Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
G abe woke in the dark, warm and safe, until a soft sigh next to him set his heart pounding.
When he lifted his head from the pillow, long hairs stuck to his lips. Shit. He was sharing a pillow with Sunny. And his hand was?—
He snatched it off her smooth stomach where her T-shirt had ridden up. Unless he’d pushed it up. And that was when he realized his entire body was pressed up against hers. He was spooning her.
Gently, he scooted away. If he hadn’t been so focused on how a particular part of his body felt against her backside, he might have realized he was already at the extreme edge of the bed. He teetered for a second and then slid onto the floor with a whump. His head cracked against the bathroom door, unreasonably close as it was to the side of the bed.
“Ouch! Dammit!”
“Wha—?” Sunny said. “Gabe?” Her low, sleep-rough voice made his dick spring fully to attention.
“What were you doing on my side of the bed?” he hissed.
She peered over the edge, her face a pale smudge in the dark. “I was cold. You were warm. Come back to bed.”
“I—I can’t. Not until you scoot over.” No way was he going to let on that he had an erection.
“Fine,” she said. The sheets rustled as she moved away. “Your virtue is safe now.”
“Good,” he muttered. Rubbing the back of his head where it’d hit the door, he clambered back up onto the bed. Clinging to the edge, he turned his back to her.
He’d almost drifted back to sleep when the mattress trembled. “Wha’s th’matter?” he mumbled.
“Still cold. Can I come closer?”
Gabe sighed. “Mm-hm.”
She said nothing, just scooted toward him, her knees sliding behind his and her hand—it was cold like ice—slipping over his side. Sighing, he lifted his arm, capturing her chilled hand in his, and pinned it against his chest. “Better?”
“Much.” Her sigh tickled the back of his neck, and with their breathing synchronized, he drifted back to sleep.
Sometime later, a buzz broke the stillness of the room. When Gabe cracked open his eyes, sunlight shone in through a gap in the curtains. His phone buzzed again from where it lay, plugged in, on the floor.
When he reached down to grab it, Sunny’s arm slipped off him. Before answering, he glanced over his shoulder at her. Still asleep. He checked the phone’s display. Darlene.
Hopping off the bed, he took the phone into the bathroom and leaned up against the flimsy door. Goosebumps rose on his arms below his T-shirt sleeves. Outside the warm covers, it was a little chilly. “Hi, Darlene,” he said, his voice as low as he could make it and still be heard. He rubbed his arms.
“Oh, did I wake you? I’m sorry.” She didn’t sound sorry.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. It was a relapse, but it doesn’t seem permanent, at least so far.”
“You sound good.”
“Thank you,” she said, enunciating the k so it popped in his ear. “How’s the vacation?”
“Warm. Sunny. You know, vacation-y.” God, he hated lying to Darlene. He rubbed a hand over his mouth.
“Hmm. It’s twenty-three degrees here today, and we’re supposed to get an inch or two of snow.”
“Go home early,” Gabe said. “I don’t want you to slip or get caught out on the roads.”
“I might. We’ll see.” She paused. “I called because Brandon is asking more questions about the business. This time, about the ownership agreement. I gave him the corporate attorney’s number.”
“Gabe?” Sunny’s voice drifted from the bedroom.
“That’s fine, Darlene. Good idea.”
“But, Gabe, why is he asking about that? What could he need that information for?”
A knock at the bathroom door startled him, and then the handle turned. Gabe held the door closed with his back. Covering the phone’s microphone, he said, “Just a minute.”
Into the phone, he said, “I—I don’t know. I’ll text him later, okay?”
“Is someone there with you?” Darlene asked.
The panicked lie slipped out of him without thought. “No, just housekeeping.”
“Oh.” Her tone was suspicious. “Okay, but?—”
“Sorry, Darlene, I’ve got to go.”
“You’ll let me know what Brandon says?”
“Of course. I’ll text you later.”
“Okay. Bye.”
He disconnected the call and turned to open the door. Sunny blinked up at him, her eyes heavy-lidded and her hair tangled. “Sorry, I—I worried you’d left. What were you doing in the bathroom in the dark?” Her cheeks went bright red. “Never mind. Don’t answer that. But if you’re done, do you mind if I?—?”
“Sure.” He flipped the light on for her and stepped out. She went inside and closed the door.
After he’d pulled on jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, he crossed to the window and pulled the curtain aside. Outside was a winter wonderland. Snow covered all the cars in the lot, rounding their edges and making them a row of identical paper-doll cars. Deep ruts cut into the snow on the road beyond—or what he could only assume was the road. A lone pickup truck with chain-covered tires crawled by. Fat snowflakes continued to fall, not as thickly as yesterday. He shivered.
“Still snowing?” Sunny asked behind him.
He turned. “Yeah. Sorry, it looks like we’re stuck here for a while longer.”
She rubbed her hands over her exposed shoulders. His eyes burned to check out her nipple situation in her thin tank top, but he glued his gaze to her face.
“Better than being out there, driving in it,” she said.
“You cold?”
“And hungry.” On cue, her stomach growled.
He checked the old-fashioned round thermostat on the wall. It was set to sixty-eight, but the room temperature read sixty-two. He turned the dial to seventy-five.
“Put on a sweater,” he said. “I’ll go check if the front desk can do anything about the heat. And I’ll find us some breakfast.” A perfect excuse to escape Sunny’s too-thin sleepwear and her orange-flower scent. A walk in the cold would clear his head. And settle his other head.
She’d already started to rummage in her bag, but she stopped and looked up. “Be careful out there.”
“I will. Promise.”
Slipping on his shoes and coat, Gabe shoved the door open, displacing the snow piled against it, and walked out into the snowscape.