While he kept up that frustratingly light tickle. His hand shifted to cup the side of her neck, the rough seam on his thumb grazing the tender skin in her throat.
“Do you?” He refused to give her what she wanted until she answered.
Her skin grew too tight for the anticipation that swelled within her. Beneath the layers of her thick jacket, her breasts grew heavy. Her thighs ceased to feel the cold through the denim of her jeans.
“Yes,” she admitting on a throb of longing.
He made a noise of satisfaction and stepped so his feet were outside her own. His hot mouth sealed across her lips.
A sob of delight broke in her throat as his hard lips raked across hers, making real all the erotic fantasies she’d replayed in the long nights since leaving Spain. Her arms went up around his neck and he swept her closer still. So close she could hardly breathe.
She didn’t care. The thick layers of their coats were a frustration, one that seemed to hold them off from one another. She wanted them gone. Wanted passion to take her over the way it had that day, blanking out the world around her with levels of excitement and pleasure she hadn’t known existed.
His kiss deepened with greed, as though he couldn’t get enough of her, either. She opened fully to him, licked into his mouth and felt his arms tighten around her in response. She ran her hand up past his scarf, pressed the back of his head, urging him to kiss her harder and harder still. She wanted him to mark her. Savage her.
Because he already had.
This passion between them was as destructive as it was glorious. She needed to remember that. Otherwise, she would succumb and wind up far out of her depth again.
As though he recognized the risk as well, he dragged his head up and sucked in a breath, but he didn’t let her go.
Panting, she blinked her eyes open. His face was in darkness with a kaleidoscope of colors haloed behind him.
“Look.” She seized the distraction to pull herself out of his arms. She wasn’t even sure if what she was seeing was real or the leftover fireworks he had so easily set off behind her eyelids.
She staggered slightly as she led him out of the trees. The expanse of sky was bigger than a thousand movie screens above them and the stars had faded behind glowing swirls. Shimmering bands of pink and purple and red danced within the curtains of green. Every few seconds a spear of color shot toward the earth in knifelike streaks. The jabs of color felt so tangible and close, she expected to be struck by one.
“This is beautiful.” Rico drew her ba
ck against his chest and folded his arms across her collarbone and stomach.
She was still weak from their kiss. She leaned into the wall he made, wondering if he could feel the thump of her still unsteady heart through their winter layers.
“One of my first memories is coming out here with my grandfather,” she confided softly. “I asked when my mother was coming back and he brought me out here. I thought he was going to tell me she had died. He said he didn’t know if she was coming back, but then he pointed to the sky. I asked what it was and he said he didn’t know that, either. That there would always be things in this world we’re left to wonder about.”
“Gas particles from the sun collide with the earth’s atmosphere,” Rico informed her.
“Don’t ruin it.” She nudged her elbow back into his ribs. “It’s magic. I’ve taken a million photographs of them, but none capture how amazing this really is. How small it makes you feel.”
“I’ve never seen it like this.” His chin touched the top of her head.
“Me, neither.” This was the most glorious display she’d ever witnessed and she didn’t care that she didn’t have her camera. She would never forget sharing this with him: the timbre of his voice vibrating through her jacket, the heat of his breath against her earlobe where it poked from beneath her toque, the weight of his arm across her and the way all those colors glowed inside her even as they danced before her unblinking eyes.
She hesitated then confessed softly, “Gramps brought me out here when I was pregnant, too. I wanted to keep Lily, but I didn’t know how I would manage it. It felt too much of an imposition to stay with them. He was upset that he wouldn’t be around to look after me and Gran. We had a little cry then saw these lights. He said it was a reminder that even dark nights offer beautiful moments and said that’s what Lily would be for all of us if I stayed with them.”
Rico’s arm tightened across her chest. His voice was low and sincere. “I’m sorry I didn’t meet him.”
Her chest ached. “I think that’s him right now.”
A startled pause, then, “I don’t believe in things like that, Poppy.”
“It’s okay.” She touched the arm that continued to hold her close. “I do.”
“If I did—” His lips pressed to her ear through the knit of her toque. “I think we both know what he’s saying.”
Her throat grew tight. Marry Rico.
He drew back slightly so he could reach into his jacket. When he brought his hand around in front of her, he held a small box. He stayed behind her as he pried up the lid so she stood in the circle of his arms as he offered her the ring.