Page 3 of Crash with Me (Seasons of Sizzle #3)

THREE

HEIDI

Masking a yawn, I gratefully accept the cup of coffee Seth hands to me. Our fingers brush, setting a flutter through me.

“Thank you.” I work my jaw, and bring the liquid gold to my lips. “I’m exhausted.”

“That’s my fault.” He gives a sheepish look. “I kept you up half the night.”

That he did. After we both crawled into our respective sides of the bed, after a short argument where he said he’d be fine sleeping on the floor, we found that neither of us could sleep.

I could lie and say it was the excitement of the intrigue keeping me awake.

In actuality, my body was so keenly aware of his presence—his size, his strength, his delicious smell—I was too tightly coiled to keep my eyes closed.

Every time I closed them, I’d imagine how he’d looked when I caught a glimpse of him bare-chested while he changed out of his suit and into a white shirt and gym shorts.

When I realized Seth couldn’t sleep either…

I wish I could say we stayed up half the night worshipping one another’s bodies. But, instead, we went round after round of rapid fire questions and answers…

“Where did you go to high school?” I ask, curled up on my side, cradling my head on my hands.

“My dad flew us down to Anchorage every morning.” He settles into his own pillow, his arm tucked under his head. “Until I got my pilot’s license.”

“You have a pilot’s license?”

“Of course. When you grow up in the bush, it’s more useful than having a driver’s license.”

“Did you have a driver’s license?”

The look he gives could melt stone. It easily pulverizes my heart.

“What did you like to do in high school?” he asks.

“I’m sure you’ll find this hard to believe, but I was a total nerdy artsy girl.”

Again, his heated stare turns my insides into pools of desire.

“I worked at the hardware store in town after school every day to save money for a camera,” I say. “I kept track of every dollar, every penny, and turned down countless trips to the mall with my friends.”

“Did you save enough?”

I nod. “But it didn’t matter. On my sixteenth birthday, my parents surprised me with my dream camera. I used my savings to get extra lenses and photo editing software.”

“Do you still like photography?”

“I love it.” I scoot a little closer, my body drawn to his. “I take it with me almost everywhere I go. I capture pictures around town. I sometimes do portraits. But, mostly, I love still-life.”

“What’s your favorite thing to photograph?”

“Nature, of course. I try to get out for hikes a couple of times a week. There’s something about being out in nature. Just my camera and me. The trees.”

He nods. “The birds.”

“Water flowing through the streams.” I sigh. “I don’t know if I’m any good, but I love framing a scene and capturing it.”

“I’m sure your work is great.”

“How do you know that?”

“You’re too passionate about it to be anything short of spectacular.”

My heart skips a beat, the butterflies in my belly flap their wings.

“I’d love to see it sometime.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “You would?”

“Definitely. May I?”

Nodding, I turn away from him only long enough to reach for my phone, charging on the nightstand.

I pull it between us and pull up my digital portfolio. We both lean in to watch it load on the screen. Our heads are so close together, they’re nearly touching.

I hold the phone as Seth swipes through each picture. He pauses and studies each one, as if there’s going to be a test over it later. Every so often he makes a noise. A little hum that comes deep in his chest.

When we reach the last one, he turns his dark stare to me. “Just as I suspected. They’re spectacular. You’re spectacular.”

I want to kiss him. I want to throw myself at him and wrap my body around his, showing him with my body how happy his words have made me.

I settle on a softly breathed “Thank you” and return my phone to the nightstand.

“I’m sure you’ll find this hard to believe,” he says, when I’m back in my position, curled up on my side facing him. “But I also love hiking.”

“I suppose it’s kind of a prerequisite when you live here.”

“It’s why I could never leave. Have you ever thought about living anywhere else?”

I shake my head. “I did a year of college in Portland. But…”

“You missed it too much.” He nods. “I felt the same thing when I was away at school.”

“Where did you go?”

“University of Minnesota.” When my eyebrows shoot up in surprise, he gives a rich, husky chuckle that rumbles from his chest into mine. “I had a hockey scholarship.”

“Seriously? Do you still play?”

“Only for fun in a league. Work usually keeps me busy.”

“What do you do?”

“I own a store. An online shop that sells outdoor gear. Mostly things for fishing, hiking.”

“The basic mountain man supplies,” I tease. “That must keep you busy.”

“It keeps me out of trouble.” His gaze briefly lowers to my lips. “Most of the time.”

My belly flutters.

“So, bartending. Do you enjoy it?”

“I get to meet interesting people.” I give him a meaningful look. “And it’s never dull.”

“I guess not. What do you like about it most?”

“The creativity of it. You wouldn’t think it, but being a bartender—being a mixologist—is a kind of magic of its own.”

“Oh yeah?”

I nod. “I bartend at a restaurant, and I have carte blanche to experiment with the seasonal drink menu.”

“What’s your favorite drink you’ve made?”

“Last summer, I made a spicy blackberry margarita that went viral.”

His eyebrows shoot up. “No shit?”

“Well, as viral as a drink made in Alaska can go. But tourists in the area flocked to order it so they could snap pictures and videos to post on their socials.”

He gives a low whistle.

“It was so popular, our liquor distributor was a little panicked he wouldn’t be able to source enough tequila for me to keep making them.”

Seth chuckles, and the crinkle around his smiling eyes makes my heart skip.

I take a shaky breath. “Don’t worry. I made his life easier over the fall with a pumpkin old fashioned.”

“Maybe there’s a way to combine your passions.”

I cock my head thoughtfully. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe you could do a book of recipes and photos of the drinks out in nature. You could call it something like On the Rocks and Off the Grid .”

I suck in a breath. “That’s brilliant. You’re brilliant.”

His cheeks flush. It’s so dang cute.

We keep going. Sharing secret after secret.

Naturally, it’s all in the interest of our agreement. Purely to help us sell the fact that we’re a couple.

It has nothing to do with the fact that I find myself inexplicably drawn to this man. Or the fact that I want to know everything about him.

From the way he takes his coffee in the morning—black and strong enough to knock out an elephant—to the way he led his high school hockey team to the state championships.

I want to know everything. I want to know it all.

Four hours of late night pillow talk isn’t enough. I could talk to him all day, every day, for a hundred years and never become bored.

What’s more, he seems to want to know everything about me. As we lay curled up on our sides, our gazes never wavering from one another, we forge a bond.

It’s only for the weekend.

I keep telling myself that over and over. But no matter how many times I turn that phrase over in my head, my heart doesn’t seem to care.

I’m not sure when we finally doze off. It’s hard to tell the time of day—or night—this time of year, even with the blinds closed over the windows.

Neither of us said anything when we woke up this morning close together, our hands linked on the pillows between our heads.

Instead, he’d smiled at me. Almost shyly. And what little part of my heart he hadn’t already stolen was completely his.

Now, dressed for brunch with the rest of the wedding guests and armed with a cup of coffee, I give him a serious look, catching his eye in the mirror.

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine.” He shrugs his shoulders, as if there’s something tickling the back of his neck.

“It’s okay if you aren’t. No one would blame you for feeling uncomfortable about all this. Come on.” I give him a little nudge. “This thing only works if we’re honest with each other.”

“You’re right.” He scratches the back of his head and lets his arm fall to the side. “This whole thing is awkward as hell. I don’t want it to be. I don’t want people to think I’m sulking.”

“You want people to think you’re okay.”

“Because I am okay. Mostly.” He lifts a shoulder. “Yeah, what they did sucked. But it’s not like Kelly and I were ever going to get married. It’s not like we were in love.”

“Still, it hurt.”

“It hurt my ego. Not my heart.”

We stare at each other’s reflections, and I see it in his eyes. He isn’t wounded. Not really. But he has a point to prove. He’s a man with pride. It’s my job to help him get through this weekend with it still intact.

“Well, okay then.” I nod at him. “Let’s do this then.”

He nods back at me. “Let’s do this.”

The brunch isn’t as uncomfortable as having your legs in stirrups while a gynecologist puts forceps in you for a pap smear.

But it isn’t easy either.

Walter and Kelly are all over each other. They take turns feeding each other bites off of their plates, which seems more than a little unnecessary. It’s a brunch buffet, for crying out loud. They can get up and grab something more from the spread at any time.

“It’s like they’re trying to prove something,” Stacey grumbles.

I glance up at her. She took the seat across the table from Seth and I. While it’s clear she isn’t really buying our claims of being in a three-month-long relationship, she isn’t trying to blow our cover either.

Mostly.

She asked a few probing questions—how we met, how often we see each other, and so on. Luckily, Seth and I spent part of our overnight conversation coming up with answers to these exact questions.

Seth looks up from his plate, where he’s kept his attention for most of the meal. “What was that?”

“I said they’re acting like they have to prove they’re really in love so no one will think this is a terrible idea or that they’re terrible people for getting together in the first place behind your back.” Stacey straightens her shoulders. “At least that’s one theory.”

“You’re probably right.” I cast a sidelong glance at Seth and lower my voice. “Are you still doing okay?”

“I’m fine.” He faces me and offers a light smile. “I just hate the way people keep looking and staring. Like I’m the lion at the zoo.”

I glance around and catch more than a few people looking away suddenly. “It does seem like they’re waiting for you to do something.”

“I don’t know what they expect from me.”

“You should just kiss already and get it over with.”

Seth and I turn in unison to gape at her. She shrugs. “What? I’m just saying, if you give the people what they want, maybe they’ll leave you alone.”

“And the people want us to kiss?” Seth says.

“Probably.”

With a shaky laugh, I lift a shoulder. “Well, I guess we should give the people what they want so we can all get on with our lives.”

“It’s okay.” He leans toward me, whispering in my ear. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want.”

His warm breath on my skin sends a shiver down my spine.

“No, it’s okay.” I pull back a little, so our lips are a breath apart. “I want you to kiss me.”

“You do?”

I nod. And then, before I can second-guess whether or not this is a good idea, I do the very thing I’ve wanted to do since I first saw him.

I close my eyes and press my lips to his.