“You look confused,” he said, voice low and with a tone of amusement.
There wasn’t even a hint of irritation that I was elbow-deep in his cupboard. So either he had nothing to hide, or he was really good at hiding it.
“I’m looking for tea,” I said, trying to sound casual and not like I’d just been rifling through his kitchen like a hungry raccoon. “Preferably peppermint.”
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stomped over to the fireplace and neatly stacked the wood next to it. Then he grabbed a towel hanging on the wall I hadn’t noticed before and started drying off. Arms, shoulders, chest. I tried not to stare and failed. I mean, who goes out into a blizzard topless and comes back looking like a Calvin Klein ad?
“I don’t have peppermint,” he said. “Will green tea do?”
His arm brushed mine as he reached past me for the tea tin, and suddenly the air felt thicker, like the cabin had shrunk around us. I turned my head at the exact wrong moment… or was that the right moment?
Our faces were inches apart, close enough that I could feel the heat rolling off his bare chest, even in the chill of the cabin. Heat radiated off him, his chest still damp from snow, muscles flexing with casual ease. My breath caught. His scent wrapped around me, all pine and smoke and freshly fallen snow.
My knees wobbled when his eyes locked on mine, and for a second, I forgot how to breathe. They weren’t just looking at me, they were undressing me, stripping me down layer by layer.
Heat rushed through me, as his gaze dropped to my mouth and lingered there. My lips parted on instinct before I could stop them. My heart thudded hard, like it knew something, but my brain hadn’t caught up to it yet.
I was so sure that any moment now, he’d close the gap between our lips, and—
Axel handed me the tea like nothing had happened. I stared at the tin a full second before I managed to collect myself.
He was already filling up the kettle and putting it on the stove.
“Want one?” I asked, grabbing the two giant mugs still on the drying rack.
“Sure. Thank you.” He dug in the freezer and brought out a tray of that frozen lasagna he’d stocked up on, as well as a chicken pot pie. “Which one?” he asked.
“Do we have garlic bread?”
“We have garlic, butter, and bread. Does that count?”
“Sure does. The lasagna then.”
Axel set the lasagna on the counter and reached for a pan, bare-chested and completely unaware of the havoc he was causing in my brain. The storm outside still raged, but inside, the cabin had settled into something quiet and strangely intimate.
The kettle hissed, and I poured us both mugs of green tea. Steam curled between us, fogging up more than just the windows. Something thick and electric hung in the air.
I didn’t know how to explain it, but things felt... right. And I couldn’t believe I’d thought for even a millisecond that this man, who was currently chopping garlic to make me garlic bread, could harm me.
Finding my ex-husband balls-deep in the neighbor’s wife was bad enough. But when I realized he’d been funneling money out of our joint accounts to gamble, I was sure I’d sworn off men forever. But seriously, does abstinence still count when you’re getting railed by life?
Either way, Axel was giving me second thoughts.
And maybe getting stranded wasn’t so bad after all.
Chapter 4
Axel
“Youalwayscookandserve dinner half naked? Or is this a special occasion?” There was a lilt of tease in her voice, and I was glad that Ella was starting to truly relax around me. I guess a good meal could do that.
“You complaining?”
She grinned. “Nope. A dinner and a show. What more could I ask for?”
The serving fork looked awkward in her hand, and she tried to use it to eat her pasta. I regretfully didn’t stock any normal-sized cutlery in my home. But after the initial shock, she seemed to take it in stride, just like she’d done earlier when I’d handed her a mug of hot cocoa the size of a soup bowl.
I leaned in and caught her gaze, a smile lifting the corner of my lips. “Is that your way of asking for a real date?”
