Chapter 21
SAD TROMBONES BY FIRELIGHT
MORGAN
The cold bit me as I stepped outside, stealing some of the heat from my cheeks. I welcomed it.
I’d obviously read the situation with Nelson all wrong. Damn it. I’d been looking forward to finding out what it was like to have someone’s lips—Nelson’s specifically—on mine. And maybe a bit more than that too, if I was honest.
Too bad that wouldn’t happen.
I stared into the night for a few minutes.
A few feeble solar-powered lights tried valiantly to ward off the darkness, but I doubted they’d last much longer.
With the blizzard, they probably hadn’t charged at all today.
And now their tiny solar panels were covered in snow, so they probably wouldn’t charge again until the weather warmed enough to melt everything.
Still, their faint glow showed that the blizzard had worsened while we’d been inside.
So, not only did we have only one bed, but we were going to be trapped in a snowbound cabin. It had all the makings of a brilliant rom-com, except my heroic sidekick wasn’t interested in leveling up to a main character role.
Cue sad trombone noises.
Wind gusted around me, throwing snow in my face.
I needed to get back inside before my sidekick decided I needed to be saved again.
I filled the pot with fresh snow first and set it by the door, then I shuffled to the left and turned away from the wind.
I really, really didn’t want to take myself out of my pants, but I also couldn’t hold my pee forever.
My numb fingers fumbled with the zipper. My dick was decidedly unhappy about this turn of events as I pulled it out. Faced with the extreme cold, my balls tried crawling inside my body to cozy up to my spleen, so that was fun.
After an excruciating few minutes, I was finally done and tucked away. I washed my hands in the snow, and that was that. I couldn’t put off seeing Nelson any longer.
When I got inside, I found Nelson arranging the cushions from the sofa bed in a line on the floor.
“What are you doing?” I asked as I grabbed the sanitizer from the bathroom and squirted some on my hands. Snow could only do so much, right?
I might change into an animal form, but I liked the perks of civilization, like hygiene products. “I thought we talked about this. You aren’t sleeping on the floor, and neither am I.”
“It’ll take a while for the fire to burn down. I don’t want to keep you awake, which I might if I am getting in and out of bed to check on it.”
“Thank you for thinking of me,” I said, still hoping praise would trigger a magical response where Nelson would fall to his knees in front of me and offer to warm up my little horn with his mouth. “But I think that—” I motioned to the floor “—would bother me more.”
Nelson pressed his lips together, but at least he quit fussing with the cushions.
I sat on the edge of the bed and bounced a bit to test the mattress.
The frame squeaked, and the thin mattress did little to disguise the metal frame under my butt.
Maybe it was a good thing we weren’t getting energetic tonight.
I kicked off my snow-covered slippers, stripped off the jacket, and crawled under the layers of blankets fully clothed.
When Nelson stepped outside to take care of himself, I popped out of bed again and dug in the cedar chest. I found another blanket. Excellent. That’d work. I rolled it up and positioned it along the middle of the bed lengthwise, then I dove back under the covers.
After Nelson returned, he stood by the bed, staring at me as if he wasn’t sure what to do.
“See? I put a blanket wall between us. Does that make it better?”
He grimaced. “I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad by offering to take the floor. I was trying to be respectful.”
I patted the bed.
“Get in, s—” Nope. I was supposed to behave. Calling him sexy wouldn’t be behaving. I coughed to hide my linguistic stumble. What else started with s? Sweetheart? Sugar? Snookums? Oh, I knew what I could say! “Come on, Smiley.”
His eyebrows lifted at my little nickname for him. They really were so expressive. It was fabulous. He obeyed, which was even more fabulous. Fabulouser? Fabulousest, even. Those were most definitely not words, but more and most fabulous sounded less impressive, am I right?
Once he stretched out beside me on the bed, a tense silence fell over us again.
Almost as heavy as the layers of quilts.
Despite the respectable gap between us because of the blanket wall, I sensed Nelson was holding himself rigidly still.
Other than the soft whispers of our breath, the only other noises were the popping and sizzling from the fire as it cast a golden, flickering light over the room.
“If I’m Smiley,” Nelson said eventually, “who are you?”
“Marvelous.”
“Marvelous Morgan?”
“Exactly.”
“Shouldn’t I be Nice Nelson, then? If we’re going for alliteration?”
I popped up on my elbow so I could see him over the rolled blanket.
“Are you nice?” I waggled my eyebrows at him. If he could have expressive eyebrows, so could I. I could also think of other nicknames too. Like Naughty Nelson or Nibbly Nelson (‘cause I wanted to nibble on him), or Nice Butt Nelson, or…
“Not always,” he said quietly.
Oh no, I didn’t want him sad! Reaching for his hand, I patted it before pulling my hand back to my side of the blanket wall again. “I was just teasing you. I think you are very nice. Not everyone would have helped me like you did.”
Nelson didn’t say anything.
We listened to the wind whirling outside and the crackle of the fire a little longer.
I was on my side, facing him, and as much as I was tired and kept yawning, I didn’t want this moment to end.
I wanted to talk to him. No, that wasn’t exactly right, because what I really, really wanted was for him to talk to me.
He didn’t.
The moment stretched on.
I thought about closing my eyes, but something stopped me.
“Do you think we’re safe here?” I whispered.
Nelson turned toward me. Prior to that, he’d been staring up at the wood-covered ceiling. His gaze sought mine. “We’re as safe as we can be. For tonight at least.”
Yeah, that wasn’t reassuring, but at least he hadn’t lied. I flopped onto my back and stared at the ceiling as the reality of our situation threatened to overwhelm me.
“Do you need another blanket?” Nelson whispered.
“No, I’m okay,” I whispered back, even as I shivered from fatigue and stress and everything.
“Try to get some sleep,” he said quietly. “It’s been a long day.”
Then he reached over and pulled the blanket up to my neck. Through the quilt, I could feel his light touch as he adjusted it and tucked it around me.
I hadn’t shivered because I was cold, but I wasn’t about to correct him.
Getting tucked in by Nuzzly Nelson (or at least I wished he was nuzzly) was too nice.
I sighed again. This one was a happier sigh.
I was feeling better already. It was never good to get caught up in the scary parts of any situation.
The mattress jostled a little as Nelson settled down on his side of the bed again. I wasn’t alone in this. The parts of my body closest to him felt warmer, even though we weren’t touching.
After the stress of the day’s events and the excitement of being in bed, albeit platonically, with Nelson, I hadn’t expected to sleep.
But it crept over me faster than I’d have thought possible.
And as the edges of reality and dream blurred, it was almost as if I could feel the bed shifting slightly, and then something brushing against my hair.
In my deepening dreamlike state, I imagined Nelson had brushed his lips against my temple.
What a perfect fantasy to usher me to sleep.