Page 65 of Wild Heart
Tate chuckled and urged me ahead of him, bending down to pick up my gear for me. I waved with my clean hand to everyone and said, “See you in a little bit.”
I was fortunate that Keystone Mountain had several smaller lodges throughout the mountain. Otherwise, I’d have been trying to clean my hand in the snow.
“Thank you for waiting with me,” I said as Tate fell into step beside me.
“You know it’s not a problem.”
Despite the humiliation I felt, warmth moved through me. It was nice to know Tate and I were making strides toward rebuilding our friendship. “I don’t know why stuff like this always happens to me. Get me on a stage, and I can blow your mind, but put me in any other situation, and I’m bound to make a fool of myself.”
“You’re not a fool. In fact, I think it’s this side of you that makes things fun.”
I twisted my neck and looked over at him as we came to a stop just outside the lodge. “Fun? Having to stop what we came here for, simply because I couldn’t open my jacket and then made a mess all over myself?”
“Well, the zipper could have happened to anyone,” he reasoned. “As for the chocolate, we don’t have to go into the lodge to clean it off.”
My brows pulled together. “You think I should just use some snow?”
He leaned our gear against the ski rack, held my filthy hand up between us, and said, “It’s chocolate, Ava. It’s edible.”
Was he saying…
“Are you suggesting I stick my fingers in my mouth and lick them clean?”
His remarkable eyes darkened. “I guess that’s an option, too. I hadn’t considered that one.”
“What? What were you thinking?”
His lips twitched. “I was thinkingIcould stick them inmy mouthand lick them clean.”
My jaw fell open, disbelief moving through me. What had gotten into him? “You would never,” I challenged him.
“Oh, but Ava, I absolutely would.”
His voice. It was so deep, so promising. It reminded me of the night we had together before I left without a word. A shudder ran through me that had nothing to do with the cold.
For a brief moment, I tried to work out what Tate was hoping to accomplish. Did he really mean what he was saying, or was he simply trying to get me to see how I’d made things for him for years?
Maybe it was the fact that we were alone that led me to being a bit bolder. I inhaled deeply, kept my eyes pinned on his, and demanded, “Prove it.”
A devilish grin spread across his face. Without hesitating, he dropped his mouth to my middle finger and began licking the chocolate from it.
Heat built in my body, an ache forming between my legs. I bit my lip as I watched him clean the chocolate from my fingers, recalling how it felt to have his tongue on other parts of my body.
I had to stop this.
There was far too much at stake.
Giving a tug on my hand, I pulled it out of Tate’s grasp. Unsure I could trust myself to walk the remaining distance into the lodge, I bent down and grabbed a hunk of snow. It was freezing, and I’d probably regret it later when I couldn’t feel my fingertips, but I needed anything I could get right now to douse the flames that had built inside me.
Tate must have realized how unbalanced I’d become. “You didn’t think I’d do it, did you?”
I shook my head, unable to meet his stare.
While I continued to focus on the snow in my hands, I felt his bare fingers pinch my chin gently. He urged me to look at him. “I told you I want all the flirting and teasing and playfulness back. I meant what I said, and I’m keen to prove it to you.”
I swallowed hard. I desperately wanted to believe him. My mind and my heart were a mess of emotions, and I couldn’t begin to figure them out in order to respond.
Luckily, Tate didn’t seem to have any issues easing some of the tension for me. In a move I hadn’t been expecting, he released my chin, reached into the pocket of his jacket, and held up his own tube of lip balm. “You can use mine.”