Page 100 of Duke's Daring Bookworm
She pulled her phone out and walked around the cabin, looking for a signal.
“Dammit,” she said. “There’s no signal up here.”
“Sorry,” I said, not sorry one bit. “I didn’t even bother to check on that.”
“Of course not,” she grumbled as she slumped back on the couch.
“There, that should do it.” Jess admired her impressive pillow wall as we went to bed that night.
“I’m not entirely sure it’s fortified enough.” I stood beside her and examined her work. The widest pillows were on the bottom and she had built it up to be three pillows high with a blanket fortifying it all. Certainly overkill. “I think we need to radio the ISS to see if they can spot it from spa — oof.” She threw one of the extra pillows at me. I had no idea why Charlotte would have so many unused pillows in her one bedroom cabin, and I wasn’t thrilled about it either, but when in Rome. Rather than give it back, I caught it and jumped onto my side of the bed, causing the large mound of pillows to topple over onto her side. That probably wasn’t going to win points.Shit.
“Seriously? I just finished that.” She gathered back up the knocked-over pillows and started shoving them in the middle again.
“Don’t forget this one.” I set the one she had thrown at me on top of the new pile. I was trying for a playful tone to make up for knocking over her hard work. We weren’t seven. I didn’t needto pull on her pigtails. What I did need was more blood in my brain right now and to diffuse a tense situation. “Wouldn’t want to chance getting cooties from me.” I winked at her as I helped her arrange the rest of the pillows. I missed teasing her, and joy bubbled up inside me at me being able to do it again. Which is ridiculous because I was a grown man and a Marine, but here we were.
She rolled her eyes but didn’t protest my help in stacking them up again. I’m not sure what she thought was going to happen. Yes, I wanted her, but I wasn’t an ass.
“You know,” I ventured to say, “I’m not going to ravish you in your sleep.” Maybe she didn’t know. Maybe she thought I had changed that much in the last ten years. My skin crawled thinking about what could have happened during that time to build a general distrust of men, and I really hoped that didn’t extend to me. That all these pillows were because it was me and not because something bad had happened in her past. Hell, maybe she would prefer a bear wander in here and sleep next to her. I know I’d rather have her sleep next to a bear than many of the men I’ve served with over the years.
“I know that.” She was meticulously spreading out the blanket she had picked as her own and refused to look up at me. I almost forgot what I had said before. She was so focused on her task that silence had fallen between us for a time.
“Oh, I see,” I drawled, wanting to lighten the mood, even if I was the only one that needed it.
“What do you see?” she asked, a bit exasperated, but at least she stopped straightening out the already meticulous blanket.
“You’re worried aboutmyvirtue.Youwant to ravishme?” I rolled over and plopped my head on my hand to look at her over the tower of pillows. “Don’t worry, I would only enjoy it if you did.” I then sat up, careful of her pillow wall, pulled my shirtoff, threw it to the other side of the room, pulled up my blanket, rolled over, and pretended to sleep.
She didn’t make a sound for a few seconds. I didn’t even hear her breathe. The bed finally dipped as she climbed in. I swear she said, “I think I would, too.”
I didn’t fall asleep for a long time. The Marines taught me to fall asleep quickly in any condition, but I’m not sure they hadsleeping next to the woman of your dreamscovered in that ‘any condition.’ I could hear when her breathing finally evened out, and she fell asleep. I gently rolled towards her on my side of the wall. Even with all the pillows in the way, I wanted to face her while we slept.
I woke in the early morning to a warm weight pressed against me and no sight of the pillow wall that had separated us through the night. Jess had crowded onto my side of the bed and was half on top of me. The feel of her, the warmth of her, the soft curves and the silky weight of her braided hair over my arm felt better than I could have ever imagined. If I couldn’t convince her to give me another chance, I didn’t know how I would ever let her go.
I stared at her and savored the feel of her while she continued to sleep. Hopefully, she was dreaming of good things, happy things, maybe evenme. I certainly dreamed of her, though that was nothing new. I’d dreamed of her for so long, I wasn’t sure my subconscious ever thought of anything else.
The sun crept over the horizon and light filled the room before she stirred again. I pretended to be asleep so she wouldn’t be embarrassed at being caught laying on me. It was going to be hard enough to woo her. I didn’t need to make it harder.
Warmth fled with her, and all that remained was the chill of the morning and the sound of a slamming door. I laid in bed a bit longer, breathing in whatever traces of her scent were left, andwondering how the fuck I was going to manage to convince her to love me again.
Chapter 3
Jess
“Dammit!” I dropped a box on my foot. I wanted to decide what to keep and ship back to Savannah. I found a few dusty boxes shoved under the spare blankets in the small closet and decided I should try to sort through them.
Truthfully, I didn’t want to see Charles. I woke up in his arms this morning. He was still asleep, and I slipped out before he woke up and realize I was sprawled all over him like I owned him. I loved the feel of his hard chest slowly rising and falling under me, the hard bar of his morning wood pressed to my inner thigh where my leg was stretched across him. His hands resting on me, one around my shoulder, the other on that same leg that was mistakenly on him. The heat of his body against mine was seared into my mind. I dreamed of waking up with him like this for the whole time we dated, but my grandma’s rules said no boys as overnight guests. At the time, I hated it and thought she was a tyrant, of course. I realize now it was a very reasonable rule. That didn’t stop me from dreaming of this. That dream had come true, but all I could feel was anxiety creeping up my spine and my heart rate picking up.
I had to move.
I had to get out of here.
I couldn’t handle this.
So, I ran away like the coward I was.
The shower was large, and I spent entirely too much time in there trying not to panic before cold water forced me out of my sanctuary. Charles was bringing an armload of wood into the house when I walked out of the bathroom, and I darted into the bedroom and slammed the door closed. Nothing in the terms of the will stated that I had to actually speak with Charles during this time, or spend time in the same room as him. Not that there were many places to go or things to do in the tiny cabin.
Which is how I ended up with a box landing on my foot because I was desperate for some way to keep hiding from Charles. Maybe if I hid long enough, all my problems would just go away.
