Snowed In With You

Chapter Eighteen

Sara

I’d fallen asleep for the last leg of the drive back and had opened my eyes to the familiar early-evening sounds and lights of Anchorage.

It turned out that Fletcher lived just about a twenty-minute drive from my place and I shot him an amused look at the realisation.

‘If you live so close-by, why did it take you so long to pick me up the other day?’

He looked at me like the answer was obvious, ‘Because I was scared to see you.

You can be pretty fierce, gorgeous.’

I laughed as we pulled into a parking lot beneath his building, but by the time we’d walked up three flights of stairs to reach his apartment, I was no longer laughing.

Then I spotted the elevator and waved in its direction indignantly while Fletch just grinned.

Everything seemed well-maintained in here, the corridor was gray and sleek, clearly new.

Fletch was a lawyer for a big firm so him living somewhere a little snazzy was probably to be expected.

He stopped outside of a door and I took the chance to admire his ass as we waited.

‘Do you not have a key or something?’ I asked as he knocked.

His mouth opened but the door flew open before he could answer.

‘Oh! Fletcher! You’re early,’ the woman behind the door said while I gaped.

‘Sorry Ma’am, I hope I didn’t interrupt anything,’ Fletcher said and the lady waved him off with one well-wrinkled hand and then patted his face fondly, setting the grey curls pinned to her haid to quivering.

‘Nonsense, I’ll just get his stuff together.

Won’t be a moment,’ she sent me a warm smile that I hesitantly returned and the second she was out of sight I turned to Fletcher expectantly.

‘She’s my neighbor,’ he said, ‘She sometimes watches Tib for me when I have to go out of town.’

Tib?

‘Here we go,’ a squirming ball of fur was thrust into my arms and a bag presumably containing food or something was shoved into Fletch’s as the old woman returned.

‘He’s such a good boy, he’s welcome any time.’

‘Thank you again, Ms.

Oscar.

You call me if you need anything, you hear?’

There was a cat in my arms.

Fletcher was a cat person.

It was dark grey and seemed to be ninety-percent fur.

I’d never owned a pet and half-expected it to scratch me or bite me, but instead it peered up at me with curious eyes and licked the underside of my chin with a loud meow.

An odd rumbling started up and I looked at Fletcher in a panic, ‘There’s something wrong with it – him – he’s shaking!’

Fletcher laughed as he led me over to the black door opposite Ms.

Oscar’s, ‘He’s purring.

He likes you.’

I looked down in shock and the cat patted me on the face with one paw, claws retracted, thankfully.

‘You can set him down now,’ Fletch said helpfully once we were inside, he took out a bowl and litter tray and arranged them in the hallway.

I did as he instructed and then stared at Fletcher like he was an alien.

‘You have a cat,’ I said.

‘I do,’ he was trying not to laugh again, I could tell, until his brows furrowed.

‘You’re not like, allergic or anything are you?’

I wasn’t.

‘And if I was? Who would you keep, me or the cat?’

‘Well that depends,’ Fletch said as he prowled towards me and placed a hand on either side of my head, closing the front door.

‘How often do you lick your ass and cough furballs?’

I laughed, the smell of his cologne making me dizzy in the best way, ‘Never.’

‘Then I’m afraid Tibs stays.’

We grinned at each other and when he stepped away I got my first proper look at his apartment.

It was nice, hardwood floors ran through from the hall to what looked like a kitchen and the lounge area.

It was mostly open plan but not as big or swanky as I had been nervously anticipating.

I worked in marketing, it was fun but it didn’t necessarily pay the big bucks.

Whereas Fletcher… he was a big-shot lawyer.

He’d always seemed down-to-earth but I guess part of me had been a little scared that he might have a place big enough to actually have its own sex dungeon.

Fletcher smiled and held out a hand as he saw me taking in the place, ‘Want a tour?’

I took his hand and said, ‘I’d love that,’ before kicking off my shoes at the door.

He tugged me through to the lounge and surprisingly it was cosy.

The walls were a warm brown and his sofa was a soft grey material that Tibs almost blended into, a thick rug sat over the wood and a large TV took up most of the space on the wall opposite the sofa.

‘It’s nice,’ I said, truth be told, it looked like he’d probably put more effort into furnishing this place than I had mine.

‘Don’t sound so surprised,’ he said, leading me over to peer around the breakfast bar inside the modern kitchen.

Everything was so… shiny.

‘Are you a clean freak?’ I blurted, thinking with no short amount of horror to all the mess I’d likely left lying around in the lodge.

‘No,’ he said with a shrug, ‘I just cleaned before I left.

Easy not to have mess when you haven’t been here.’

Right.

Easy.

I thought back to the drawer-full of clothes I’d dumped onto my bed whilst packing and wanted to cry – it was a problem for another day though.

Fletch showed me his bathroom (large and equally shiny) and finally his bedroom, a small blush on his face as I caught a look at the positively massive bed that took up most of the space in there.

‘Got it,’ I said with a smirk, ‘See, I told you before that you could tell a lot from someone’s underwear drawer.

What I failed to mention is that an orgy-sized bed tells a person even more.’

‘I haven’t hosted an orgy here,’ he said, lips twitching and I gaped at him.

‘But you have somewhere else?’

‘What? No,’ he laughed and turned, tugging me down onto the bed next to him.

It was big but thankfully wasn’t one of those horrifically dramatic four-poster beds or anything.

In fact, Fletcher seemed… normal.

‘So what do you want to do tonight?’ he asked, the slight widening of his eyes telling me it wasn’t a totally innocuous question.

‘What I want…’ I leaned in so my lips slightly brushed against his as I spoke, ‘is Thai food.’ I sat back and looked at him triumphantly as he blinked.

‘I feel like I’ve eaten nothing but soup and pasta for the past few days and I need salt.’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ he stood and reached for his phone, scrolling for a second and then hitting dial as he walked back out into the hall and brought my bag into his bedroom.

The man had Thai Delight saved to his contacts and for that I would have loved him alone.

My eyes bulged and Fletch looked at me in alarm, I waved him off as he began to talk to the restaurant.

Love? Did I love Fletcher? Was that insane? I mean, true, the time we’d spent together down at the bay was more intense than casually dating for a few weeks but surely it was too soon to be –

‘Sara? What do you want?’ Ugh, his eyes were so blue.

I quickly rattled off my usual order and went back to silently staring at him while his expression grew more worried at whatever mine held.

He hung up and came back over to me, taking my hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it.

‘Everything okay?’

I gave him a shaky smile and quick head bob that was probably wholly unconvincing, ‘Yep! All good here, everything is just perfect.’

‘Are you sure?’ he said with a small frown, ‘You look kind of pale and–’

‘You know, I was just thinking that now we’re… whatever we are, you can totally break bro-code and tell me what happened on that trip to San Francisco you and Rob took when you were in college.’

Successfully distracted, Fletch let a grin grow on his face as he recounted a tale of wild debauchery that would have appalled my mother.

‘I can see why you’re not allowed to tell that story,’ I sank back onto his mattress and almost groaned, memory foam was the shit.

‘Well, that’s not even the best part.’

I cracked open an eye, ‘It’s not?’

Fletcher shook his head, his eyes dancing, ‘When he woke up, he realised he actually knew the girl he was in bed with.’

‘Oh?’

Fletch paused for dramatic effect, ‘She was the Professor for his intro to bio class.’

My mouth popped open and Fletcher grinned broadly at having hooked me, ‘Rob, my boring, straight-laced brother, slept with his teacher?’

‘Yep.’

‘Oh my God.’

We dissolved into laughter and Fletch flopped down onto his back next to me, smiling as our eyes met.

‘I’m glad you came here.’

‘Me too.’

He opened his mouth and then shut it again and I tapped his arm until he opened it again, ‘I’m glad we got snowed in together.’

I laughed, ‘Me, too, Fletch.’