“Breathe in. What do you smell?”
I closed my eyes and inhaled.
Then moaned.
Warm. Smoky. Deep.
Pine, cinnamon, and smoke. Like a Christmas spent in front of a fireplace. All warm and cozy. There was an undercurrent of alpha spice that only made it feel more real.
It wrapped around me and settled straight in my chest, as if fitting into a place that had been empty and just waiting for him to show up.
“Scent-matches,” I choked out in shock.
“You’re mine,” he said with certainty. He wasn’t shying away, but excited. “I should’ve known the first time I saw you. The moment you kissed me. I felt it then.”
“So… your mom? Was that all a show to keep me close?” I asked.
“That was desperation,” he said. “But I also couldn’t let you go.”
I swallowed, saying the first thing that popped into my head because I was reeling. “I’d have to quit my job.”
“No,” he said immediately. “Your job is safe. You work in a different department. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine,” I said, pacing now, wearing a path in the fluffy snow. “We are in such different places and I just left a shitty relationship. What if this is all just a rebound? Not real?”
“You know this isn’t like that. Give me two weeks, Aspen. Two.” Cole was pleading now, begging for me to give him a chance. “Let me court you. Let me show you I can be a worthy alpha.”
He looked like he might actually drop to his knees if I didn’t cave.
Everything in me wanted to say yes.
“I said I wanted adventure,” I whispered more to myself than him. “Something unforgettable.”
“Two weeks,” he said again, his brown eyes on fire for me, desperation and pure need lighting them up.
“Two weeks,” I agreed on a whisper that the wind stole away. But he heard me. Cole’s smile was instant.
One hand slid into my hair, another at my hip, tilting my face up as he pressed his lips to mine and kissed me.
This one was slow and commanding, as if he were committing this to memory like I had with the first snow of the season.
My body responded, heat winding through me as if his smoky scent ignited something within me. As if he breathed new life into my cold, jaded heart.
This was what a mate’s kiss should feel like.
When he pulled back, my lips were burning. It wasn’t enough.
“Two weeks,” I whispered again. An attempt to cling to my armor he had already slowly chipped away on the ride here.
We stood there in the snow, breath fogging, hearts racing.
Finally, a cold wind swept through and he snapped back to reality.
“Let’s get inside,” he said quickly. “You’re freezing and it’s time to meet the family. Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Aspen
