He had to hope that once the confrontation with Reeve was through, they would have time for all of it.
“Now,” Lydia said, tilting her face up to him even as she reached for another cookie, “want to read someShadowsout loud to me until we tear each other’s clothes off again?”
Case looked at the crumbs on her ribbed white camisole and thought about skimming his palms up her belly, stripping off shirt and crumbs both.
He had to force himself to reach out for the book instead. “I might be able to get through a few sentences, but I’m not promising anything more than that.”
“I would never ask you to,” Lydia said, giving him a mischievous grin that made him revise his estimate down even further.
Maybe he’d only get throughonesentence.
17
For the first time in years, Lydia overslept. (She even found a small drool spot on her pillow: that was howoutshe’d been. Thank God Case had been the big spoon, or he would have woken up with a wet shoulder. She shuddered just thinking about it.) She couldn’t remember the last time she’d woken up feeling rested down to her bones. In this soft, luxurious bed, with Case holding her, all the worry and exhaustion of the last few months had completely disappeared.
Then she glanced at the clock on the bedside table and saw that it was already half-past noon.
Even with the late checkout timer the lodge had generously given them, they were still supposed to be out of here by one.
She would have liked to have spent the first morning of her married life lolling lazily around in bed with her new husband, not frantically rushing around trying to get out the door, but she was in too good of a mood to care about needing to spring right out of bed. Right now, it would take a hell of a lot more than that to jolt her out of her little bubble of contentment. She didn’t even mind that they’d missed the continental breakfast, even if she was a little curious if it had come with rosemary-sprigged waffles and rosemary smoothies.
She rolled over, turning carefully in the circle of Case’s arms. “Case.”
He opened his eyes at once, not looking remotely sleep-fuzzy. Like her, he’d probably been awake for a little bit and content to lie there, cuddle, and have some pleasant daydreams.
“Good morning.” He kissed the corner of her mouth. “You look gorgeous.”
“I think I probably look like I’m in desperate need of a hairbrush, but thank you. So do you.”
“Look like I’m in desperate need of a hairbrush?”
He did have a little bit of bedhead, but Lydia thought it was more adorable than messy. “No. People with short hair get off easy on that front.” She ran her fingers through the silky hair at the nape of his neck, like she was illustrating her point. “I meant the gorgeous part. But also, on an unrelated note, it’s about twenty minutes to one.”
“Seriously? Wow, we really—” The realization hit. “Oh, shit.”
“Yep. Want to start throwing things in our overnight bags? I’m going to take the world’s fastest shower.”
After that, she pulled her wet hair back into a ponytail, brushed her teeth at the speed of light, and flung herself into some clean clothes. To her surprise and delight, Case handed her a paper to-go cup of coffee. Cream and two sugars, the way she not-so-secretly liked it.
“You’re incredible,” Lydia said.
He shrugged. “I made it in here, but it’s surprisingly decent for hotel room coffee.”
She didn’t care what it tasted like. Not really. What she cared about was that Case, in the middle of a hectic rush to get out of here on time, had somehow still taken a moment to brew her a cup of coffee the way she liked it. He’d even slid the little cardboard sleeve around the cup to keep her from burning her fingers.
He was incredible.
They dropped their card keys off at the checkout desk with whole seconds to spare, and they even managed to snatch some leftover chocolate croissants from the remains of the breakfast buffet. They headed outside munching on them, and Lydia didn’t even care that she was getting little flakes of pastry all over her shirt. She still felt like she was on cloud nine.
“I know we have to go back,” she said, with a reluctant pang, “but do you want to go see the waterfall first?”
“If you used to come here to look at it, I definitely want to see it.”
It was only a short walk from the lodge, and Lydia knew the woodland footpaths around here like the back of her hand.
“I used to come here sometimes when I needed to think,” she explained. “Before you came along, though, I was getting too stressed to even do that, so it’s actually been a while. But I couldn’t forget this. And if you take a sniff—” She gave an exaggerated one, hoping the sight of her nostrils flaring wasn’t too unlovely. “Your wolf might be able to pick up on the scent of running water.”
Case took a deep breath. A frown creased his face. “I don’t know.”
