He yelped. “Hey now.”
“You deserve it for scaring me like that.” I grumbled with a small smile while the buzz in my body morphed into something totally different.
A glimmering look flashed through his eyes and I think Ifelt it more than saw it in the darkness, “And you deserve all kinds of things that I can’t wait to give to you, pretty girl.” Carter cupped my hands between his and blew hot air on them before kissing each of my palms, sending a strike of heat through my entire body.That was certainly one way to warm up.
“Was scaring me worth it?” I asked skeptically, already missing his warmth as he stepped away from me. “I would have wandered all night before I cut through all those creepy-crawlies to get out of here.” I involuntarily shivered with the heebie-jeebies.
Carter pulled his hoodie up over his head, and I shivered for an entirely different reason as I watched his shirt slide up, revealing his toned stomach. “What?” He asked, shaking out his hair in that adorable way he used to before he bunched up the collar of his hoodie.
“So help me, this better not have a single spider on it.” I complained, my voice muffled as he pulled the warm fleece over me.
“Why would it have spiders on it?” Carter said, while he adjusted the oversized hood around my face, looking amused.
“Didn’t you cut through the middle?” I shoved my arms into the sleeves, relishing in the intoxicating smell of him now wrapped all around me.
“No, I followed the light you were waving around like a madman.” He huffed a laugh.
“Oh.” I looked up at him for a long minute, a weird feeling settling in my chest.
His jaw flexed, and an equally strange look settled over his expression. “Sara, why are you asking me that?”
I shook my head and cinched the hood tightly around my face, not caring if I looked dumb. I was freezing my tits off, and besides, Carter had already seen more of me last night than my short little dress was currently revealing. So much for being mysterious. “I may or may not have gotten spooked—I thought someone was following me.” I admitted, shoving my nose into the fleece, eyes practically rolling back asI inhaled deeply.
“Hmm.” Carter looked around, a mildly concerned look flooding his expression. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
“Yeah,” I quietly agreed. “This place is giving me the creeps.” But I was completely startled by Carter’svery quickpace as he deftly moved us through the maze.
“You know you’ve been going in circles for the last ten minutes?” He seemed distracted as he pulled me along.
My breath curled in the air as I huffed a laugh. “I was just getting my steps in.”
“Sure you were, pretty girl.” He chuckled, but it sounded hollow, and my stomach dropped when he looked over his shoulder—his jaw tense as his eyes swept each row in an almost tactical sort of way.
Did he really believe that someone had been following me? That would be ridiculous, right? “You’re in a hurry.” I said as casually as I could.
Without missing a beat. “Just trying to get you out of the cold.”Hmm.
With Carter’s powerful hand wrapped tightly around mine, I followed him through the maze as he made one confident turn after another.
“How do you even know where you’re going?” I still couldn’t make heads or tails of where we were.
He shrugged. “I’m directionally blessed. What can I say?”
“Thank God for that.” I wondered how Sloane, Cade, and Liam were faring. “By the way.” I lowered my voice to an outraged whisper. “Icannot believeyou told Liam about the dildo!”
Carter chuckled, shooting me a long look. “I may have texted him, thinking it was a prank when I initially found it.”
“For the love.” I groaned. “He canneverfind out it was mine.”
Carter’s thumb brushed over the back of my hand. “Yeah, we’re definitely in agreement on that.”
Several turns later, my shoulders sagged in relief when the exit sign illuminated the end of the path.We were going to sleep in our own beds tonight! Yippy-ki-yay-motherfucker!
Carter squeezed my hand three times before letting go of it and then he gripped my shoulders, steering me out of the exit in front of him. “Found her.” He announced proudly, and I gasped when he immediately yanked me back against him—just before a hulking man in a cowboy hat stalked by. The man nearly ran me over with a wheelbarrow full of zombie bodies, looking grumpy as shit. “Watch it.” Carter hissed and then muttered, “Fucking cowboys.”
“You made it!” Sloane laughed, shoving a steaming paper cup into my hand.
“Thanks, I’m freezing.” I groaned, blowing on the sweetly fragrant hot apple cider before I gingerly tried a sip. It was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted in my life.
