Her words pushed him deeper into sleep, into his firm pillow. Which was actually her lap. He’d wake up if she shook him or rolled out from under him, but that would dump him on the ground.
He made a low, sleepy noise, gripped the blankets, and pulled them up around his head, leaving only his eyes and his thick, wavy hair visible.
She gripped her hands together to stop herself from tunneling her fingers into it.
“Elias.” If she made her voice firm, she wouldn’t have to touch him…or pull away. “We need to get going.”
His eyes opened, focused on her, and then creased at the corners. He was smiling—a sweet, intimate expression—and she almost died from it. It put an actual pain in her chest while she did her best to catch her breath.
Better get some distance.She shifted out of the blankets and got up in a rush, immediately regretting it when dizziness overwhelmed her. With an undignifiedoof, she flopped down again, practically on top of this man she barely knew.
Except she knew him now, didn’t she? She knew the smell and the feel of him, the taste of his skin under her tongue, and most importantly, she knew how it hurt to be him.
“Got water?” His eyes narrowed, as if he had seen her thoughts and didn’t like them. Or was trying to get a read on her and couldn’t. Or maybe he thought she’d—
Shut it down, Eddowes.
“Okay?” The two syllables rumbled from his chest.
For a few seconds, she didn’t move, didn’t respond, just let herself be close to him.
“Sure.”
Slowly, he twisted the top, put the canteen to his mouth, and drank, gasping at the cold. When he returned it, she was disquieted to see that her hand—her whole arm—shook from the weight of the light plastic bottle.
“Feeling okay?”
“Fantastic.” She gave him her biggest, smartassiest smile. “You?”
“Million times better now that I slept.” He stretched, reminding her of a big, sleepy bear waking up from hibernation. Or of what she imagined a bear to look like, since she’d been lucky enough to avoid them so far.
He eyed her and finally sat up. “Let me look at your head.”
With closed eyes, she sat through his examination, half-sad and half-relieved when he patted her shoulder. “Looks good. Let me rebandage it and we can take off.”
“Thanks.”
“I should…” He pointed awkwardly in the distance. “You know. Take a leak.”
“Oh. Right.” She shifted away from him, mortified to realize that their legs had been entwined—hers on top. Of course he needed her to move. Otherwise, he’d have been up and moving minutes ago.
He stood and quickly turned his back to her, but not before she got a look at the prominent erection tenting his pants. Her mouth tightened into a perfect, silent O, and her skin went all hot and dry. Much like her mouth, actually.
“Sorry,” she whispered, though it wasn’t clear if he heard.
When he returned, she considered saying something but then let it go. Morning wood was a thing. She knew that, given that she’d worked alongside men for much of her life, though she’d never experienced it quite so closely before.
“Other side of this mountain, there’s a place where we can clean up.” He was all business now. “Get a better night’s rest before heading into the easy part.”
“Oh. The end’s the easy part?”
“Well, it’s not this crappy broken shale. And we move to lower altitudes, so that’s easier. Flatter, too, and hopefully not quite so badly flooded as up here.”
“So, better.”
“Unless we’re being hunted by helicopters, of course.”
Her nerves pricked. “Why’s that?”
