Snow Kissed

Chapter 9

“W-what?” I blinked at him.

He became plagued with my same inability to form words. “I -I shouldn't like you. We're so... different.”

“You like me?”

He groaned and brushed his hair of the sawdust again. “Shit.”

Shit was right! But my chest and head were arguing with each other.

“What do you mean you like me?” I finally asked.

“You don't understand what that means?”

Not coming from a guy! I should have known, though.

Ean looked me over. “Don't worry, I'm trying to process this information myself--”

“I'm sorry about your wife,” I cut him off.

He stopped, “She was my fiance.”

I let out a short breath. “Well, I'm sorry.”

His formal silence obviously meant he wasn't going to tell me more about her and I couldn't blame him.

“Please, forgive me?” I whispered.

Our eyes met and he nodded to my relief.

“I forgive you, Amy.”

If he was broken, he hid it well and if he'd gotten over it, he'd found an amazing way to deal with all that had been stripped from him.

Suddenly we were two strangers with nothing to say to one another.

Then it hit me. “Oh, crap!” I burst, my eyes widening as I rushed to the outside. “The strudel!” I threw the heavy metal door open and ran out into the snow.

“Amy!” he ran after me as I barrelled through the snow, trying to find my previous steps, but they were long gone and covered in fresh snowfall.

I tripped, trying to get back to the house and stumbled into the snow on my back. I grunted as I looked up to where Ean stood above.

“Are you alright?” he helped me up, steadying me close to him.

“You're in a shirt,” I noted with silliness.

“You ran away,” he almost laughed.

“My...” I sniffed; my hair was wet from the thawing and refreezing of my journey out to see him. I tossed my head to the side, trying to get my bangs from my face.

“I was baking.” I turned sharply away on a mission for my strudel.

He caught my hand before I could get too far and pulled me in, kissing me deeply.

The strudel left my mind, even if it was likely black and filling the house with smoke. Ean Hunter was able to settle my neurotic mind.

His thumbs caressed my cheeks as I stepped up to his warm body. His tongue dipped against mine slowly, he was leisurely respectful.

Our mouths slowly parted and I swallowed, my eyes opening to look up at him. I blinked from the snow.

“I've never been kissed in the snow.” I murmured, my heart doing some different putter accompanied with a stomach of active butterflies.

He smiled. “Well, now you have been snow kissed.”

Snow kissed.

My eyes fluttered through the snowflakes as his lips met mine again.

I brought my hands to his chest, needing to feel him as they crept to his neck and hair. The kiss became unbreakable as in I didn't want it to break. I didn't want it to end, it was so unbelievably perfect.

He drew back with ease. “Let's go inside before you freeze.”

“You're not included in the freezing?”

“I'm used to it, city-girl,” he made fun of me and it threw me off, but in a great way. He took my hand and led me back to the house, stomping a path with his solid frame.

My mouth watered as I watched him walk in front of me.

Animistic? It was a bit.

The fire alarm in the house could be heard as we neared it and I snapped out of my trance of Ean Hunter's behind in his snug jeans.

“Amy, what did you do!” He rushed to the front door, moving remarkably through the deep snow.

I scurried after him as fast my small legs could carry me. “I told you, baking.”

I stepped inside the smokey house as he hesitated with opening the stove.

“It's not on fire... yet.”

“That was the last batch too!” I ran over, pushing him out of the way.

He smiled and let me handle it, opening the balcony door to get air flow.

“You want to burn my house down?” He asked once the alarm shut off.

“No,” I blubbered.

He walked to the counters and looked over the strudels I hadn't managed to burn, picking one up to take a taste.

I watched, waiting for approval like a desperate housewife.

“This is good.”

“Thanks,” I breathed as the bitter wind coming in the back door sent a shiver over me. My jeans were soaked through from the snow and my hair was dripping icy drops of water down my neck.

“I tried to stock up the fire thing...” I walked over to it.

He joined me, looking in at the pitiful burning pine. “Needs more air.” He crouched down, still eating and grabbed a fire stick, poking at it till it burst into flames.

I balked at how simple that appeared. I could spend all day on fancy computer programs, but I couldn't figure out how to get a fire going.

Ean straightened, finishing the last of the strudel. “I didn't think you cooked.”

“Umm... well, that's baking and it's all I seemed to pick up from my mother.”

“If she taught you this, perhaps you should learn more from her.”

I swallowed his words. “First, I'd have to be talking to her...”

“You don't have a relationship with her?” He glanced at me, a softness of understanding in his eyes, but I couldn't answer him.

He went quiet too, not pushing the subject and I thought, maybe, I should have been taking notes on him; How to be a reasonable person 101.

He looked me over as he licked the pad of thumb clean of the last of the sugary dessert. “You do realize, you're soaked.”

I nodded but before I could go to make a point to change, he stepped behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. “You should get out of those clothes, maybe take a quick shower.”

I felt myself becoming awkward under his touch as I fantasized about the kissing in the snow.

“Amy?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly and walked around him, needing something to do and figuring the strudels should be put away.

He grabbed my forearm before I could get away.

My eyes slowly worked their way to his, my stomach knotting.

He stepped up to me and kissed me... again.

My hands grabbed his shirt and pulled him in. He groaned against my mouth and it ignited more desire than I knew possible.

Pausing, he itched his head with a smirk. “Darn sawdust.”

My insides started to melt, twisting, my knees weakening with every passing second. He had a really charming smile. I needed to pull back before I jumped him with all the wood shavings included. That would be itchy.

He stepped back, “Shower?”

Our eyes flashed at one another and he turned away, walking the short distance to the bathroom. I watched him as he stopped, his hand on the doorknob as he peered back at me.

“Amy?”

My head was quick to snap up. “Yeah?”

“Aren’t you coming?” He pushed the bathroom door open.

My cheeks burned at the invitation and I stayed fixed in place from not being able to move my feet.

He waited as I stepped forward, closing the space between us, his arm taking my waist and tugging me in for a kiss. His mouth was not as gentle as in the snow or in front of the fire, now full of hunger and greed.

Then step by step, we were in the bathroom with the door firmly shut.