After a while, Tae realized she was shaking from the cold.
“Tia,” he breathed into her hair, “we need to get you home. Somewhere warm.”
She shook her head. Her physical body might be freezing, but her heart seemed to be thawing finally. She couldn’t let go of him. She didn’t want to lose the comfort of his gentle arms. She brushed her nose back and forth across his chest.
“I’m fine, Tae,” she responded as a great shiver ripped through her body.
“Liar.” He smiled against her forehead as he bent to kiss her there. A moment later, his lips, tender on her skin, stole the harshness from his word. He lingered there, his mouth pressing against her forehead, her eyes closed in peace for a moment.
Everything inside of her had come to a standstill as his lips embraced her skin. Then her mind began to spin again…in agony at what she could never have. How easy Tae was to love! Honestly, it was too late. She did love him already. With all of her heart.
“Why won’t you just be honest with me?” he whispered against her forehead, his warm breath caressing her eyelids as she hid from him.
“Tae…if you really knew me, you would be so disappointed in me.” A sob stole her breath on the last word.
He’d had enough. She was beating herself up. She sounded like a petulant child who hadn’t had enough sleep and was overtired. And she was frozen nearly to her core.
“Here.” His right arm released her as he handed her Yeontan’s leash. Then in one fell swoop, he bent and swept her up into his arms.
“Tae! What are you doing?”
“Taking you somewhere warm.”
“What? Where? I can walk, you know! I’m not a baby!”
“Are you sure? Because you’re acting like a baby!” He ignored all her protests and strode confidently towards her home. Thankfully for his back, it wasn’t very far away.
Tia finally gave up protesting and snuggled into his embrace. She closed her eyes and simply enjoyed being held by the man she’d adored for six weeks. She knew he thought she was cold, but he’d been warming her up with his body heat for several moments. And now the warmth of his cherishing her enough to carry her like a small child was leaking into her bones, and she felt herself relaxing.
Tae was almost to her doorstep before he realized that she’d fallen asleep against his shoulder. He stopped, astounded, to gaze down at her. Beautiful girl. Even when her eyelids hid those stunning flames from his view. He wanted to kiss her so much. His eyes traced her lovely lips and then caressed the rest of her face as they lighted on her nose, her cheeks rosy from the cold, the dark fan of her eyelashes kissing them, the smooth slope of her eyelids, the graceful arch of her midnight eyebrows, her long, chestnut tresses whispering across one cheek to hide her chin from his sight.
He sighed. How was it even possible for him to yearn for a girl this much? He had to convince her that his love was strong enough to overcome her qualms. He couldn’t lose her. Not again.
He tightened his hold on her as he reached for the doorknob. He twisted it gently, and it gave way. He pushed the door open and stepped inside, looking around for Julieta, ready to apologize for just barging into her house. But he didn’t see her. In a gentle voice, he quietly urged Yeontan to follow him. Then he swung the door shut.
He glanced across the room. He saw a couch. He headed towards it, carefully sitting down on it as he settled Tia across his lap, her head still pillowed by his shoulder. He picked up the blanket that someone had neatly folded across the top of the couch. He dragged it across Tia’s body, spreading it out to cover her completely. Then he rubbed her back with his hand, trying to warm her up.
Tae admitted to himself that he had lost the battle raging in his soul for several weeks now. He had fallen completely in love with the girl with the eyes of fire. There was no going back. He couldn’t un-give his heart. But there was one problem. She was still hiding something from him. And it was something big.
He was very afraid that the secret Tia was hiding from him was that she had fallen for one of his best friends. And if that were true, how could he overcome it? How could he win her heart for himself?
