Meet Me Under the Mistletoe (Holiday Romance Collection #3)

4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Noelle

A s soon as the door clicks shut, my eyes snap open and I let out the shaky, panting breaths I’d tried so damn hard to keep steady. I can hear him out in the living room, the shuffle of his feet on the floor as he moves around—probably blowing out the candle I’d carelessly left burning—turning off the tv, taking care of our empty beers. The rasp of his vest being zipped, and then the quiet snick as the front door is shut behind him, followed by the thud of a car door shutting, and the rumble of the engine starting.

He’d carried me to bed, tucked me in, and I’d only woken as his gentle, sweeping touch grazed my cheek… my lips. It had taken all of my concentration not to react with a gasp at the electricity that had zapped through me at the contact of his finger against my mouth. And then he’d kissed my head, not once, but twice. The feel of his lips against my hair had made me realize maybe I wanted to feel those lips on other places, too.

But it was the whisper quiet “ Good night, Angel ” that had nearly done me in. I was sure he’d known I was awake. I wasn’t that good of an actress. The gentle huskiness of his voice, the intensity and longing in that voice that I had heard in all its forms over the course of our lives…but this. This was a new side of Theo I’d never seen, or maybe just hadn’t ever noticed. Maybe a side of Theo he never let anyone see at all.

His words came back to me from earlier, then. “ She’s not interested ” and “ The timing isn’t right is all. She’ll come around ” reverberated in my head.

He’s not talking about me, right?

Right?!

I’m wide awake now, lying flat on my back in bed. Staring up at the ceiling, the Christmas lights strung up on my headboard casting a colorful light show above me. But all I can think about is Theo’s lips, how his finger had brushed my own mouth. Now my whole body is on fire.

Throwing off the comforter and the blanket, I sit straight up in bed. There’s no way I’m falling back to sleep anytime soon. Dammit, Theo!

Padding out to the kitchen, I grab a glass of water and drink half of it, standing at the kitchen sink. I was right earlier, he had blown out that candle I left burning, turned off the TV, and the even locked the door on his way out.

The little window over the sink faces out toward the road. It’s dark out, but the light post across the street casts a glow on the ground below. It’s snowing, the big, fat kind of snowflakes that cover everything in a thick layer of snow after just a short time. The kind that if you catch them, they’re the pretty snowflakes, with the perfectly imperfect, symmetrical points.

Theo’s footprints and the tire tracks from his car are almost covered already, even though he left less than ten minutes ago. I groan. My car is going to be buried by morning.

Dragging myself back to bed, I slide beneath the covers and snag the tv remote off the bedside table. The TV across the room comes on, and I queue up Will Farrell’s ELF in the hopes that it will lull me back to sleep.