the whole TV dating scene. She loves that kind of stuff.”
Ivy chuckled. “Hmm. I like her already.” She lifted a hand to her forehead as she spoke, then lightly traced her fingers over the bandage.
Easton leaned in to inspect the dressing. “Is it bothering you?” He hoped it wasn’t getting infected.
“Kind of. It just started throbbing out of nowhere,” she said.
“Maybe our conversation was giving you a headache,” he joked.
Ivy gave him a playful slap. “It’s not. But it is tugging at my heartstrings a little.”
And she was tugging at his. “How about I take a look at that wound?”
At his request, Ivy scooted in closer, reminding him of the way she’d done that very thing the night before. While asking him to kiss her, that is. The mere recollection made his mouth water. It almost made him regret not breaking out the peaches.
Of course, if anything were to happen between them, which was something he was feeling a lot more open to, Easton wouldn’t want the moment to be stemmed by an artificial high or a loss of inhibition.
“Let me grab the kit,” he said, standing to make his way over to the cabinet. He hurried back to her and, with careful, glove-covered hands, pried the corner of the tape from her hairline. He caught hints of that sweet vanilla scent as he pulled in a shallow breath, inspecting the wound carefully. The gash had clotted nicely, and was already sealing shut. “No sign of infection,” he told her. “But the dressing needs to be changed out.”
He quickly prepared a few strips of tape, sensing Ivy’s gaze on him all the while.
He tried very hard not to get distracted as he cleaned the area, applied ointment, and prepared a new mesh bandage, but he couldn’t help but hear her musings from the night before—she’d been wondering what it would be like to kiss him.
Were similar thoughts running through her mind tonight, or had that simply been the moonshine talking?
Ivy had hummed off and on as he attended to her, yet only as Easton applied the final piece of medical tape did he recognize the song.
“You singing Christmas carols for me?” he asked, realizing that she was likely used to hearing carols this time of year. “Are you the type that listens to Christmas music on your own, or just at the mall and parties?”
She seemed to consider that. “I used to listen to it on my own.”
“But not anymore?” Easton asked in a whisper. He took longer than necessary to press gently at the corners of the tape, a sudden urge coming over him—the urge to press a kiss to her covered wound. Before he could reconsider, Easton was already leaning closer.
“I’ve been…busy.” Her reply came out even quieter than his.
He cupped the sides of her face, a great sense of tenderness coming over him.
Ivy’s eyes drifted shut. Tentatively then, she lifted her hands and wrapped them around his wrists encouragingly, her silky fingers warm against his skin.
Softly then, Easton pressed a gentle kiss over the bandage.
“Merry Christmas, Ivy,” he said under his breath. He pulled back the slightest bit as he realized something—a drastic shift in the energy between them.
Gone was the playful tone that dwelled during stories of her past. Gone was the darkness that lingered as he revisited his. Here, in the space surrounding them now, was a pure and powerful chemistry that made his pulse rev, his breath hitch, and his lower belly heat up with anticipation.
Ivy lifted her chin, confirming, with the heavy set of her lids, that she felt it too. She licked her lips, leaving firelight to reflect along the pretty upper peaks and the full curve of her perfect pout.
The physical sensations spiked up a notch as he considered tasting those lips once and for all. Pulse spiking. Heart pounding. Reservations gone. He lowered his head and traced, ever so gently, the shape of her mouth with his bottom lip, testing, savoring. If he was going through with this, allowing himself to give in to the magnetic pull of passion, he wouldn’t hold back.
With that, Easton parted his lips ever so slightly and moved in to kiss her at last. He sampled the soft surface of her mouth once, then twice before coming in for a long, lingering kiss. The belly heat roared hotter still as he tilted his head and came in for more of the same. More of her.
A breathy whimper sounded in her throat as Ivy’s hand moved