All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,42

amazing out here,” she said, her voice raised a little as she turned her head to look at him.

Her grin was as big as the lake, her lips lush and cherry red from where she’d obviously been licking them to keep them moist. Reuben couldn’t help but grin back. Her excitement infectious. He remembered vividly his first dawn foray out here in winter, how enthralled he’d been by the play of light as the sun rose, pushing back the shadows of the trees to reveal the blanket of ice.

He remembered feeling as if he was the only person alive on the planet. Disconnected from everyone yet more connected to the life force all around him than he’d ever been.

Than he could ever imagine.

“I feel like we’re the only two people in the world. Like…we’re all alone but still part of this much bigger thing at the same time.”

Reuben blinked at her statement. It shouldn’t have surprised him that Vivian got it—she was clearly enjoying herself. But to hear her echo the very thing he’d just been thinking was especially surreal.

“That’s very Zen of you,” he teased also raising his voice a notch or two.

“I know right? Fifteen minutes on the ice and I turn into a hippy.”

Reuben laughed and it pulsed around them. “I turn into a wildling,” he said. “Like some primal beast. I want to…beat my chest and howl at the moon. Or the sun, anyway.”

She laughed this time then quirked her eyebrow. “So do it.”

He shook his head and opened his mouth to decline but Vivian was looking at him with a why not expression and the crazy urge to actually do it took hold and he gave her a slow smile. Challenge accepted. Before he could think better of it, he threw back his head, cupped his hands around his mouth and let loose a giant whoop into the dome of perfect blue.

It ricocheted around the giant cauldron created by the ice and trees and sky, repeating around and around, and Reuben slowed and skated lazy figure of eights as he did it again and again, listening to his voice repeating around and around as if in stereo. Vivian joined in, her cry higher-pitched but blending well with his as they skated idly around and around each other in circles, smiling and laughing at the noise—more cacophony than symphony—until their circles got smaller and smaller and they finally met in the middle.

Reuben hugged her as she collapsed laughing into his arms and they stood, embracing in the middle of the lake. The sun was deliciously warm on his cold face as puffs of his exhaled air turned to fog in the frigid conditions. He could have stood here forever with Vivian in his arms like this.

Like the only two people in the world.

He pulled back a little, looking into her open, laughing eyes. Reuben had a lot to be thankful for in his life and he was. He’d had family and friends who loved him, a happy home to grow up in, a job he valued and he wanted for nothing. That was more than a lot of people ever had in life. But he’d never been more thankful than at this moment.

As if she knew what he was thinking again she whispered, “Happy Thanksgiving, Reuben.” Then she lifted on the toe of her skates and pressed those irresistible cherry-red lips of hers to his and Reuben lost all the breath he’d regained.

He cupped her face with his gloved hands and she opened her mouth and he opened his and stroked his tongue inside and she moaned and the kiss reached flash point in the space of one heartbeat. Reuben’s entire body pounded with a hot rush of need as the forces of nature and the essence of Vivian combined into an intoxicating cocktail.

Pulling back, she gave a breathy half laugh as she stared into his eyes. “God…” She shook her head. “You make me giddy.”

Reuben was more than a little giddy himself. “Back at ya.”

She smiled and said, “Where’d you learn to skate so well?”

“Well.” He threw out an arm and gestured around him. “I grew up here so there was a lot of this in winter. But I played ice hockey for years, too.” He dropped his arm and folded it around her shoulders again. “What about you? You’re no slouch in the skating department.”

“I took ice-skating classes for a few years when I was in elementary school. I had to stop them because