His body stilled, meeting my gaze. “First one there gets to drive.”
He bolted across the room like a rocket before my brain could compute. He grabbed his plate and cup and rushed to the sink, tossing them inside before beelining it to grab his coat and gloves warming by the fire. Not one to lose willingly, I stood, grabbing my cup and plate and rushing toward the fireplace for my own clothes.
“Now don’t drive too fast out there, you two. The snow hides lots of valleys in the fields. Be careful and stay out of trouble.”
There was a chorus of “yes, ma’am” and “okay, Grandma’ as we jostled and bumped into each other, laughing and cheating like crazy while bending and hopping on one foot trying to shove feet in coveralls and boots, arms in coats, and zipping up all the things needing zippered. Just before I could rush past him and out the front door, his arms wrapped around my waist, picking me up off the ground and moving me behind him.
“I changed my mind!” Grandma called after us. “Get in all the trouble you want.”
Her words were lost in the wind. I jumped on his back, trying to slow him down as he barreled out the door, stopping only to close it tightly. Instead of releasing me though, he hooked his arms around my legs and shifted me higher on his back as he navigated the snowdrifts on the porch. My arms slid around his neck and shoulders and the grin on my face became a permanent fixture.
“What happens if it’s a tie?” I asked
“Not going to happen.”
He ran with me like I didn’t even slow him down. Stomping through the large snow drifts caused his breathing to come in heavier, but he kept a good pace. I was being jostled and bumped and nearly bit my tongue off, but I had no regrets.
“Scared if you put me down I’ll win?”
“I’m just keeping my enemy close.” He stopped for a second and in one quick move, flung me higher up his back and took off at a jog. ”It’s Tactical Warfare 101.”
His cowboy hat prevented me from seeing much, but the second we were in sight of the shed which housed the snowmobile, he broke into a run.
We were both laughing as he barreled forward. I tried to escape from his grip, but he held firm. I wasn’t sure exactly what we were fighting for. To me, it felt like we were both winning, but I always did love driving the snowmobile. No matter what I did to try and escape, my attempts were easily thwarted. (I mean, I was trying SUPER hard to make the hot cowboy man stop carrying me.) I was a tiny fly to him. As much as I didn’t want to, my pride demanded I find a way to escape so I could win. Without thinking much beyond the idea of winning, I tilted his hat to the side of his head and pressed my mouth to his ear.
At my angle, I could only get at the part just above the lobe, the flat, curvy part at the top. It felt like a cold, bendy popsicle. After a few seconds, it had warmed considerably. I teased it with my teeth, softly biting down on the cartilage.
Suddenly we weren’t moving anymore. He had stopped and released his hold on my legs. I slid down his backside like a fireman’s pole. He turned around and pressed in close to me, his hand firm around my wrist, staying me.
It took a long moment before I dared to look at him. Fire, heat, laughter, and intrigue shone through his eyes. “Is that how we’re gonna play?” he mumbled, his arms snaking around my waist.
I was too in the moment to allow myself to appreciate the way his arms felt around me. I had to see this through. Standing on my tiptoes, I bypassed his willing lips, and moved once again to his ear. “You’ve always been a sucker, Bennett,” I whispered.
His body stilled as I broke away from him, bolting toward the shed. He recovered quickly, but I was still able to open the shed door and launch myself inside, slamming the door in his face. Laughing like a maniac, I stumbled my way in the dark to the snowmobile. Once I found it, I jumped on and put my hands on the handlebars, staking my claim proudly.
The door stayed shut. A moment later, the shed’s garage door lifted up the tracks loudly, blinding me with light and revealing a smoldering cowboy. He stared dangerously at me—a peacock strutting his feathers proudly—and other than the quirk of his lips, he said nothing. Walking past me, he grabbed two five-gallon buckets Grandpa had sitting against the wall and tied them onto the back of the snowmobile. I started the machine, revving the engine while he did so. A moment later, his solid body settled in behind mine and pulled me back against him in a sexy mashup that was somewhere between a hug and a squeeze.
“Jokes on you, Lou. This is exactly where I wanted to be.”
I drew in a deep breath as flaming arrows of light blasted through my central nervous system. Goosebumps broke out on my entire body as his warm breath tickled my ear. The entire ride I found myself biting my lip to attempt to control the grin bursting at my seams. Grandma was right, the valleys were full of hills and bumps but all it did was force Dusty to hold on even tighter. As the adrenaline slowly dissipated from my body, I wondered for the first time just what I may have impulsively started here.
* * *
The rideto the creek was warm and cozy, despite the snow starting up again. My feelings were somewhere between cloud nine and sheer terror. Dusty kept a careful and tight hold on me because the pathway was super duper dangerous.
How did all this turn so fast? How did we go from casual acquaintances getting to know one another again to ear nibbling, flirty, touching hormonal teenagers? It happened so fast. So naturally. Like both of us had been expecting it all along.
We pulled up alongside the creek. I turned the machine where he pointed and soon enough we were stopped in front of a frozen stream. A mixture of snow-covered pine trees and Quaking Aspens lined both sides of the river. I killed the engine.
We sat in awkward silence, neither of us wanting to break the spell. Or perhaps, whatever had come over us back at the house had been killed along with the engine. Like moving to a new place, maybe the magic was gone here. Since the start of the ride, my mind had begun replaying every overly flirtatious moment I had created. I had BITTEN HIS EAR. Nay. I had nibbled it. Much worse. Ilingered. I had been more seductive about it. It was fine though, we had been hanging out for exactly twenty hours now, so ear nibbling was perfectly acceptable for the run of our relationship.
I could count on three fingers the number of dates I had had the past year and I wasn’t quite sure what had come over me. What kind of woman had possessed my body since I came in contact with him? Not even normal girls go from zero to sixty that fast. Was Ithatstarved for human affection that I would attack any man who showed me the tiniest amount of attention? Human touch? And lest I forget, we were the only two single people around for miles. If there was any other woman here, besides my seventy-five-year-old grandmother, I could be certain it wouldnotbe me getting the attention. It was always the other woman. Humiliation burned its way down from my cheeks and spread like fire to the rest of my body. A flaming dart of embarrassment. There was no way I could face him now. How fast could I run back to the house over snow mounds up to my thigh?
Dusty’s deep voice rumbled into my ear as he pointed ahead of us. “That’s where the magic happened.”
My brows furrowed. “What?”
“Where you tried to have your way with me.”
