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‘That’s right It wasn’t just your hands and feet that used to turn icy, it was your nose, too I rehts e’d turn over in our sleep so that you’d end up holding me, and I’d wake up because that cute little ice cube was pressed into my back…’

His words trailed off Their gazes met, held, then slid away

‘Okay,’ Nick said briskly He plucked some blankets from beside the sofa and laid them before the hearth ‘Ah, the wonders of nature I don’t recall anybody doing this in The Sound Of Music, do you?’

Holly laughed ‘No’

‘Yeah, well, rabbed the pillow, placed it at one end of the improvised mattress ‘Ready when you are, Frosty’

Holly laughed again She knehat he was doing, ether, but it wasn’t helping Hera crazed two-step

‘Holly?’

She raised her head and focused on Nick’s face One look told her that he knehat she was thinking

‘You’ll have your half of the bed, and I’ll have mine I promise’

‘Of course,’ she said, and before she could feel like too much of an idiot she scooted off the sofa, onto the blankets he’d arranged, and lay doith her head on the pillow

Nick layered the reed beneath the stack, and lay down so that no part of his body was touching hers

‘Okay?’

‘Fine’

They lay in silence for a few ht down that other pillow’

‘Here You can use—’

‘No, don’t be—’

They rolled against each other, caught their breaths, and instantly pulled apart

‘I’ll be fine,’ he said gruffly

‘You sure?’

‘Positive’

Silence enveloped the the shadows cast by the fire

All I have to do is reach out ht…

All I have to do is touch her, Nick thought…

‘Nick?’

Holly’s whisper was tenuous and soft as a sigh Nick felt his heartbeat accelerate

‘Yes?’