They ate in silence after that, and she found her exhaustion catching up with her. After the long day, the warmth of the fire and her full stomach conspired to make her eyelids heavy and her thoughts soft and slow.
But when she tried to find a comfortable position on the rocky ground, sleep refused to come. The stones dug into her hip no matter how she arranged herself, and despite the fire’s heat, the mountain air was bitterly cold against her back. She curled into a tight ball, trying to conserve warmth, but shivers still wracked her body.
“This is ridiculous,” she muttered.
From across the fire, she heard him sigh—a deep, long-suffering sound.
“Come here.”
She lifted her head, certain she’d misheard. “What?”
“Come. Here.” He patted the ground beside him. “You will freeze before morning if you stay there.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re shivering.”
“I’m—” Another shiver interrupted her protest, and she bit her lip. “I don’t think that’s appropriate.”
“I don’t care about appropriate.” His voice held an edge of impatience. “I care about you surviving the night without losing fingers to frostbite.”
It was a valid argument, and she was too cold and too tired to come up with a counter.
Slowly, she uncurled from her spot and crossed to his side of the fire. He shifted to make room for her, and before she could second-guess herself, she settled against him.
The heat hit her immediately. He was warm, radiating body heat like a furnace, and she found herself pressing closer before she could stop herself. He made a low rumbling sound—almost like a purr—and his arm came around her, pulling her firmly against his side.
She froze.
“Relax,” he growled. “I’m not going to ravish you.”
“I didn’t think?—”
“Your heart is racing again.”
“That’s because—” She stopped, not sure how to finish the sentence. Because she was scared? She wasn’t, not really. Because she was uncomfortable? Also not true. The solid warmth of his body and the steady rhythm of his breathing left her feeling oddly safe.
And that was the problem. She knew better than to rely on anyone else for safety.
“Sleep,” he ordered. “We have a long journey tomorrow.”
Sleep,she scoffed.As if I could possibly?—
But her eyes were already closing, her body relaxing into his warmth despite her mind’s protests. The last thing she was aware of was his arm tightening around her, and the low rumble of his voice saying something she couldn’t quite hear.
And then, against all odds, she slept.
CHAPTER 6
The first thing Tarek became aware of was warmth, a soft, encompassing warmth that had nothing to do with the embers of the dying fire. The second thing was weight. Not an unpleasant weight, but the kind of weight that made his beast rumble with contentment even before his conscious mind fully surfaced from sleep.
He opened his eyes.
Dawn light filtered through the pine branches overhead, painting the world in shades of white and grey. The air was crisp and cold against his face, but the rest of him—the rest of him was wrapped around a human woman who had somehow, during the night, migrated from his side to sprawled half across his chest.
Jessa’s head rested in the hollow of his shoulder, her breath warm and even against his throat. One of her hands had curled into the fabric of his vest, her fingers clutching the material like she was afraid he might disappear. Her leg had slipped between his at some point, tangled with him in a way that felt far too intimate for a stranger.
Not a stranger,his beast corrected.Ours.
