stop talking.
Saint swigged his beer as he headed for the torches that formed a ring around the firepit, moved between two and stopped with them a few feet behind him. Before him, darkness stretched, but the moon was bright enough to cast highlights on the pristine snow that covered the rest of the wide clearing that reached down to the frozen river. It threaded the forest on the other side with silver and brightened the white caps of the mountains.
The murmur of conversation filled the silence, and he smiled as he heard Knox charming a group of female cougars. For a male determined not to settle down, he wasn’t exactly avoiding female company.
Awareness of everyone fell away as Saint lifted his head and stared at the inky sky, watching faint aurora chasing across it. His breath misted in front of his face, the air growing colder as night closed in. He took a pull on his beer, savoured it this time, thought about how surrendering to the winter sleep meant he missed this sight. It was stunning. This far south, the aurora were weak, but with his heightened vision, he could see them clearly. He lost himself in their beautiful dance.
He tensed as a gentle hand came to rest between his shoulder blades, her palm searing him.
“It’s cold,” Holly murmured, her soft voice like music to his ears, seemingly making the aurora all the more beautiful. Or maybe it was the thought of sharing it with her that made it more bewitching. “Too cold to be out without a coat.”
He slid a look at her as she stepped around him on his left side and groaned as he found her wearing his one again.
She smiled, her grey-green eyes sparkling with it. “Shame yours is taken.”
Saint turned towards her, the aurora forgotten as she bewitched him instead. He moved his bottle and clutched the neck with two of his fingers against his palm, lifted his hands and tugged his coat closed over her. Held on to it as he gazed down at her, into her eyes.
“You took more than my coat,” he murmured, warmth spilling through him, a trickle of nerves mingled in with it.
A blush darkened her cheeks and he lifted his left hand to cup her face and feel it.
His eyes leaped between hers as he thought about how they had come to be here, in this moment, and how grateful he was that it had happened. Grateful, but ashamed.
“I’m sorry for what I did… for everything.” He smoothed his palm over her cheek, bathed in her soft look as she angled her head up, not a trace of anger or regret in her eyes. “I wish we’d met under better circumstances.”
Holly sidled closer to him and pressed one hand to his chest, seared him with that touch, branding his heart with her name.
“Stop apologising.” She brushed her fingers over his chest, idly stroking him. “I’ll never be sorry that we met. I’ll count my blessings every day.”
Gods, she killed him. His beautiful, incredible Holly. A weaker female might have hated him, might have turned her back on him, but not Holly. She was strong on the inside too, was able to see past his mistakes and forgive him, to embrace the future without getting hung up on the past. He didn’t deserve her.
He wanted to tell her that, but someone near the firepit muttered something about it being gone midnight.
Her gaze broke away from his, lifted to the stars that glittered above them, and she sighed.
“Christmas day.” Her eyes dropped to his, a twinkle in them that made him want to know what she was thinking. “If I was home right now, my brothers would be throwing presents at me.”
Her smile was stunning, hit him hard in the chest, knocking the wind from him.
“Brothers?” He frowned down at her, lifted his hand and tucked a rogue wave of black hair behind her ear, savouring the warmth of her skin beneath his fingers and how soft she was.
It hit him that there was so much he didn’t know about her, so much they still needed to learn about each other, but he didn’t feel panicked or unsure about what was happening between them, didn’t begin questioning it at all.
Because there was one thing he knew for certain.
He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
They had all the time in the world to get to know each other.
And in his heart he knew that the more he