Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
The sunlight was so pervasive after an entire day and night of darkness it took a minute for Lynx’s eyes to adjust.
The heavy gray sky was long gone. The sharp morning light taking its place was bouncing off inches upon inches of snow. And now that light was pouring through the windows, slanting over his eyes with the precision of a brain surgeon’s scalpel.
After another round of particularly mind-blowing sex with Hazel, he’d conked out believing he’d wake in a few hours. He hadn’t.
He rubbed his eyes and stretched, careful not to wake her. She was dead weight against his chest and snoring softly. She’d slept there the whole night, her cheek on his chest and her red curls tickling his chin.
There was a time his first thought would have been how the hell he was going to get out of here. A former version of him would have slipped out from under her and gotten dressed while plotting his escape.
But now, even trapped in here with her, he was in no hurry to leave. Or get dressed. And not only because being undressed left the door wide open for more sex. Maybe he should wake her after all.
But as she took a deep breath and snuggled closer, the stronger pull was to hold her and let her sleep as long as she wanted. To stay. A new temptation, but a genuine one.
He could get used to this new version of himself.
Then he heard the slam of a car door. And a second one.
Voices growing closer.
“Fuck,” he whispered. He shifted, jostling the cozy librarian beneath him, but she didn’t move.
“Hazel.” He gave her a gentle shake.
Then came a fist pounding on the door. “Hey, guys. You okay?” Even muffled by the thick door, Lynx could tell that was Xavier.
“Stacks. Babe, wake up.”
She stirred against him as Xavier pounded on the door again and said something about Lynx not answering his phone.
“What’s— Where am I?” She blinked against the bright sunlight.
Lynx held his breath. He was half-expecting her to realize what she’d done, gather her clothes, and run away from him.
“The cavalry has arrived,” he said. Right on time to ruin everything.
“Put your clothes on and come to the door,” Ant shouted, but there was a thread of humor in his voice.
“Oh my god.” Her eyes widened. Here it came. But she didn’t run away from him. She slapped a hand over her mouth to hide a laugh. “Oh, shit. They’re outside and we’re in here and we have nothing on.”
“We sure don’t.” He admired her breasts as she tossed the blanket aside. He couldn’t help himself.
“Shit.” She kissed him through a smile, and that was when it made it through his thick skull that she wasn’t running at all. “You’d better get dressed.”
“Right.” He grunted when she used him as leverage to scramble out of their makeshift bed.
She plunged into her sweater while he tugged on his jeans. By the time he was wedging his feet into his shoes, Hazel was hopping toward the door and pulling on her other boot.
She ruffled her curls, but it was no use. She looked like she’d been sexed up, down, and sideways.
He must’ve looked the same, because when Ant stepped through the door, he took one look at her and then Lynx and said, “Well, well, well. Looks like it’s been a good morning.”
Hazel ducked her head and moved to the terrarium to check on Stanley. Or under the guise of checking on Stanley.
Ant, arms crossed over his chest, looked half amused and half peeved. “Your phone dead?”
“No.” Lynx kicked at the blankets that were twisted up on the beanbag chairs, and knocked over the half-drunk bottle of schnapps. Even without the incriminating evidence of condom wrappers, it was obvious that at least some heavy petting had gone on last night.
“In the kid’s books? Really?” Ant chuckled as he shook his head.
“Looks like you two survived the night okay.” Xavier’s gaze was laser-focused on Lynx, but Lynx only crossed his arms. He didn’t owe his big brother an explanation.
“Lynx fixed the generator. Or, well, replaced the fuses. That was why the generator wasn’t working.
” Hazel’s movements were jerky. Her hair was mussed and her lips were kiss-swollen, and despite their uninvited company all Lynx wanted to do was cross the room and kiss her.
“If he hadn’t been here, who knows what could have happened. ”
“Praise be,” Ant uttered.
“Seriously,” she continued. “We lost heat. I could have frozen to death without him.” She shot Lynx a tentative smile, no doubt remembering what they’d done last night that had kept them plenty warm.
“Look, you two are adults, so I am not asking what happened. I’m just here to rescue you. And my truck,” Ant said.
“Ant, take the truck and go,” Xavier said. “I can drive Hazel home. I won’t make you tolerate Lynx another night.”
“Thanks a lot,” Lynx snapped.
“That’s okay,” Hazel said. “I can drive myself home.”
“No,” three men said in unison.
“I’m not helpless.”
“It’s not that,” Xavier said. “Your compact won’t make it. There are chains on my tires, which is the only reason we made it here. The plows are behind schedule. The storm ended a few hours ago.”
“We didn’t notice,” Hazel said, her lips twitching like she wanted to smile again.
Damn. He really, really liked her.
“Ant, can I borrow your truck?” Lynx asked.
“No,” Xavier said.
Ant slapped him on the back. “Stand down, Xav. You’re not the kid’s dad.”
Lynx puffed up his chest, appreciative.
“Why?” Ant asked.
“I plan on taking Hazel out to dinner on Friday. It’d be nice to know where she lives so that I can pick her up.”
“You are?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah, Stacks.” He smiled at her. “Somewhere other than a breakroom.”
Silence engulfed the room. She walked toward him until she had to tip her chin to meet his eyes. “The Anderson librarian and the Dane troublemaker.” She shook her head. “People are gonna talk.”
“I hope so.”
Ant cleared his throat. “Xavier can take me home. Keep the truck. You can bring it back later today.”
“Or tomorrow?” Hazel didn’t take her eyes off Lynx.
Ant let out a groan, low and long. He pulled his fingers over his shut eyes and then laughed full out. “Or tomorrow.”
“We’ll follow you to her house to make sure you make it safely,” Xavier said. “Least I can do for your birthday.”
Hazel’s mouth dropped open. “It’s your birthday?”
“Yesterday.”
“You spent your birthday stranded in a library with a tortoise and a locked breaker box.” Her eyebrows bent in sympathy.
He leaned close and lowered his voice. “And wrapped up in blankets on a beanbag with you.” He thumbed her chin. “Best birthday ever.”
Ignoring their company, Lynx kissed her. Ant murmured something about privacy and Xavier agreed. The door shut behind them, leaving Lynx and Hazel alone again.
“They’re not going to leave us in here for long,” Hazel said.
“That’s a shame.”
She hooked her fingers in the belt loops of his jeans. “A date, huh?”
“Yeah. If that’s okay with you.”
She gave him a fast kiss and then crossed to the terrarium and lifted the lid. Stanley regarded her with an ancient, unbothered expression.
“Thanks to you,” she told the tortoise, “I have a date on Friday.”
The woman had driven through a blizzard for a reptile simply because she’d hated the idea of him in here alone. Lynx wondered if, like Stanley, she’d also taken pity on him. Then again, he didn’t care why she’d let him kiss her and…more. He was glad she had.
They made sure Stanley had fresh water and a refill of food and then killed the lights. Lynx held the door and their bags of coffee. Hazel stepped out into the morning sun, shielding her eyes with one mittened hand.
Lynx walked to Xavier’s SUV and knocked on the window. When he rolled it down, he handed over a bag of coffee. “For Ant and Lou.”
“Thanks, man.” Ant accepted the gift. “We had instant coffee yesterday. Never doing that again.”
“Sorry. About the truck.”
“Don’t sweat it.”
To his brother, he said, “It’s different. I’m different.”
He thought for a hot second that he had started a fight, but Xavier smiled and shook his head. “I know you are. I don’t mean to bust your balls—”
“But you did find me walking down the road with my face smashed in last year,” Lynx finished for him. “That’s not me anymore. I’m going to make furniture. And find my own place.” He glanced over at Hazel, who was taking in the white wonderland around them. “And date the librarian.”
“May’s going to love that.”
“Lou’s already half-crazed at the idea. Wait’ll I confirm it. Expect a call from her.” Ant chuckled.
“Maybe hold off on telling her for a few hours. Until I get my bearings,” Lynx said.
“Fair,” Ant agreed.
“Let the truck warm up for a beat. We dug out the tires. We’ll wait,” Xavier told him.
Lynx helped Hazel into the truck and turned over the engine. The vents blew cool air and he turned down the fans to keep from freezing them both. While they idled, Hazel turned from the window.
“Do you think our story is too cliché to be a book? Snowed in, the power goes out, and a pair of strangers are stuck in a library?”
“With a lonely tortoise, peppermint schnapps, and plenty of condoms,” he finished for her.
“And then they go home together?” She wrinkled her cute nose. “I dunno. This feels like insta-love. Some readers hate that.”
His heart mule-kicked his ribs. “Insta what?”
“I don’t want to have trouble placing it with a publisher.”
“Insta what?” he repeated.
“Nothing.” She fiddled with the vents that were thankfully blowing warm air. “Just romance-novel speak.”
“Romance-novel speak, huh?” He smiled back at her, incapable of less.
“You’ll get used to it.” She clapped her mittens together. “Let’s go. I want a cup of coffee and a hot shower.”
“Yes to both of those.” Lynx took one look at the darkened library.
He could see the glow from Stanley’s lit terrarium.
He’d had a lot of “insta” moments in his life.
When he was in school, he’d been insta-suspended.
As an adult, he’d hung around with asshole friends who had introduced him to insta-trouble.
Even so, he didn’t regret it.
He put the truck in gear and eased out of the parking lot behind Xavier and Ant.
Maybe this insta-love thing was worth a shot.
Especially if that shot was with Hazel Anderson.