, following the tracks they’d made.
It was a good thing he was the sensible one because she would happily have stripped off her clothes right there and then.
She had no idea how her skin could feel cold when she was burning inside.
They reached the cabin and she tried to tug him toward her.
“In a minute—” His mouth grazed hers and he groaned. “You taste good.”
Her hand crept inside his jacket, and he powered her through the door and slammed it shut with his foot.
“Okay, we should probably—”
She grabbed him and hauled him against her, lifting herself on her toes to kiss him. His lips were cool, but there was nothing cool about the erotic heat of his kiss.
Melting with frustration, she fumbled with the zip of his jacket, and he did the same with hers. Mouths fused, they stripped off clothes, hands tangling, fumbling as they stumbled their way to the sofa.
They fell onto it, misjudged because neither were paying attention, and tumbled onto the floor with him underneath.
She heard his head crack and winced.