Oh, god. What the hell iswrongwith me?
I’d just survived a near death experience, I was missing the epic Lockwood family Christmas celebration, and I was freezing my little snow globes off—yetthat’swhere my brain went? To licking a total stranger’s sweaty abs? Honestly!
Note to self: next time, ask the docs to examine my head instead of my heart.
“What can I do for you?” the sexy stranger asked, finally meeting my eyes. But once he pinned me with his steely gaze, all I could do was keep on gaping. His body was a thing of beauty, but those eyes were downright hypnotic, the color of flint and just as hard. The kind of eyes that hid a thousand secrets. The kind that broke a thousand hearts.
For a moment, the mysterious stranger and I just stood there, not speaking, locked in the most intense stare. Obvious hotness aside, there was something so familiar about him, so…magnetic. When I opened my mouth to respond, the first words that popped into my head were—inexplicably—I missed you.
He pulled the door shut behind him and stepped out onto the porch, and the moment between us passed.
A cough wheezed its way out of my chest.
“Merry… Merry Christmas,” I finally managed, my hand pressed to my heart. Poor thing was banging like a trapped animal, and I needed to slow it down with some deep breathing, but the icy air was still gnawing away at my lungs.
“You okay?” he asked, those flint eyes narrowing. “You’re not looking too hot.”
“Can I… can I…” I swallowed hard. A wave of dizziness slammed into my body, throwing me off balance. I closed my eyes to stop the spinning, but it was too late. The porch tipped sideways, my legs buckled beneath me, and then I was pitching forward with all the grace of kid learning to ice skate, crashing headlong into those sexy abs.
The man had amazing instincts. He darted forward and grabbed me, steadying me against his bare chest and saving me from hitting the ground.
I was safe and secure in his strong, muscular arms, but my head felt like a balloon on a string, my thoughts floating away on the breeze.
“You’re really warm,” I said suddenly, giggling like an idiot. I was breathing hard, the lack of oxygen in my blood making me goofy. “Like,superwarm.”
I grinned up at him.
He scowled down at me.
And then my world went black.
