Two in Winter

by Vanessa North

* * * *

  Lucky on a leash was barely more restrained than your average man-eating tiger, but somehow they made it the few blocks to Skip’s bungalow with no issues. Eric felt a pang as he looked for Getty’s BMW out front and didn’t see it. Maybe she had left already. Probably when she heard he was coming. As he pushed open the door, Nossie came running up to them.

  “Lucky!” she squealed, snuggling into the dogs dripping jowls.

  “Heya, Noss.” Eric smiled down at his little niece.

  His sister appeared in the hallway behind Nossie. “Eric, what did you say to that poor girl?”

  Startled, he looked up. “What poor girl?”

  “Getty. The one who turned white as a sheet and made excuses to get out of here the moment she heard you were on your way.”

  Eric looked down at the hand still wrapped securely in Lucky’s leash. “I said the wrong thing, apparently.” Then he met his sister’s eyes. “But it needed saying so maybe it wasn’t the wrong thing at all.”

  “What the hell does that mean? You like her?” Erica freed Lucky from his leash and the dog and Nossie went careening away down the hallway.

  “Yeah, I do … but I made a mistake. I made this fairly two-dimensional ideal Getty in my head.”

  “Oh, Eric.”

  “Turns out, she’s got a brain and feelings too, and I insulted one and hurt the other.”

  Skip came around the corner, did a double take.

  “Doc?” He took in Eric’s disheveled appearance, unshaved chin, the dog leash still clutched in his hand. “I saw Lucky and thought you must be here. Sorry you missed Getty and Anna.”

  “I’m not. I need to think before I talk to Getty again.”

  “I know you like her, but she really needs a friend right now. Not some guy trying to get in her pants.”

  If only Skip knew.

  “Yeah.”

  Stacey stepped around Skip, staring at her phone. “Hey, baby, I got a text from Anna, she wanted to know if I could give her and Getty a ride to the airport. Mind if I take off?” She glanced up. “Oh, hi, Eric.”

  “Hi, Stacey. Airport? Where are they going?”

  “Last minute trip. Getty decided she needed out of town for a few so she called around until she found an opening on a flight to Paris, but it looks like the flight is tonight.”

  Paris. France. I’ve driven a girl halfway around the world to get away from my ego. Nice going, Doc.

  “Wow, Paris,” he managed to squeak.

  “Don’t worry, Anna just sent the flight information. She’ll be back in nine days.” Stacey smiled. “So, you have nine days to figure out what you want from my best friend. And I might just let you pick her up from the airport.”

  Chapter 13

  Over the years, Anna and Getty had visited Paris many times. The major fashion centers of the world were part of their work, but this time, Getty just needed to get away, and Paris was a familiar place to go for some deep thinking. It was time to come clean to Anna.

  “Have you ever noticed all big cities kind of smell the same?” She turned to Anna. It was a stupid way to open this conversation, but she needed to say something. They were doing the tourist thing, headed for the Eiffel Tower. Sure they’d seen it before, but it never seemed to lose its magic. And magic seemed to be something sorely lacking in both of their lives right now.

  “Yeah, like B.O. and diesel fuel.” Anna snorted.

  “Why are you like this? You were always snarky, but you’ve been different lately. Even the clothes are different.” She thought back to the lack of spark in the new line.

  “I’m sorry, G. I’m kind of having one of those mid-life crises that we’re not supposed to have so young.” Anna frowned. “You know what I mean?”

  “Yeah. I think I do. What’s causing yours?”

  “We’re thirty-five, Getty—almost thirty-six. I thought by now I’d be married, have kids, you know? But the work … well, it hasn’t left much room for all that.”

  “Yeah. Tell me about it.” Getty looked at Anna and blurted out, “I’m trying to get pregnant.”

  “You’re what?” Anna’s shocked look would have been funny if this weren’t one of the most serious conversations of her life.

  “Donor sperm. Intra-uterine insemination—I’ve done it twice but it didn’t work. One more and then I’m going to start thinking about adoption.”

  “Wow. I had no idea. Does Stacey know?”

  “No. The only people who know, besides you, of course, are my family and Skip and Eric because they work at the clinic.”

  “Oh my God. Eric works at the clinic? Is that what’s going on between you two? I was wondering why you act so weird with him.”

  Getty thought about that. Was she “weird” with Eric? She liked what she knew about him, had a crazy level of attraction to him. She just wasn’t ready to deviate from her plan just because they wanted to have sex with each other.

  “Am I weird?”

  “Well, even though you don’t date much, I’ve never seen you so gaga over a guy and then not even let him buy you coffee. But you’re not going to give up having a baby on your terms just for a cup of coffee and a couple of shag-sessions.”

  “Nope.”

  “What if he wants more than sex?”

  “What if he does? Am I supposed to put everything else on hold just to see?”

  “Getty, for someone so smart…” Anna shook her head. “That’s how most people do it you know.”

  “I’m not most people.”

  “No, you’re a control freak. You can’t deviate from your plans, even if it makes you miserable. And it will make you miserable. I love you, Getty. If it weren’t for you, we’d probably both be working some soulless corporate job instead of doing what we love. But that’s no way to manage your personal relationships.”

  “Anna…” Getty began, but shut her mouth just as quickly. Anna was right. Getty’s intractability was the reason for their success professionally. But it was also the reason she didn’t date. The reason she was holding Eric at bay. The reason she was miserable in her personal life.

  “What do I do?” Her voice grew small.

  “Fuck if I know. But if you want that man … and even I can see you do … you might have to start thinking about a plan B.”

  “Plan Bs are for losers.” Getty stuck her tongue out at her friend.

  “Hey. We’ve only gotten so far with Plan A. Those losers might be on to something.”

  Chapter 14

  Eric paced by the baggage claim. The flight was on time, but God only knew how long it would take the two women to get through customs. When he finally saw the six-foot blonde walking toward him, gesturing broadly while she talked to Anna, he felt a swell in his chest. When she saw him, his heart froze for a beat or two as she stopped and looked at him.

  Then she smiled.

  It wasn’t that bittersweet I-like-you-but-you-aren’t-in-the-plans smile that he’d seen before. This was a real smile. An I’m-happy-to-see-you-even-if-surprised smile.

  “Hi.” She approached, stood toe-to-toe. Once again he was fiercely glad she was so tall, that he could look her right in the eye.

  “Good trip?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Good.”

  He didn’t care if the entire transatlantic flight was watching them, he needed to kiss her right then and there. He took her face between his hands, pressed his lips to hers, and for that moment of hesitation, he felt his heart stuttering in his chest. Strawberry-glossed lips opened and she pressed her body to his as he deepened the kiss. He tried to keep the roughness, the desperation he was feeling, out of it. This was sweet, and no matter how much he wanted more, this was enough, for now. Getty’s hand in his hair tugged and he opened his eyes, pulling away.

  “We need to have a good long talk. Stacey and Skip are across the street at a restaurant. They can give Anna a ride home. Will you come home with me?” The words were spilling out of him in a rush.

  S
he nodded, still—oh my God, she was beautiful when she smiled like this—smiling.

  Anna approached with the luggage, offering one of her rare smiles to Eric. He didn’t know how he got all the luggage in his car so quickly, how he got to the restaurant across from the airport so quickly, but it seemed only a moment later, he was dropping Anna off with a wave and he was finally alone with Getty.

  “Eric, I…” she started, but he hushed her with a hand on her thigh.

  “Wait, Getty. We’ll talk when we get to my house. I promise.” He smiled at her then returned his eyes to the road.

  He could feel her watching him, and every time he glanced her way, she had a bemused look on her face. He smiled again.

  By the time they reached his house and he opened the door for her, he could tell she was ready to burst. He held up a hand again as he went to let Lucky out into the backyard before returning.

  “Go ahead.” He watched her glance around the entryway.

  “You first.”

  “I’m sorry.” No matter what followed, he wanted to make sure she heard that. “I had this idea of who I thought you were. It was based on the woman I danced with at that club. I know that’s a part of you. But I’m coming to understand dancing is a way you can let loose that you don’t do in the rest of your life. I get it. And while I am turned on beyond belief by that woman, I want you to know I like the other side of you too.”

  “The workaholic, control freak, ice princess side of me?” She looked at her feet. An ache speared through him at her words.

  “Don’t, Getty. Don’t talk about yourself like that.” He put a finger to her lips. “You have everything you have in your professional life because of that side of you. And I respect the hell out of that.”

  “Eric, I…”

  “Hold on … I’m almost finished. We hardly know each other. But you make me feel so damn good when you’re around. I want to see if we can make something work between us. Because I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering what if.”

  “I’m scared,” she admitted. “I’ve never deviated from a plan once I made it, and I don’t really like to let others in on the planning process. But I like you, and I want you. And I don’t know how to be in a relationship. It’s got to be more than sex if I’m going to put my plan on hold.”

  Eric wrapped an arm around her waist, fluttered kisses across her forehead. “It’s more than sex for me. If it were just sex, then that morning at your place, I would have mentioned that you can’t get pregnant during the luteal phase of your cycle.”

  Her eyes widened. “You mean…?”

  “Yeah. There was no risk of pregnancy. That doesn’t excuse the way I treated you. Like you should be grateful for my sperm or something. That was awful, and you didn’t deserve that.”

  “You’re right, I didn’t. But you didn’t deserve to be treated like your sperm were going to cause my uterus to fall out.”

  He laughed. “Just so you know … I bought a box of condoms. I don’t want to pressure you, because this totally isn’t about sex… But I want you to know that if I’m lucky enough to see you naked again, I’m prepared to save you from my uterus-destroying sperm.”

  “I cancelled this month’s insemination.” She looked up at him. “For now, I’m trying to do things the way most people do. Meet a guy. Make each other happy. Then think about adding kids to the equation.”

  “I like the making each other happy part.” He grinned.

  Her hand felt cool and soft as she stroked along the side of his face. Almost exactly how she had that morning in her apartment—was that only nine days ago? She tugged his forehead to hers and looked him straight in the eyes. This time, he went for it, diving in to take her lips in a sweet-hot kiss. This time, there was no hesitation. He felt her tongue sucking his into her mouth and he was gone, tearing at their clothes in his eagerness.

  “Bedroom.” She groaned against his lips, nipped at his chin.

  He led her to the bedroom, watching the way her lip tucked between her teeth. When he leaned her back against the wall and swept his tongue through her mouth, he drank in the little groan she gave. He took his time, still marveling that after what they’d said and done with each other, he could still count on his hands the number of kisses they’d shared.

  Her hands were sliding under his shirt, pinching at his nipples, making his cock grow impossibly harder.

  “On the bed.” He reached for her shirt. She let him withdraw it, dropping her pants and lying back, watching him.

  He threw his clothes on the floor and stood in front of her, his hand working absently over the taut flesh of his dick as he met her smile with one of his own. When she opened her arms to him, he went to her eagerly, his hand stroking down her body to move between her legs. Slow heat built between them as he kissed her again, mimicking the motions of his mouth with the fingers sliding inside her and against her. Each touch seemed to radiate heat from her, infusing them both with raw desire. When she lurched against him, he realized his explorations had brought her to a small orgasm, not the earth-shaking, limb-weakening one he had planned for her, but then she was pulling his hips to hers, lining him up to the entrance to her body. He grabbed a condom out of the box next to the bed and sheathed himself.

  “Now, Eric,” she pleaded.

  So good. She was tight and hot and the noise she made as he began to move was almost enough to throw him over the edge. She rocked into him then, her eyes opening.

  “Give it to me, Eric,” she whispered, repeating the words he’d said nine days before, urging him to let go.

  He’d never taken a woman with so little finesse, so little self-control as he thrust inside her, losing himself in the ebb and flow of body to body.

  She pushed against his shoulders, rolling him under her so she could move on top of him. Teeth bared, he reached down, trying to find her clit with his fingers before he lost that last thread of control and embarrassed himself. She bared her teeth back then as he stroked against her, the desperate little noises she made spurring him even higher.

  When her head flew back and a gasp spilled out of her, her body convulsing in his arms, he let himself be swept in with her. The electric heat rushing out of him bowled him over with such force, he arched hard against her, heard the slap and felt the vibration when her hand braced against the headboard as he shouted.

  He felt locked in that moment, as he stared up at her, watched her breath slowing back to normal. A new normal for him. He didn’t believe in life-altering sex, but the connection he felt with Getty in that moment was undeniable. He eased her back down to the bed and slowly withdrew, taking off the condom and disposing of it before lying back on the bed with her. His hand stroked down her arm and she rolled to face him, pulling him into a drugging kiss.

  “You made me very, very happy.” The words came out on a sigh as she pulled back from the kiss to snuggle into his shoulder. He laughed then and it felt new, as if laughter were something he’d never done before, but it sobered quickly.

  “Getty, I don’t know where this is going, but I want us to figure it out together, okay?” He frowned, feeling the worry crease his face. “If you decide to go back to the clinic, I understand. I don’t have a right to tell you not to go through with your plans.”

  “Eric.” The exasperated look on her face made him nervous.

  “I’m giving you that right, Dr. Freyr,” she teased. “Look … I’m not putting a deadline on us. But I like you, a lot. And I have already made some changes to my life that will make it easier for us to spend time getting to know each other—for the first time since college, I actually have time to date someone.” She laughed then. “All because I wanted a baby. So … let’s do this, let’s work on making each other happy and see where it takes us because I like you Eric, and you make me want things I didn’t plan for, and I’m starting to realize maybe that’s okay.”

  “It is okay, it is,” he reassured her as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

>   Chapter 15

  Driving over to Eric’s house with the last boxes of her belongings, the ones she’d told the movers she’d take care of herself, she had to admit she was surprised how much things had changed. Spring had brought the flowers up from the ground, and the trees that lined his quiet street had erupted into heavy-scented bloom. The pollen in the air was eye-wateringly heavy, and bees, signs of life, were everywhere. Spring seemed to be especially here, with him.

  She and Eric had their share of head-butting arguments. “Every mile is two in winter” seemed doubly true for them, but they had promised never to go to bed angry, and somehow, the icy detachment she had put up between them at the beginning never seemed to come back. They’d fought about moving in together—her house was bigger—and she was ready to put her foot down on the matter when he explained what it meant to him to be close to Erica and Nossie.

  “It’s the one thing we planned on as kids that worked out,” he’d said. After that, she’d agreed his place would work out fine. And it would, she realized as she looked at Erica’s house right next door, a sister, a friend, a neighbor and a niece.

  He hadn’t been thrilled about all the travel she was doing as she negotiated a private label deal with a huge retailer for Anna’s designs, but he never failed to pick her up at the airport with a smile and a grumble about how much he’d missed her. They’d barely have time to get home before the clothes started coming off—sometimes they didn’t make it home.

  But now the negotiations had been finalized and Anna was going to have a lot more security from here on out. Knowing that made it a little easier for Getty to give up control of sales to the new manager, who was as much of a workaholic as Getty had been. Anna had hired some other designers to work under her and business was better than ever. Sometimes, deviating from the plan was surprisingly fruitful.

  She pulled the BMW into his driveway as Eric came bounding out of the house, his broad smile reaching all the way to those still-stunning blue eyes.

  “Hi.” She giggled as he opened her door and tugged her into his arms.