“Don't forget to breathe. That’s one of the important ones on the checklist.”
Her glare flattened my lips around a chuckle.
She gripped the edge of the sled. “My ass is too big. You won’t even be able to fit around it.”
All that juicy plumpness spilling off the sled wasn't helping me control my hard-on. “Really? Looks just right to me.”
I folded myself behind her, my thighs against hercomplaint, and savored the feel of her so close for only the second time. Cinching her ass to shoulders against my front, I arranged my feet on the front rail, keeping us steady with one hand on the ground.
“I've got you, beautiful girl.”
I let go and we slid forward. Fallon clutched me like I was her last meal, screaming as we picked up speed. Her voice whipped away as the wind snapped at us. All my strength went into gripping the rope to keep her weight forward so we wouldn't rock side to side. We flew down the hill. Our speed felt ten times faster when we skated so close to the ground.
This was what I had been waiting for my entire life–Fallon raising her arms into the crisp air without a care in the world, the bond sparkling. Her laugh made everything plausible. I would win her to my side when I was able to give her this. We would face anything together.
Anything but Ned sitting calmly at the bottom of the hill as we barreled straight toward him.
“Turn, Dec,” she said.
She shook the arm banded around her. I knew how to maneuver but perhaps I would impress her a little. I used to get the sled to drift.
“Turn now!”
Ned didn’t move a muscle. His hot breath dusting us as we skidded hard to the right. I wrapped completely around Honey as we tumbled, rolling into the snowdrifts, limbs flying everywhere. My fear spiked. I messed thisup. The only thing she asked was not to get hurt and our first run had us spilling off the sled.
Flat on her back in the drift, I lay on top of her for a moment, gathering the nerve to read her expression because all I sensed through the bond was static. Stealing a peek at her, her hands suddenly shoved me up. I popped up on my hands and knees. As my heaviness left her, she gasped out a laugh. When she regained her breath, her mirth only grew louder.
“That…” Her heavy breathing drew my eyes to her chest. Her blue cable-knit sweater obscured everything, but my hands remembered their gentle weight.
“That was incredible! Better than riding Evie as a dragon.”
She started up and I went to scramble off her completely but she caught the back of my neck and kissed me. Not the peck that our ruse had obliged her to give me in the kitchen, but her lips wrapping around mine with a wet heat that made me want to bite down. I gripped her curls right back, my fingers threading through them, tightening all my need to the snapping point. Her mouth only left mine long enough to change the angle of her attack. My tongue flicked out to taste more of her. She eagerly tried to suck on it. I never thought that would actually be hot but I was about to immolate the surrounding snow.
Her tiny groan flitted over the snow, but so did the heavy panting right by my head. Afraid I crushed her, Ipulled back for just a moment to make sure she wasn’t panting in the bad way and her head turned to Ned, who plopped right next to us.
“Just ignore him,” I whispered, not wanting to break the spell.
She turned to me, scooching back just enough that my heart crashed down.
“I can’t. He sounds likea creepy old man.”
The moment was definitely over and I couldn’t stand the thought she might twist it into another justification for our fake mating.
Thanks, Ned.
Unrepentant, Ned flattened his front half into the snow and then zoomed in a circle, making Fallon laugh.
“Did we almost squish you?” When he stopped again, she grabbed Ned’s floppy face and squished it instead. He gave her wet kisses and she pushed him away, beaming at me. Her radiance poured into my soul and all of our collective hours together melded into this moment.
“Again, Dec. Let’s go again!”
If I got to kiss her like that at the end of every ride, we would never leave the hills.
I presented my back and she hopped on, her legs wrapped around me as I pulled the sled behind us. Ned barked the entire way up the hill in his excitement. Fallon eagerly positioned herself on the sled and I took comfort in plastering her to me again. As we took off for another run, Ned raced beside us until he flattened himselfand slid on his belly for the last bit of the rise. Fallon chased after him until the snow defeated her and I carried her up the hill again.
By the time we got to the bottom, two pairs of eyes were waiting for us. Briggs and Cosomo barely contained their enthusiasm, ribbing us for getting the freshest powder. Fallon sassed a ‘snooze, you lose’ before all but pulling me onto the sled. Ned chased us with tongue lolling, all of our breath fogging into the crisp air.
At the top of the hill, Fallon turned to me. “Can you beat Ned to the bottom?”
