"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" I said. I couldn’t picture it. She hadn’t been wearing makeup while she was here, but even bare-faced, wrapped in scarves and coats, I didn’t see that girl she used to be. Allegedly used to be; I’d believe her when I saw pictures.
"I could say the same about you. All I knew about you was you were Mr. Porter’s son. I thought you had to be entitled, spoiled, and arrogant."
"Shit, don't hold back," I said, laughing.
"It was before we talked. I judged you unfairly. I know that now, and I'm sorry about that."
"I think I was wrong about you," I said.
"How?" she asked.
"I thought you were…" I paused. Did I really want to bring it up? She hadn’t all this time, and if I did, she would want to talk about it. I appreciated that she had had all this time to bring up work and she hadn’t. I felt like she understood, or at least respected that I had come up here because I had needed time and space from all that shit. For a while, I had thought of her as just a pawn for Brett, to help him wear me down enough to come back, but I had been wrong. I could have told her, but I decided to keep that one to myself.
"I thought you were a high maintenance princess. That you'd break a nail up here, cry, and demand I take you back down to the town in the snow." She laughed.
"Aren’t you glad you were wrong?" she asked, smiling at me. I was. I had been anxious about staying with her for a number of reasons; at the top of the list was how strongly I was attracted to her but close behind was how I'd deal with a diva if she turned out to be one. Sharing my space in general with someone who I didn't want there and who didn't want to be there either. It had worked out, I guessed. As well as it could have. She probably wished she was at her place where she had access to heat and a hairdryer, but she was here with me and, from what I could tell, didn't hate it.
I was glad it was her. I was happy that I’d had a chance to be proven wrong about who she was. I hadn’t had many expectations going into this but couldn't be mad at how it had turned out. I was getting several days out here with a beautiful woman I otherwise never would have spoken to. The back of the house was completely covered in white. The snow was at least two feet deep in places. We headed back inside when it started coming down again.
"Is it still coming down?"
"Not much but yeah," she said from the window, looking outside. I was setting my bed up for the night on the couch. It had been a couple hours since dinner, and we were both ready to turn in. "It's a lot worse than I thought it would be." I went over and looked. The snowfall was light, but it was still falling. In the morning, there would be a fresh carpet of snow on everything.
"It think it's colder than last night too," she said. Was it? Maybe I was just getting used to the cold.
"I'll add a couple logs to the fire," I said. "Are you going to be okay?" She said that she would. She headed up the stairs to the loft while I adjusted the fire. We were good on wood if we kept using it at the current rate, but if the temperature dropped and we needed more, we would have a problem on our hands. Natalie had told me a story about how her dad had had to go out for firewood in the winter. It wasn't impossible, but it was the worst time to harvest wood, not to mention the most dangerous.
"Cameron?" I turned, looking over my shoulder at her. She was at the foot of the steps, standing with her arms crossed. "Do you want to come up?"
"To the loft?"
"Yeah. I mean," she shrugged, "I feel kind of bad for taking your bed from you. It's big enough for the both of us, and it's cold tonight so," she shrugged again.
"Are you sure?" I asked. She nodded, turned, and went up to the loft. I followed her, swallowing. My mind went to one place, and I hated myself for it. Her body that morning in the mirror. I didn't know whether this was a good idea, but my legs look me up the stairs to the loft. She was already in the bed, facing the wall. I turned the light out and got in the other side. The bed was big, she was right, but she didn't have to be close to me to feel her there.
It didn't matter where she was, I felt her.
"Goodnight," I said quietly.
"Goodnight," she replied. I didn't move. I didn't think. I hardly breathed. If I had been tired before, I wasn’t anymore. I had imagined being able to be this close to Natalie the past couple nights, what I would do to her… how her lips would feel wrapped around my…fuck. I felt myself getting hard. She sighed from beside me. I felt her move. She was still awake. Down boy, I thought, trying to keep it together. We were adults, not wild animals. If the situation had been different, maybe I wouldn’t have had to keep it reeled in, but I could be a gentleman tonight Could be? I had to be. If she wakes up with your hard-on poking her in the back, she’ll run down that mountain to get away from you.
Some time passed, could have been a minute, maybe an hour, but she moved again, and then I felt her. I was on my back. She was so close I could feel the heat coming off of her. I turned to look at her, making out the shape of her body in the dark. This was a disaster; why did I ever think I'd be able to do this? I reached out and touched her, ran my hand down her arm, turning so I was facing her body. She pushed her back into my chest. I slid my hand under the covers and wrapped my arm around her, pulling her into me.
She turned, twisting her head around so she looked at me. In the dark, our eyes found each other. I took my arm from around her and cupped her face. She didn't flinch or try get away from my touch. That was enough for me. I kissed her. Our lips met, and she moved suddenly, maneuvering herself on top of me. I sat up as she straddled my lap, kissing her again, cupping her face as my mouth and tongue tasted her for the first time.
It was like that release you got after holding tight to something and finally being able to let go. Finally. I kissed her desperately. Her fingers wound through my hair. My hands cupped her ass, pulling her in closer to me. I slid them up under her layers, to her smooth skin underneath. I was already hard, rising between us. It would be so easy, so fucking easy, but I had to reel it in. I pulled away, looking at her.
"Natalie?" it was dark. I couldn't really see her. There wasn’t enough light for me to read her face. I needed her to know that if she wasn't sure, she needed to stop me because I didn't know how well I'd be able to stop myself.
"No," she said, pulling the sweater she was wearing over her long-sleeved t-shirt off over her head. "I want you. Please." I kissed her, sliding my hands under the shirt and helping her out of it. I threw it on the far side of the bed and buried my face in her chest. Her skin burned hot under my hands and mouth. She sighed, feeling my mouth on one of her nipples. I cupped her other full, round breast in my hand, tweaking her other one.
Even more perfect than I had imagined. I wrapped an arm around her and lowered her to the bed, getting on top of her. The little light there was reflected off her ivory skin. If her coming up here after me had led to this, I owed her a lot more than just a thank you.
Chapter Twenty
Natalie
"Cameron... Ca—" my words caught in my throat as I moaned. My hips bucked forward, but he held me down to the bed. He groaned, licking and sucking my sensitive folds. Two of his fingers pushed into me, thrusting in and out rhythmically. I ran my fingers through his soft, messy hair, writhing as he pleasured me.