This time she laughed. ‘Oh, you know how to charm a girl with your sweet words. Now are we going or what?’
‘Your wish is my command.’ Without another word he grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the waiting Skidoo. Unlike the snowmobile it was smaller and sleeker; more like a motorbike than anything else. Wrapping a blanket around her shoulders, Kitty slung her leg over the seat, nestling into Adam’s broad back.
He reached back and squeezed her thigh. ‘You ready?’
Kitty shrugged. ‘Of course.’ She didn’t know why he was asking. The next moment it all became clear. He pulled the cord and the engine came to life, the whole machine humming between her thighs. Adam leaned forward, Kitty still clinging to his back, and then the Skidoo rushed forward, ploughing the snow into its wake.
If she’d thought about it she would have known he was a speed demon. In spite of his hermit-like habits, Adam was a man of the world, and had spent his adult years skirting on the edge of danger. So when the Skidoo sped across the snow, lifting and falling with the drifts, she held on tightly and prayed he knew what he was doing.
It was scary and shocking, yet so damned exhilarating to be racing through the night forest. She clung to him hard, her hands almost connected across his muscled abdomen, refusing to let go lest she fly off the seat. He gripped on to the handles, manoeuvring the machine around the path through the trees, twisting and turning as if he knew the route well. The light on the front of the Skidoo illuminated their way, casting a glow across the winter wonderland before them. There was something magical about the landscape that made Kitty’s eyes water. A haunting beauty that brought tears to her eyes.
‘You OK?’ His shout carried back in the wind.
She squeezed him in response, th
e squall swallowing her reply.
Just before they reached the clearing that led to his cabin, he took a sharp left, pulling them deeper into the forest. Kitty frowned, still clinging on for dear life. ‘Where are we going?’ Her voice barely audible over the hum of the engine and the noise of the wind.
‘You’ll see.’
Five minutes passed before he cranked down the gears, coming to a stop with a skid that made her almost fall off. She tightened her arms around him, feeling his body shake with laughter. Arsehole.
She was about to tear him a new one when she looked up, and the scene before her took her breath away. They’d stopped just short of a small clearing, a circle of treeless ground that somebody had boarded over. A pergola rose up over the decking, the wooden beams twisted with sparkling lights. It was like a fairy-tale grotto in the middle of the forest. Beautiful and unexpected.
‘What is this place?’ she asked him as he climbed off then offered his hand to her.
‘It’s been here for years,’ he told her. ‘Long before we ever bought the house. I never could work out why somebody would build something like this in the middle of the forest.’ His eyes warmed as he helped her off the Skidoo, then pulled her close to him. ‘But maybe I do now.’
‘Did you put the lights up?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, they’re battery powered, so they should last about five minutes longer,’ he told her, raising an eyebrow. ‘But that should be long enough.’
‘Long enough for what?’
‘To prove to you that I can be romantic.’
Her mouth felt dry. He’d done this for her? That was… Jesus, it was amazing. ‘Wow,’ was all she could say.
‘Go stand up on the deck,’ he told her, then grabbed his phone from his pocket, pulling his gloves off to fiddle with it. The next moment music was streaming out, as Adam placed his phone on the wooden balustrade, and walked over to where she was standing.
Above them a thousand tiny lights sparkled, and higher still she could see the stars shining through the clear night sky. The air was cold but still as he took her hand in his, placing his other hand on the small of her back.
‘What’s this music?’ she murmured, listening to the deep voice crooning through the night air.
‘It’s Marvin Gaye,’ he told her. ‘It’s called “I Want to Come Home for Christmas”. A classic.’ With the gentlest of pressure on her back, he pulled her to him, leading the dance as his feet moved across the boards with ease. A slow, sensual waltz that took them across the deck, as she melted into him like a candle with a burning flame.
‘Marvin knows how to seduce,’ she said softly. So did Adam. She couldn’t help but feel full of emotion as they continued to dance, their bodies swaying together. Nobody had ever done anything like this for her before. It was like being in a movie, except there were no cameras or directors, no booms or lighting. Just the two of them, and the night, and Marvin Gaye’s sweet, soulful voice. ‘I feel like I should be wearing a yellow gown, and maybe a singing teapot should be jumping up and down in the corner.’
Adam laughed. ‘Does that make me the beast?’
She looked up, stroking his dark beard. ‘It makes you the nicest, kindest man I’ve ever met.’ How did she not see it before? When they’d first met she’d thought him gruff and angry, but looking back he’d been anything but. His first thought when he saw that deer had been to put it out of its misery.
And he’d done all this for her.
‘He might have been a beast,’ she said, as he twirled her towards the edge of the deck, ‘but I bet he and Beauty had great sex. All that testosterone.’
Adam grinned. ‘I’m trying to be romantic, and you’re all dirty and talking about bestiality. What am I going to do with you?’