She shivered. Whether from the cold or his proximity, she couldn’t tell. But the space he took up—the sheer size of him—moved the dial heavily on the side of arousal. Her breathing picked up.
It was more than his size, if she was honest. His smell was freaking ambrosia. Crazy, considering how ripe they both should be. Although maybe not, in temperatures like these. And at least they’d bathed using wipes.
“Okay. I’m in bed.” God, that voice did things to her insides. Scraped her raw, leaving goose bumps in its wake. “Now what?”
She huffed out a laugh. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t have to do anything.” He let out his own soundless laugh that reverberated against her chest. “It’d be challenging in here anyway. Impossible.”
“What if I want to?” Her mouth barely moved, but the whisper was perfectly audible in their cocoon.
Crap, where was the smart woman? The one who learned from past mistakes? The one with too much pride to run after a guy who kept pushing her away?
The problem was that, just as she’d given up all hope, the Ice Man had gone and surprised her. If he’d been different—bossy or entitled or at all an asshole—she’d have brushed him off, no problem. His generosity, this vulnerability, was like a spark to her tinder. The opposite of Hugh, who’d felt entitled enough to plow through her defenses.
That was something she’d unpack later.
Right now, the hand he settled on her hip was burning a hole through two base layers. With gloves on.
“How about another kiss then?” he whispered, the words nothing but puffs of air against her ear, so easy to ignore if she chose.
Yeah right.
The problem with being a hothead, as Mama had always reminded her, was that she didn’t just make quick decisions—she dove into them headfirst. Those rash choices had left a trail of blood, tears, and regret a mile wide behind her.
Then again, they might not survive this, in which case…
“Okay,” she said, before reason could stomp all over this need coursing through her.
Their lips had been cold outside, the kiss fast and hot.
This was different. Sliding into a warm bath after a bracing dunk in the ocean.
She pressed her mouth to his for one heated second before pulling away, already breathless. Already drunk.
Their foreheads met with a lightthunk. A few breaths passed between them, like acclimation, though not to the cold or the elevation, but to this new level of intimacy.
When he finally moved, it was a gentle dip, his nose to hers in an achingly slow exploration that shouldn’t have been provocative. She strained for his mouth, but he denied her.
Like a big cat toying with its prey, he stroked his cheek along hers, scruff to soft skin. Just that move made her choke back a moan. How would it be if they could take their clothes off? If skin touched all over?
Deliberately, gently, he ran his nose beneath her ear and a sound escaped him. A tiny, tight-lipped hiss that she’d never have caught if he weren’t so near.
“Ford.” With her arm wrapped around him, she did her best to urge him toward her. But he denied her. The man was so freaking stubborn.
“Shhhhhh.”
In frustration, she tilted her head for a kiss, getting nothing but his tight, rough jaw. He must have liked it, though, because it pushed him to lean lower and bite her, through her shirt, at the junction of neck and shoulder.
And then, oh God, then he kept her pinned with his mouth, stilling her, while he finally stroked his hand, lazy as a lion basking in the sun, from her head to her neck, then down her side, bypassing the obvious draw of her breasts, to clamp her hip, holding it still when she hadn’t even realized she was fidgeting.
Owningher.
Slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, he shifted above her until she could feel every hard bit of him, put his mouth to hers, and took the kiss from her. She couldn’t find another word for the way his lips explored hers, the way he slanted them and softly—but so freaking perfectly—showed her what he liked. Slow, firm, knowing.
A moan escaped her and he responded with a grunt of his own as he pressed deeper, kept her there with his melted Ice Man magic.
When finally he used his tongue, it was like they’d never done it before, like outside hadn’t happened. A first taste of a rare ingredient that would change her palate forever.
