Page 77 of Making New Plans

I let myself bask for a minute, glorying in my exhausted but loose limbs. I tried to capture that moment of perfect peace, the sunlight, his warmth, and my simple bliss, knowing I’d want to come back here again and again in my mind.

But the real world filtered through my happy bubble when I heard the faint sound of a phone vibrating somewhere in the room. It could’ve been either of ours since setting alarms and charging phones had been the last things on our minds before we’d passed out. I was surprised the battery had even managed to last.

I shifted slightly, and with a soft snore, Hunter’s eyes cracked open.

“Where are you going?” he mumbled in a gravelly voice.

I smiled. Sleepy Hunter had also become a quick favorite of mine. Hair adorably mussed, a pillow crease in his cheek, his expression completely unguarded.

“One of our phones is buzzing somewhere, and I have a feeling it’s much later than it should be.”

I shimmied, trying to loosen his grip around my torso, but he groaned and held tighter. Then pressed a stubbly kiss to the side of one of my breasts. Desire hooked my body, drawing it involuntarily closer to him. He grunted his approval (apparently, he was very caveman-like in the morning, and apparently, I liked it a lot) as his mouth sought mine in a sleepy kiss.

I returned it with gusto, but that annoying buzzing somewhere on the floor wouldn’t stop. I grasped his chin and waited for him to fully open his eyes.

“If you release me for a few seconds, I’ll grab the phone and come right back,” I coaxed him.

He frowned but then laid back onto the pillow with a sigh. “Hurry.”

Loosening his grip, his fingers trailed down my spine as I rolled away from him. Getting on my hands and knees naked then searching through the clothes littering the floor, I found my phone halfway out of my pants pocket.

Cold anxiety gripped my chest when I saw the notifications crowding my screen. And the low battery. And the fact that it was 7:30 already.

“Do you have a charger?” I choked out.

Don’t panic, don’t panic, I chanted to myself while Hunter fumbled around his nightstand for his charger.

I’d never gone MIA before. I’d mentioned to Sarah that I was staying late at the lodge, but not that I was sleeping over. So she’d sent me half a dozen worried texts. My mother had called once an hour ago. I scrolled through my calendar notifications, checking on guest notes. Thankfully, no one had called from the front desk for an early checkout, but the sooner I was out there, the better. Didn’t want any guests to see the lodge manager sneaking out of one of the rooms.

“Chloe?” Hunter was sitting up in bed, holding the charging cord out to me. “Everything okay?”

I stumbled back to the bed, drew the covers around me, and plugged in my phone. The cord lay across his bare chest, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“Um, yeah,” I replied. “I just need to respond to Sarah, so she knows I’m not dead. Then get dressed. And oh, I should probably shower. But it’s already past 7:30. We have four rooms checking out today. Then there are five new rooms checking in. One of them has a nut allergy, so I need to alert the kitchen and make sure that room gets a deep clean. Then I should probably have Sarah bring me some new clothes. Then—”

“Chloe, Chloe!” Hunter interrupted my babbling by tugging my chin up to look at him.

He waited for me to catch my breath, his gentle brown eyes straying over my face. Then, still holding my chin, he slipped his other arm around me so that our bare skin was touching once more. An icy chunk of my anxiety immediately melted away.

“Okay,” he said, his eyes crinkling with a smile. “Let’s run this down. First, you should text Sarah that you’re alive and very well cared for and that she should bring you some clothes. While you’re doing that, I’m going to throw on some clothes and grab some coffee from downstairs. I’ll also put a note on the desk that the manager stepped away for a bit and will be back soon. Then, while we drink coffee, we’ll take the fastest shower possible with me washing every bit of you from head to toe. After we finish getting ready, you can hold down the front desk while I rid the kitchen and the guest room of every trace of nuts. And in between the guests and the craziness, I’ll drag you into your office every so often to kiss that worried look off your face.”

What started out as a lone butterfly in my stomach turned into a whole garden of them by the time he was done talking. I didn’t know if it was the magic of his skin on mine or the way his confident smirk couldn’t mask the sincerity in his eyes or just the idea that someone was willing to do all that for me, but it had me tossing my phone aside to plant my mouth on his. He responded enthusiastically, draping my naked body over himself. After a glorious minute, I pulled back.

“Well?” he said, one eyebrow raised.

“Two things. One, I really wish I could do something about that.” I aimed a pointed look at his hard length pressing against my belly.

He grinned and shrugged. “Tonight?”

“Definitely. And two, are you also planning to learn how to fly so you can claim the title of the town’s Superman?”

He laughed. “I’d have to in order to keep up with you.”

I smiled and laid a hand on his chest. “Thank you, though. For everything. For last night. For planning to help me out with the madness this morning.”

Hunter laid his hand over mine, his face serious again. “You don’t have to thank me, Chloe. I want to do it all with you. And I want more of you. So, win-win for me.”

I kissed him one more time because, damn it, I couldn’t get enough. “Let’s get to it then.”

---