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“Maple Falls is magical,” she said.

“Yeah,” Cole said. “It is.” He was leaning against the fire truck, hands in his coat pockets, watching her come down the inn steps.

She looked at him. He watched her in the quiet, attentive way he had. The Christmas lights were doing something very unfair to the angle of his jaw, and Emily thought, I am so far gone on this man, and I don’t mind at all.

Her eyes moved to the fire truck behind him.

Cole noticed. He always noticed.

He looked at the truck. Then back at her.

The silence stretched with the weight of the next moment.

“You said next time…” she said.

His mouth twitched. “I did,” he said.

“And your truck is still parked right here.”

His eyes darkened.

Snow fell around them in soft, dizzy flakes, catching in his hair, melting against the hard line of his cheek. For one suspended second, neither of them moved.

Then Emily stepped closer, rose onto her toes, and kissed him softly. Sweetly.

A complete lie, really, considering what she was thinking.

She pulled back just far enough to brush her mouth against his ear.

“It’s next time.”

Cole went very still.

Then he exhaled, low and rough, and pushed away from the fire truck.

“Get in, Whitaker.”

Her stomach flipped.

“That’s very bossy, Alders.”

He opened the passenger door and looked at her like he knew exactly how this night was going to end.

“Good.”

The fire station bay was quiet at nearly midnight, lit only by low emergency lights along the floor. The massive red engine gleamed darkly in the shadows, all polished metal and sleeping power, and Emily’s heart was racing.

She’d been here before, in daylight, when the place smelled like coffee and gear and the steady rhythm of men who knew exactly what they were doing. But it looked different now. Everything looked different now.

Cole shut the bay door behind them, sealing out the snow and the rest of Maple Falls.

For a moment, neither of them said anything.

Emily stood near his truck, suddenly aware of every inch of herself beneath her coat. The velvet pantsuit she’d worn tonight was gone now, left folded in the office after she’d slipped out of it with fingers that were not nearly as steady as she’d pretended. Underneath, she wore almost nothing at all.

Cole’s gaze moved over her, slow and careful, as he lifted her coat off her shoulders.

His eyes filled with heat, his pupils melting into darkened pools, and the desire made her forget the cold entirely.