All night long and really, since their date on Tuesday, they’d had so many little touches. A brushing of their hands or arms. A bumping of their shoulders or legs. And so many times when it happened, Rachel had given him a look that started a fire in his chest. And he could tell by how often she glanced at his lips that she was wanting a kiss as badly as he was.
But between the presence of the kids and the fact that the project had to be finished tonight—the rest of the weekend would be filled with moving in and the program was on Monday—the anticipation had been building and building.
But right now, she was there with him. No kids present, no project looming over them. Christmas music played softly from the speaker across the room, the warmth from the fire was at their backs, the sounds of fire crackling just behind them.
Rachel reached out and ran a finger lightly across his forearm and the touch sent tingles up his arm. He met her eyes, his heart racing. Not because of anything to do with Clara. Or because he felt like he shouldn’t kiss Rachel—it was more because he felt like heshould. He hadn’t expected that at all.
He just studied Rachel’s face and took in everything that she was. The person she was. Everything about this moment just felt right.
Like they had all night long, their legs bumped together as he leaned in closer to her and she closed the gap, pressing her lips against his. Her lips were soft and the feel of them on his made him moan. Rachel sank into the kiss, a humming sigh escaping her that made that heat in his chest burn stronger.
He stood, pulling Rachel to stand with him, and put his hands on the sides of her face, savoring the feel of her skin, thetouch of her lips, the scent of her shampoo, the tickle of her breath.
He dropped a hand to her waist to cradle her close to him, and she slid her hands up to his neck, sending tingles everywhere her fingertips touched.
When they’d been dancing at the wedding, he’d felt like he’d been pushed out of an airplane, feeling the wind brush past his face. He had that same sense now, but this time, it was as if Rachel was falling with him, hand-in-hand, and he didn’t care that the parachute hadn’t deployed yet. The feeling of falling so completely and totally was consuming.
He pulled away from her lips so he could trail kisses along her jaw and down that neck that had looked so striking all night. Then he trailed the kisses right back up toward her ear and breathed, “You are an incredible woman.”
The sound that escaped her lips may have been a moan. Or maybe a sigh. Whatever it was, it sounded both relaxed and elated and made his chest expand. She looked into his eyes, and he realized that he could stare into her eyes for hours and not tire of what he saw.
“Wow,” she whispered. “That was…” She didn’t finish her sentence and she didn’t need to. She just looked into his eyes for a long moment, both of them soaking in everything.
Then her gaze shifted to behind him. She squinted, her eyebrows drawing together. “When did it start to snow?”
Still with his arm around her waist, he twisted to see the window that faced his backyard. The light inside made it reflect the surroundings of the room, but he could kind of see a bit of what lay beyond the window.
Rachel grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the doors that led onto his patio, so he turned the knob and pulled it open.
Snow had blanketed everything and was still falling gently, silently from the sky in big fat snowflakes. If this housecontained anything other than a fake fireplace, a bunch of tools, and the blankets that their kids used, he might have welcomed the sight. He might have even suggested that he and Rachel go out on the patio, wrapped in blankets, and enjoy the storm together.
But neither of them was staying there tonight, so the falling snow brought with it a sense of urgency. He turned and hurried across the room and down the hall toward the front door and opened it. White covered everything, shining brightly in the light of the street lamps and Christmas lights. No plows had come down the street yet, and the snow was increasing by the moment.
He closed the door, shaking his head. “It always amazes me how much more snow falls here in the mountains than it did in Colorado Springs.”
“We should go before the roads get any worse.”
He stepped closer to Rachel. “We should.”
She closed the gap even more. “I don’t want to go.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
The reluctance on Rachel’s face seemed to match his. Given the choice, he would’ve stayed in his empty family room, kissing Rachel for a very long time. He stepped up close to her and cupped her chin in his hand before placing a soft kiss on her lips. He looked into her eyes for a long moment, hoping she could sense how much he didn’t want her to go. “I’ll go get our cars started and the snow brushed off them, then I’ll carry the kids out.”
She gave him a smile that made him want to brave an arctic snowstorm for her, then he gave her one more kiss before he turned to grab their keys.
eleven
RACHEL
Rachel staredat the two-page magazine spread that she’d been working on, knowing that something was wrong with it but not being able to focus enough to figure it out. She finally gave up and swiveled in her chair to face Lucy.
“I said yes to being spontaneous on Friday.”
Lucy was quick to stop trying new fonts for the image she was working on and turn her full attention to Rachel. “What? You did not.”
“I totally did. Remember on Friday how I told you that Aiden and I were going to have a present-wrapping party and then I hoped he’d fall asleep quickly so I could wrap his?”
