“Good.” Alec dumped her in the snow and quickly rolled to his knees, which brought him face to face with the dog’s back end. “I’ve about had it with you and your snarling, lapping—” Alec went to adjust his grip on the lead, and the slight jostle was the opening the beast needed.
Hugh leapt forward, wrenching the lead out of Alec’s hands, and bolted into the woods, funneling a spray of snow behind him and coating the few remaining parts of Alec that had managed to stay dry.
Alec stumbled to his feet and ran after the dog, holding back a curse as a second chunk of snow slid beneath his trousers and down his backside. Once he picked his way through the wooded area, he cornered Hugh, who had his snout down to the ground in front of a small den, with his arse in the air, his tail swaying from side to side as though he were waiting to collect his prize.
Alec snatched up the lead, squatted down, and brought his face right fucking close to the bastard, grabbing fistfuls of whatever scruff he could hold. “Do I need to call your father? Hmm? Or I’ll do you one better,” he said, adopting his best dad voice. “Do I need to cut back on your treats? Were the two whole pretzels the size of hubcaps that you demolished earlier not enough? Oh, I know. I think I’ll fancy switching to a vegan lifestyle for a bit. See how happy you’ll be once I replace your rib eyes with those genetically engineered plant-based meat crumble things.”
The threat earned him a drool-laced harumph that flung sticky strands all over Alec’s coat collar.
“That’s what I thought. Next time, you’ll think better about chasing after a bit of foxy skirt.”
“How do you know the fox was female?” Marisa ascended the shallow embankment and leaned her hip against the only patch on a nearby boulder that had managed to stay clear of snow and Hugh’s havoc.
Upon seeing Marisa join them, Hugh perked up again, and that tail became a speedy metronome of excitement against Alec’s sodden leg.
Exhausted, he groaned as he got upright, rolled his sore shoulder out a time or two, and gestured grandly toward the canine and the dog’s unavoidable erection, both of which were cheerfully engaged in lusty adoration upon seeing Marisa. “No male like him runs that hard after a creature unless he’s sure she’s a woman. It’s not worth the energy, otherwise.”
Marisa leaned down where Hugh was sitting and cocked her head, squinting in the general direction between his legs. Alec smothered a laugh, then waited for it as, sure enough, she jolted upright and immediately looked skyward, a heated flush creeping up her cheeks.
Yup. She definitely saw it.
Any other time, he would have enjoyed stretching out their bit of banter. It had become something he looked forward to with more regularity. Her teasing and him feigning tolerance for it. But there was an uncertainty sparking in her eyes that he didn’t like, and he was reminded of where they were and how much time he had left to be the one responsible for her care. Per their arrangement, at least.
“Are you all right?”
She rubbed her shoulders. “I’m fine. A bit shaken up, but I’ll survive.”
I’ll survive. He liked those words about as much as he liked the prospect of playing for Argentina. By all the beer in Scotland, there had to be so much more to the human condition than just fucking survival, right?
“Wait here a moment. Let me tie him up, and I’ll check you over.”
This time, Hugh obligingly meandered toward the tree Alec selected, which had a nice flat patch of undisturbed snow perfect for a mastiff-sized crater to be carved out in. As expected, the dog got to work immediately scooping out his own sort of den, then circled the space twice before finally settling down for a bit.
It wasn’t until all the noises had fallen away that Alec noticed where they were. Hugh had pulled them off one of the park’s paved walkways into the woods but not so far that they couldn’t still see and hear the people and dogs over at the tents. The sounds were there but muffled, like the quiet hum of tenants in an apartment building behind closed doors as they moved through the hallways. Tree trunks of various sizes cordoned off most of the view across the fields but didn’t shield them away from the world entirely. At the edge of their wooded haven, nature had been kind enough to grant them a little snowy cocoon of seclusion.
And if there was one thing Alec knew as a figure in the public eye, it was that privacy rarely stuck around as long as he needed it to.
He returned to the boulder where Marisa had situated herself, but now both of her mittens had been removed. Her hat, on the other hand, still sat sturdily on her head, framing her lovely face. “How on earth did that hat stay on through all that mess?”
She grabbed a fistful of hair that poked out and hung over her shoulder, along with one of the pom-pom tassels, and shook it for effect. “Behold the power of frizz. Able to adhere to woolen fabrics with a single touch. Once the molecular bond is fully activated, no known substance can ever remove its?—”
Alec leaned forward, swiped his hand through some snow, and slid his slick palm beneath the wool, freeing the hat neatly from her head.
“Hey!”
“Water dissipates static electricity.” He held up the garment for emphasis, then shoved it into the pocket of his coat. “Besides, you’re quite bonny without it.”
The admission was a happy thing, he found, allowing some of the tightness in his chest to alleviate whenever he was caught off guard by how enticing she was.
Marisa shifted on her feet, seemingly uncertain where to look. “I think that’s the adrenaline talking. You’re still probably hyped up on all those fight-or-flight hormones. Your judgment’s compromised. You can’t be trusted.” As soon as the words were out, Marisa paled at what they’d seemingly implied and fluttered her hands in front of his face as words of apology slipped from her lips. “I didn’t mean that. Shit. I’m so sorry. There’s nothing wrong with your brain. You can absolutely be trusted. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have asked you to kiss me in front of hundreds of people, or asked you to pretend to be my boyfriend, or wondered whether all those times you put your arm around me was part of the ground rules. You know, we really never did hammer those out. But regardless, they have nothing to do with your injury, and I was a complete asshole for cracking a judgment-based joke at your expense.”
“Oh, hush, woman. My mind is fine. I took no offense.” He swept forward in a smooth rush and caught her up against him, holding her beneath his chin and rubbing her back until he could somehow convince her central nervous system that it didn’t need to be in survival mode all the damn time. At least not with him.
“Are you sure? Because I am really good at saying stupid shit when . . .”
If he hadn’t become so finely attuned to her, he would have missed it, the way her heart kicked up just a bit higher against his, hammering him with a fine flutter he could feel even through their coats.
He held her away from him and lifted a brow. “Are you nervous?”
