Page 65 of When You Saved Me

There was a mischievous glint in her eyes and her pert little freckled nose twitched before she smiled widely. “A little friendly competition of sorts.”

“Why do I have a feeling I’m about to get ganged up on?” I rubbed my hand over Casper’s face as he purred.

“Because I’m a champion snowball fighter. And you’re about to lose.”

My head tilted back as I laughed. “Is that right?”

“Mmhmm.” She nodded, then bit her bottom lip.

“Didn’t you say the same thing about puzzle making? That you had far superior skills.”

She placed a hand on her hip and glowered at me. “And your point is?”

I tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “My point, Sunshine, is that you lost at puzzle making. Horribly, I might add.”

Her mouth popped open in shock before she swatted my arm. “Deacon Calhoun. I didn’t make you out as a liar!”

I chuckled. “The only one lying about their skills, sweetheart, is you.”

She gripped the lapels of my jacket and yanked me forward. Rising onto her tiptoes, she ran her teeth along the edge of my jaw before placing a kiss on my neck. “We’llagree to disagree on this. Only because I hate arguing with you.”

I snorted before I grabbed her ass and gripped it hard. “Here I was thinking you got off on it.”

She snickered then bit her bottom lip as she batted her eyelashes at me.

I stole a chaste kiss before running my thumb along the edge of her rosy lip. “Keep biting that lip and I’ll strip you bare and fuck that sweet cunt of yours right here in the snow.”

Her eyes widened a fraction at my expletive, but she didn’t back down as she leaned forward and nipped at my ear lobe. “I’m not falling for it, Grumps. I’m about to beat your ass and then we’ll see who ends up bare in the snow.”

A feral sort of thrill ran through me at her challenge.

“It’s on.”

Leaving her stranded, I darted behind her and immediately started building a wall of snow. The ice bit into my skin as she squealed and darted away from me, finding a spot with Casper right in front of the porch.

She didn’t have a chance to start building her barrier before I nailed her in the shoulder with a snowball. Little flakes splattered everywhere.

Unimpressed with our game, Casper bounded for cover by the front door.

“Hey!” she shouted across the yard. “We didn’t saygoyet!”

“Go!” I yelled back right before I threw another one her way then continued building up my little wall of ice.

Mist clouded around my mouth as I took in heavy breaths from the excitement. Something like joy flickered to life in my chest. I was havingfun.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt this light. All I knew is that ever since she’d come around, the feeling had started becoming more familiar.

I liked it.

Just as I lifted my head to see what she was doing, snow pummeled into my face.

“Woohoo! You suck! I win!” Charlie’s trill voice permeated the air.

Shaking my head back and forth, the snow fell from my face and I could see Charlie doing a little dance, wiggling her hips back and forth as she moved in a small circle.

With her back to me, I reeled my arm back and watched as the tightly packed ball of snow smacked her right in the ass. Startled, she gave a little hop and yipped.

Rising from the safety of my wall, I pointed at her and clutched my stomach as I laughed. “Who sucks now?!”

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