Page 19 of Whiteout

Yeah, okay, she was. But Breanna was too smart to do anything stupid.

“Looks good on you.” He smiled at her.

Sinjin stood just inside the door, removing his gloves and knocking snow from his boots. With his skin reddened, watery eyes, and lips chapped from the cold air, he hung up his coat, and, leaving a trail of footprints on the wooden floor, padded barefoot over to the kitchen.

“Hope you don’t mind.” She’d thrown on his soft flannel button-up after her bath.

“I like seeing you in my clothes.” Leaning over her shoulder, he kissed the skin beneath her ear. “I think you’ll be seeing the sun tomorrow.”

Grabbing it from the back of his neck, Sinjin pulled off his Henley. He shucked off his jeans at the bathroom door, and gloriously naked, stepped inside.

The door left ajar, Breanna could hear him at the sink. Bath water running. She picked up his discarded clothing, placed them on the rack by the fire, and took the pot off the stove.

They sat at the table, eating soup and saltine crackers, without talking.

He stayed quiet, sipping bourbon all afternoon.

When evening came, Sinjin pulled her down to his lap. He just held her. Snuggled together in a chair for hours, he kissed her hair, stroking her skin in front of the fire.

And the snow stopped falling.

“C’mon, princess. Let’s go to bed.”

He knelt beside her on the goose-down comforter. Feathering kisses along her face, her neck, her pulse bounding beneath his lips. His fingertips traced across her collarbone, then downward to release the buttons of her shirt. The soft flannel gave way, and pushing the sleeves off her shoulders, he lowered his body onto hers until their mouths met.

Sinjin kissed her soft and deep and slow. Lips lingering on her skin, he trailed exquisite kisses down her neck. He took his time as if he wanted this to last. Fingers tangled in his hair, and softly sighing, Breanna held onto him.

His hands slid over her skin to squeeze her breasts in his palms. Breanna sucked in a breath and his lips left her neck to suckle a nipple. Breathy sighs became soft moans.

Her fingertips skated down his back, memorizing the smooth, firm feel of his flesh as she held him there. God, what was he doing to her? Tender and sweet, Sinjin kissed his way down her body to bury his head between her thighs.

Lavishing her pussy with languid sweeps of his tongue, he pushed his fingers inside her. Fuck, yes. That always sent her flying. Breanna waited for the fervent finger-fucking that was sure to follow, but it never came. With long, purposeful, drawn-out strokes, suckling on her clit, Sinjin coaxed the mind-numbing orgasm out of her.

Pushing her leg back to her shoulder, he kissed her then. Frenzied and urgent, their mouths collided. Clutching at his hair, Breanna tasted herself on his tongue and smelled herself on his beard. Sinjin devoured her until he ran out of air.

And then he filled her.

Holding her tightly to his chest, he gazed into her eyes, and never let go.

They lay together after, stroking each other’s skin. Breanna was trying so hard to stay awake, because what if tonight was the last night she had with him? But it was so warm beneath the goose-down comforter, lying in the circle of Sinjin’s arms, with the crackle of wood and the flickering flames lulling her to sleep.

“I swear to Christ, Breanna…I’d keep you if I could.”

She felt his lips on her forehead.

Fingers stroked her hair.

A whisper.

“Forgive me.”

It was the light that woke her.

The morning sun, so bright it hurt her eyes, poured in through panes of glass. She blinked several times, turning away from the window to an empty pillow beside her. And her eyes flew open.

“Sinjin?”

Breanna sat up, glancing around the one-room cabin. His clothes were gone from the rack, but a fire was roaring in the hearth, so he had to have just tended to it. Figuring Sinjin went back outside to shovel, she set a pot of water on the stove, then bathed and got dressed for the day.

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