Chapter Fifteen #2
She blinked when he turned on the small LED lantern she kept by the stove. It lit up the small space like a surgical suite. After he hit a couple of buttons on his phone, a country love song filled the silence. And he’d also grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and two granola bars.
“Welcome to the Blanket Fort of Doom,” he said, looking very pleased with himself.
To be honest, she was pretty pleased with him, too. Despite his snack choice. “You even brought granola bars.”
“Just in case you want a snack. I’m not a fan, but no blanket fort is complete without snacks.”
“I’m not a fan of them, either.”
He looked from her face to the granola bars and back, his brow furrowed. “But they’re yours.”
“They’re my emergency granola bars.”
“So you’ll eat them in an emergency? Why not buy emergency Snickers? Or emergency doughnuts?”
“They’re my emergency granola bars because when they’re all I have left, I know it’s an emergency and I have to go grocery shopping right away or I’ll have to eat them.”
His laughter drowned out the storm and Hannah laughed with him, snug and safe in his Blanket Fort of Doom.
“Tell me about your very favorite book,” he said. “Like, if you could only own one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be?”
Hannah should have been able to answer that, but in that moment, she couldn’t remember a single book she’d ever read.
The only thoughts in her head were about Rob.
The way the heat from all that naked skin was chasing away the chill of her fear.
The way he must have showered after working outside all day, because she could smell his shampoo, despite him having gotten soaked in the rain.
His arm was under her, so his biceps were her pillow. His leg was pressed against hers. She wanted to rest her palm on his naked chest and feel the slow rise and fall of his chest.
And then she...just did. Hannah placed her hand on his chest, fingers splayed, and felt the quick intake of his breath. She was still, waiting to see if he’d try to shift away from her or signal discomfort in some other way, but he snuggled deeper into the nest and rested his face against her hair.
“You’re trying to distract me so you don’t have to tell me your favorite book, aren’t you?” His voice was low and a little husky. “It’s embarrassing, right?”
“I’m not embarrassed by liking things,” she said, slightly offended, but not enough to move her hand. “It’s just hard to choose. What’s your favorite book?”
“Like you said, it’s hard to choose, but right now, it’s our book club book.”
She laughed, almost forgetting the storm raging outside. “That was an exceptionally good book club, even without wine and cheese.”
“We don’t have wine at the store, but I can bring some slices of American cheese to the next one.”
“Hey, cheese is cheese.”
An intense clap of thunder made her jerk, but he wrapped his arms around her and her body melted against his.
“If books can’t even distract you, we might have to try something else.”
“The storm is pretty loud. What do you have in mind?”
Hannah caught just a glimpse of the corner of his mouth tilting into a crooked grin before his lips claimed hers. She sighed into the kiss, and her hands explored his chest and his shoulders. Then, when his tongue danced over hers, she slid her arm under him so she could hold him close.
Rob moaned against her mouth, his hand sliding over her hip. Everything faded away except his kisses and his touch. Hannah wanted more. She wanted to be as almost naked as he was—to feel the warmth of his skin down her entire body.
But when her hand reached the bottom of his back and her fingertips flirted with sliding under the waistband of his boxer briefs, he broke off the kiss and she felt the subtle way his body shifted away from hers.
Their quick, shallow breaths mingled, and her pulse slowed beat by beat as he gazed into her eyes and brushed her hair back from her cheek. Then he lowered his forehead so it rested against hers.
“This is going to be the hardest thing I’ll ever say in my life,” he said, and her stomach knotted with apprehension. “But we’re not going to have sex. I mean, we are—I hope—but not tonight.”
She frowned, doing her best not to pout. “If we’re going to anyway, why not tonight?”
“Because I came here to check on you because you were scared. And I’m halfway to naked because I got soaked by the rain. And we’re in your bed because I was trying to make you comfortable.” He ran his thumb over her bottom lip. “There are no strings with the Blanket Fort of Doom.”
“No strings necessary, but an Orgasm of Doom sounds awesome, doesn’t it?”
He groaned. “Very awesome. But when I make love to you, Hannah, I want it to be after a good day, when I’m in my underwear because you tore my clothes off. I don’t want to lie awake after wondering if I took advantage of you when you weren’t feeling your strongest.”
“The storm has mostly passed,” she pointed out.
“But it’s still why I’m here in your bed in the first place.”
Hannah wanted to argue the point. She knew better than him what frame of mind she was in. But she could see it mattered to him, and she didn’t want him to have any regrets because the moment didn’t feel right to him.
“Fine,” she said, not even trying to sound gracious about it. “But we can make out a little more.”
“Absolutely. A lot more, even.”
“I should warn you now, I don’t make breakfast.”
He kissed her forehead. “I’ll be gone before you wake up, since it’s my turn to clean the bathhouses.”
“Are you going to get thrown out of the family business for being here?”
“No. Brian gave up, and we don’t really care what Joey and Danny think.”
She knew that wasn’t true. Rob cared very much what his brothers thought. But he clearly didn’t want to think about that right now, so she skimmed her fingertips over his chest.
That got his attention. With a growling sound that made her giggle, he buried his hand in her hair and lowered his mouth to hers.
There was a lot more kissing and a lot more touching—her hands caressing his bare skin, but only from the waist up—and as she drifted off to sleep in Rob’s arms, she heard the faintest rumble of thunder and smiled.