Snow Angel (25 page)

Instead, she sighed.

All those tingles and daydreams of New Year’s kisses would simply have to wait.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The song came to an end.

Avoiding the sparkly tiara she’d perched amid her curls, Jacob pressed a kiss to the top of Melinda’s head where she rested against him, his heart beating painfully.

He wanted... so much.

Too much, probably, too soon, but he wished more than anything that they could find somewhere quiet—and private—to talk.

Another song started, a faster one, but she didn’t pull away immediately. When she did, her eyes were dazed, unfocused, an emotion swimming in their blue depths that he couldn’t read.

Her lips parted, sweet and soft, as she stared up at him. Their eyes held for a beat, then another, and she tilted her chin ever so slightly upward, almost as though asking for a kiss.

Jacob lowered his head, staring into her eyes all the while, asking, testing, unsure, until their noses brushed and their mouths were only a whisper apart.

They held immobile in the midst of the other dancers swirling around them, staring into each other’s eyes. The party lights glinted in the depths of Melinda’s bottomless blue.

Her lids lowered, and her body, trembling lightly, melted into him like heated caramel. Her breasts pressed, full, enticing, incredible, against his chest.

One more centimeter...

“Melinda!”

A too-hearty masculine voice sliced the moment in two, and Jacob snapped alert, the effect of the voice no less jarring than if he’d rammed himself head-first into one of the enormous snow banks outside.

“There you are,” the voice continued, pitched above the loud music, and Jacob turned to observe the Danish pancake pushing his way through the dancers around them to get to Melinda’s side. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Melinda’s eyes opened gradually, seeming slow to return to reality.

Finally, the fog left the stunning blue, and she straightened.

“What? Oh, Dane. Um. Hi.”

She broke off with a half-laugh and stepped awkwardly out of Jacob’s arms.

Jacob let his hands fall to his sides, wishing she still pressed against him. The blood pounded painfully in his temples and at every pulse point.

He wanted her so bad he could hardly breathe.

“Dane, this is Jacob.” Melinda waved a hand between them by way of introduction. “Jake, my ski instructor, Dane.”

The three of them formed an uncomfortable circle, the only ones standing motionless on the dance floor, as the shorter man took his measure.

Jacob returned the perusal, knowing one side of his mouth had lifted slightly in a sneer he couldn’t control. He didn’t like what he saw. The man was a wolf in dog’s clothing if he’d ever seen one.

“Nice to meet you,” Jacob lied.

Dane nodded, his expression equally insincere. Turning sideways to block Jacob, Dane put his hand on Melinda’s arm.

“Ready for that next dance?” he asked, seeming to pretend Jacob had ceased to exist.

Melinda looked into Jacob’s eyes as though searching for something, and he opened his mouth to object, to drag her away to a dark corner where he could have her all to himself, but at that moment Rick and Eddie materialized at his side.

“Dude, where’ve you been?” Rick asked. He cut his eyes at his cousin. “Hey, Mel.” Facing Jacob again, he said, “Come on, we’ve got a table on the other side. First round’s on me!”

Turning, fully expecting Jacob to follow, Rick and Eddie led the way back across the room, never looking back. Dane had already moved in the opposite direction, his hand clasping Melinda’s arm so that it stretched away from her body, but she stood looking at Jacob.

“I’ll meet you guys in a minute, okay?” she said, her tone apologetic. “I said I’d dance with him again.”

“No problem, tamale sauce,” Jacob said, trying to smile as Melinda moved off with the Scandinavian bonbon, still smiling over her shoulder at Jacob.

He would not do the caveman thing, Jacob reminded himself.

Not.

Deliberately, he loosened his hands out of the fists they’d formed at his sides. Neither was he going to leave Melinda in that douche bag’s company for very long.

He and Melinda might not have had the all-important conversation he’d only half-formed in his mind, but it was beyond clear to him now that she felt something for him, too, and he wasn’t going to let that opportunity slip away.

New Year’s Eve was the perfect time to start fresh.

As he followed Rick and Eddie toward the rest of their party, Jacob knew one thing for certain. He’d never looked forward to a new year, or a new year’s kiss, more than the one set to begin at the stroke of midnight.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Melinda followed Dane across the smooth, dark wood floor, as far away from Jacob as the guy could drag her and technically remain on the large square designated for dancing.

If her senses hadn’t been so drenched in Jacob, so overwhelmed with the emotions storming through her body, she might have surfaced from that intense, incredible almost-kiss fast enough to successfully blow Dane off instead of winding up stuck with him for another dance.

She’d never been so turned on from
not
kissing someone in her life.

As it was, she resisted tugging her arm out of Dane’s grasp, not wanting to cause a scene since Jacob continued to watch them, but if Dane grabbed her that way again, she was going to give him serious hell. He held on to her so tightly, she’d probably have bruises.

Dane finally released her arm and turned to dance with her, although it was clear his focus wasn’t on the music or his stiff, jerky steps. He positively glowered, and his eyes kept sweeping the enormous room as though searching the crowd for an impending attack.

Over Dane’s shoulder, Melinda spotted Jacob bowing to a tiny, elderly couple, then taking the woman on his arm to the dance floor. The woman beamed at him, chattering a mile a minute, and something she said made Jacob throw his head back, both of them laughing heartily before he swept her into the dance, going for a ballroom style to the thumping beat of the thoroughly modern music.

Despite her diminutive size, the woman had no trouble keeping up with Jacob’s long, energetic steps, and the two of them moved speedily around the edges of the dance floor. Melinda grinned. Was it any wonder she loved him?

Loved him.

Oh, God.

Something slammed hard against her ribcage. It took a moment to realize it was her heart knocking in fear.

She’d gone and fallen in love with Jacob. And it was possibly the stupidest thing she’d ever done.

Oxygen seemed suddenly in short supply. Would the surprise of her feelings ever normalize, ever not steal her breath? She couldn’t take them in, nor escape the sense of impending doom.

How could she have opened herself up to the potential for such a devastating heartache?

If she’d thought Mitch had broken her heart, Jacob could obliterate it.

If only he could feel the same. If he’d be willing to settle down with her in Pasodoro.

Not yet, of course, not so soon. They were still so young. He had to finish his schooling. So did she. But eventually.

If it were a possibility, and if he loved her, too…

It was such a long shot. If something more truly lurked between them, uncovering it would require a long, slow, cautious exploration. Not a wild jump. Maybe if she repeated that reminder enough, her brain would get the message.

And her heart.

The tiny, annoying voice in her head jeered scornfully, a whispered,
Yeah, right
, echoing through her mind. Melinda focused on not stumbling over her dance steps. Her heart was already a goner.

How could she have been so stupid?

Yet even as her mind said one thing, her heart rolled around in glee on a private carpet of rose petals, and her eyes sought Jacob through the crowd.

The yearning inside threatened to swallow her whole.

The song, which had been almost half over before she and Dane started dancing, seemed to last forever as she counted down the seconds before she could return to Jacob. When the music finally came to an end, she almost couldn’t disguise her relief.

Melinda moved to leave the floor as another slow song came on. Dane pulled her back into his arms. Across from them, Jacob slowed to the new tempo with his tiny partner, the two of them keeping up a non-stop conversation. The elderly woman’s fluffy white hair didn’t even reach the middle of his chest, much less the top of Jacob’s broad shoulders, as Melinda did.

For some reason, watching them together brought sentimental tears to her eyes. Jacob really was one in a million.

To Dane, she said, “I should go,” and pulled away from his grasping hands, intending to find her cousins and wait for Jacob to finish his dance.

Dane cut her off.

“One more,” he said, making an obvious effort to put his charm back in place while holding her firmly at his side.

“No, really,” she tried again, casting around for an excuse. “I’m overheated. I think I’ll take a short walk outside.”

Dane’s eyes flared, a sudden searing heat and something else. Like a dog going on alert. His fingers clutched at her back, then spread wide as though he made a conscious effort to relax his grip.

“Me, too,” he said, and something in his voice sent a shiver down her spine. “I’ll come with you.”

Melinda opened her mouth to refuse his company, but he added, “I want to show you the northern lights.”

“We can’t see them from here, can we?” she asked, momentarily distracted from leaving, despite herself.

“Only at certain times,” Dane said. “We’re lucky tonight.”

“Even in this weather?”

“Of course.”

“That’s nice of you,” she said, regrouping, “but—”

“I insist.”

Oh, really? Enough was enough.

“No, thanks,” she said. She spoke politely but firmly, determined to get the message across. Something about him set off alarm bells in her head, and it was past time to listen to their pealing. “I’d rather go alone.”

For a moment, it seemed he would continue to argue the point. His eyes burned hotter and his mouth thinned to a hard line, making him suddenly ugly. She tensed. Their eyes clashed as the crowd flowed around them. Melinda held firm, refusing to drop his gaze.

Finally, Dane put his hands up in a gesture of bad-tempered surrender, looking her over with a derogatory sneer.

He said, “Fine,” his voice a frozen bullet, then called her something undoubtedly filthy in his native tongue.

Spinning on his heel, he left her standing alone at the edge of the dance floor.

Creepazoid.

Melinda watched him fade back into the crowd without regret. Jacob still whirled around the floor with his elderly partner, and she really did need some air. She’d take a moment while he was occupied, before rejoining their group, to get her heart and mind back under control, or Jacob would surely see her feelings in her eyes.

She wasn’t ready for that conversation. Not quite yet.

Making her way through the doors into the empty lobby, she headed out toward the lodge’s main entrance. Snow poured down in buckets through the glass doors.

She debated going back for her coat and her snow boots to protect her shoes, but she didn’t want to cross Dane’s field of vision to do it. Thanks to the coldness of the air, the snow would be more dry than wet, and she
was
hot, thanks to the dancing and the surge of annoyance Dane had brought out in her. She’d only go out for a minute, to cool her temper, then she’d find Jacob and her cousins and get back to the party.

Dane wouldn’t come near her again once she was with her guys.

Satisfied with her plan, Melinda pushed the annoying ski instructor to the back of her mind and stepped through the front doors, sucking in a quick breath at the frigid blast of air. It was seriously cold! But it felt good, too. Refreshing.

Bolstering.

She moved out onto the main part of the deserted patio looking over the bottom of the ski runs, empty now, though still cheerfully lit with Christmas lights.

Goose bumps raced over her exposed skin. She wouldn’t stay out long at all, or she’d wind up a bright red Popsicle on real ice-pick heels. She huffed out a laugh at the image. Thank goodness her dress wasn’t satin, because she was already covered in snowflakes.

At least the winds that had risen after the earlier fireworks had died down again. The midnight fireworks would hopefully go off on schedule, despite the snow and bitter cold.

Wrapping her arms around herself for warmth, Melinda moved forward, her thoughts returning to that moment on the dance floor when Jacob’s lips had almost, almost touched hers in a kiss that would have been nothing like the friendly ones they habitually exchanged.

Shivers that had nothing to do with the cold racing over her skin now, though heat spiraled into her belly.