DESTINED FOR FOREVER by Stefanie London
“You look like a princess out of a children’s book,” he said.
“And your face…” She shook her head. “You look like a little kid.”
“I feel like a little kid.” He stuck out his tongue and tried to catch some snow, causing Lily to laugh.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw movement at the window. Amelia and Katherine were huddled together, looking out into the night. Were they watching her and Sean? She caught one of them pointing.
Oh yeah, they were definitely watching.
Sean looked over his shoulder to see what had caught Lily’s eye and laughed. “Sticky beaks, the lot of them.”
“That’s my family in a nutshell. Not a single one of them could mind their own business if their life depended on it.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m trying to make sure Evie and Jasper get all the attention, but it’s like they’re determined to obsess over my love life.”
“They care,” he stated simply. “Be grateful for that.”
He didn’t have the luxuries that she did—two doting parents who were still as in love with one another as the day they married, a humble but comfortable family home, the knowledge that she was valued and loved from day one.
“I’m happy they care, but I wish they’d amuse themselves with something else.” She shook her head. “They don’t need to worry so much. I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself.”
“Living in a roach-infested apartment and doing nothing but work.” He raised an eyebrow.
“I’m living the dream,” she joked. “And don’t you start on me. Please. I can’t take it.”
His gaze slid over to the window. “They’re still watching. In fact, I think our audience has doubled.”
“Pervs. I should go in there and give them a piece of my mind.”
“Or we could give them a show?”
The air seemed to grow still around them. The snow continued to fall, and Lily suddenly realised how intimate it felt—the hush of the snow, the glimmer of snowflakes, the chill that was drawing them toward one another. Her legs were freezing, but she didn’t want to go back inside and shatter this magic bubble.
“What do you mean?” she whispered.
“I mean, we’ve had an almost-kiss already and while I know the ‘will they or won’t they’ is a staple of your movies, I’d very much like to kiss you for real.”
She sucked in a breath. Questions swirled in her brain, banging into one another and fighting to be the first out. “Just how many of my movies have you seen?”
“All of them.”
She blinked. “Every single one?”
“Every single one.”
She brushed aside snow that had fallen high on her cheek. “Even the one about the showjumper?”
“Riding Home? Yeah, I loved it.”
“Nobody liked that one.” Despite what people thought about Lily’s career, she had not produced hit after hit. “You seriously watched all my romantic comedies? First Disney, now this.”
The warm glow in her chest felt like pure happiness. Not all of her movies had been a success—quite a few had gone direct to cable and while commercially viable, they hadn’t exactly furthered her career. But she was proud of them all.
Knowing he’d taken the time to watch every single one…
“Why?” she asked.
“Because you wrote them. And you get judged on that, right? On views and things,” he replied. “I admit, there were a couple that I struggled to get access to in Australia. But I found out how to watch them, eventually.”
He wanted to support her career. Tears pricked her eyes and she found herself so overwhelmed by the simple but sweet gesture. A gesture that she might never have known about if they hadn’t ended up on the same flight. If he hadn’t made sure they ended up on the same flight.
This kind-hearted, sexy marshmallow of a man. How could she possibly resist him a moment longer?
She reached for Sean’s jacket with one mitten-covered hand and pulled him closer, sealing her mouth to his. His lips were cold from the night air, but his mouth burned, and he tasted like heaven. Like the kind of heaven she’d imagined, over and over and over.
It only took a moment for him to respond, but when the shock faded, his mitten-covered hand slid along her jaw and cupped the back of her head. Her tongue danced with his, lips eager to taste their fill while her hands clutched the puffy fabric of his coat.
Sean’s warm breath skated across her skin and the firm pressure of his lips held her captive. Suspended. This was nothing like the chaste brush of lips they’d shared at seventeen. Every cell in her body was dialled into this moment—to the feeling of his facial hair scratching against her skin in the most delicious way possible. To the tightening of his arm around her waist. To the soft but oh-so-sexy moan in the back of his throat.
She leaned into him, trying to close the gap between them even though all their layers of clothing prevented her from feeling much. But the taste of him—earthy and smoky from the whisky he’d been drinking—made her body hum.
She felt…treasured. Wanted. Accepted.
And Lily hadn’t felt those things in a long bloody time. Not just since the breakup, either. But, if she was being truly honest, for much, much longer than that. It was easy to point to the day of the morning show as the moment it fell apart. Seeing the difference with how Sean made her feel, the truth came sharply into focus.
Her relationship with Brock had been fundamentally broken.
Because not since the early days had it felt like this. Real. Spontaneous. Magical.
It made her ache with want. To be surrounded by Sean. To be cradled by him. Soothed by him. And, most frighteningly of all, for this moment to last forever.
