8
Midnight came between blinks. One minute, I was asking myself if a polar bear shifter and a seal shifter were a great idea. The next, I jolted awake with the scent of pipe tobacco and green apples in my nose.
“Um,” a small voice said from the doorway. “It wasn’t locked…”
A groan poured out of me as I attempted to roll toward Colby, only to fall off the bed with a solid thump.
“Ouch.”
As I lay there, adrenaline dumping into my veins, my hip smarting, I grasped the situation.
I had fallen asleep on top of Asa. Like I starfished over the man. But he hadn’t budged from his side of the bed. Which told me it was my fault.
“Rue.”Asa slid onto the floor next to me. “Are you all right?”
No.
I was trying very hard to die so he would forget I spent the day clinging to him like his favorite boxers. Surely my memorial would distract him from what a weirdo he had climbed into bed with this morning.
Tilting my head back to see Colby, who was smothering a laugh, I asked, “Give us a minute?”
“Sure.” She sped off, snickering on the way. “Hey, Clay, guess what?”
What she said next, I chose to ignore in favor of the gorgeous man leaning over me. “So…”
“So,” he agreed, his fingers tracing my cheekbones. “You’re a cuddler.”
“I guess?” I leaned into his touch. “I’ve never slept with a man.” I blushed. Hard. “Like sleep-slept.”
“I know what you mean.” He cracked a smile. “I’ve never sleep-slept with a woman either.”
“Really?” I wedged my elbows under me to leverage myself upright, putting me nose to nose with Asa. “You’re the love ’em and leave ’em type?”
He hummed low in his throat, which was not an answer, but I forgot that as his warm breath hit my face.
“Which type are you?”
Mind blank, I couldn’t see past the heat simmering in his eyes. “What were my choices again?”
“Colby said you…” Clay skidded to a stop behind me. “Well, this is awkward.”
“To be continued,” I told Asa, resting my forehead against his until my pulse returned to normal.
“I can go,” Clay offered, “if you two need another minute.”
“That would be nice.” I couldn’t fight the pull to stay here, with Asa. “As you can see, I’m fine.”
“She made it sound like you broke every bone in your body.”
“And you believed her,” I asked dryly, “that a tumble off a mattress would snap me like a twig?”
Tonight’s wig, one with tight black curls that hugged his scalp, didn’t budge as he shook his head.
“Ace didn’t return to his room last night, so I worried.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Sue me.”
“I would win.” I breathed in Asa one last time. “The law would be on my side.”
“We have a wendigo to hunt if you two are done staring meaningfully into one another’s eyes.”