Getting back into the warmth—getting back to her—felt like heaven.
Which was exactly why he had to be careful. He would make a mistake here, a mistake they both wanted him to make, if he let himself slip for even a second.
“Brr,” he said, letting out an awkward laugh. “I don’t know if you know this, but it’s a little nippy out there.”
“It looks brisk,” Gretchen said. She started the ignition again, sending a very welcome blast of fresh heat across him.
“Kind of chilly.” He rubbed his hands together to try to warm them up, and when he got a little bit of feeling back in his fingers, he started actually examining his haul.
It wasn’t exactly a complete survivalist’s kit, but it was close.
Gretchen slid over closer to him, a wide smile finally chasing some of the lingering shadows out of her face. She was putting aside his little disappearing act, then. At least for now.
“God, I love you, Martin,” she said.
Cooper fought off a completely ridiculous surge of jealousy. Firstly because it was absurd and secondly because, hell, right now he loved Martin too.
One fluffy flannel blanket. Two bottles of water. A first aid kit. Chemical hand-warmers. Granola bars, loaded with peanuts for protein and chocolate chips for extra glucose. A spare cellphone charger. A heavy-duty flashlight with extra batteries. And a jug of—
“Is that cat litter?” Cooper said, baffled. “Does he have a cat?”
She shook her head. “You pour it out on the road, on an icy patch that you can’t get around. It gives you better traction.”
“I would never have thought of that.”
“I’m pretty sure he picked it up from Colby—Colby Acton, he’s another Marshal on our team. He grew up in California, and I don’t think he’s ever gotten over being mortally offended at snow. He knows all the tips for driving on ice.”
“I know you turn into the skid,” Cooper offered.
“And?”
“That’s it.”
“Okay. I’m definitely not letting you drive, then.” She offered him a granola bar and a bottle of water and then dug into her bag and came up with the cookies Martin had given her. “We’ve got these too. They won’t be very good, but they’ll at least have more chocolate. More sweet chocolate,” she added, forestalling any attempt he was going to make to bring up the bar she’d given him.
She was right about the cookies—they were scorched on the bottom—but they were still better than any food he’d had back at Stridmont.
With her, he thought, it would always be a little easier to taste sweetness. She’d always be more powerful than the bitterness, even if he couldn’t figure out how to explain that to her.
The idea made his eyes burn, and he turned away. He couldn’t even look out the window: they were now completely cocooned in snow.
“What is it?” Gretchen said.
Keeping a secret with her only a few inches away from him suddenly seemed ludicrous. She was too perceptive to miss that he was hiding something, so if he kept his mouth shut, he would just end up worrying her. That seemed like a funny way of trying to keep from hurting her.
He said frankly, “I like you too much.”
He was still looking at the snow when he felt her hand touch his shoulder.
“I know what you mean,” Gretchen said. “I like you an inconvenient amount too.”
Knowing that—or at least suspecting it—didn’t make hearing it any less incredible.
He wanted to bridge the tantalizingly short distance between them; he wanted to know the taste of her mouth and give her everything she wanted from him. He wanted a lot of things that were probably impossible.
Cooper turned back around to face her, and what he saw in her expression changed him.
She looked so completely, incredibly sure of herself. It was the confidence he’d known she was capable of—the kind he’d noticed her lacking when she had first come back from meeting with the driver of the black car. Since then, he had seen more of her, enough to see the cracks in her armor, enough to know the little ways she sold herself short, but seeing this—
This was like he was seeing who she was really meant to be. He’d seen a beautiful shadow of her confidence before, and now he was seeing the real thing.
A guy could fall in love.
But why was he thinking that? Didn’t he know he already had? For him, the deal had been sealed the moment she had reached out and shaken his hand. Everything since then had just shown him more and more of what an amazing person she was.
“You keep getting these looks on your face,” Gretchen said, smiling a little. “Like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
“I’m just looking at you.”
“People look at me all the time. It doesn’t change their lives.”
“Maybe they don’t see you the way I do,” Cooper said.
This time, there was no stopping their kiss. He couldn’t bring himself to pull away, not now, not with that I know what you mean ringing in his ears, not with being face-to-face with her shining, golden confidence. He was completely willing to believe she was right to want whatever she wanted. He trusted her.
So much for caution.
Fuck caution, anyway.
They pressed against each other clumsily, their bodies fighting to get closer despite the console between them. Her breasts pressed against his chest. She was leaning accidentally against the bandages still wrapped around his ribs, and the twinge of pain was sharp, but Cooper had never cared less about anything in his entire life.
She tasted smooth and rich, like the aftermath of the chocolate, and there was a kind
