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He smiled. “We can share the futon. Looks large enough for the two of us.”
Seeing deep worry tint her clear-blue eyes, and a frown wrinkling her forehead, Reece laughed at her distress, but then turned serious. “Or, since it appears that you have already made yourself at home on it, I can take the easy chair near the fireplace.”
Jess was about to say she was sorry he had to sleep on the sturdy, but certainly uncomfortable chair, but caught herself just in time, remembering Reece was not a welcome guest, andhehad chosen to sleep at the cabin.
Without a word, she walked towards the wardrobe to grab a duvet, a pillow, and a blanket, then handed them to him and slipped back under the comfortable coziness of her own duvet.
A few minutes later, the lights in the cabin were turned off.
Reece undressed to the faint light coming from the street outside, while Jess, laying in her most comfortable position favoring her right side, had already closed her eyes, but was too keyed up by the day’s events to feel sleepy. Waiting for sleep to arrive with her eyes open though, was out of the question because it just happened that the easy chair and Reece, stood right in front of her. Jess thought of turning onto her left side, but discarded the idea immediately. Reece would mistake her movement for anxiety caused by his presence –which of course was true, but she didn’t want him to think it was. In any case, had she turned onto her left side, Jess wouldn't have been able to tune out the noise Reece made getting ready to go to bed, which in the still silence of the night, arrived to her very alerted senses amplified threefold. Combine all that with the fact that she knew by heart every supple, nimble indent of the body of the man in question, and you had a fairly good idea of how far sleep was from her limbs.
The gentle rustling of clothes told her Reece was taking off his checkered flannel shirt. That should leave him wearing the T-shirt whose neckline she’d glimpsed earlier. Then she heard the unmistakable clinking of a belt buckle. Unconsciously, Jess held her breath, expectant. The buttons of his jeans came next. The easy chair protested under his weight. He had either finished undressing or was in the process of removing his jeans and the heavy duty boots he’d worn during the day.
The easy chair squeaked again. Jess felt a certain amount of weight at the feet of the futon. About to open her eyes in alarm, to check what Reece was doing, she sneezed, coming face to face with his groin.
“Bless you,” Reece said.
“Thank you,” Jess automatically answered before three things simultaneously registered in her mind. The sudden weight on the futon that had alarmed her was only his clothes being laid there. Even relaxed, his manhood made a distinctive impression inside his gray low rise trunks. Gray was the color of his T-shirt too.
Catching her breath, Jess squeezed her eyes tightly shut, trying to erase what she’d seen, but to no avail. The moment she heard him move around, she could clearly envision the light and shadows in the room playing with the hard muscles and the soft hair of his thighs. Could imagine his biceps pump and relax as he fashioned a makeshift bed. Could picture the hypnotic play of the hard ridges of his abs under his T-shirt, as he adjusted his large body on the easy chair, until he found a satisfactory position.
“Na night,” he wished amused, knowing from her irregular breaths that Jess was still fully awake, and her mind had pictured him while he undressed.
“Night,” she mumbled after a brief pause.
* * *
The next morning,by the time Jess cracked her eyes open, Reece had already woken up. The sheets on the easy chair were carefully folded back and rested on the seat topped by the pillow. The familiar smell of coffee swirled around inside the cabin.
“Good morning,” Reece cheerfully greeted, sitting sideways on the futon to lay a breakfast tray on her lap. “It’s fourteen degrees outside. It’s partly cloudy, snow flurries are expected to fall this evening, but thanks to my master skills with smoldering ashes and chopped wood, the temperature inside the cabin is pleasantly warm. Nothing is better than starting a day such as this with breakfast in bed, don’t you agree?”
“Yeah,” Jess mumbled hoarsely, her voice still heavy with sleep, disoriented by his sunny disposition. Wasn’t it only yesterday that he was raving and rumbling and stomping?
“Well then, you eat while we decide what we want to do today. I mean, if we’re spending a few days in Fairbanks, we might as well sightsee. Where do you suggest we start?”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never gone sightseeing here before,” Jess informed him around a mouthful of toast and jam. The tray among its goodies also included a chocolate chip muffin, a glass of juice, and a steamy cup of coffee.
“Scoot,” Reece ordered good-naturally, sitting beside her hip to hip.
“Then what do you think about visiting the Chena Hot Springs or Denali National Park, and tonight we can dine out? Yesterday, I spotted a restaurant that might be worth trying ten minutes down the road from here.”
“If they’re open we can visit any of the sites you mentioned. You said the weather was so-so, and we’ll need to check with the visitor center before we go.”
“You’re right,” Reece mused absently, picking up a piece of her toast. “Then what about we stick to a couple museums or art galleries so that we can remain safely inside without worrying about the weather? And if it gets better tomorrow we can visit Denali.”
His jovial mood was simply too contagious to resist. Smiling, Jess agreed.
“Have you already eaten your breakfast?”
“Yes.”
“Then stop eating mine, please,” she chided when Reece took a bite of her chocolate chip muffin. Looking contrite, he quickly licked his fingertips clean. “Give me ten minutes to finish what breakfast you haven’t devoured, fifteen for a shower and five minutes to put on something warm, then off we can go.”
“Good girl.” Reece smiled, affectionately pecking her nose with his index finger. Then, using that same finger, he slightly tilted her chin back. Fixing his dark, intense stare on her mouth he brushed a soft kiss on her pliant lips. The contact lasted scant seconds. Enough to send her heart racing.
By her next heartbeat, he’d already left the futon and gone back to the kitchen, well away from the tempting scent sleep had left on her skin, or the mellow look in her eyes. Reece mentally groaned, feeling himself stiffen inside his trunks, remembering the many occasions he’d awakened her drowsy body with his loving, taking his time turning her lethargy into passion. That had been the most fulfilling sex he had ever had.
ChapterFourteen
