Page 58 of A Very Snowed In New Year
“And this is the thing you messaged me about needing help with, yes? Getting out of this wedding dress?”
“Yes.”
I take a long, slow, appreciative sweep of this beautiful girl before placing my hands on her shoulders and turning her to face the other way. Her long dark hair is full and kind of wild, probably from all that twirling she was doing before I got here, and her cheeks are flushed. “You really do look stunning, Piper.”
She lowers her head, laughing quietly. “I’m so embarrassed. I honestly don’t even remember putting this dress on.”
“I’m sure it was calling out to you.” I gather up a fistful of her hair and pull it to one side, just like I pictured doing to her last night, but with much less fervor. She catches her breath, and I think she’s remembering the same thing as she reaches up to gather her hair over one shoulder, her fingers grazing mine. One side of her long, smooth neck is now exposed, and I can’t help but lean in to inhale her incredible scent. “Fucking hell, you smell so good.”
She bursts out laughing. “I know, right?”
I find the hidden zipper on this very delicate, very elegant dress and manage to grasp it between two fingers. “Seriously, what is that?”
“It’s my signature scent,” she says.
“Is it a secret formula or something?” I slowly, carefully pull down the zipper on the back of the wedding dress. “You won’t believe this, but I remember the back seat of the cab smelling like this when I found your journal.”
“Get out of here.”
“It’s true.”
“Well…I combine a few things.”
This zipper goes all the way down to her waist, and there is no bra between her neck and there. Just fair skin, and very little is visible to me, but I like what I see and I want to see more, as soon as possible. “Vanilla, caramel, musk? What else?”
“Essence of charm. Innocence. Just a hint of sex appeal.” She giggles nervously.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but I think you may have overdone it with the sex appeal today.”
She snort-laughs. “It’s a recurring problem, actually. The other thing you’re smelling is Trouble with a capitalT, so…”
“You aren’t kidding.”
“I really am.”
She’s still holding her hair to one side. Her other hand is on her hip. I’ve unzipped her as far as I can unzip her. And she’s joking around adorably, but her body is so tense. I place my hand over her hand on her hip and say, “You won’t believe this either, but I saw you outside a club on Sunset. Couple of weeks ago. You were getting into a car with some friends. Laughing. It was the same night I met Shay at that party, actually. I thought you were gorgeous. You were the most beautiful girl I saw that night.” She is silent and motionless, still holding her hair to one side and holding her breath. “And then I saw you in Times Square. At the Wishing Wall. Crazy, right?”
She lets go of her hair. Breathes. Slowly turns to face me. “The reason I forgot my journal in that cab three years ago was because my friends told me they saw you walking around. I ran out of the cab because I wanted to see you. I didn’t, though.”
I stare at her mouth. I want to kiss her again. “Crazy.”
She’s staring at my eyebrows. “Yeah.” Now she’s staring at my mouth.
“Okay. Well, I’ll let you go change into something a little more comfortable. Unless you actually do want me to undress you right now.”
She blushes profusely, looking away. “Well, I mean. Then what’ll you do for an encore?” she finally says, laughing nervously.
“Right. I’m gonna get some things out of my car.”
“Okay.”
Neither of us moves.
When she looks back up at me and her lips part and she tilts her chin up the tiniest bit, I take her face in my hands again and lean in as close as I can without actually kissing her, waiting to see what she’ll do next. What she does is, she wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me so frantically, sighing into my mouth, and it’s so hot. I take the lead, kissing her more deeply,exploring with my tongue. There’s a shift. Her sigh becomes a womanly moan, her feverish questions become an answer. Her hands slide down to my chest and then down and around to my ass. She squeals and then pushes me away and runs off into another room, shutting the door behind her. Leaving a scent trail.
Leaving me to adjust my pants and go outside where it’s cold. I need it to be cold. That girl has a lot of energy, and I am beyond intrigued. I don’t really know what to expect from her other than a lot of pleasant surprises, and I can’t remember the last time I met someone and felt like it was the beginning of something special. If I ever felt it before at all with anyone else, I was obviously wrong. Despite how strangely all of this started with Piper, it somehow feels right.
It’s snowing pretty heavily now. The snowflakes are huge and the sky is completely white and there’s about four inches of wet snow on the ground now. Uncle David’s place isn’t too far from here, but there’s no point in driving there. There’s no way Shay will make it to Big Bear. And I like this cabin. Or maybe I just like being in a room with Piper.
