“Logan, no. You are not my indentured servant.”
I don’t answer her. I just jump out of the car and walk around and open her door. When I step out, she opens her mouth to argue again, but I close the door behind her and gently push her back against it, pressing my body into hers. A wave of warmth floods through me, and then I lean forward until our foreheads touch and her eyes close. This intimacy between us is just as arousing as the feel of her hard body or the touch of her lips.
“Look, I liked sledding with you. I’d like to do it again, with you and River together. If you fall again shoveling these damn stairs, then you won’t be able to toboggin for a while. You’ll be out for the season,” I whisper, and her eyes spring open. “So my intentions are completely selfish here. Also I have to save my shoes from another pukefest.”
She pushes me away with a cackle of laughter. “Well, in that case, how do I say no?”
I grab the shovel from beside the garage, and she approaches the snow covered stairs. She clutches the railing. “I have to take Boss and Stevie out before she pees in the house. Her old bladder waits for no one.”
I watch her climb the stairs very carefully, and she emerges a few minutes later with Boss and Stevie who are both wearing winter coats. I try not to laugh and she gets jokingly defensive. “They’re from Hawaii. They don’t have Chewie’s ability to handle cold.”
She walks by me and to the side yard where she puts them down. I continue shoveling. I get seven of the ten steps done before she climbs them again with the pups.
“Come up when you’re done,” she says when she reaches the porch. “Let me warm you up.”
I stop shoveling and look up at her. She realizes the double entendre at the same time our eyes connect and I watch her skin turn pink, but she doesn’t take it back. She just smiles shyly and my cock stirs in my pants. Somehow, I manage to muster a casual, “Okay.”
When I was a kid I used to loath shoveling the driveway. I would actually pay Terra or Finn half my allowance to help me to cut the torturous chore in half. I once pretended to have the flu and had to miss one of my hockey games, but it was worth it to not have to shovel. But right this second, I’m gleefully shoveling faster or harder than I ever have. Because I needed to get upstairs before she changed her mind about warming me up. There was a brand new condom in my wallet ready to go tonight. If Chloe wanted to pick up where we left off last night, I was ready.
When the stairs are finally spotless, I tuck the shovel against the side of the house and go back to my apartment to get Chewie. It’s better he’s with me so that I don’t have a reason to interrupt whatever we’re about to do. Chewie pulls himself off his bed in the corner of the living room and trots over to me, tail wagging wildly. I rub the top of his head. “Hey Chewie, do me a favor and finish your business tonight as quick as you can so daddy can go upstairs and get naked, okay?”
The dog tilts his head as if he’s actually pondering my words, and then runs past me into the yard. I shut the door to my place and watch him sniff around the yard. Thankfully he chose to humor me and relieves himself super quickly so that we’re climbing the stairs and opening the door to Chloe’s house just a few short minutes later.
“Chloe?” I call.
“Kitchen!” she calls back and I try not to feel disappointment. I was really hoping she’d say bedroom. As soon as I step into the front hall, I smell melted chocolate. I toe out of my boots and watch Chewie rush over to Boss who is by the couch.
He growls at Chewie but both their tails are wagging as they sniff each other’s butts. “You two are dysfunctional.”
I make my way to the kitchen. She’s standing at the island pouring creamy, chocolatey milk from a saucepan into mugs. I start to pull off my gloves. “Hot chocolate?” I ask. “This is what you meant by warming me up?”
She walks around the island and hands me a mug. Her gray eyes focus on mine but I can tell it’s hard. She’s embarrassed. “No. That’s not what I meant, but I’ve never been bold or forward until last night. And as you know by my disappearing act in the middle of the night, that freaked me out. So even though I totally want to be that way with you again… because it suddenly feels insane that I’ve spent five years keeping my hormones on a shelf, the neurotic, shy side of me is winning the battle tonight. So I thought, might as well offer you some more hot chocolate in case I’m too damn shy to let my hormones win tonight.”
I watch the tip of her tongue slip out and wet her bottom lip, then she pulls that lip between her teeth, nervously. I reach up, place my hand under her chin and my thumb gently on that bottom lip and pull it out from her teeth. “If someone is going to bite those lips, I would like it to be me.”
I can see the hesitation melt off her gorgeous features so I lean in and kiss her. Her lips are still cool from being outside, and they open almost upon contact, and her mouth and tongue are warm and inviting. I sweep through her mouth softly, slowly. I almost forget the mugs of piping hot liquid in her hands when I tangle one hand in her hair, but then she starts to break the kiss. Every fiber of my being doesn’t want to stop, but I do and take a step back. I take one of the mugs from her and walk back toward the front hall. “I should get out of this jacket and at least try the hot chocolate before I go back to trying to kiss you senseless.”
We pass Chewie, Stevie, and Boss who are all lying together by her fireplace. Boss is almost on top of Chewie.
“I think your Boss has a bit of a crush on Chewie.”
“As long as he’s happy I don’t care who he loves,” she says with a smile. I laugh and take a sip of hot chocolate.
She watches me intently. I feel her gaze like a warm caress. She’s focusing on my mouth and I can tell she likes it – and what I’ve done with it so far. I want to do so much more with it. I want it on every part of her body. I swallow the thought and the warm beverage in my mouth. “It’s good, but the kiss was better.”
“I agree,” she replies quickly. I turn so we’re face-to-face again and without a word, she takes my mug. When our fingers brush, heat ripples through me.. Chloe places both mugs on the sideboard in the hall next to the bowl she keeps her keys in. By the time she turns back to face me, I’m directly behind her, so close that our bodies brush just about everywhere. I am definitely not complaining.
She reaches up and cups my face and brings it to hers as my arms snake around her waist. I start to get that addictive elixir of need and excitement I felt last night. The one that almost, but not quite, feels the way I would feel when I slipped vodka in my orange juice at the restaurant when I worked shifts as a teen. Back then, alcohol was the only thing that made me feel fully alive. Now, apparently, it’s Chloe Hale.
My hands twist the fabric of her sweater at the base of her back, and I tighten my arms, pulling her so tightly against me I’m worried for a second I might crush her, but she doesn’t seem to mind.
She slips her hands underneath the thick parka I’m still wearing. Her hands move to my shoulders, and she pushes the coat off them. I let go of her only long enough for me to get out of the coat.
I am rock hard inside my jeans, desire getting stronger with every touch. Every kiss sends a sense of urgency coursing through my veins. I know she’s been through a lot with her divorce and her car accident, and I don’t want to fuck this up but…
Oh God it feels so good.
“Should we slow down?” I force myself to ask as my pulse hammers under the graze of her lips skimming the scruff on the side of my neck, just under my jaw. “I really don’t want to freak you out again.”
