Beneath the Frost – Bonus Scene
Clara
The world was quiet in that way it only got after a real snow—sound swallowed, light turned soft and blue at the edges.
I woke to it, blinking at the faint glow leaking around the curtains. The room was warm and Wes was a heavy line of heat at my back.
His breathing was slow and even, his chest pressing into my spine with every inhale. One of his arms was draped over my waist, his palm splayed across my stomach like he’d fallen asleep guarding it. His stump was tucked against the back of my calf, bare and unselfconscious, just another part of him pressed to me.
A year ago, he would have shifted away if he caught me touching him there in the middle of the night. Now he hooked me closer even in his sleep.
I smiled into the pillow and let myself look.
The dresser across the room was blurred with morning, but I could still make out the shapes on top: the little shadowbox frame propped near the lamp, holding the flattened silver twist of the gum-wrapper ring Wes had given me under the oak tree.
Beside it sat my jewelry stand, my actual engagement ring catching the weak winter light in a quick wink.
Oak tree to here. Practice to permanent. I couldn’t quite believe it had only been a year.
My phone buzzed on the nightstand.
Wes grumbled against my hair, tightening his arm like he thought he could hug the sound away. I wriggled an arm free and reached blindly until my fingers closed around my phone.
A group text from Elodie blinked on the screen, full of exclamation points and a slightly chaotic photo of snow piled against the Inn porch.
Elodie:
ROAD’S A MESS, SCHOOLS CLOSED. FREE CHILD LABOR FOR SLEDDING HILL SETUP. SNOW DAY AT THE FARM IF YOU WANNA FREEZE YOUR BUTTS OFF. 💙
A sleepy chuckle rumbled from behind me. Wes shifted, nuzzling into the curve of my neck.
“I know you’re awake,” I said, thumbing a reply back to Elodie and setting the phone down. “I can already feel your grumpy commentary.”
He hummed, low and lazy. “I was having a nice dream until your fan club started blowing up your phone.”
I rolled onto my back so I could see him.
His hair was smashed on one side, jaw dark with stubble. His eyes were barely open, lashes clumped together, but the way he looked at me still did that swoopy thing to my chest. He still looked at me like he couldn’t quite believe I was really there.
“It snowed,” I said, tipping my chin toward the window. “A big one, apparently. Elodie’s conscripting us for sledding duty.”
One of his eyebrows twitched up. “Us?”
“Us,” I confirmed. “Come on. You loved it last time.”
He snorted. “I tolerated it.”
“You screamed the entire first run,” I reminded him, grinning. “You sounded like you were being murdered.” I gave him a cheeky smile. “Elodie promised hot chocolate and Cal’s baking something yummy for everyone. Plus, it’s good exercise for you.”
He groaned into my shoulder. “God, you’re bossy.”
“Correct.” I ran my fingers through the short, soft hair at the back of his neck, and felt him shiver. “So? Are we going?”
He lifted his head just enough to look down at me, eyes warming as they slid over my face.
“Counteroffer,” he said, voice dropping, the word rumbling through his chest into mine. “We could stay in bed, ignore your phone, and I could get my exercise some other way.”
Heat curled low in my stomach, immediate and familiar. I tried to act like a proper lady, but failed. “That’s not very community-minded of you.”
“Pretty sure the community will survive one snow day without our presence.” His hand slipped under the hem of my T-shirt, fingers splaying against my waist. “Besides, I have something else to keep me entertained.”
I hooked a leg over his hip, pulling him closer. “We could do both.”
He blinked. “Both?”
“We stay here for a little bit.” I slid my hand down his chest, feeling his breath hitch. “Get your indoor cardio out of the way. Then we go to the farm and show everyone how brave you are on a sled now.”
He stared at me for a second, something bright and full sliding into place behind his eyes. That used to be the moment he looked away—when things got too real, too hopeful. Now he leaned in.
“Indoor cardio,” he repeated against my mouth, amused. “That’s what we’re calling it?”
I smiled again. “For now.”
His laugh gusted warm over my lips. “You realize I’m down for whatever you want to do, right?” he said softly. “Sledding, sex, both, neither. As long as it’s with you, I’m good.”
That old ache tugged at me, the one that remembered the man who’d once believed he was a burden and had tried to push me out of the blast radius. I cupped his jaw, thumb tracing the edge of his scar.
“I know,” I said. “That’s why I keep you around.”
He huffed out a disbelieving sound and kissed me, slow and sweet and filthy at the edges.
His hand slid higher under my shirt, palm rough and warm against my ribs. I arched into him, laughter tangling with a low sound that did not belong on a godly Sunday snow day.
“Clara,” he warned, smiling against my mouth, “if we keep this up, Elodie’s gonna have to drag us out of this bed with a tractor.”
“Then we better make it worth it,” I murmured.
He snorted, bit gently at the tendon of my neck, and I squeaked, half gasp, half laugh.
Outside, the world was all frost and white and muffled cold.
Inside, under his hands and his weight and his ridiculous, tender, infuriating love, everything felt warm and bright and alive.
“Fine,” he muttered, kissing the spot he’d just nipped. “Indoor cardio first. Then I can beat you in a race down the big hill.”
“Romantic,” I said, breathless.
He smiled against my skin. “Oh, Duchess,” he said, rolling us so I was on top of him, the mattress dipping, his eyes dark and happy and so very here, “you have no idea.”