Page 64 of Without Judgment

He was still grinning. “There’s a small tub out back. It can be filled with water we heat on the stove. Or there’s always the lake.”

Damn. Maybe I was a bit of a princess, after all, as neither option sounded as good as the double-headed shower with marble tile back home.

“Um, how private is the lake?”

“Very. Come on. Let’s wash our hands, then eat.”

Later, after dinner, changing into pajamas, and brushing my teeth, I got into the bed. After I checked it for spiders.

“Do you want me to take the couch instead? I’m smaller and would fit better,” I offered.

He was banking the fire for the night. “Nope. I’ve slept in a hell of a lot worse conditions. Couch is more than fine.”

My heart broke a little regarding what he’d been through in Iraq. “There’s room in the bed. I can scoot over.”

“You sure?”

I’d expected him to say no. “Yep.” I spoke casually, but suddenly I was having flashes of anxiety about whether my legs were shaved and wishing my heart wasn’t slamming against my chest so rapidly.

Turning over so I was faced away from him, I focused on trying not to panic about sharing the bed. I could hear him walking around the cabin. Then the lantern went out, leaving the room only in shadows and moonlight. The sensation of his weight getting onto the mattress made me swallow hard. I could restrain myself. The last thing I wanted was to be rejected a third time.

“Avery?”

“Yeah.”

“You know the part where you said you were tired of people underestimating you?”

I turned over in order to see him. In a double bed, the action put us inches apart. By the glow of the moon, I saw he was shirtless. Damn.

“Yes.”

“You proved them wrong today. Very clever.”

His words meant a lot to me. “Thank you. God, were you pissed when you marched out to the pool.”

He chuckled. “I was. I thought you were back to rebelling.”

“Maybe a little, but not in the way you thought.”

“If I have a nightmare, uh, throw a pillow or something at me. No more water.”

“Do you have them every night?”

“Most. I just don’t want to, you know—”

“End up with your fingers deep inside of my pussy. Got it.”

Well, that got his attention. He popped up and stared down at me, exposing his entire chest. And boy, I’d almost forgotten, but it was a good one. He was toned everywhere, but it was the piercings that wreaked the most havoc on my girly parts.

“I can’t say I’d wake you up before the orgasm this time.”

I’d meant to be funny, but the way his jaw set told me he wasn’t taking it as a joke.

Unable to stand the tension any longer, I flipped back over. “Good night, Mason.”

He settled back down onto the bed, but then he was moving until his chest was up against my back, his arm over my body, and he was pulling me back into the curve of him. “I think we both knew the moment I got into this bed we wouldn’t be sleeping.”

“We did?” My voice was a squeak. Oh, my, I could feel his erection behind me.

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