AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I snort. “You’re kidding me.”
“The floor keeps moving,” she says with a very serious expression.
“Ugh.”
I bend down, about to lift her up, when she grabs my arms and pulls me against her. Tinker Bell cinches her arms around my neck in a vise. If I was too self-conscious of her chest against my back the entire way here, it’s an entirely different experience when she glues herself to my chest.
It’s official. I am a saint.
Tinker Bell yawns. I need to stop wasting time standing here like a damn robot and put her to bed while she’s still mostly cooperating. She hangs from my neck while I walk into the room. It’s easy to tell which one is her bed. While one is dressed in all black bedding, the other one has a hockey jersey strewn on it, along with a couple of knee pads and what looks like a ball of dirty socks.
“In you go.” I bend until her thighs touch the edge of the mattress. But she doesn’t let go. She pulls until I lose my balance.
At the last second, I grab her head and pivot so at least she won’t crash against the wall. I can’t help the fact that my full weight falls on her.
Air escapes from her lungs. A curse from mine. The other girl whistles.
“Damn, you’re heavy.” Tinker Bell grunts.
I brace myself on all fours so as not to crush her. “Yeah. Let go of me.”
She doesn’t. If anything, her arms grab on tighter. Her eyes are at half-mast, trained straight on my face.
“Uh, Tinker Bell?”
“I’m cold.”
I swallow with difficulty. “I bet. Let me just pull your blanket over you and?—”
With strength I wouldn’t think her capable of in her state, she pulls me flush against her. Tucking her face against my neck, she says, “You’re so much warmer.”
I can’t move.
It doesn’t matter that my arms are trembling, trying to hold my weight off her. Or that our legs are tangled in an awkward position where I feel way too much. Or that the dampness of her clothes is seeping through mine. My heart hammers in my ribcage. Any tipsiness I felt after chugging one beer after the next has been chased away by all of this.
I clear my throat, trying to untangle her arms from around me. But they’re locked like steel, and now she’s snoring softly against my shoulder.
Slowly, I twist as far as her grip will allow me, about to ask for help, when I find the other girl taking a picture of the scene. “Don’t worry, it’s not blackmail.” As she tucks her phone back into her pocket, she says, “But if anything happens to her, I’ll know who did it. Have a good night, though.”
With that, she skips out of the room and shuts the door. Guess I’m not sleeping tonight, then.
CHAPTER 10
LUZ
Hmm, something smells good. I take a good, deep breath, expanding my nostrils as wide as they can go. It’s not enough, so I bury my nose in the scent to capture it all. And whatever this is, it’s also warm. The portions of my skin touching it are toasty, but everywhere else, I feel cold.
I burrow deeper into it. There’s something soft under my hand. I splay it open and—no, hold on. The surface is soft, but beneath it has no yield at all. The fog in my brain dissipates just enough to let a single question shine through it. What the heck is this?
I run my hand across whatever this is. The softness is there, along with a little fuzz. My hand goes through a little bump, and then bigger ones. Ridges? Why are they contracting? There’s a swooshing sound above me that fans air over my face. My hand stops at something cold.
My eyes snap open. The first thing I see is a bare chest.
Light streams from the window, so bright I have to squint against the pain. I count to three, with deep breaths in between. That beautiful smell is someone’s skin, with traces of soap and something like sandalwood. I peek down at my traitorous hand and find it on a belt buckle. If it’d kept going down?—
I lift my hand abruptly.
Those ridges are abs. The most defined abs I’ve seen in my life, especially up close. The fuzz was the smattering of chest hair. I jump away until my back is glued to the wall.
