There was even something strangely refreshing about waking up fully clothed. It was more intimate, somehow. Like snuggling under the covers together wasn’t just about sex.
Of course, in this case, it was about conserving body heat as the fire gradually died down while we slept, but that wasn’t the point.
It felt like being in a relationship together.
The next thing that hit me, after I woke up enough to remember exactly where I was and what was happening, was the fear.
“Morning,” Aiden murmured above me, his voice rumbling through his chest under my head. “Don’t worry. I’m here.”
“What?” I managed, hoping it sounded like I was mumbling because I was half asleep and not because I was freaked out.
“I felt you tense up when you remembered where you are,” Aiden said. His hand lazily stroked down over the side of my arm, raising goosebumps in its wake. “It’s alright. You’re safe here with me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I couldn’t help myself – my pessimistic brain just kicked in. “What if the roof comes down?”
“I’ll shield you with my body,” Aiden said. “Like I did before. Remember?”
I did remember. That was the problem.
I remembered his huge body over mine, instinctively protecting me. Because I was Caleb’s little brother. Because he thought of me as fragile and weak – someone who needed protection.
Not a worthy partner by any means.
This wasn’t real. None of it was. Waking up in someone’s arms by a roaring fire in a comfortable home… that was an illusion. The reality of it was that I was a warm body with holes he could use to get off, and we were trapped down here and he had the urge most young men would feel when trapped in a deadly situation. The urge to spread his seed before it was too late.
We were going to get out of here, and it was going to hurt like hell because I was already in too deep.
As much as I wanted this to be real, it just wasn’t.
“How’d you sleep?” Aiden asked, pulling me out of my thoughts – though they threatened to suck me back down again the second he finished talking.
“Great,” I said with a sigh. “I guess I was tired.”
“Me, too,” Aiden said. He moved like a big cat, stretching his arms out on either side of me and his legs down toward the bottom of the bed. He just about filled the frame, whereas I fit on it comfortably. “The tiredness and the warmth – they really helped.”
“Plus there were no more avalanches while we slept.” It was my attempt at gallows humor. I wasn’t doing a great job of cheering myself up at all.
Aiden’s hand wandered from my arm to my side as if it had a life of its own, slipping around over my stomach. Fire pooled in the bottom of my belly because of course, it did. It knew what his wandering hand was most likely after.
“How do you want to pass the time today?” Aiden asked, and I knew it was a come-on by the sly tone in his voice.
“I should probably do some studying,” I said, in a desperate attempt to make him not push it any further.
Because if he pushed it any further, I was going to give in. There was no way I was going to resist this big, protective, football hero of a sex god. With the way he made me feel every single time he touched me, it was frankly a miracle I wasn’t already on my knees in front of him begging him to take me again with the bribe of a thousand blowjobs.
And given that was supposed to be a sarcastic thought about how bad of a deal that should be, it probably shouldn’t also have been one that was making me turn myself on.
Goddamnit.
“Are you sure you really wanna study?” Aiden asked. There was a little frustration in his voice, even if only a hint. “We’re supposed to be on vacation.”
I lifted my head to mime looking around and then stared at him. “Some vacation.”
Aiden rolled his eyes. “If this hadn’t happened, we would still be out here having fun,” he said. “You weren’t going to study the whole time you were here, were you?”
“Well,” I said and hesitated. When Aiden gave me an incredulous look I started backpedaling to try to justify it. “I just assumed that Caleb’s friends weren’t actually going to want to hang out with me, and I would need to do something to pass my time.”
“Well, Caleb’s friends want to hang out with you,” Aiden said with a slight pout. “So hang out with me.”
