“Yes. Clearly you’re fine. Your blue lips are an indicator of just how fine you are.”
Yes, it was the cold that kept her shivering, not his proximity.
“We both are, in fact, perfectly fine in this utterly normal situation.” He pulled back and held her at arm’s length. “Two colleagues trapped in a firehouse in our undergarments.”
Could he see her blush in the firelight? She dropped onto the pillows and wrapped herself tighter in the blanket. “A standard Thursday night for me. Not you?”
His laugh warmed her more than the fire ever would. “It’s a first, but I may add this to my routine. If I can be with you, of course.”
Her heart stumbled. “With me?”
He stepped back further, running one hand through his mussed hair and clutching the quilt just below his neck. Guarding himself from her lecherous gaze, most likely. “Of course, with you. I doubt anyone else in my life would so readily remind me when I’m making a fool of myself.”
Something hooked behind her sternum and pulled. Was that how she made him feel? She closed the gap between them and pressed her palm to his chest. “That isn’t what I meant to do.”
His eyes shot to her hand then back to her face, his lips parting on a quick inhale. “I know. But I wish you wouldn’t.”
An ache lanced through her chest and she pressed forward, his hand clutched around the quilt settling between her breasts as she leaned against him. The cold swimming around her was unrelated to the chill in the air, but guilt, heavy and thick. Her lips brushed the underside of his chin as she spoke. “I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. Will you forgive me?”
She meant to keep distance, perhaps. To protect herself. But shehurt him?That was unacceptable, even for her.
He lowered his chin, bringing their mouths close. “I’ve already forgiven you.”
He was too good, too kind, too—
Her rushed exhale brought her lips to his, and her heart leapt to her throat. Was she kissing him? Was he kissing her? Were they—
“I’m going to find you something to eat,” he said as he pushed away, spinning in such a way that his quilt flared out as he made for the door and left her in his wake.
Her breath shuddered as she exhaled, grateful, for the first time in their acquaintance, for his exit.
At least then he wouldn’t notice if she cried.
Chapter 5
Iwillnotcryover my secretary.
He’d been so close to admitting what she did to him, how their verbal sparring and his constant teasing was his way of holding her at a distance, of maintaining the precious space that kept him from declaring how he felt and being rejected, yet again. He wouldn’t accept a kiss born of pity, not from her. She was too strong for that.
When she whimpered in his arms, the little sob from such a formidable woman nearly broke him open. Who took responsibility for caring for her? Sadie would insist she needed no one, but everyone deserved a person to look out for them, to remind them of their worth.
Could he ever be that person for Sadie?
He rummaged through the pantry and found some crackers, then hard cheese and a tin of scones that Abby, a member of the suffrage society, had dropped off earlier in the week. A bottle of whisky rounded out his impromptu picnic. He hesitated as he picked up two glasses; he needed his wits about him if he was going to resist making a fool of himself. But she was still so cold and frightened, trembling beneath his hands. A nip of whisky always warmed him up, and perhaps it would do the same for her.
He could nurse his aching heart later; right now he had a prickly suffragette to warm.
When he returned, he found her cuddled on the cot, barely visible beneath the heaps of blankets. “What happened?”
“I couldn’t stop shivering,” the pile of quilts said. “I can’t get warm.”
Fear prickled up the back of his neck, and he dropped his collection of food onto the nightstand. “You were outside too long. Can you sit up?”
He supposed she shook her head, because the quilt shifted and Sadie did not emerge. With a huff, he lifted the side of the blanket and sat beside her.
Her forehead and puzzled eyes emerged from the blankets. “W-what are you d-doing?” she stammered.
“You’ll warm up faster with me next to you. And you need to eat something. I’m assuming you didn’t have dinner?”
