Page 102 of When in December

When I woke up,I knew exactly where I was. Still, my heart seemed to beat straight through my chest. I rolled over and stared back into the light eyes of Aaron Hayes.

He was lying there, right next to me, and all I could do was breathe. He chuckled at something.

“What?” I asked.

“Just looking at you.” His voice was a husky whisper that sent shivers over my skin. I remembered how that voice had sounded, passing over my skin, and I squirmed.

“Something funny?” I asked. “I thought you were going to find a new source of entertainment other than teasing me.”

“Eh.” He shook his head. “I think I already found that.”

His hand dipped lower, tracing the space between my breasts.

My skin burned with renewed heat for him. Goose bumps? Gone.

“I wonder what my friend Vassar would say about this.”

“And here I was, thinking you were imagining me in bed.”

“The mouth that’s forming on you. Is this confident Poppy?”

He was bringing it out in me.

He smiled with one corner of his lips. “Vassar always joked that I would never fall in love. That, out of all of them, I would be a bachelor for life.”

My heart stopped before picking back up a second later.

Fall in love.

I wasn’t sure what to think of the words.

Aaron shook his head as if it meant nothing. Maybe it didn’t. It couldn’t have. It had been a slip of the tongue.

I cleared my throat. “Would your friend be shocked right now or disappointed?”

“Vass? Never disappointed. If anything, he liked the drama. He was always around for a good time, but not exactly a long one. Honestly, he was one of those guys who would do anything for you. No questions asked. Probably would’ve come home on leave at some point and gone to a casino in Vegas and accidentally gotten married.”

“He sounds fun.”

“He was.” Aaron paused, letting his fingertips skate away from me as he rolled over and out of bed.

I watched the cords of his muscles unclench and stretch up to the ceiling as he raised his arms over his head.

He yanked on a pair of sweats from the floor before making his way to the door. “Hungry?”

“Always,” I whispered. I needed to savor every slice of him.

For the rest of the day—strike that—for the rest of the week we had left leading up to the holiday, I felt like I was living in a sort of daydream. I’d never had this kind before though. I’d trained myself not to. My daydreams were of crown molding and theperfect kitchen appliance you wouldn’t mind having out on the counter all the time.

But all my thoughts now were attuned to one thing and one place.

Aaron and the cabin.

The cabin and Aaron.

Aaron and home.

Home.

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