Ian shook his head helplessly. “I don’t know.”
Warm tears streamed down her cheeks. “Will it always be like this? Dreading the winter, dreading the snow?”
Heartache slashed through his dark, inhuman eyes, and then he pulled her in close again. His lack of an answer was answer enough. Clutching onto his jacket with trembling hands, she watched the soft snowfall over his shoulder. She had to do this better—appreciate more the time they had together. She could see exactly how their years would progress, six achingly short months together, and then six that dragged on for eternity as she waited over his body for him to wake up for an hour every day. She had to figure out a way to savor every second he was awake.
“Ian,” she said on a frozen breath, clinging to him tighter. “I love you.”
A wrecked sound wrenched from his throat, and his mouth crashed onto hers. He pushed his tongue past her lips and gripped the back of her hair. With a growl deep in his throat, he yanked his jacket off and tossed it to the ground, and then his hands were on her again, reaching into the open zipper of her coat, lifting the hem of her shirt. Fingertips brushed up her ribcage, over her bra, then slipped in to cup her breast. How was he so warm when the rest of the world was so cold? Nipping his lip, she pulled his shirt over his head and reveled in how touching his chest thawed her frozen fingertips.
His voice was tinged with desperation as he gritted out, “Touch me.” Then he pulled her hand down the mounds of his abs and into the front of his jeans. He shuddered when she gripped his thick, hard shaft and pulled a slow stroke.
She understood this—the desperation to be close. To connect. Soon, this wouldn’t be an option for them. He massaged her breast harder, dumping warmth into her middle and pooling wetness against her panties. He could always do this. Ian had the uncanny ability to rev her up in seconds. She pulled his erection again and again, until his hips rocked with the pace she set, all the while kissing him as if she would never get the chance to be in a moment like this again.
She was on fire. Writhing, gasping, panting his name as he slid his hand down the front of her pants and drew his fingers through the wetness he’d conjured there. The soft growl in his throat turned feral. He leaned forward enough to pick her up by the backs of her knees, and then carried her toward the barn. His shoulders were hard as steel under her hands as she gripped the muscular curves of his body. Tears still warm on her cheeks, she slipped her tongue past his lips. Ian opened for her, daring her. Tempting her, and she lost herself as she tasted him. The snowfall outside was just like the rest of the world right now. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was here, safe with the man she loved. Treasured and adored by the man she respected most.
The barn was warmer without the wind brushing a chill against her cheeks, and he strode directly for a work bench and raked his arm across it, scattering all of the tools onto the splintered wood floors. Ian was breathing ragged now, and he sucked hard in a line down her neck as he set her on the table and pushed her jacket off her shoulders. Eagerly and with trembling fingers, she unsnapped the button of his jeans and pushed them down just enough to unsheathe him. Ian’s hands and lips were everywhere, setting her on fire with every touch, every kiss. He pulled her sweater smoothly over her head as she kicked out of her boots and shimmied out of her pants. She needed him. Needed him inside of her, filling her, giving her silent promises that no matter what kind of separation they would face with his hibernation, he still adored her.
As he unsnapped her bra and exposed her breasts to the cold night air, she tilted her head back and closed her eyes just to focus on how good his hands felt against her skin. A moan pushed past her lips as he pulled her taut nipple into his mouth and brushed his tongue against her. His kisses trailed lower as he pulled her pants from her ankles and tossed them onto the ground.