“There’s something I want to show you, something really special that got me to where I am today.” He winked. “And then we can talk—in private.” He held out his hand.
They had held hands on many occasions, as kids and then a few times as adults over the past two weeks. But if she reached out for him now, it wouldn’t be for help but for comfort. Should she take it? Cass and Bree would egg her on, tell her to go for it, while Kara and Elena would tell her not to. Two against two. No answer there. Wait a minute. What do I want? I keep saying I’m going to make my own decisions from now on, yet I keep depending on others. I started by quitting my job, but what about my personal life?
“Jade?”
She looked at him, drawn into those emerald depths. She reached out and took his hand, grasping firmly. His eyes darkened further, almost black, as he closed his fingers over hers.
I want to give us a chance.
She took a step toward him. “What do you have to show me?” Her voice was breathless, like she’d power-shopped with the girls and had no energy left to expel the air from her body.
He swallowed—the muscles working in his throat. He tugged on her hand and stepped into the master suite with her. He pulled her into the bedroom, past his king size bed over to a tall oak dresser. He let go of her hand and opened the top drawer, a mess of silk boxer briefs in neon colors and tube socks. He pulled out a box and moved to the bed. “Sit.”
She did as he asked, perching on the far edge. “What is it?” She inched closer.
He set the box between them and opened the lid.
“Oh.” She leaned forward to peer at the Indian arrowhead nestled on a bedding of white cotton. Long-forgotten memories pushed their way to the front of her brain. “Wow. I can’t believe you still have this.”
He grinned. “Remember when we found it?”
“Of course. When you and I were digging around Starling Lake. What were we? Seven? Eight?” She reached out and stopped. “Is it okay if I touch it?”
He nodded.
She turned the arrowhead over, and examined the other side. “Do you know which native group this came from?”
He leaned back next to her. “Can’t tell for sure. My area of expertise is the Revolutionary War, at least five centuries more recent than this baby.”
She handed it back to him.
“I treasure this,” he told her. “Thanks for letting me keep it.”
She shrugged. “You wanted it.”
“You’re the one who insisted on digging in that spot. I just went along for fun.” He sat up, bringing her with him. “I want you to know you were the one who inspired me to follow my dreams.” He set the arrowhead back into the box and closed the lid. “You seemed so much more suited for anthropology or archeology. Why marketing?”
“It was always my mother’s dream for me, not mine.” She glanced toward the hallway. “I didn’t trust my own judgement, after what happened with those brutal girls at school. I’m trying to change that, make my own decisions. Mom’s a little bent because of it, but she’ll work through it. She’ll have to. I’m not going back.”
“What happened?”
“I resigned six weeks ago. I’d used my vacation days to be at the hospital with Grandma, and when I returned to the firm, the twenty-two-year-old I’d been training had been given one of my major accounts. Purely because I’d taken days I was entitled to, for family. On top of that, I was passed over for the promotion I’d been working toward for the past two years.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, but I’m over it.” Surprisingly, she was. “I mean, who wants to work for a company that thinks it owns you, body and soul?” Images of playing in the snow and sun with Ben popped into her head, making her smile. Maybe there was hope for her yet.
He touched her cheek with the pads of two fingers. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. What next?”
She looked in his beautiful eyes. “I want to be a social worker, maybe specialize in geriatrics.”
“You’d be great at that, and there’s definitely a need. You’re good with your grandmother and Mr. V. and all the folks at the Senior Center.” He moved off the bed to return the box to its drawer before turning back and leaning against the dresser.
She caught sight of the collage of photos on the wall behind him...school pictures, candid shots. There was one of him hugging a petite woman with long black hair and charcoal eyes. “Is that your ex-girlfriend?” He never talked about her.
He glanced at the collage. “Forgot that was there.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Did you hear the gossip?”
She hesitated. “I heard you had a long-time girlfriend, but I don’t know the details.” She generally steered away from the town grapevine. “Why?”
He told her.
She stood and began to pace. “Wow. I figured it was recent, but I had no idea.” She did the math. He had kissed her less than a week after he ended a five-year relationship. She stopped and looked out the window into the black night.
He walked up behind her. “Does that change how you feel about us?”
She turned around, her hands in the air. “What do you think?” She glanced at his bed, the one she had pictured Ben and her on. Now it was replaced by an image of him with the tiny, black-haired woman. “My mom has a point. You didn’t even let the sheets cool.” She frowned at him. “Are you one of those guys who can’t be alone?”
His said steadily, “My relationship with Sofia was over long before we ended it. We were one of those couples great at dating but couldn’t live together. I had convinced myself that we were right for each other because she was in the education field, but that’s where our interests ended. We wanted different paths in life.”
She looked at him through wet lashes. “I’m leaving in a few weeks.” She gestured between the two of them. “We’re on different paths too.”
“Back to Tampa?”
“California.”
“Whoa. California?” He scrubbed his scruff before reaching up and wiping her tears away. “How about we cross that bridge when we come to it?” He sank onto the bed, pulling her with him. “We’re both adults, we’re great friends, and we both—don’t you dare deny it—are crazy hot for each other. So, what do you say we give our relationship a shot, enjoy ourselves while we can, and see where it goes from there?”
She stared at his white button-down shirt inches away. He had a point. This very second her fingers itched to pull that dress shirt out of his trousers so she could run her hands along his bare skin...up his rib cage and over his pecs. She swallowed. Focus. “Only problem is I’d be your rebound girl.”
He tipped her chin up. “We don’t know that. You inspired me when I was eight and you’re still inspiring me.”
She closed her eyes, tired of denying her desires, eager for his lips to touch her and quench her thirst for him.
His voice rasped. “I want you so badly.” He pulled her to him, taking her down onto the downy softness of his satin comforter.
Thundering footsteps in the hallway had them bolting off the bed. She glanced out the door and turned to look at Ben. “Maggie and Mitch.”
He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his black trousers and moved to look out the window.
The twins burst into the room, their voices in chorus. “Aunt Jade. We can’t find Sadie and we want to play with her. Have you seen her?”
Jade held up her hands. “Not here.”
“Help us find her.” Maggie tugged at the hem of her aunt’s sweater.
Jade stroked her niece’s copper hair. “Give us a moment. I’ll be right there.”
Ben leaned forward to address the two munchkins. “Why don’t you check in the kitchen? It’s her dinnertime.”
Mitch hopped around the room. “Thanks, Ben.”
The twins bolted out of the room and down the stairs as quickly as they’d come.
Jade sank back onto the bed and punched the comforter. “How much you want to bet
my mother was behind that little interruption?”
“Shh. Don’t worry about anyone else.” Ben joined her, playfully pinning her on her back, his fingers threaded with hers above her head. “Now, where was I?”
She forced herself to stay rigid, Maggie and Mitch’s brief visit a wake-up call. No need to start something they couldn’t finish. “Nothing’s going to happen tonight and you know it.”
His tone was teasing. “No? You sure?” He leaned forward, letting her feel his interest.
She shook her head and did her best to ignore the sweet torture. “We’re old friends getting reacquainted.”
He leaned to the side on one elbow and laughed. “Old? Speak for yourself.”
She took advantage of his movement and rolled him onto his back. “That’s right. I’m pushing thirty while you have another year before the gauntlet strikes you down,” she joked, triumphant until she looked down and saw that her low-cut sweater gaped open.
He gazed at her cleavage inches from his face. “You’ll be one smoking hot thirty-year-old.”
Why couldn’t they send the guests home right now? “Let me go? Before there’s real smoke in the room?”
He released her hands and she scrambled off the bed, smoothing her hair and rearranging her clothes. She was checking her appearance in the mirror above his dresser when he asked the same question she’d been contemplating for months.
“Is it true women your age want to settle down, get married, have two point five kids?”
She locked eyes with him, serious. “Don’t know about women in general. As for me, I haven’t figured it all out yet.” She glanced out the door and then smiled. “I’d better get back. Thanks for the tour.”
She skipped down the stairs, humming a few bars from Eartha Kitt’s soulful “Santa Baby.” She was eager for their next adventure...indoors.
Merry Christmas, indeed!
Chapter Twelve
Ben parked his Ski-Doo at the brow of the secluded hill. He turned to look down the incline through the deepening shadows in the snow, blue and gray tinges within the white. The buzz of a second snowmobile joined his as Jade tore up the hillside on the packed trail.
He stood, straddling the machine to enjoy the strength and grace that was Jade, his heart racing and his head filled with wonder. Her blond hair flew out behind her in a shimmering mass. Yellow-tinted snow goggles, black hat and black scarf dwarfed her small face and covered all but a speck of her cute nose.
His crotch responded. She made him feel like a horny teenager again and last night at his parents’ annual holiday party, his patience had paid off. She finally had opened up to him about her recent life. The announcement about California had taken him by surprise, and she was justifiably peeved about Sofia, but they could work through those issues.
Jade pulled up next to him with a grin and stopped, her machine tossing fresh snow over him with a whoosh. Their idling engines mixed with her laughter and his shout of surprise.
She lifted her goggles and peered at him, an impish glint in her eyes. “Sorry.”
“Right.” He brushed off the snow then wagged a gloved finger in her direction. “I’ll get you when you least expect it.”
“Counting on it.” She snapped her goggles back into place, revved her snowmobile’s engine, and nodded toward the lights in the distance before she wound her way around boulders along the slope.
Encouraged by her playfulness, Ben revved his engine and raced after her.
The Adirondacks were part of Jade. He didn’t have to worry about her being frightened by a wild animal or falling through thin ice on Starling Lake or any of the million other concerns he’d always had with Sofia. Jade knew what signs of danger to look for in the North Country, as easily as she breathed its fresh air. How could she not see she belonged here?
With me.
He parked his snowmobile off the trail next to hers and followed the prints of her snow boots to find her sitting on a large, flat boulder, camera in hand. She looked up and smiled. “I’ve hiked up this way during summertime, but never in the snow.” She lifted her camera and snapped a few photos of the landscape below. “It’s postcard perfect.”
He moved next to her, soaking in the quiet solitude of the snowy hillside. There was usually the hum of traffic below, the buzz of a random plane overhead, and chattering or chirping forest animals scampering and flitting about in the Adirondack pines.
But here, in this moment, it was silent.
All he could hear was the thumping of his heart, the blood rushing through his ears. He was going to kiss her. And this time, they both knew would be a prelude to a night of intimacy. There were no other obligations pulling them apart, no prying eyes or big ears, interfering mothers, or little kids. It was just the two of them. At last. He was through with being patient. The timing was right. “You’re beautiful.”
Her eyes opened wide and her voice was hushed. “Even without makeup and wavy, wild-woman hair? Don’t say that.”
He stepped closer. “Especially.”
“I hate skirts and dresses, too.”
“Then don’t wear them.” He pulled her into his embrace and breathed in her skin’s scent, clean and light, the scent that filled his waking and sleeping moments. Her scent called to him, blended with the evergreen and fresh snow—the same scent as the candle he had lit every evening for the past nine days.
She melted against him.
He nuzzled against her ear and whispered his intent. “I want to make love to you.”
She put her hand, feather light, on his chest. Rather than pushing him away as he half-expected after all her mixed signals, her hand rested there, warm and relaxed. She looked up at him, her eyes a dark chocolate. “What about our friendship?”
“We’ll always be friends first.”
She snuggled closer.
That was all his body needed to know. He tipped her chin with the leather tip of his gloved finger and dipped his mouth to meet hers. At first contact, she tasted sweet, like a tray full of his favorite holiday cookies, all warm vanilla and sugar. Then he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her small frame, and deepened the kiss. His knees nearly buckled. She tasted of more heady spices, cinnamon and nutmeg, her sigh and hands wrapped around his head pulling him even closer telling him she wanted this to happen every bit as much as he did. He leaned against her in a full body hug, letting her know exactly how ready he was.
Their kiss went on forever, and just when Jade thought she’d die if he didn’t touch her further, he backed away, the crisp night air rushing between them.
“Look,” he breathed.
She pulled back slowly and turned in the direction Ben gazed. Night had fallen over their hometown. And it was beautiful.
Ben checked his watch. “We’d better get going.” He kissed the top of her head. “The Snowmobile Club has their evening run tonight. Let’s get down the hill ahead of the group. Practically half the town will be zipping through here in about thirty minutes.”
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, faint buzzing of snowmobiles sounded from down below. “Oh,” she said.
He pointed to her camera. “Take your shots and then we’ll head out.”
Her hands trembled as she slipped them out of her gloves to take the pictures, her body still decompressing from the sensations his lips and tongue wrought. Sex would be good between them. She tingled with excitement and anticipation. What else could they experience together? Whatever it was, now that she had made her decision she wanted all the time in the world to do it. Would three weeks be enough for their attraction to run its course?
It has to be.
Ignoring the heaviness in the pit of her stomach, she swallowed and focused on the scene below. She snapped a dozen or so shots then turned to him. “Take a selfie with me?”
“Sure.” He moved close and they smiled for the camera, the picturesque scene laid out behind them.
“Ready?” Ben grabbed her hand and helped her over the
ridge, back to their sleds. The look in his eyes told her all she needed to know.
Oh, I’m ready all right. She put her camera in her pocket and slid her goggles on as she straddled the machine. She glanced at him for directions, and he signaled he’d take the lead.
She followed at a safe distance, their headlamps cutting a swath of brilliant light through the darkness ahead. They would have a fun Christmas together. He said she wasn’t his rebound relationship but she knew better. That was okay. She was in transition too. They would heal their past and go their separate ways, and she would have to find someone else for her forever.
In spite of her decision, that constant yearning she equated to her ticking biological clock grew inside her as they zigzagged down the rest of the hill toward his house. Did she want to keep searching for the mythical man or did she want flesh-and-blood Ben?
Ben bounded up his side steps two at a time, prepared to rip open the door to his home and continue from where they’d left off when a movement in the corner of the porch caught his attention.
“Hey.” Jade sat in one of his two Adirondack chairs, a plaid woolen blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Her knees bounced inside her bibbed snow pants.
Was she nervous? She had repeatedly told him how she didn’t want anyone in town to get the wrong idea about them. They hadn’t encountered any snowmobilers on the mountain and inky darkness and evergreens shrouded his house from prying eyes on the main road. But could anyone really have secrets in a town the size of Starling? Or was she excited like him? He stuffed his hands into his front jeans pockets to hide the growing bulge in his crotch, and leaned against the porch column closest to her chair. “Why didn’t you go in?”
“I wanted to wait for you.” She held out the key, her dark eyes solemn.
Or was she trying to stay warm?
“Are you cold? Your knees are bouncing like crazy.”
“A little. My blood isn’t used to sub-zero temperatures anymore.”
“It’s not that cold. It’s at least twenty.”
A Light in the Window Page 9