Page 5 of Under the Mistletoe
“I want to apologize.”
“Not necessary.” She turns away once more.
“I’m sorry.” She doesn’t move, but she keeps her back to me.“I was a jerk last night and a bigger one this morning. Like I said, I neverexpected to see you again. You just threw me off balance is all.”
“Apology accepted,” she mumbles, taking a step forward.
“Let me take you home. It’s the least I can do.”
“I’ll walk.”
“Your folks would kill me if you do. Please.”
With an exasperated sigh, she marches past me and climbs onthe snowmobile.
“Just so you know, I’m only letting you do this because mylegs are killing me.”
She crosses her arms, pouting and staring off to the side. Ican’t help the smile tugging at my lips. I forgot how cute she is when she’smad.
“Fair enough. That all the luggage you have?”
“Yes.”
“Seriously?” I eye the backpack, wondering how much can fitin there.
“I’m here to spend the holidays with my parents. Don’t haveany other plans so it’s not like I need a lot of stuff.”
“Huh. Okay.” I nod, accepting her explanation.
“Do I have permission to touch you?” she asks when I climbon in front of her. “Otherwise I might fall off. Or is that what you’re hopingfor?”
“Jesus, Sydney!” I exclaim. “Of course you can. In spite ofwhat you think, I don’t want to hurt you.”
Without a word, her arms slide around my waist, her bodypressing into mine. Despite her anger and the multiple layers of clothes betweenus, I become highly aware of her. My mind may not be able to reconcile what shedid all those years ago, but my body apparently doesn’t know that. I crank upthe snowmobile, turning toward the George’s place. The sooner I get her home,the sooner I can get away from her.
The ride to her house ends up being the longest ten minutesof my life. I’m so confused by these feelings I’m having. Do I want her, or doI want her gone? Curse my little peep show last night! Maybe if I hadn’t seenher like that, this wouldn’t be happening.
I pull up to her house, keeping the motor running because Ihave no intention of sticking around. She climbs off, yelping as she loses herbalance. I react without thought, wrapping my arm around her waist to stop herfrom falling. The action inadvertently forces her against my chest. Her handsland on my shoulders while she steadies herself. For a brief moment, we’re faceto face.
Our eyes meet.
Her breathing accelerates.
So does mine.
The condensation from our breaths meets and mingles in thecold air. My gaze slides to her lips and I’m bombarded with memories of eachtime I sucked on the full bottom one.
Christ.
“Sydney!”
She jerks away from me, our spell broken by her mother’sexcited outburst. Sydney hurries up the steps, throwing her arms around hermom, then her dad, who appears in the doorway. I wave to them, intending it tobe a goodbye, but Mr. George motions me forward. Shutting off the engine, Ifollow Sydney’s footsteps.
“Jake! Good to see you. Thanks for looking after my girl.”
“No problem, Mr. George. Have to say I was quite surprisedwhen she showed up at my door.”
“I didn’t know it was your house,” Sydney grumbles.
