The small room was toasty warm now, thanks to the stove, but I still had to warm her up fast. I stripped off my clothes, wrapped my arms around her and hugged her to my chest, letting my body heat soak into her. But she still wouldn’t wake. She lay like a ragdoll in my arms, her head on my shoulder. I rubbed my hands up and down her back. “Come on,” I begged. “Come back to me.”

I was losing hope when she twitched in my arms. “Erin?”

She muttered sleepily. Then she opened her eyes and peered blearily at me like a small animal waking from hibernation. “Where are my glasses?” she mumbled.

I wanted to sob with relief. And the relief released everything I’d been holding back, everything I’d been fighting against over the last few days. I looked down at her, cute and sexy and vulnerable and tough all at the same time, and I just fucking lost it.

I leaned down and kissed her.

43. Erin

43

ERIN

I’d been waiting for that kiss for days. It felt like I’d been waiting my entire life.

His lips explored me gently, almost reverently, as if he’d been imagining it for so long that he couldn’t believe it was really happening. Then he growled low in his chest and pressed harder against me: this was real, he had me, and he could finally show me everything he’d been feeling. He was kissing down into me but it felt like the kiss was lifting me up, the room spinning as I spiraled towards the ceiling. The kiss was soft, loving, but it was like the delicate, foamy surf that caresses the beach just before the big waves thunder in. I could feel all the pent-up tension in him: in the hard swells of his biceps, in the way his chest filled and pressed against my breasts, in the way his hands gripped my back. He was forcing himself to go slow but that wouldn’t last for long and the idea made me go heady.

He pulled me harder to him and I felt my breasts pillow against his chest. That’s when it sank in that I was naked and I had a sudden twinge of panic: this was the first time he’d seen my body and it was all happening in a rush. I wasn’t all lusciously curvy, like some women. What if he didn’t—

His lips lifted from mine and he kissed a scorching trail across my cheek and down my throat. He was kissing the warmth back into me, heat blossoming and spreading everywhere his lips touched.