Page 54 of The Jinglebell War
I swallow hard against bad urges and horniness. “Thanks. Good night, Garrick.”
“Good night, Demon.”
I roll onto my side and stare into the darkness, wide awake.
Garrick shifts, his breathing heavy, and an arm lands on me. He pulls me against his chest, my ass to his groin.
I immediately shift away before I feel anything. “Garrick, quit it,” I hiss into the darkness.
He grunts and pulls on me again.
I roll and shove at his chest. “Stop it.”
“What?” he asks, sounding truly groggy. “Why are you hitting me?”
“You cannot seriously think I’m going to believe you fell asleep in the five minutes we’ve been in this bed.”
“I’m tired,” he says. “I always fall asleep fast.”
I wish I could see his face, but it’s pitch dark in this room. The glow from our cell phones on the night stands isn’t enough to light the room. “Whatever, just stay on your side of the bed.”
I scoot closer to the edge to put as much space between us as possible, but, just as I’m drifting off, I’m covered in a man who thinks he’s a blanket again. “Garrick, seriously.”
He doesn’t make a sound or move and, when I shove him this time, he doesn’t wake up. He just rolls over and goes back to sleep.
I scoot all the way to the very edge of the bed and, as I finally fall asleep, my last thought is a hope I don’t wake up wrapped up in Garrick. If I do, there’s no way I’m going to be able to keep my hands to myself.
Luckily, I sleep through the night and wake up alone. I might be happy about that, but I’m on the floor, the cold hard wood against my back. I must have fallen out of bed without waking up. I look up to see one of Garrick’s arms hanging off my side of the bed.
Did the fucker actually push me out of bed?
And why didn’t I wake up when he did? This floor is not comfortable. I must have been more exhausted than I realized.
And still my pussy clenches at that sight of that perfect, bare forearm of his hanging over the side of the bed.
I am so screwed.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Garrick
“I warned you,” Blue says as I tilt my head back and press the ice pack to my cheek.
She accidentally hit me with the handle of her ski pole. Hard enough to make my cheek swell.
I still have no idea how she managed it. The woman is an absolute terror on the ski slope and, if she wasn’t also in pain, with an ice pack on one knee and another on her shoulder, I’d think she did it all on purpose.
I never thought I’d say this about anyone, but Blue Porter will never be a skier. In fact, she should never be allowed on a ski slope anywhere ever again.
“I mean, I told you we should quit after the third time I fell off the chairlift.”
It’d been funny for the first hour, then it had been frustrating, and, finally, I’d had to admit defeat. “I should have listened.”
“I’m good at a lot of things, Garrick. I can shop all day and not break a nail, I can speak in front of an audience without aprepared speech, and I can sniff out a backstabbing two-faced liar from a crowd of a thousand good people, but I’ll never be good at any sport requiring balance.”
“I get it. You’re not an outdoorsy person.” It shouldn’t bother me, but it does. I’d live outside if I could, but Blue is always going to be an indoor person. And I want a partner who’ll spend days and nights with me outside.
Which is perfect because Blue isn’t a potential girlfriend. She’s doing me a favor, and that’s the end of it. No matter how good she looks in a thong or how mouth-wateringly gorgeous her tits are.
