Good God. She had actually done that. Just thrown a lopsided snowball at him, as if laughter and teasing had surged past these terrible years and broken out again. He grabbed his own fistful and threw it back at her in a wild burst of so much testosterone and so much hunger that he accidentally aimed it with his full competitive skill and hit her straight in the face.
Her jaw dropped in pure indignation—Kurt never hit her straight in the face in snowball fights, and he had a second’s guilty relief that he hadn’t taken the time to pack his snow into a proper snowball, before she jumped up, grabbed the branch over her head—and jerked all her weight down on it, leaping to the refuge of the trunk as snow dumped on top of him.
He burst out laughing as he shook himself, so much happiness pressing suddenly through him that it threatened to split his skin, and at the same time this dominant greediness, so that he just had to catch her, take her, make this moment all his.
He lunged for her so menacingly that she squeaked with alarm and dodged behind the tree, then to another tree. And then they were weaving in and out among the pines. He wanted to catch her so damn bad and yet he wanted to toy with her, too, cat and mouse, make her squeal and tremble in terror of being caught and yet want it so much she forgot everything but him.
He surged at her, growling, and she threw a fast snowball at him, too unnerved to pack and aim it properly. He let her dodge away to a refuge behind a big oak where she couldn’t see his body . . . and then he stalked her around it, coming in close to the trunk, making her peek one way and another in vain, her tension ratcheting up a notch, and then another, until he lunged at her with a growl—
She screamed again, louder, freer, ever happier, and ran to the next tree, and the next, as he chased her and caught her and let her manage to wiggle free, taking his snow punishment as she tried to defend herself and then catching her again.
I love you, I love you, I love you so damn much, Kai, so much that he finally couldn’t stand it anymore, and he tackled her in one hard lunge, taking her down and cupping her head in the snow with his bare hands to protect it as he kissed her and kissed her.
“Is that hot tub any closer yet?” he groaned, rolling them over to get her out of the snow. Christ, she was cute. She looked just like she had the day he had proposed. Except for the thinner cheeks, but let’s just not think about those things right now, sweetheart. Let’s just be us, let’s just be happy. I think that might be how life works, that sometimes it takes all your happiness away and you just have to build it back, bit by bit. Or some people don’t build it back, but we’re not going to be those people. We’re not going to leave our lives in ruins; we’re going to put them back together again. He pulled her down to him and kissed her again, and again, in no hurry to ever let this kissing end.
In case he couldn’t get it started again.
“I’m never getting so far away from a hot tub in the winter again in my life,” he swore finally, pushing them to their feet again. “How much farther? A couple of miles?”
“Don’t worry, you’ll have forgotten all about it by then,” she said soothingly, patting him on the back like a small boy she was trying to console, with a little smirk.
“You’ve forgotten the persistence of my imagination, Kai Winters.” He dusted her hair off and pulled her hat back on her head, loving everything about this moment—her teasing, the way she had forgotten sorrow, even that reaffirmation of his name on her.
She grinned. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” she said saucily, taunting him with the swing of her hips as she headed back to the trail. What a beautiful sight that swinging butt was. She still hadn’t remembered to be unhappy.
“Are you sure?” he murmured menacingly, as he came close behind her, enjoying being the hungry threat bearing down on her. “That you’ll need to see it? Are you sure I couldn’t blindfold you and still somehow manage to convince you how long my imagination can last, Kai?”
She darted a glance back at him over her shoulder, her eyes brilliant with alarm, but it was a fun alarm, she was loving every second of it, he could tell.
He caught up with her enough to grab her by the collar and run a little dusting of snow up and down her nape. She yelped and shivered all over, and he bent down and growled low in her ear. Her head arched back to him at that, her eyes closing, and he laughed, taking her hand and falling into step beside her. Fuck, this might actually turn into a good Christmas.
Chapter Seven