Page 15 of Seduction

After donning my winter coat, snow bibs, and boots, I grab my beanie and head out the door to meet Ollie.

My heart is still bleeding for him and the past he revealed to me. How could no one care or want this man when he has the biggest heart imaginable?

I almost lost myself to my grief over dad being taken, but somehow this man standing knee deep in the snow right now, looking like a kid on Christmas, pulled me back from that ledge.

“So, what now?” I ask, pulling my scarf further up my nose to help curb the bite of winter.

“Now, you do this,” he says, holding out his arms Jesus style, and flopping back into the snow.

He starts moving his arms and legs back and forth making a snow angel and I can’t stop the giggle at how cute and carefree he seems at this moment.

Even with everything he’s been through, he chooses to find the joy in any moment he can.

“You want me to drop back and make a snow angel with you?” I ask with a smile on my face, unsure where his latest antics are headed.

“Haliee. Humour me, would ya?” Ollie chuckles, never once breaking rhythm.

I shrug and hold out my arms before flipping back into the snow myself.

The first thing I see is grey snow clouds overhead as fat snowflakes fall from them. I start swinging my arms and legs back and forth, carving out my own angel, letting the snow and quiet ease the stress from my body a little before Ollie speaks.

“Did you know that kangaroos can’t fart?” Ollie says randomly, causing me to freeze.

“What?” I ask, confused as hell. Where the hell did that random tidbit come from?

“Squirrels accidentally plant millions of trees by forgetting where they’ve buried nuts.” Rather than answering my question, he spit out another fact and I can’t understand what’s happening.

I sit up and just watch him. He’s lying in the same spot but not moving, just smiling over at me.

“You were in your head too much. Random useless facts about animals are known to reduce stress and lower anxiety,” Ollie goes on to explain.

“So, kangaroo farts and squirrel nuts were the first thing that came to mind?” I ask, feeling the beginnings of another giggle working its way through my chest.

“Well, I could always pull out the big guns like wombats’ poop is cube shaped.”

“Ollie, what the hell?” I say, finally losing it and full-on belly laughing at his antics.

Who the hell keeps these types of random facts locked in their head? Then again…

“Did you know male ducks have corkscrew penises?” I burst into more laughter as his face scrunches up.

“I don’t make it a habit to look up the dicks of other species, babe.” He shakes his head at me like I’m the crazy one and I feel the tension leaving my body from the laughter he’s given me.

When I finally come back down from my laughing spell, I see Ollie just staring at me, and I feel myself blush.

“What is it? Do I have something on my face?” I ask him, starting to feel heated from him staring at me.

Before my fingers make contact with my cheek, Ollie moves like a ninja and is kneeling in front of me.

He takes my hand and places it on his chest so I can feel his heart hammering at a fast pace.

“You look as beautiful now as you were when I first laid eyes on you. But this time, that laugh, I did that. I put that smile there. Baby, you were glowing just now, and it makes me crave to do it again,” he says, taking his fingertips and tickling my cheek.

I suck in a sharp breath because he looks so intense right now, his long dark hair falling into his eyes, but he still appears to be staring right into my soul.

“I’d like to kiss you now if you’d let me, Haliee. Will you let me?” he asks so gently, it makes my heart soar as I look at him.

I can only nod my head in response before he moves in and pulls my scarf the rest of the way off my chin.

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