Page 72 of Breaking the Ice

At least the protest would be over tomorrow and things would get back to normal at the shop. The strategy sessions led by Dulcie in major-general mode had given them both something else to focus on, but he was in no doubt they were in a holding pattern, and Samantha knew it too.

Carrying both their mugs, Nick stopped in his tracks as he entered the living room, nearly spilling tea everywhere. Oh no.No, no, no. Samantha snuggled into the corner of his couch, in his apartment, all sleepy and happy was too much.

Samanthaasleepwas the living end.

Shutting his eyes, he took a deep breath and continued on, placing the mugs on the coffee table noisily.Nothing. “Sam?”

Still nothing.

“Samantha,” he said, louder this time, and shook her gently.

Her eyes fluttered open for a second during which time she smiled serenely and said, “I like it when you call me Samantha,” and then fell promptly fell back asleep.

He almost groaned out loud as he crouched beside her, reminding him of the night she’d propositioned him onhercouch, holding the condom between them and he wished like hell he’d thrown gentlemanly caution to the wind and done the wild thing right there and then.

God knew she’d been too plastered tothinkthat night.

At least there wouldn’t be this feeling of unfinished business between them that seemed to be a more and more taboo subject as each day went by.

Nick rose, removing himself from the temptation. It was late after a week of very late nights. And they had an early start. He and Samantha were part of the relief team who would take over at five in the morning until their 10a.m. march on city hall. WithHawkeyenow apparently the unofficial spokesperson for the cause, a lot of media interest had been whipped up and they were hoping for a good turnout tomorrow.

She shifted in her sleep, snuggling deeper into the couch as she murmured something unintelligible, drawing his gaze to her mouth.

Hell. He was never going to sleep.

25

Samantha’s eyes fluttered open as she emerged from a deep, dreamless sleep to the sound of Nick’s voice which was low and sexy and made her eggs sigh contentedly. His calm brown eyes smiled down at her, two steaming mugs in his hands.

“Time to get up, sleepyhead.”

Slightly disorientated, she thought back to last night, to her last conscious thought.I’ll just shut my eyes for a second while Nick’s making the tea. And she’d snuggled into the couch which had resided in Birdie’s shop until Nick had renovated it and still smelled of old books and peppermint.

It had been so familiar, so like Birdie, who had been a real presence last night knitting the protest group together and breathing an old-fashioned solidarity into their cause.

“Sorry, I fell asleep.”

“You did,” he agreed with a grin as he crouched down to place the mug on the table, their gazes now level.

Her eyes drifted to the fascinating cleft in his chin and the even more fascinating stubble and remembered how good it had felt scratching against her breasts and belly and thighs. Helooked a little rumpled and bleary-eyed and she thought how nice it would be to wake up to his face every morning.

They were sharing a moment. Another moment. They were doing that quite a bit lately. Since her birthday. Well, no. Since before then. It had started with the alley and gotten worse after the vibrator and more so after the elevator.

Her birthday had just been the icing on the cake. So to speak.

They had to stop sharing moments. The last moment had ended in disaster. And right now they had a job to do. Something good. Somethinggreat.She needed to focus on that.

As if he knew it too, he pushed out of the crouch and Samantha felt able to breathe again as she sat, swinging her feet to the floor. “I guess the week caught up with me.”

He shrugged as he took the armchair opposite. “It’s a comfy couch.”

Itreallywas. “What time is it?” There was just the faintest glow of sunrise coming through the bank of double-hung windows.

“Four-thirty.”

“Ugh!”

He chuckled and it was such a lovely sound, Samantha realized that she went to work each day just to hear it and she would miss it when she left.

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