Chapter 17
On Monday, as anticipated by the weather forecast, it stopped snowing, and Cole took the opportunity to take Dawney to visit downtown, which had already been decorated for the upcoming holiday season.
She was struck by the hundreds of lights, white and colored, with which the tree trunks in the city park had been decorated. Every corner of the city itself seemed to glow with thousands of lights, while a giant illuminated skating rink had been set up in the center. All around there were then hundreds of stalls from which delicious scents emanated, from the spicy lingering scent of cinnamon to the sweet scent of caramelized apples, via that of vanilla and the more slightly alcoholic scent of mulled wine.
Cole was quite insistent on buying her a homemade lollipop after discovering that when she was a child, she had always wanted to try one, but her mother had never allowed her to.
They were now sitting on a bench located near the skating rink, and Dawney was reflecting in a red, shiny sugar heart with the edge surrounded by red and white striped candy and the center decorated with many small filigree hearts that looked as if they almost wanted to emerge from the surface of the larger one.
“Unbelievable, I had to wait twenty-eight years to try one,” she commented, smiling to herself. “They will think I am a child.”
“So what if it is?” Cole remarked, looking at her. He had taken a glass of Christmas tea. “Think about enjoying it and don't think about others.”
She did not make herself repeat it twice. Trying not to look too greedy, she tasted the lollipop, but it took a great effort of will to her not to devour it.
Cole watched her in fascination. Dawney was performing the most innocent of gestures, namely licking a candy as big as the palm of his hand, but to him it looked incredibly sensual. Taking advantage of the fact that she was very focused, and that the lollipop was right in front of him, he moved closer until his eyes were immersed in hers, then kissed the opposite side of the lollipop...and at the very same moment Dawney's mouth was on the other side of the lollipop, and on his lips!
She immediately stopped licking the sugar surface of the red heart. They looked into each other's eyes, then she lowered the lollipop, never losing eye contact with him.
Cole took her face in his hands, then leaned over and kissed her on the mouth. It tasted like sugar and mint, and instinctively he longed for more, but he held back.
After giving her that first kiss, he moved slightly away from her and waited for her move. At first Dawney looked at him, not saying a word, then moved back to him and touched his lips coyly. He welcomed her, then deepened the kiss, now exploring her with his tongue, now nibbling her lower lip with his teeth.
They kissed for a long time, oblivious to what was going on around them, then Cole, feeling that his body was beginning to react, caressed her lips again with his tongue, then pulled away from her.
“We have to stop, Didì, or else I risk losing control and making love here with you on the bench and in front of everyone,” he said in a rough voice. “Think carefully about what you want to do next, babe. If you want to be alone, I will back off and never bother you again, but if you want me with you...my bed will welcome you as often as you wish, and I with it.”
It was a tempting invitation, but Dawney did not know whether to accept or not. Only a few days before, she would never have mixed business with pleasure, but now...
Turning her attention back to her homemade lollipop, she began to weigh the pros and cons. It had been only four days since she had arrived in Aspen, and, ahead of her, assuming there were no unforeseen events, there were still nearly forty-two days that she would have to spend with Cole, side by side, and without the possibility of being able to get away, because they had signed a work contract.
And, at the end of those nearly forty-two days, they would return to Los Angeles and never see each other again. She would go back to her life, he to his own.
Nor was it certain that, after that night together, he would want to repeat the experience during the other nearly forty-one nights. For the first time, she did not know what to do. On the other hand, however, she really liked the new Cole...and there had been no one after him, not even during her three years at the professional school to become a professional rescuer, because she had made up a “phantom” boyfriend with her classmates and kept everyone at a distance.
She peeled the last piece of candy off the wooden stick, then chewed it for a long time, continuing to think. He had never stopped looking at her for a moment, but he did not seem to be in a hurry. Another aspect she liked, because, the Cole she had met twelve years earlier, was very impatient...and the word waiting was not part of his vocabulary, he wanted everything and now.
She would probably regret it the next day, and there would also be embarrassment, but that night she wanted the new Cole.
“I come off as rude if,” she began, uncertain, “I ask you to come home now?”
He, in response, drank the rest of his Christmas tea. It had gone cold, but he did not care. When he finished it, he reached for Dawney's wooden chopstick, then tossed it with the now-empty glass into a garbage can lying nearby.
“Not at all,” he told her softly, looking into her eyes. “Let's go home then, we have a good ten years to make up...together.”