Normally, I wake here and there through the night. Just long enough to get up to pee or to listen to my quiet house and reassure myself that everything was as it should be. Not that night. Once my eyes were closed, I was dead to the world. My brain was silent, my sleep free of dreams.
My body had other ideas.
I'd fallen asleep on the edge of the bed, as far from Tenn as I could get. When I eventually surfaced, faint morning light prodding my eyelids to open, I was on my side, every inch of me toasty warm, my torso draped over a hard, male body, my face buried against skin prickly with stubble.
Fuck.
How did Tenn always smell so good? And why was that the first question to pop into my mind? I should be asking myself how the hell I'd ended up splayed on top of him, one arm wrapped around his waist, one leg hitched over his hips, the pressure of a significant erection against my thigh.
Fuck.
Find another swear word, Scarlett, I ordered my sleepy brain. Fucking was the last thing I needed to think about while I was on top of Tennessee Sawyer.
At that thought, I became aware of the heat in my core. The soft weight of my breasts pillowed against his chest. The corded muscle of his arm around my back holding me close. Damn it. This was 100% on me. Tenn was laying almost exactly where he'd gone to sleep, and somehow, I'd maneuvered myself all the way across this massive bed until I was cuddled up to him. No, not cuddled up, I was practically on top of him.
All I'd have to do was shift the tiniest bit and that erection pressing into my thigh would be right between my legs… The heat bubbling under my skin jumped another few degrees. It would feel so good…
Wake up, Scarlett!! Get your head together.
No sex with Tennessee Sawyer.
Absolutely not.
For so many reasons. One, he's holding me captive. Two, I have to stay sharp for August, not get distracted by sex with a hot guy. Three, I already decided no more beautiful men. My hormones had led me astray before. Too much was at stake to make that kind of mistake now. And four—
I drew in a deep breath, smelling the woodsy scent of Tenn, and I forgot what the hell number four was supposed to be.
Why couldn't I have sex with him?
Realizing how close I'd slid to the edge, something else hit me. While I was lying there, trying to figure out how I'd ended up mostly on top of Tenn, he was already awake. Something about the way he held his body, the slight tension in the arm around me, gave him away. The bastard was awake!
The flash of outrage was gone as soon as it hit. I'd climbed on top of him. I wasn't exactly in the position to get pissed off that he was touching me. If I wanted him to stop, all I had to do was move.
Any second now. Really. Now that I was awake, I had no excuse for staying exactly where I was, my lips grazing his neck, my thigh pinning his hard cock.
Fuck.
Just one more second and I'd do it. I'd roll off him, get out of bed, and take a very cold shower. Soon.
Definitely soon.
A fingertip grazed the back of my neck, drawing a feather-light line from the base of my skull down between my shoulder blades to the edge of my tank top and back up, leaving flames everywhere he touched. Down, then up, not moving my clothing, not baring any more skin, just sliding back and forth.
Heat spread from that line around my rib cage to my breasts, down my spine to arrow between my legs. He was barely touching me, and all I could think about was how long it had been since any man had touched me like this.
Never. I'd never been touched like this, never felt a gentle stroke spark into white-hot desire. If those fingers felt so good between my shoulders, on my neck, what would they feel like between my legs? At that thought, I let out a low groan.
Fuck.
Now I couldn't pretend to be asleep. There was the slightest hitch in the path of those fingers before they kept going. Down the line of my neck, along my spine to stop between my shoulder blades and switch direction back up to my neck.
Why wasn't he pushing for more? I could feel his cock against my inner thigh, my leg still hitched up over his hips. Why hadn't I moved?
Why the hell would I when being draped over Tenn felt so good?
Because this is a terrible idea, you moron.
My brain and my body were not on the same page. I realized Tenn was just going to wait me out. He wasn't going to stop. He wasn't going to say anything. He was just going to stay like this, letting me dig my own grave.