“I try my best.”

I put down the bowl and sit forward in the chair, the towel still wrapped around me.

Connor crouches down in front of me and holds my hands tight in his.

“How are you feeling now?” he asks. “Warmed up?”

I like his touch. I like how much he’s caring for me.

It’s very inviting...

A tingle passes through me. This is very much not connected to the cold – it has more to do with the handsome, rugged man in front of me, and the prickling things the sight of him does to me.

“I’m getting there,” I whisper. “I’m getting warmer.”

“Then let me help you feel better,” Connor replies.

And, before I know it, he’s kissing me. And I can’t help but kiss him back...

41

EMBER

Sure, I am still so terribly wet and cold from the river, but that doesn’t matter in the damn slightest when Connor is kissing me in the way he’s kissing me. His touch actually warms me up like a magical furnace. His lips graze mine, and my entire being responds to him and I instantly forget about how chilled I am.

“You can really work some magic, huh?” I remark once the firefighter stops his swooning offensive.

“Only because you look too damn adorable,” he replies with a glimmer in his eyes.

“How about you sit down,” I whisper suggestively, “and I get to sit on top of you?”

“That sounds dangerously close to a command, Miss Ember.”

Now it’s my turn to smirk.

“Maybe it is...”

Connor nods at me to get up. I do so, still smirking.

He takes his seat and, as promised, I sit down on top of him. My feet barely touch the ground, but the firefighter seems to easily take my entire weight without any exertion.

“Wrap that towel around us both,” he says.

“Now that sounds dangerously close to a command, Mr. Connor.”

He growls.

“Just do it.”

I cover us both with the towel.

Connor leans in to kiss me, but I playfully lean back.

I bite my lip and look at him.

He looks so damn frustrated at my teasing. I like it.

“Let me kiss you, girl,” he snarls.