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“Promise me?” she whispered, her lips now ghosting the skin on my throat.
I swallowed. Nodded. Forced the words out even though my eyes caught on those pouty pillows I’ve been staring at for too many hours today. ”I promise. I won’t leave you.”
The breath she sucked in shuddered through her. She nodded against me, then slowly, slowly loosened her grip around my neck.
“Good?” I didn’t bother edging back. Not even after she responded.
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” I squeezed her. Pressed a kiss to her temple. Sucked in a breath laced with the scent of her. Then, as if trying to convince myself, I repeated, “Okay.”
When I stood to my full height, Kelly’s gaze didn’t follow. She fidgeted with the zipper on her winter coat, tugging it up and down and filling the mudroom with the obnoxious sound. I covered her hand with mine, stopping her almost frantic movements. “Come on. We’re going to be late if we don’t go.”
She strung her fingers through mine, keeping close as her feet touched the snow-covered stairs.
“Watch your step.” I turned, taking her other hand and helping her down. Practically had to walk sideways toward the garage, she was so unwilling to let go of both my hands. I got her in my Jeep, got her buckled in and safe, then rushed around to the other side to join her.
Only to repeat the whole damn thing when we got to her parents’ house a short time later.
“Do I have to go in?” It came out like a whimper as we stood at her parents’ front door, my finger poised over the doorbell.
“Don’t have to,” I told her, sweeping a strand of her wild hair out of her eyes before gripping her chin between my fingers and forcing her to look up at me. “But I’d hate to see your gorgeous face fall off from frostbite.”
I froze, from both terror at what I’d just allowed to tumble across my lips and the way she was staring at my mouth. My heart thudded in my chest and she tilted her head, that slight movement pushing me to close some of the space between us. Pushing me to step closer, to let myself be drawn into her gravity. To lower my head as she rose onto her toes, her fingers tightening around the collar of my vest until—
“They’re here!” The door whipped open, and the pounding of my heart propelled me backward, away from the daughter of the man who’d appeared with a too-wide smile on his face. “Come in, come in. Get out of the cold.”
Kelly reluctantly stepped through the door, her cheeks redder than they were minutes ago. I followed after, dropping our bags to the tile floor inside once Donovan had closed the door behind us. She shook off her coat as I unzipped my vest, then she snagged the straps of the bags off the floor.
“I’m going to put these away.”
Donovan chuckled as Kelly raced from the room, and something tugged at my stomach, like I was tethered to her and the string between us was too tight. “Go ahead and get settled in. We’ll be in the kitchen when you’re done.”
“Thank you. Be right back.” I shook his hand and handed him my vest and Kelly’s coat, then followed after the girl.
I found her in a room at the end of the hall. It was most definitely her bedroom, and a complete blast from the past. Movie posters and pictures of guys from boy bands that were popular years ago, were taped—crookedly—to the walls. Feather boas in every color of the rainbow were draped across the corners of the mirror and the bedposts, and even though the space was clean, it had a wild air that matched the beautiful redhead standing in the middle of the room.
“You alright?”
She jolted when my hands settled on her shoulders, but she didn’t turn. It felt like a kick in the gut that she didn’t.
“I really hope you don’t hold this against me.” Her voice was filled with her signature spicy attitude, and it had a smile curling my lips.
“You mean your boa collection, or the picture of the former state senator sitting on your bedside table?”
She spun then, her eyes wide and her head craned back to see me. “There is nothing wrong with my boas. In fact—” she snagged a stuffed snake off the corner of her vanity and draped it around her shoulders—“I might just take them home with me.”
“Yeah?” I grabbed both ends of the snake and pulled it toward me, tugging her right with. “What are you going to do with them when you get there?”
“Wear them.” Her voice was a husky whisper that had heat flooding through me, fighting off the last remnants of the cold outdoors. A smirk tilted one side of her lips. “Especially this one.”
“I like this one.”
Her brow furrowed. “You’re not afraid of snakes?”
“I’m not afraid of snakes.” I tugged at it again, until she pressed her hands against my gut before curling her fingers around my shirt, her body so close I could feel the heat swirling between us. “They’re my favorite. Sleek. Vicious. Sexy.”
Hot damn. The blush that colored her cheeks had me picturing all kinds of inappropriate things, especially as the color crept down her neck to the open collar of her shirt. I shifted uncomfortably, because there was no way I should be thinking of her like that. Imagining this toy tossed aside and those feather boas being the only thing covering her creamy, freckled skin.
