Thank God they hadn’t been able to get both tents set up, because at least she had Hudson’s body heat in the small space—little as it provided her from where he lay zipped in his own sleeping bag.
It’d been quiet inside the tent for what felt like hours—but was probably more like thirty minutes—and she had no idea how he’d fallen asleep so quickly in this cold. But he was a soldier, probably used to much worse conditions than this. Plus, he had the dog cuddling up to him, helping to keep him warm, and she was over here, shaking like a leaf, her teeth about to break from all the chattering.
“Out of curiosity,” Hudson said, his sudden words in the otherwise quiet night making her jump, “would you actually allow yourself to freeze to death before you told me you were cold?”
“What g-g-gave me away?”
He shifted, his sleeping bag rustling with his movement. “I’ve been listenin’ to your teeth chatter for the past ten minutes.”
“It’s only b-b-been ten minutes?” she asked, horrified. This was going to be the longest night of her life. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself into sleep, because once she awoke, the sun would be up and she’d be able to feel her toes again.
Suddenly, her zipper was yanked down, and she snapped her eyes open at the rush of cold air against her. “What the hell, Hud?”
“C’mon. It’s gonna suck right now, but the faster you get out of there, the faster I can zip our bags together.”
She didn’t stop to think about the possible ramifications of that before she bolted upright, the lure of sharing his body heat too good to pass up. As she knelt in the corner, snuggling up to the still-snoozing dog, Hudson made quick work of zipping their sleeping bags together to make one giant bed for them.
“You ready?” he asked, his nearness startling her again.
It was pitch black in the tent, and she couldn’t see a damn thing, merely relying on her ears to tell her where he was and what he was doing. And her ears now had to be playing tricks on her because it sounded like he was getting naked.
“Hud?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s…um… What’s happenin’ right now?”
His knees shuffled along the sleeping bag as he neared her corner. With steady hands, he unlaced her boots and slipped them off, then reached up and unzipped her jacket. “We’re gonna get you warm, that’s what’s happenin’.”
“I’m ok-k-kay.”
“All right then, how about you do it for me? Pretty sure my balls have shriveled up while I’ve been out here.”
The last thing she needed to be thinking about as he was stripping her was his balls.
Blindly, she reached out, her fingers brushing his bare shoulder, and she yanked her hand back as if burned. “Are you naked?” she hissed.
He snorted. “Don’t sound so scandalized. It’s not like you haven’t seen it before.”
“Hudson Matthew Miller…”
He chuckled low under his breath, his hands still working to get her out of her many, many,manylayers. “All my bits are covered, promise.”
A sudden, overwhelming wave of disappointment shot through her, and she could only shake her head at herself. She’d like to say she was surprised by that, but that’d be the furthest thing from the truth. She might’ve done a good job lying to herself—had even put up a good fight—but she’d been lusting after Hudson since the second he’d walked back into Havenbrook. And being around him…getting to know him all over again? That only made matters worse.
Now they were about to share a sleeping bag with only a couple layers of clothing separating their bodies. She had firsthand experience just how little a couple layers of clothing mattered between them. Memories of what they’d done against the tree the other day swarmed her mind, and she felt herself getting hot despite the freezing temps.
A sudden gust of wind rocked the tent, sending a shiver through her. Or maybe that was the daydream of what Hudson had done to her with her legs wrapped tight around his pumping hips…
Regardless, she no longer cared how little clothing they’d have on or that she’d be pressed up against him all night in her underwear. She just needed to be surrounded by his heat, and she needed it quickly.
Brushing his hands away, she rid herself of the rest of her clothes, save for a thin, long-sleeved T-shirt and her panties, and dove into the sleeping bag, yanking it up to her chin as she waited for him. He slipped inside behind her, and she didn’t even give him a chance to pull her back against him before she scooted his direction, tucking her ass into his lap and her back flat against his chest.
“Oh my God,” she breathed, a shudder running through her. “How are you so damn warm?”
Tucking his feet under her freezing ones and her head under his chin, he wrapped his arm around her, fitting his body to every curve of hers. “I’m a furnace, remember?”
A fact that used to irritate the hell out of her on hot Mississippi summer nights when they’d share a tent outside, but one that she was incredibly grateful for now.
