Page 29 of Hungry Like the Wolf

“I promised I wouldn’t touch you or do anything inappropriate,” he said, making sure that she was looking at his face when he did. “I would never do anything to make you feel uncomfortable.”

“No,” Nadja said more emphatically. “I’ve never slept with anyone.”

It took him a minute longer than he wished it had to make sense of that. His brain did feel tired. Sluggish.

“Never? No one?” He hadn’t meant to sound so surprised, but the question was out before he could filter it.

“I never stay. I leave as soon as I can.”

Her arms were crossed over her chest, a defensive posture, like her only armor was her arms and her wool sweater.

“Okay,” Robbie said, tossing a ruffled throw pillow into the corner and pulling back the quilt. “Well, I guess now would be a good time to tell you that I snore if I lay on my back too long, and sometimes, if my allergies are bad, my nose makes this whistling sound. Or so I’m told. I don’t sleepwalk, I don’t talk in my sleep, and I don’t kick.”

She smiled. It was a small smile, shy almost. But Robbie was gratified to see her arms uncross and drop. She took a deep breath and took the hem of her sweater in her hands, pulling it over her head to reveal a soft-looking bralette. He was trying not to look, but she was right there, and it wasn’t hard to see the gentle outline of her nipples through the fabric. As the sweater passed over her face, he averted his eyes.

She unbuttoned her jeans and wiggled them down her hips, revealing the top lacy edge on a pair of pink panties. Robbie turned away to keep from swallowing his tongue, bolting out of bed to get to the light switch next to the door.

“Ready?” he called out, his eyes averted.

“Yep,” she answered.

The bathroom light cast a bright triangle against the dark wall through the half open door. Robbie saw the shadow of her climbing into bed. He got in on the opposite side and slid under the quilt and sheet, pulling both up to his armpits. They were quiet for a minute.

“Should we—” she started to say but stopped.

“What?”

“Never mind,” she said quickly.

“No, tell me,” he said, before adding a hasty “Please.”

“Should we be closer? For the whole smell thing?”

He swallowed thickly, wondering how the hell he was going to be closer to her without certain things becoming a problem. But he cleared his throat and said, “Probably” all the same.

She wiggled backward, scooting toward him until her back was close enough to his front for him to feel her body heat under the covers.

“Is this okay?” Nadja asked in a timid voice.

He slid his bottom arm into the space under her neck, between her shoulder and the pillow, feeling the slide of her soft skin all the way. She froze for a moment, but only for a moment, before relaxing again.

“Is this okay?” Robbie whispered.

She shifted her body backwards the remaining few inches, until her backside rested against the cradle of his groin and her shoulder blades connected with his chest. He bit his lip. How was she so damn soft? He didn’t even know people could be that soft.

“Is this okay?” she asked breathily.

He moved his top arm over her, resting it against her ribs and finding her hand with his, curling his fingers around her fist.

“Is this okay?” Robbie asked, wondering if he’d gone too far, expecting her to slide away from him and cling to the opposite edge of the bed like a cliff’s precipice.

But, instead, she sighed.

“Goodnight, Robbie,” she said in a sleepy voice before yawning.

“Goodnight, Doc,” he said back, feeling more physically exhausted and yet more alive than he ever had been in his life.

But eventually, the even tempo of her breathing, the rustling of the wind, the creaking of the cabin settling, and the faint howls, far in the distance now, lulled him to sleep. Before he slipped into the depths of dreaming, he imagined how she might look in the morning, pink-cheeked and bleary-eyed from sleep, blinking up at him from where her head rested on his chest. He thought about tracing the line of her spine with a single fingertip while tucking her dark hair behind her ear with his other hand. She smiled at him in this fantasy, a soft, happy smile that matched the one Robbie pressed against her hair in the darkness, inhaling the scent of her shampoo and giving over to sleep.