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Aiden laid a few of the huge leaves over her. He placed the bag next to where he’d lay and then stretched out next to her and tugged the remaining leaves to his side. “Lay on my shoulder,” he said softly.
Chalisa happily complied. He tucked her close to his side with her head nestled on his shoulder. One of her hands was trapped between them, and she slid her other hand across his taut waist.
He let out a quick breath and murmured, “We definitely cannot kiss in this position.”
What he intoned made her so warm she wouldn’t need any covering, only Aiden close.
Aiden pulled the rest of the huge leaves over them, and they were cocooned together. The ground was hard underneath her side and leg, but Aiden’s muscular form, though far from soft, felt comfortable, warm, and exhilarating. She didn’t care if she didn’t sleep. She could catalog these feelings all night, store up the memories of him.
He wrapped both arms around her and cradled her against him. They were so close her pulse sped up even more. All she wanted was one sweet goodnight kiss.
“You know I hate to break rules,” she said.
“Don’t even try it.”
“Just one goodnight kiss?”
“Chalisa.” He groaned out her name and his hand trailed up into her hair, massaging her scalp and making it tingle. “Most of the time, I think you’re an angel straight from heaven, and then every once in a while you become the most sultry temptress on earth.”
She laughed at that. Sultry and temptress had never been used to describe her, but he made her feel angelic, sultry, and tempting.
He pressed a heated kiss to her forehead. “Go to sleep.”
“You just broke your own rule,” she protested.
He chuckled, and his fingers trailed down her neck and along her back. She shivered at the incredible sensation. “That is nothing like the kisses I want to give you.”
Her body warmed up.
“Please,” he murmured. “Don’t tempt me. You are pure and angelic. I want you to stay that way.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. Her virtue was very important to her, and her relationship with the Savior was strengthened by honoring marriage. Would one kiss really taint that?
A few beats passed, and the night sounds deepened around them. Would animals and spiders crawl past and over them? She shivered at that image.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“No. Just thinking if animals or spiders might crawl right over us in the night.”
“I’ll protect you.”
“Thank you.” But she doubted he’d stay up all night swatting spiders. She wouldn’t want him to. When some more silence passed, she thought of him being respectful of her prayer but not kneeling himself. “Do you believe in God?”
“Yes.” His voice was cautious.
“Do you pray and worship?”
“No.” His hand continued to trace across her back, and she waited to see if he’d expound. “Ike is a believer, and he always told me that my mom was a Christian as well, but for me and my dad … I don’t doubt there is a God in heaven, but I don’t think he concerns himself with me and I don’t need any help. I make my own destiny.”
“What if something is too big for you to handle on your own?”
“I haven’t come up against anything so far.” His voice was full of confidence but also pride that would keep them apart.
Chalisa was still pressed close to him, but she felt far away. She wanted to pray that his dad or heaven could give him a sign that Aiden’s oath was fulfilled and he could love and marry her, have a family. She’d support him in his security specialist path, but she didn’t want him to walk it alone and she didn’t want him to walk away from her. If he wouldn’t even humble himself to ask or believe, she had no hope of things ever changing between them.
Instead of expressing any of that, she said, “I guess I’m a wimp. I wouldn’t want to go through one day without my Savior.”
“You are the furthest thing from a wimp.” He gently kissed her forehead again. “I love your light. It shines brightly from you and is part of you. I’m glad you have the Savior with you.”
