“Sounds like you wanted to stay away from him pretty badly. You had to take some pretty drastic measures.”
Oh, God, how had he known that? Had she slipped and said something she shouldn’t? She turned slowly. “What do you mean?”
“Even for a farmer who knows what it’s like to work seven days a week, working three jobs just to avoid someone is pretty drastic.”
If Ren thought that was pretty drastic, telling him how she pretended to be dead would definitely seem like overkill, pardon the pun.
“He was worth avoiding.”
She didn’t want to talk about Damien. Didn’t want to think about him. Out here in this cabin in the middle of nowhere, in this dream where she was doing what she loved to do, with a sexy man watching her and talking to her, Damien had no part.
Ren was already in bed—she’d been so focused she hadn’t even realized it—by the time her arms refused to let her do any more work. She was at a good stopping place. Tomorrow she’d finish it.
Then it would be time to get back to the real world. Or at least out of this dream house.
She put away her paints and cleaned her brushes as best she could before turning to her own personal hygiene. She slipped out of her jeans and sweater and into the pajama pants and tank she’d been sleeping in, wishing it was something sexier.
Because she’d already decided that if her time was running out here in the dream cabin, then she wasn’t going to waste the time she had left with Ren.
She was going to seduce him, right now.
Chapter Twelve
Of course, wanting to seduce and actually knowing how to seduce were two very different things.
Natalie crawled onto her side of the bed and pulled the covers over herself, staring up at the ceiling without touching him. How come her sleeping body never seemed to have any problem plastering itself all over him, but awake she couldn’t even force herself to touch him at all?
Then Ren moved in his sleep, rolled toward her, the shift in the mattress causing her to slide toward him.
Then she just let herself fall the rest of the way into him.
She trailed her fingers across his naked chest, since he just slept in a pair of sweatpants they’d found. She loved touching him, his muscles so defined, yet had never once been used in any sort of violent way against her. The opposite, in fact. Only used to help make her feel secure, safe. Her fingers trailed slightly lower, over his abs. They tensed just the slightest bit under her touch.
“You’re awake,” she whispered.
“From the second those fingers touched me.”
She snatched her hand back. “I’m sorry. You were trying to sleep. I don’t know what I’m doing. I—”
She stopped abruptly as he reached out with his own hand and brought hers back down to his chest. “I wasn’t complaining about your hand being there.”
He slipped his other arm under his head, giving her room to move in a little closer to him. In the soft light of the dying fire he looked so relaxed, half smiling at her with drowsy eyes.
She was never going to get another opportunity like this.
She didn’t let herself think about it too much, she just reached in and kissed him. She was tentative, unsure how to show him how she wanted more.
She needn’t have worried.
At just the slightest bit of persuasion from her, Ren’s mouth was hot and open against hers, his tongue sliding inside, coaxingherfor more. It was different than the kiss outside in the snow. Slower, less frantic, more exploratory. But no less passionate.
His tongue skimmed across her bottom lip slowly before nibbling on it, like he had all the time in the world to taste her and no plans to ever move from this bed.
Natalie couldn’t help it—she sighed into his mouth, wanting him closer.
Then the kiss changed. Every part of her hummed with excitement as he pulled her hard against him, his hand curving around her nape to hold her there. He moaned against her skin as his lips worked their way from her ear down her jaw to her neck.
He grabbed the hem of her shirt like he was going to pull it over her head—something she desperately wanted—but then paused.
