“Quit wriggling,” Griff mumbles, but he’s teasing me—I can tell. His mouth has curved up slightly beneath his beard, and he cracks one eye open to watch my reaction.
I poke my tongue out.
Griff laughs, and I’m tossed around on his rumbling, deliciously warm chest. I fit so perfectly here, and I’m not cold at all anymore, not with our bodies pressed together, and there’s a gooey, molten feeling swirling low in my belly.
I keep thinking crazy thoughts. Things likekiss himorrub against his thigh,and it’s only my brain’s stern reminder of Aiden McRae that keeps me from doing those things.
I sure think ‘em, though. God. Griff is a one-man thrill ride.
Out in the darkness, an owl hoots.
This is the best night of my life. The realization is swift and painful, and it bleeds the smile from my face. Griff notices too, because he settles back again, arms tightening.
“Get some sleep, honey.”
That nickname is new, and it’s different from princess or city girl. It makes the blood pump faster through my body, and it makes my heart flutter.
As I sigh and burrow into Griff’s chest… I want to cry.
Four
Griff
Iwake up with a mouthful of blonde hair and the scent of lavender in my nose. Outside the truck, dawn washes over the mountainside, chasing the shadows from between tree trunks and mossy rocks. It’s a blue sky day, acoldday with puffs of white cloud skidding overhead, and I curse myself for the thousandth time for ever risking Luna overnight in this weather.
Frost glints on the delicate ends of tree branches. It glitters on the rough bark of the fallen tree blocking the road.
I wasn’t thinking. Even now, I can barely get my brain working around her.
It’s no excuse. If someone else risked her like this, I’d kick their ass.
Part of me wonders if I did this on purpose. If I insisted on driving Luna out here, knowing full well we might get stuck, because I was just that hungry to be near her. But no—if I hadn’t offered, she might have stayed overnight in my cabin. Slept in my bed, probably, while I crashed on the couch. Even the most shameful, selfish parts of me can see how that would have been better.
And maybe once she left, once she found her way to Aiden McRae, my sheets would have smelled like lavender.
“Hey.” I shift beneath her softly snoring form. She’s a bundle of warmth in my arms, and I’m so fucking relieved about that. When she asked me about frostbite last night, I wanted to slam my head into the steering wheel. “Hey. Wake up, honey. It’s morning.”
And if I sit here wide awake, holding her against my chest with no excuse…
Well. I won’t ever be able to look Aiden McRae in the eye again.
“Mmph,” Luna says. She shakes her head, inhaling sharply through her nose, then presses closer. Flattens herself against my body until there’s not a single pocket of air between us.
Fuck.
I don’t know what brings her back to earth. Maybe it’s the sunlight filtering through the windshield; maybe it’s the toasty warm air inside the cab. Maybe it’s the panicked thud of my heart against her cheek, or the shameful stiffness in my jeans.
Luna goes still. “…Griff?”
I cough out a laugh. “You’d better hope so. Grizzlies aren’t good cuddlers.”
Oh, we can joke, but there’s nothing that funny about peeling our limbs apart. About throwing off the blankets and sitting straight, blinking our bleary eyes as Luna shuffles back to her side of the cab.
Last night feels like a dream. Like it happened to two other people.
Do I look as rough as I feel? Fuck, I’ve never been a vain man in all my life, but now I’m fighting the urge to check my face in the mirror. To cup a hand over my mouth and sniff my breath.
“There are mints in the glove box.”