Winter Read online

  Aaron hesitated, but Celeste could see the wrinkles at the outer corners of his eyes. He’d told her the exact same thing over and over throughout the years.

  Eager to get the attention off herself, Celeste turned back toward Lynnie, looking for something, anything to-

  What… no, who was that?

  A small alley broke the line of buildings along the road and there, in the shadows, she could have sworn-

  Something touched her arm and she jumped. “Oh!”

  “Hey… hey. Cel?”

  A shiver passed through her body.

  “Celeste?”

  Aaron. She felt his warmth beside her.

  Against her.

  “Celeste?” He kissed her temple and his breath warmed her.

  She leaned into it. Tilted her face toward him like she was seeking the sun.

  “Hey.” His hand touched her chin, lifting her face up. “Celeste, talk to me.”

  “I thought I saw a man.”

  The strong arm wrapped around her body tensed, the muscles in it jumping at the words she’d only whispered.

  “I thought it looked like Josiah.”

  Suddenly, the world tilted off its axis as Aaron moved in front of her, putting himself between her and the unsettling eyes in the shadows. Celeste leaned against his back, wrapping an arm around his waist. Flattening her hand against his belly.

  She couldn’t help the need to rub her cheek against the broad, muscled plane of his back.

  How she needed him… needed this. The reassurance of a man willing to stand by her. Between her and those things in the world that frightened her.

  Hadn’t Aaron always been that man since the day she met him?

  Hadn’t he always stepped into that role so easily?

  And what had she given him in return?

  “Celeste? Honey, you okay?”

  The voice turned her head. Lynnie was looking into her eyes with a worried pinch of skin between her brows.

  “Oh, sweetie, look at you!” Lynnie clucked at her like a mother hen. “Aaron. You best move on and give her a chance to rest. Maybe put her feet up.”

  It took a moment or two for Celeste to realize that there were only three of them standing together. Her confusion must have been plainly scored into her features. Lynnie rubbed a hand over her back.

  “Don’t you worry. Samuel went to go look for the man. If he’s not there, Sam will sniff him out.”

  Celeste thought the phrase sounded odd to her ears, but she also felt that it was apt in other ways. How? Well, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

  “Maybe it’s the altitude,” she said the words but didn’t know exactly who she meant them for. “Maybe that’s why everything seems so strange.”

  Lynnie raised a pointed brow at Aaron. “Oh, it’s part of the reason, all right, but I’m sure Aaron will explain…” Her voice trailed off and she shooed them away. “I’ll talk to Samuel and we’ll send a message your way. Go on now… you two go on.”

  Celeste saw Lynnie’s wink and took Aaron’s arm as they headed back down toward the diner.

  While they walked, she managed to look up and catch Aaron’s gaze. “Why do I get the feeling like everyone around me knows something that I don’t?”

  Aaron’s throat worked for a long moment, swallowing and then settling as he let out a breath.

  “Well, we’ve all known each other for what seems like forever. They’ve all told me things about myself that I didn’t even realize.” He picked her hand up off his arm and leaned forward to press a kiss on her knuckles. “You’ll know me that well if that’s what you want, Celeste. Tomorrow,” he sighed and she worried a little when she heard the tentative scratch of his voice in his throat, “we’re going to visit a place that’s been here in Mystic since the late Nineteenth Century. I hope that it’ll be a place that you’ll fall in love with. Somewhere that will be our future, together.”

  They came to a slow stop beside his truck and she looked up at him through narrowed eyes. “I thought that was the house. Your house.”

  He turned slightly as a wind kicked up and used his broad back to shield her from the cold. “That’s part of it, but it’ll make more sense when I take you there. You’ll see.”

  “Ooohkay…” she took hold of the front of his shirt and pulled him down far enough to lay her nose against the side of his, “I’m going to just put my trust in you Aaron Winter. You’ve been there for me for years.”

  Tilting his head slightly, he pressed a kiss against her lips and his beard and mustache tickled deliciously against her skin. “And for many more, Celeste. Believe it.”

  He pressed his lips against hers again before reaching around to pull the truck door open.

  “Now, let’s get you home so we can warm you up.”

  His words smoothed over every inch of uncovered skin like a phantom touch. The look in his eyes and the warmth in his voice promised so much more.

  “Let’s go,” she agreed and stepped up into the cab of the truck with a smile touching her lips.

  Stoking the fire made the whole cabin warmer… almost uncomfortably warm for him, but he did his best to keep his thoughts on more pleasant things. Like the way Celeste looked in a light cotton blouse that fluttered around her hips and the leggings that she wore under it.

  Picking up the cups of mulled cider from the kitchen counter he paused in the doorway and watched as she sat down on the couch and drew her legs up beside her. Her bare feet looked perfect against the supple dark leather cushion and the way her dark green leggings wrapped intimately around her calves and thighs had his bear growling deep inside of him.

  Ours, human.

  If his bear had been there, he would have had those deadly teeth clutched around his own throat. The bear had never called him that word before, but he could hear the deep-seated anger in the tone.

  Tell her now.

  Tomorrow.

  Aaron nearly stumbled as his bear flopped down within his soul like an eight-hundred-pound toddler in the beginning throes of a temper tantrum.

  So tired. His bear insisted. Tired of waiting.

  Yes, Aaron pushed back, but this needs care. She needs care.

  That, his bear could not argue with. Turning his back on the whole affair, his bear trundled off into the darkness to wait for the morning.

  Aaron walked up to the couch and nearly stumbled over his own heart as Celeste looked up at him, a beatific smile on her face.

  How many times had he imagined that exact smile looking up at him? He held out a cup and watched as she took it gently from his grip. Her smile broadened as she cupped her hands around the mug.

  “Is this what I think it is?” She didn’t wait for an answer and drew the mug up to her nose and took in a deep breath. “Heaven,” she looked up at him and sighed, “pure heaven.”

  He watched as she all but cuddled the mug to her chest. “I remembered your recipe.”

  Her expression softened and her eyes shone in the firelight. “You did?”

  Nodding, he drank in the sight of her in his home. “Every year at Thanksgiving. When I would come to the house, I could always count on the scent of your cider in the air.”

  “Every year but this last one,” she shook her head carefully, holding the mug in her hands, “I was out of cinnamon and the kids had to go to the store.”

  “And I got to watch you make it when they came back.” He felt his heart kick hard against his ribs and he heard the slightly melancholic sound of his voice.

  He was hoping she missed it, but when he met her eyes, he saw that his hopes were in vain.

  “Aaron? Did you want… I mean, did I…” She shook herself and turned slightly on the over-stuffed cushion. “Are you going to sit down?”

  Looking down at himself, he realized that he was still standing in front of the couch with his own cup held in his right hand. “Yeah,” he chuckled, “I was planning to. I guess I just forgot.”

  Tilting her head toward the wall, s
he raised her brows as she looked up at him. “Then come and sit down beside me, Aaron. I like your warmth when we’re close to each other.”

  Oh, she didn’t have to ask twice.

  Carefully, he sat down on the cushion, hoping not to jostle her and chance spilling the cider on her by accident. He didn’t watch her as he moved, but he was sure he felt her eyes on him.

  And when he was seated against the couch, he turned to look at her and saw that he was right.

  Celeste peered at him over the top of her cup as she slowly sipped the spicy brew.

  “Good?”

  After another long, slow, sip that seemed to massage her throat as he watched the smooth column of her neck undulate with her swallow, she lowered her cup. “The best.”

  His skin felt hot under his clothes and contrary to its parting words, the bear came out of the darkness to cuddle as close as he could to their mate. “I’m so glad.”

  He knew she heard the rumbling growl of his tone by the sudden shift of her expression, but she didn’t seem to hear anything upsetting or worrisome in his tone.

  Maybe it was because her own thoughts had sobered.

  “Should I have asked you if you wanted to help make the cider?” She leaned against the back of the sofa, but her eyes were focused on him. “I always tried to make sure that everything was done before you got there so that we could all spend time together and we wouldn’t be stuck in the kitchen.” She leaned forward and set the cup down on the thick wooden block that served as a coaster. When she sat back in her chair, he felt the warmth of her gaze on his face. “Did you want to be there and help with the cooking? To share those moments with us?”

  He couldn’t really manage to say what was in his head, let alone what was in his heart, and he wondered how he was going to manage opening up his soul before her if he couldn’t manage to explain something as simple as saying ‘yes.’

  “Did I,” her lips turned down at the corners, “did I take that from you, Aaron? Was I so blind?”

  He would have sat there stunned if she hadn’t reached out her hand and set it on his leg.

  Looking down at her pale fingers gently splayed over the dark plaid of his thin cotton pants, he felt his heart constrict in his chest as the available blood surged downward.

  “Oh, Aaron.” Celeste shifted closer until her knee bumped gently against his thigh. “I’m so sorry if you felt left out of that. For years the kids treated it like indentured servitude, I was thinking that I was saving you from the boredom.”

  “If memory serves me,” his shoulders shook with the laughter he was fighting to keep in, “you had to threaten Jason with hiding his… his game thing if he didn’t help with the biscuits one year.”

  Laughing, Celeste leaned in and laid her head on his shoulder. “I’d almost forgotten about that.” She turned slightly, tucking her face into his chest. “I should have asked you if you wanted to help, but I thought I was saving you the work. After all…” her voice was barely a whisper, “after all the wonderful things you did for us over the years, I didn’t want you to feel like you had to work to eat. I wanted… we wanted to thank you in some small way.”

  He held his mug in his left hand, on the far side from Celeste, so that he could lay his hand over hers, holding her warmth against his thigh. “I might have wanted to help, Celeste, but make no mistake, there was never… never a moment when I was with you and the children that I wished for anything more.

  “Just the chance to be there with you and watch the fruition of your work was enough. There are thousands of memories in my mind that I will never forget, and you’re a part of most of them. You, Celeste, have given me so much in the past. I want to make sure you know how much it’s meant to me.”

  He let the words settle between them and waited to see what her reaction would be.

  She surprised him.

  She surprised both of them, when she took the mug from his hands and set it on the coffee table, out of reach, and then drew him down to her lips.

  “You mean so much to us, Aaron. So much that I’m afraid to tell you where my thoughts have gone from time to time. To tell you how much these moments here with you have made me so happy.”

  He felt his voice vibrating through his chest and fought down the instinct to kiss her senseless and blurt everything out.

  But, if time had taught him anything, it was patience.

  He wanted to lay the world at her feet before he showed her the side of himself that he’d managed to keep hidden all these years. He wanted to make sure that she could see the kind of future he could offer before he laid himself bare to her.

  In every way.

  Celeste tucked herself in against his side and he settled his arm around her shoulders as he brushed kisses over the crown of her head, sharing his warmth with his mate, hoping that the next day would be magical… for them both.

  Seven

  Celeste felt like a biscuit… no. She felt like an English muffin on a griddle. Baking. Roasty toasty hot. It wasn’t a hot flash. Nope, she’d had a few of those over the last few years and this wasn’t the same thing.

  If it had been, she would have just rolled out of bed, yanked off her nightie and jumped into the shower under an ice-cold blast of water. Instead, this heat was something entirely different.

  It was a languid heat that was as delicious as grilled cheese sandwiches crisping on a cold and rainy day.

  Wiggling a bit, Celeste began to tip to the side, and that’s when soothing warmth pressed against her lower back.

  “Don’t move, Cel.”

  She heard the littlest groan in his voice and as she stretched slowly, she realized that the heat that was going to burn her up was actually Aaron.

  Celeste stilled for a moment as she tried to piece together the pertinent details.

  “Still waking up, hmm?”

  She intended to answer him, but the vibrations of his voice that moved from his body and through hers left her in place, sighing out a breath. “Mmm hmm.”

  “You fell asleep on top of me last night.”

  With that little bit of information, she woke full-up in a heartbeat and started to sit up.

  Aaron’s hands were on her hips before she could move more than an inch. “Hold still.”

  Her sudden movements had set her off-balance, but her sudden stop made it even worse. Reaching out, Celeste grabbed onto the closest things she could catch onto. His shoulders.

  And they were strong and steady under her hands. Strength to lean on. Hard muscle and heated flesh. She felt like she was melting into him, inching lower, sliding belly to belly as she relaxed into his touch. “Is the fire still going? You’re so warm.” She laid her head down on his shoulder and melted against his body. “I could lay here on top of you for hours.”

  He shifted under her.

  No. Not quite.

  “Aaron?” She rubbed her cheek on his chest as she slipped her hand up between them and tucked it between them. “Oh, wow.”

  Her eyes opened wide as her fingertips rubbed against his bare skin, the crisp scratch of his hair sent shivers along her skin all the way up through her arms and into the center of her body.

  “You…”

  She heard him breathe and it sounded like caverns of air where his lungs should be.

  “You want me to put my shirt back on?”

  Aaron’s voice was soft with an edge of worry in his tone.

  Celeste smoothed her palm over his chest and felt the wiry spring of his chest hair against her skin. “I’ve wanted to do this for so long.”

  The sound that reached her ears was something like a strangled groan.

  “I think it first started when you fixed the porch steps when I first started to work at the Victorian. It was a long hot summer day.” She sighed at the memory. “You took off your shirt and draped it over the railing and went back to work. I stood there watching you so long I burned a whole tray of brownies.”

  Aaron laughed and she felt the subtle fri
ction that built between their bodies. “Is that what I smelled that day?”

  “I made another tray.”

  “Two,” he covered her hand with his, “and I think I ate almost a whole one on my own.”

  “You and the children.” Her soft reminder was followed quickly by a low, deep rumble of sound. “The three of you together could eat through the pantry if I left you alone long enough.”

  “I have a good appetite.”

  A moment of silence passed between them and then they both started to laugh. Celeste couldn’t seem to keep her eyes open wide enough to see or stop her laughs long enough to breathe. And when she tried to sit up, she slid one way and then the other, reaching out to try and get a hold of something solid to hold herself together.

  It was Aaron that gave her that.

  His hands that found her hips and eased her to the side as he sat up. “Careful where you put that knee, Celeste.”

  She looked down and saw how close her knee was tucked up between his thighs. She froze, held herself stiff so she couldn’t hurt him. ”How,” she lifted her gaze up into his eyes, “how do I move and not-”

  He picked her up with an ease that left her breathless and set her on the floor. He was sitting up a moment later, reaching his hand out toward her.

  She didn’t even try to hold back, setting her hand in his. “Well if you were trying to impress me, Aaron Winter, that would be a good way to do it.”

  With barely any pressure on her fingers, he stood up, towering over her. And above them the vault of the ceiling seemed to go on and on and on.

  “I’ve always wanted to impress you, Celeste. Since the night we met that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.” He lifted their joined hands and was a hairsbreadth away from pressing his lips to her skin when something pricked at her memory, pulling her hand from his.

  “The night we met? You mean the morning, right?”

  She saw an odd look pass over his features for a moment before he shook his head as if he was clearing his thoughts.

  “Sorry, Cel. I admit I’m a little distracted by you.”