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Thirty-Seven
“Hey,wake up. I can’t feel my arm.”
Emilia wriggled her fingers and tried to get some feeling back, her arm trapped in an awkward position while Blaine hugged her in her bed from behind. She pressed her cold foot to his shin and tried to rouse him.
“Ouch.” He stirred, his heavy arm draped over her ribcage, his voice low and groggy. “What did I do?”
“Well for one, you’re crushing me.” She groaned, trying again to slide out from under him. “And two, I drew the line when you stole the blanket.”
He rolled onto his back, giving her enough space to turn around and face him, his softened gaze dancing about her face.
“Sorry about that.” He gave the sweetest boyish grin, one that made her forgive him. Next, he swept her loose curls from her forehead and pressed a kiss right there. “We’ll practice this bed sharing thing and get it down to an art form. I promise.”
Her lips trembled at the pull of a smile. “We didn’t make it to bed last night and did well enough.”
He gave a low chuckle. “How long have you been awake?”
“A few minutes. I wanted to watch you sleep for a while before I realized I was stuck and my arm was struggling for circulation.”
“I can pretend to be asleep again if you like?”
She laughed, her heart melting a little at his unruly morning hair and the rough stubble along his jaw. Her eyes had a hard time deciding which rugged feature to settle on, while his sleepy expression warmed her body into wanting a replay of last night.
She paused her musing long enough to remember this was the real world, and she couldn’t live forever in the dream bubble they’d created. Unfortunately. “Don’t you have a stall at the town fair to attend to today?”
He rose onto an elbow, a bit too fast, like the haze of last night had made him forget he had a job to do. “Damn it, yes I do. At least, I have to stop in to make sure Wayne and Jacob have done a decent job of setting up, and Ally has actually arrived to work on time.”
She raised a brow and gave him a disbelieving look. “Did you see how much fun she was having last night?”
“Yeah, I’m not holding out much hope.”
She laughed and sat up. “Right, well I guess that means we’re starting our day now.”
Blaine grabbed her arm and pulled her down to him again, before rolling on top of her. “Not until I’ve kissed you about a hundred times first.”
Except, she was the one who kissed him, only to break away again the moment an ache of desire awoke in her lower tummy. “Oh, no you don’t. Don’t start something you can’t finish.”
He growled. “I’ll be back.” He rolled away, pointing to her as he stood. “A couple of hours and then…”
He smiled and went about digging around in a chest of drawers while she found her phone on the nightstand, wanting to see the time. “Urgh. My battery is flat, and my charger is still at the cottage.”
He turned back to her while tugging on a pair of jeans. “I guess you could come along with me and grab your charger first, then we can drop in on the fair together.”
“No, actually I was thinking.” She paused to chew on her lower lip for a moment. “Since the plan is to have me here more often, maybe you could leave me at the cottage while you do your work thing, and I can pack some boxes to bring here?”
He stared at her for a while, his face inordinately still, though with a distinct tension. “I don’t like that idea.”
“You don’t have to.” She climbed out of bed and searched about for her clothes. Were they in this room or still downstairs? “But I need to pack a few things, either way. How long will you be at the fair?”
“Forty-five minutes if I’m quick, but Em—”
“Perfect.” She snatched her dress up from an armchair in the room’s corner.
“No. Not perfect.” She kept her back to him, but the hard edge to his tone was unmissable. “I don’t want you at the cottage by yourself.”
She spun around, for once in her life unashamed of her nakedness as she swanned over to him, dress draped over her forearm.
“Please.” She pressed against him, and as if by instinct, his hands wrapped around her, the warmth of those big palms at her ribcage once more prodding at her low aching need. “I’ll have my phone plugged in while I pack. I’ll call you if there are any issues. Once I’m done, I’ll be here and all yours forever.”
