Good luck.
Chapter Three
Holly
* * *
My hands are folded on my lap as I stare forward in Nate’s truck. The snow is still coming down hard, blurring the dark road as the big flakes fall.
I fidget with my jacket nervously as Nate plows forward, tearing through the fresh snow like my car was incapable of doing. My car that is now buried under a layer of thick snow somewhere on the side of the road. By morning, it’s going to be completely inaccessible. I doubt I’ll be able to get a tow truck until December twenty-seventh and by then, I’ll be lucky if I can even find it.
I can feel Nate’s presence radiating beside me. His hands are gripping the steering wheel so hard. His knuckles are white. It must be from the snow. He must be a nervous driver like I am.
I suck in a quick breath and glance at him. As soon as I turn, he does too. Our eyes meet and it sends a jolt of lightning through me, waking my body up. My back straightens in the seat, my hands fidget harder with my jacket, my heart pounds.
He’s so sexy. Dark and mysterious in that alluring way that always gets me.
I lean back and steal a quick peek at him as he turns back to the windshield. His arms are so thick. This man pushed his truck out of the heavy snow with one push. He’s so powerful. So strong. The unstoppable force of this man should be terrifying to me, but it’s not. It’s getting me all hot and bothered as I squirm in the seat.
It’s a turn-on to be sitting here with him in his truck. I’d love to be wanted by a man like him. I can picture us heading out on a real date, me dressed up in fancy clothes, about to pull up to the latest hottest restaurant, feeling like a real woman, feeling like someone worth loving, knowing later that he’s going to take me and love me in the way that only he can.
I get all warm and shivery just thinking about it.
“So, you’re a surgeon?” I ask, trying to break some of the silence.
His hands clench on the steering wheel when he turns and looks at me with those dark smoldering eyes.
“I specialize in heart surgeries.”
“Oh,” I say, feeling way out of my league with this man. I barely make ends meet with my job as a daycare teacher. He must make in a week what I make in a year.
“I’ve studied hearts my entire life,” he says as his voice gets raspier and sexier. “But I never understood them until now.”
I stare at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”
He looks at me and takes a deep breath. “I understand what their function is. They’re basically a pump that sends blood coursing around a body, providing oxygen and nutrients and carrying away waste. But I never got it. Never comprehended the significance of a heart until I met you.”
I swallow hard as I stare at him. His eyes are focused on the road, thank god. I don’t think I could handle them on me right now. Not with my body humming like this.
“Did I nearly give you a heart attack when I ran you off the road? Is that what you’re talking about?”
“No,” he says as his dark eyes roam all over me, leaving goosebumps in their wake. “That’s not what I’m talking about at all.”
“Then what?”
He pulls the car over to the side of the empty road and focuses those intense brown eyes onto me. I feel so small next to him. So vulnerable. But I like it. It’s scary in an exciting way.
“When I saw you earlier,” he says in a low controlled way, like he’s making sure to say the perfect words. “I suddenly understood poems and love songs. I understood the true significance of a heart and all it represents.”
The fat snowflakes land all over the truck, coating us in a layer of snow as we sit there. It feels like we’re insulated in this truck from the outside world. Anything can happen in here. The air gets thick with need and want as we stare at each other unabashedly.
My concerns and worries about my car and where we’re going and about this stranger of a man fall away as he looks at me. Strong desire and want take their place.
I’m drawn to this man. My body keeps inching closer to him—breath quickening, chest fluttering, heat flowing between my legs. I don’t know what it is, but it’s like my body knows something that I don’t. Like it’s recognized its other half and is trying to push me into his arms.
“You’re stunning,” he says as my mouth waters. “I never thought I’d find someone to drive me wild with desire, but when I saw you… I realized how wrong I’ve always been. You make me crazy, Holly. One look at you and I can feel the obsession taking over. It scares me.”