The storm howls outside.
* * *
The room breathes around us.
* * *
And I lower us both into the kind of night that changes everything— not rushed, not careless, but full of need and connection and the hunger we’ve been circling from the very first kiss. I work her with my fingers until her slick heat drenches my digits. Only then do I push my long, hard length in her slowly inch by delicate inch feeling her clinch around me. Her body taking me in deeper and deeper with every thrust.
When it finally softens, when her fingers relax against my back and her breath evens out against my chest, I hold her like she’s something I was always meant to find.
And for the first time in a long damn time… I feel calm inside.
Twelve
Holley
The first thing I hear is the wind—howling, battering the sides of the cabin, rattling the windowpanes like a living creature desperate to get in. For a moment, half-asleep, wrapped in warm blankets and an even warmer body, I don’t understand what’s happening. Everything feels too soft, too safe.
Then Tony breathes behind me.
That’s when I remember.
The shower.
The bed.
His hands on my skin, his body wrapped around mine, the slow, burning way the night unfolded.
Heat spreads through me, even as the cold outside tries to claw its way in.
His arm tightens around my waist, pulling me back into his chest. He’s still half-asleep, voice low and gravelly. “Morning, trouble.”
There’s something about the nickname that all but melts me.
I shift slightly, blinking toward the window. It’s nothing but white—snow piled in thick waves, wind whipping it sideways, sky a swirling, merciless blur.
“Oh my god,” I whisper. “It’s a blizzard.”
“Mm-hmm.” Tony nuzzles his face into my neck, unbothered. “Storm rolled in fast.”
Fast is an understatement. It looks like someone turned the world into a snow globe and shook the hell out of it.
I reach for my phone on the nightstand, squinting at the screen.
Five missed calls from work people.
Three voicemails.
And a text from work:
OFFICE CLOSED. WHITEOUT CONDITIONS. DO NOT DRIVE. WE WILL UPDATE WHEN ROADS CLEAR.
I stare at it long enough that Tony cracks one eye open.
“Work?” he asks.
“Closed. They shut down the whole office.” I let out a long breath. “The roads are probably a nightmare.”
