Desire: #4 Brightest Kind of Darkness Read Online Free PDF

don’t find the mistletoe, seeing this reminds me that things might seem dull and gray, but brightness always finds a way to burst through.”
    Ethan smiles and shakes his head. “Oh, ye of little faith. We’ll definitely find some mistletoe. Get your boots on.”
    While I pull off my thick socks and tug on my fur-lined boots, I frown at his jeans covering his black combat boots. “Those won’t protect your feet, Ethan. The snow out there has to be at least six inches deep.”
    He just laughs, then opens his car door. “Come on slow poke. We have some mistletoe to gather.”
    A few minutes later, wishing I could’ve found my gray scarf, I finish zipping up my coat and meet him by the edge of the pond. My breath gusts out in swirls of frost while I eye his thin army jacket over a thermal shirt and jeans. “Where’s your winter jacket? It’s thirty degrees. You’re going to freeze to death out here.”
    Ethan shifts his attention from the massive tree close to the pond back to me. “Actually, it’s twenty-four-point-seven.”
    I blink at him. “Um, that was pretty exact. Are you a human thermometer now too?”
    “Apparently.” He shakes his head, a bemused smile tugging at his lips. “I just know the temperature.”
    Stomping the snow off my boots, I snicker. “From now on I’m texting you for the daily weather report so I’ll know how to dress. Seriously though, aren’t you cold?”
    In answer, Ethan tucks his hand under my hair, cupping the back of my neck.
    His toasty touch sends a zing of warmth all the way to my toes. I give a wry smile. “That’s just not fair.”
    He smiles and slides his thumb along my neck. “Consider me your own personal body heater.”
    I snort. “You do that without touching me.”
    Chuckling, Ethan releases me to point to the branches that spread out from the massive tree he’d been looking at. “I remembered this oak from our visit here before. Do you see the mistletoe up there?”
    The round bunches of green are the only color decorating the tree’s bare branches. I squint past the sunlight filtering through. “Yeah, I see it, but that has to be at least three stories high. How are we going to get to it?”
    Ethan eyes the mistletoe and rocks on his heels. “Well, some people shoot it down.”
    “Shoot it?” I swing my attention back to him, eyes wide. “You didn’t buy a gun from that sports store, did you? The bag didn’t look big enough for that.”
    He scowls slightly. “I don’t like guns. Plus, gunshots would draw attention that we’re on private property—this time without an invitation. Are you ready to guess what’s in the bag now?”
    “I don’t have a clue.”
    Ethan shakes his head as he steps back over to his car. “You’d make a terrible game show contestant.”
    “A BB gun?”
    He shuts his car door with the red bag in hand and a contemplative look on his face. “I didn’t think of a BB gun. That would’ve worked, I suppose. Though this is more fun.”
    Snow kicks up around his boots and sticks to the bottom of his jeans once he makes his way back over to my side.
    “So what is it?” I ask, impatient.
    Ethan pulls the handle out of the bag, a wide grin spreading across his face. “A slingshot.”
    “That’s your weapon of choice? Hmmm, I think my BB gun suggestion would’ve been better.”
    “What? You don’t think I have what it takes?”
    I gesture to the slingshot while he squats to push snow out of his way. “Those are highly inaccurate and not as powerful as a BB gun, especially one with a CO2 cartridge giving it some extra power.”
    He eyes me from his squatted position. “How do you know so much about BB guns?”
    “’Cause I own one. If you’d have told me how you planned to get the mistletoe down, I could’ve brought mine.”
    His dark brows pull together. “What do you shoot with your BB gun?”
    “Cans, Ethan. Just cans. Later when I got better, it was leaves, tree branches and stuff. Learning to