“I like the way your lips pout when you’re asleep.”
He traces my mouth as he tells me this. That one small touch earns a throb between my legs.
The pounding of my heart rushes in my ears. My skin is still alive with that unsatisfied sensation and everything feels supercharged. It makes me a little dizzy.
“Are you mine?” Lucas asks in a low rumbling voice. “I want you to give all of yourself to me.”
My breath leaves me so fast it scrapes at my throat. I feel like I’m locked in a tractor beam, drawing me closer and closer to kissing Lucas. I swallow.
This goes against my whole plan. I didn’t know it would be so hard to fight Lucas. I didn’t know he could affect me so much.
I picture it for a second, how his lips would descend over mine in another possessive onslaught if I gave in. If I was with Lucas, it would stop the ridiculous bullying. I’d be pulled into his circle.
Carter Burns couldn’t mess with me because I’d be untouchable. Protected by Lucas.
I’d be his.
For that brief second, it makes me happy to imagine. Until reality sets in.
“No,” I answer in a raspy whisper.
Lucas tenses, his thumb still swiping my lip. A muscle twitches in his cheek.
There’s a wildness ebbing off of him in waves that puts me on edge. I don’t know what he’s going to do.
The high tension between us is sliced by the loud tone of the phone ringing.
Some people in the living room moan in grumbling protests for the interruption to their sleep, dragging them to the surface to face their hangovers.
Lucas peels away from me to answer his phone and I’m left alone trying to calm the rabbity jump of
my heartbeat.
His voice is deep and direct as he talks on the phone. I turn around and steal his half-finished coffee instead of finding a mug in the numerous cabinets. I fill the mug with the pot from the fancy coffee maker and raid his fridge for cream.
“Thanks. I’ll send people out once you let me know it’s safely cleared.”
Lucas hangs up and reaches automatically for his mug, finding it in my hands instead as I take a sip. His eyes narrow. Wordlessly, he retrieves a new mug from the cabinet above the coffee maker and pours coffee, drinking it black.
“They’re working on clearing the road. Someone will call when it’s safe to drive on it again.”
“So…everyone’s stuck here until then?”
His mouth twitches.
“Yup.” Lucas pops the ‘p’ and watches me over the rim of his mug as he drinks. “You’re stranded here with me.”
That Bear Grylls escape through the wilderness I thought of in the heat of the moment last night is looking pretty good right now.
Twenty-Four
Lucas
It takes around eight hours for the road to clear.
The novelty of the forced stranding wore off fast for most people. Except Devlin, who always hangs around until I need to kick him back across the lake.
At least when it’s from a blizzard, there’s the charm of fresh snow and snowball fights to keep busy.