Page 10 of Snowed In With You

I grabbed a fresh bath towel from the cupboard and my bag of toiletries and poked my head out of my door cautiously. All wasquiet and I breathed a quiet breath of relief as I made my way to the bathroom and turned on the taps for the bath. It had three, because it was almost the size of a small pool. Like, seriously, I could have done laps.

Once it was obscenely full of water and bubbles, I cautiously dipped a toe in and hissed in delight at the scalding temperature. I stepped down two steps and sank in, a little nervous about my additional weight making the bath overflow, but the excess water started to drain away easily and I felt my muscles finally relax as the heat sunk in. Alaska was beautiful in a distantly cold way a lot of the time, but it was at a time like this when, soaking in a giant, hot bath, I recalled all of the positives that came with living so far away from the rest of my family. Rob still lived near my mom in California, our dad had passed when I was nine and he was fourteen, but I had opted to move away, needing a change of pace and scenery. Luckily, my job was pretty flexible and I could do everything from home. Rob was a doctor and didn’t have the same luxury – frankly I was shocked he was able to have time off for his honeymoon and then this holiday almost back-to-back, the perks of running your own practice I guessed.

I had definite bathroom envy right now, this whole room sparkled. It was wall-to-floor marble with a walk-in wet-room style shower with a ginormous shower head. The bath took up the left wall and was set deeply into the marble floor where a ledge and long frosted window ran, I waded over and rested my hands on the ledge with my face atop them. I would have to face Fletcher at some point and I didn’t know what I was going to say. What was he expecting me to say? I loosed a long breath and unhooked the window, pushing it open just enough for me to peer outside at the snow as I wallowed. The sun had started to set and a chill ran across my bubbly forearm, I shivered, but not because of the cold. I had a decision to make and I didn’t know whether to trust my head or my heart.

What Fletcher had said… made sense. I mean, it was dumb as fuck, but it had hurt so much when I’d woken up alone because it had shocked me, he didn’t seem like that kind of guy. We’d gotten to know each other fairly well during wedding prep, otherwise I never would have slept with him. I wasn’t a one-night-stand kind of gal –Zach notwithstanding as that had been a desperate rebound and had left me feeling gross. I honestly didn’t believe Fletcher had a malicious bone in his body and his explanation definitely helped – but it didn’t erase the past, or the hurt that came along with it.

I pushed away from the ledge and let myself sink under the water, slicking my long hair back and away from my face as I came up again. I supposed it was more than just my head and heart, there were also my body and hormones to contend with – both of which seemed to have Fletch’s name branded across them like slutty cheerleaders screaming for his attention. Begging for it, for him.

My head said logically, he could be making this shit up. Maybe he wanted to get back in my pants again – which admittedly, was a little big-headed of me – or maybe he just wanted to ease the tension between us for the few days we’d have to spend alone together. It’s possible I was up here obsessing over absolutely nothing and Fletcher was expecting us to continue with the conversation he’d raised yesterday. But if I listened to my gut, my heart, I knew he was a good guy – sometimes to the point of ridiculousness like whipping off his shirt in the snow for me, or wading out into a snowstorm to get me soup. My brain got caught up on that image of him surrounded by white snow, deep blue scarf fluttering in the wind and showing off tantalising glimpses of his chest and the dark hair that trailed across his pecs and down the hard line of his stomach disappearing down to–

I cut the thought off. It was the hormones. Zach had been…average in bed. My aim had been to go out, have fun and forget Fletcher. If anything, the date had done the opposite as I waited for the spark Fletch and I’d had to appear, waiting for the kiss to turn electric and for my pleasure to build until–

Crap.If I didn’t get it together, there was going to be a very slim chance of me making it through this trip without makingoutwith the he-devil himself.

What was the worst that could happen?Um, you sleep together, it’s just as good as you remembered and you’re officially ruined for all other men?I scoffed and then grimaced, I wouldn’t tell him so because his ego was liable to inflate, but Fletch was undeniably excellent in bed.

You trust him. You let him in. He breaks your heart.Well, he’d have to have my heart in the first place for that to happen. I palmed some water and let it run across my skin while I considered. It was likely though, I wasn’t good at one-time things, Zach had only been my second and I was still paying for my first. So if I did this, if I decided to trust that what he’d said was true and he’d never meant to leave, then I had to go in knowing I might get my heart broken. Though I supposed it was a risk everyone took with any relationship.Rob would probably kick Fletch’s ass thoughand that thought gave me a little comfort mostly because it was so ridiculous. My brother was very much more of a lover than a fighter.

My fingers and toes were starting to prune and I knew I needed to get out soon before the water became cold and ruined the relaxation. I was probably over-thinking all of this anyway. Fletch and I had slept together once, just over a month ago now, it seemed pretty unlikely that he still wanted to pursue something. I had no doubt that a lot of women were probably chasing him.

I pressed down on the plug and the water started trickling away with a soothingshush. I stood up slowly, hooking the windowclosed again and then climbed up the steps to the edge of the bath. My toes had just sunk into the deep, soft cosiness of the bath mat when the room was plunged into darkness.

Chapter Nine

Sara

I froze, blinking in the sudden dark. The water on my body was rapidly cooling and I shivered as I reached half-blindly for where my towel hung on the heated rack. I could see only by the glow of the snow outside coming in from the large window and once the bath water had finished draining and silence overtook the room, all I could hear was the howl of the wind. It seemed that the snowstorm was finally out in full-force.

The silence sank into me and I stood still for a moment as I waited. Normally these places had back-up generators that would automatically kick-in during a power outage, but after another five minutes passed and I stood dripping onto the floor I decided that if there were generators here, they weren’t coming on.

The lodge looked different in the dark, chairs and tables making unfamiliar shapes that had my heart leaping into my throat as I walked back to my room to get dressed. The wind made the lodge creak and I jumped, spinning around as I reached my door to check the space behind me. Empty.Duh. What were you expecting? A serial killer?God, I needed to watch less of those documentaries.

I slipped inside my room and immediately stopped, breath held as I tried not to make a sound. There was someone standing in my room. Too tall to be Fletcher, an arm moved and I cried out, running backwards and tripping over my feet. I lost hold of mytowel at some point in the tangle of my own legs and then Fletch was there.

‘Sara? Are you okay?’ He pulled me to my feet and I clung to him with my arms around his neck. He inhaled sharply, ‘You’re wet.’

‘I–My towel fell–’

He quickly stooped to pick up with me still attached to his side like a limpet, spotting the bright white on the wooden floors easily and wrapping me in it securely. Maybe later I would feel embarrassed to have been found sprawled naked on the floor in front of Fletcher, but right now I had bigger problems – someone was in our lodge.

Fletcher opened his mouth but I pressed my hand over it, my pulse beating a frantic rhythm as I lowered it again and whispered, ‘There’s someone in my room. Do you think they cut the power?’

It was too dark for me to make out the expression on Fletch’s face but I felt his muscles tense underneath his shirt as he grasped my hands and pulled me away from him. His steps were silent as he moved towards my door and peeked around the edge of the door frame while I stayed out of sight around the corner. Fletcher rushed into the room and I gasped. Then his laughter reached me, billowing out so fiercely that I felt heat instinctively rise in me as I ran over to him.

‘What is it?’

‘Oh, nothing, you’re just possibly the most adorable person I’ve ever met,’ he said and then mimicked me in a high falsetto,‘Do you think they cut the power?’before breaking out into laughter again.

I moved closer and cursed when I realised why he was laughing so hard, I couldn’t help but join in. A robe was clasped in his fist by the hood, ripped off of the hooks in the corner where it had hung.

‘Wow, okay. I’m an idiot, let’s agree to never tell anyone about this? Deal?’

Fletcher was laughing too hard to answer me, wiping tears from his eyes as he bent double and that same stirring filled me. Suddenly I was very, very aware of my own nakedness and his proximity. His laughter died away as if he too had just had the same thought and I coughed lightly in the silence.

‘Well, um, thanks for the ‘rescue’ I guess,’ I said and Fletcher chuckled once more, the sound reverberating deeply and setting the hair on my arms on end.

‘My pleasure,’ he said and I knew if I could see him right now he would likely be smirking. ‘Why don’t you get dressed and come downstairs? I’ve found some candles so I’ll be able to keep an eye out for any other sleepwear trying to ‘break in’.’

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