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I shook it off. Disappointment? Really? I’d walked away from a car wreck, and avoided freezing to death in a blizzard. Most of all I had Axel with me, to share this adventure. To keep me safe and unscathed and—
Finally naked, I stepped beneath the blessedly hot, beautiful shower spray.
And all other thoughts melted instantly away.
~ 27 ~
ARIANA
FUCK. YES.
It was one of those life-changing showers, where the rest of the world could fall to ruin around you and you wouldn’t even notice. The spray was hot and surprisingly powerful. The heat soaked through me, into me, warming me from within. It eradicated the cold that had insidiously seeped into my very bones, driving it from my body like an exorcism.
By the time I’d stepped out and toweled off, I felt like a new woman. But there was no fucking way I was getting back into my wet clothes.
“Axel?” I asked, cracking the door.
“Yo!”
I poked my head out. He was already in the bed, legs under the covers. But he was sitting up, two striated arms crossed over his perfect chest. Somehow, he was eating a candy bar.
“Where’d you get that?!” I gasped.
“Vendingmachine,” he mumbled as one word, through a mouthful of chocolate. “We passed it halfway down the row on the way here, remember?”
I remembered. Shoved just beneath the building’s awning, the machine looked dark and broken and half-covered in drifts of snow.
“It was unplugged,” he went on. “I couldn’t find an outlet and it was freezing and I was wearing a towel, so…”
“So you broke into it?”
“Hey, hey,” Axel protested. “Why use such harsh language?” He chuckled and took another bite. “Let’s just say I negotiated with it.”
He pulled back a pillow, revealing a half-dozen more snacks he’d pirated. There were chips, pretzels, and something that looked like a granola bar. My stomach rumbled.
“And, ummm… exactly what are you wearing?” I asked, still hiding behind the door.
“Under here?” he grinned, plucking at the blankets. “Not much. But you…” he nodded at my predicament. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.”
Reaching back with one arm he tossed me something I recognized immediately. I caught it.
“Your jersey?”
“Sure, it wicks water,” he explained. “I hung it over the heater and it’s already dry.”
I couldn’t believe it but he was right. The slick mesh fabric was almost even warm, too.
“A lot better than putting wet clothes back on,” Axel mused.
I popped back into the bathroom and slipped it over my head. The big jersey came all the way down to my knees. I was swimming in it of course, and had to roll up the sleeves three or four times before I could see my hands again. It was a hell of a lot better than wearing towels.
But it also smelled like him, and the smell was far from unpleasant. I brought an arm to my nose and inhaled the sweet, heady scent of Axels’ body; his musk, his sweat, even the deodorant he’d put on before the game. Altogether, the combination was strangely intoxicating. And with his jersey clinging to every curve of my naked body, it was all around me.
When I stepped out again, Axel was crunching on Sun Chips. His eyes moved unabashedly up and down my body as he let out a long whistle.
“What?” I demanded.
“Nothing,” Axel shrugged. He pointed at me with a chip. “But I’d be lying if I said you didn’t look sexy as hell in that.”
