Page 82 of Play With Me

He pulled me tighter against his body, and the friction of his hand over my arm finally ignited a spark of genuine heat. I must have stirred because he rubbed harder, blowing his warm breath over my neck.

“It’s okay, Lola. We’ve got this. I won’t let you freeze. I’ll rub you so hard, my queen, this tent will combust.”

An immediate warmth spread through me. A hot flash of hope exploded in my chest, and then a whisper of a promise left my lips. “I’m on the verge of hypothermia and you’re making up cheesy lines?”

I finally stopped shaking, but he held me as tight — if not tighter — skin to skin, my cold back to his warming chest and my lukewarm ass to his heating dick.

Is he getting hard?

Maybe it was just my longing for him. That kiss out in the cave had been unbelievable. It scared me and overwhelmed me. I didn’t like running away, but at that moment, I was afraid that if I didn’t, I’d never let him go. It seemed that pulling at the heart strings was a Madden family trait, and Sophie wasn’t the only one who’d mastered the craft.

“I gather you’re a little better?” he asked.

“My head hurts. It’s still cold. But yeah, definitely better.”

He tightened his grip around me and just held me. Moments later, I began to feel my face again, and then gradually my limbs. He felt was so warm that I could actually snuggle comfortably against his body. And yeah, he was getting hard.

“A few more minutes and I’m not sure you’d get to keep those toes.” He brushed his against mine, and I wiggled them in reply. It was nice to feel like I had my toes back too.

“Thank you for finding Sophie,” he whispered.

“It was by luck, if anything.”

“It was more than that. You dashed into that forest like you knew exactly where she’d be.”

When I thought back to the moment, I had acted on instinct. It was a gut reaction. I’d be gutted if anything ever happened to Sophie.

“I’m sorry about Sophie’s hair. I’ll fix it. I promise. If Jax were here, he’d kill me.”

“Given the circumstances, I’m sure her father would understand.”

I yawned. “What’s the plan for tomorrow?”

“All you need to worry about is getting stronger.”

“Yeah, I will. But what’s the plan for tomorrow?”

He sighed. “Okay. We can’t continue this mission with Sophie and Anna here. It’s not working. I’m thinking since we saw Xavier, we should all head out tomorrow toward the caves but approach from the north. There’s a passage over the canyon a few miles away. If we can get Sophie and Anna across, we can take them up to my family’s cabin. Cameron and Kate are there. Then we could return to look for Xavier on our own by nightfall.”

“You’re planning to completely bypass them?”

“Yeah. It’s a simple plan, but those work the best.”

“Simple plans have holes.” I yawned again.

“I know. I’m going to try to patch them all up as we go. Cross without making a sound. Re-group and return for Xavier.”

“Okay.” I closed my eyes and felt my breathing slow. It felt good to do so. Brook’s next words were barely a whisper that lulled me even more. “Why don’t you get some sleep, Lola?”

I did feel tired. Actually, I felt exhausted. I closed my eyes as soon as Brook told me to rest and then the world faded. It was just quiet and nice, and it stayed like that for a long time. In my deep sleep, I slowly felt my body regain strength. I felt adrenaline replenish in my veins and my brain fire up with ideas. Some of them were over-the-top, like when I saw myself as Wonder Woman, leaping over the moonshiner’s canyon, but if that gave me strength, then who was I to complain?

My dreams were all good until a piercing scream shook me awake.

Chapter 19

Brook

“What the hell was that?”

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