Marissa’s stomach growled and Scott couldn’t hold back the laugh. It had been going off for the last half hour, getting louder each time. Their fourth morning together dawned radiant and clear. He wanted to freeze time and stay like this forever. The highway had reopened late yesterday, but he wasn’t ready for the snow to melt. Marissa turned in his arms to face him, her cheek pink with pillow creases.
“We forgot to eat dinner.” She draped her arm over his body, her hand covering his beating heart.
“You said you didn’t want any.” He’d even offered to bring it to bed, but she’d pulled the covers over her head. Yesterday he’d taken her to the shed to get the Alpine skis, but after one look at them she spent the rest of the day distracting him with warmer activities.
“I never turn down food.”
“You were pretty wiped out, though you got a second wind sometime after midnight.” He’d been in that place between asleep and awake when she’d started stroking his cock. He wanted to have that kind of night every night for the rest of his life.
“I thought I’d dreamed that.” She blinked slowly, her eyes adjusting to the bright morning light. “Why don’t you have drapes or shades or something on your windows?”
“I don’t want to block the view.” Though mountains and pine trees didn’t hold a candle to the sight of her in his bed.
“The view is bright in the morning.”
“We’ll pick out some drapes.” He kissed the top of her head and her stomach went off again. “Are you always hungry?”
“Pretty much. That’s why I have to run every day or I get pudgy.” She let out a slow sigh, but didn’t move. “I think being with you counts as cardio.”
“I’m always up for being your personal trainer.” He rubbed her bare back and thought about saying it out loud. He loved her, always had. Though this was different, bigger somehow. Better because he’d come to know her intimately, not just sexually. He’d learned her thoughts on politics and humor and everything in between. They’d talked nonstop since that first night and he never wanted that to end. But if she wasn’t in love with him yet and he went all in, she might not realize the kind of chance they had.
“You’re up for anything.” She tugged the sheet, covering her body. She could seduce him naked in the living room, but covered up when in bed. “Let’s see. The shower, the bedroom, the guest room, the fireplace, the truck when I said you were too tall to have sex inside it . . .”
“You inspire me.” Having her here, all to himself, had tilted his world, shifted his plans, brightened his hopes for the future.
“Are you inspired enough to bring me food?”
“Is this where I take your order and hope that you tip well?” He loved her bad-joke smile.
“And if I don’t? Will you make me do dishes?” She drew a circle around his nipple.
“If you want to clean for it, you can clean me in the shower.”
She hummed and her gaze went soft, probably remembering yesterday. “We’re really good at this.” She pushed her hand through his hair. “Or you are. I can’t tell.”
“This what?” His abs tensed as she slid her thigh between his.
“Sex. It’s better, I don’t know how, it just is.”
He had a pretty good idea, but he let her talk.
“I mean, maybe it’s because you make it all about me. We should try something you want to do. We’ve checked off most of my sexual bucket list, it’s only fair if we work on yours too.”
“What’s still on your fantasy list?”
“Outdoors, but not in this snow. A washing machine on spin cycle. But I asked you first.” She gave his chin a playful tap, like she had when they’d been debating their college football team’s chance at a bowl game.
“You’re my fantasy.”
She rolled her eyes. “That line is tired. I’m being honest here and you’re running game like I’m not naked in your bed.”
It wasn’t a line. Only his fantasies had never been this good. “I’ve thought about taking you on the stairs. And on a porch swing I hang in the summertime. In the lobby of the resort after the wedding. That toga party right before I graduated.” That night had been the closest he’d ever come to kissing her, to telling her the truth. If Chris hadn’t showed up and spirited her away, he would have.
“You had the shortest toga there.” She grinned, her smile lighting her eyes.
“I’m tall. And I’m pretty sure Caesar liked men to show a little leg.”
“What else?” She flicked her fingernail over his nipple.
“What are you looking for here?”
“Something we can do to make it better for you. I’m not having sex in a hotel lobby, or swinging in the snow. Toga-ing seems silly and I’m not really into the whole stairs thing.”
“I won’t let you fall.”
“It’s not that.” She sighed and squinted out the window. “I’m not an on-your-knees girl.”
“Because of the gag reflex thing. I know.”
“That, and I—” She pursed her lips and cleared her throat. “We can try it.”
“Yeah, no.” She obviously didn’t want to, and her wanting was what did it for him.
“It’s fine. I’ve been sexually selfish all week.” Her stomach announced its presence again. “I’ll make breakfast and then we can try the stairs.”
“Tell me.”
She tried to get away, but he held her closer.
“It’s nothing. Do we still have eggs? I think I’d burn pancakes.”
“Tell me.” He tightened his hold, not knowing what else to do.
She laid her head on his chest and stared out the window. “I just can’t get into it. Maybe it’ll be different, but sometimes it makes me cry and I don’t want you to think it’s you. Turned away like that it’s like I’m not really there, like I could be anybody.” She sniffed and tightened her hold on him. “And I feel used and start counting, waiting for it to be over.”
He massaged her scalp, his eyes heavy with regret. “I should have kissed you at that toga party.”
“I would have slapped you for trying.”
“But you would have seen me, seen another path you could take.”
“I was too narrow-minded back then to even consider it. I loved Chris, and even if I wasn’t in love with him I wouldn’t have betrayed him.”
“I know. That’s why I didn’t do it.” His bathroom light flickered, a low hum washing through the cabin as the electricity came back online. He wanted to shut it all back off.
She lifted her head and smiled, her eyes rimmed with red. “We have power.”
“Seems so.”
“I can wash my clothes and check my email.”
“If the server is working and the cell towers come back online.” They would, always did. He didn’t want to get out of bed, to let the world in. An electronic trill came from upstairs, followed by enough beeping for a video game.
“My cell phone. I plugged it in when the battery ran out.” She sat up and pushed her hair behind her ears as she scanned the room. “Did I come in here naked last night?”
“We both did after you put on a show in front of the fireplace and dared me to a massage contest.”
Her cheeks reddened. “In front of a fire was on my list.”
“And I’m up for that ride any time you are.” He winked and her blush deepened to her neck.
She snagged one of his flannels from the closet and a pair of wool socks before coming back to the bed to put them on. “The floor is freezing in the morning.”
“So pick me out a rug.” He sat up, wanting to draw her close, to block out the world. But her phone pinged to life again and she shot out of his room like it was on fire. He ought to go shut off power to the house and give them more time.
But he couldn’t keep her here forever, not unless she wanted to stay.