His expression changed. Heat and want and something almost vulnerable that made her brave.
“Will you help me put it in?” The question was out before she could stop it. “I want to wear it right now. Show me where it goes? How would a latharian woman have worn it?”
He moved behind her chair and she caught her breath.
Every nerve ending lit up at once as his hands slid into her hair. He gathered up the wayward strands that she could never tame and pulled her hair back and up. Did something complicated with the comb that she could feel but not see. His breath stirred the hair at her neck as he leaned closer, positioning the comb just right.
“Here.” His fingers brushed her neck, lingered against her skin. “Like this.”
A shiver ran through her that had nothing to do with cold. He was so close. She could feel his chest almost touching her back.
“There.” His voice was rough and low. “It suits you.”
She turned her head to thank him and found him right there. Close enough that she could see the gold flecks in his amber eyes. His gaze dropped to her mouth and held.
Her heart hammered against her ribs. She started to lean in, to close that last inch between them?—
“It snowed last night.”
She blinked. “What?”
“Snow. It snowed.” He stepped back and she felt the loss of his heat. He was already moving to grab her jacket… his jacket, the oversized one. “You should see it. Real colony snow. Not weird white Earth snow.”
Her brain stalled. He’d been about to kiss her. She was sure he had. But now he wanted to show her snow? “Now?”
“Now. Before it melts.” He held the jacket out, waited for her to slip her arms in. “Come on.”
Part of her wanted to grab him, pull him down, and finish what they’d started. But his excitement—actual excitement from her grumpy, gruff Goraath—was infectious.
He led her outside and she stopped dead on the porch.
Purple. Everything was purple.
Not just a little purple. Not lavender or mauve or some pale shade she might have expected. This was purple—deep violet and rich plum and every shade between. It coated everything. The ground, the fence posts, the barn roof. The whole world had transformed overnight into something from a fairy tale. Each flake caught the light from the twin suns and sparkled like tiny amethysts.
“Oh my god.”
She stepped forward, and it crunched under her boots, sounding like Earth snow just the wrong color. A laugh bubbled up.
“Holy shit, you were right. It’s purple. It’s really purple.” She spun in a circle, arms out, face tilted to the sky where light flakes still drifted down. “This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
Purple snow landed on her eyelashes, in her hair, melting slow on her skin. She stuck her tongue out to catch a flake.
“It tastes different too!” She laughed again, giddy as a child. “It’s a bit sweet. Earth snow doesn’t taste like anything except cold and pollution.”
She dropped to her knees, not caring about her bandaged hands, and scooped up a handful. It was cold and perfect and… so purple she couldn’t stop staring. “Can you make snowmen with purple snow? Does it pack the same way?”
When she looked up at him, her thoughts scattered.
He was staring at her with an expression she’d never seen before. Intense. Hungry. Like he wanted to devour her whole. His hands clenched at his sides and that muscle in his jaw jumped.
“Goraath?”
He crossed the distance between them in two strides and yanked her up against his bigger, harder body.
Her words died on her lips and she tilted her face up.
This was it, he was going to kiss her.
