“Too much fresh air? Woke you up?”
“Has to be it.”
The fan on the wall unit kicked in, drowning out the few cars that were driving by. Neither of us said anything for a few moments.
“Should I build a pillow wall?” she asked softly.
“I’ve got two for you.”
“What if it’s you I can’t sleep without and not the pillows?”
I stopped breathing. What if it was? What if what she said resonated so hard I nearly jumped out of my bed and into hers? What if that was the same issue for me? I didn’t have Clover on the other side of the pillow wall. I didn’t have to work hard not to think about her, so I wasn’t drifting off mentally exhausted. I didn’t have to worry that the person slumbering next to me had been out with my brother. I wasn’t ruminating over what it all meant.
“I can move over there,” I offered. Bad idea, but not a suggestion I could take back.
“You don’t mind?”
In a heartbeat. “If you think it’d help.”
There was a pause that nearly stopped my heart. “Okay.”
I rolled out of bed, grabbed all the pillows, and padded to the other side of her bed. After I got between the sheets, her body heat caressed my legs. She was much closer than normal, and the warmth seeped through my skin and into my veins. The two pillows between us did very little to separate us at all. One kept tipping on me, then on her, and the second fell to the floor when I tried to roll so my back was to her.
“Shit, sorry.” I retrieved it from the floor.
“Do we need it?” Her question was almost tentative.
There would be nothing between us but our clothing, yet I wanted to hurl this damn pillow across the room. I tossed it onto my bed instead. “I promise I’ll be good.”
“That could mean a lot of things, Sullivan Wagner.”
Grinning, I put my back to her to avoid any inappropriate temptation to stare at her in the dark. Her breathing quickly evened out. Within minutes, I was asleep.
Chapter Thirteen
Clover
* * *
I was going to bed for the second night in a row with Van in a small bed that fit only us and little more, and I couldn’t be giddier. This was just another night. No different than at home.
Yet as I wiggled around to get comfortable, I kept straightening my clothing and pushing my hair off my face. Van was in the bathroom, and the shower had just shut off. I had washed up earlier and blown my hair dry.
We weren’t watching a movie tonight. We’d hiked, and then we’d driven to Dickinson to visit the dinosaur museum and eat. He’d never been to Montana, so we headed an hour in the other direction and stopped for a drink at Wibaux. He had a beer, brewed not far from the restaurant, and then I drove us back. We had explored a trail before we’d frolicked over western North Dakota and into Montana and back, so I was tired in the nice and worn-out way. That was the part I missed about being a staff geologist. I wasn’t out in the elements, scouring the earth.
Tonight was the most fun I’d had since…last night. This whole weekend had been the lowest-key, affordable enjoyment I’d experienced in a long time. Easy and casual. The motel cost wasn’t even that bad since it was the offseason. I was taking one night, and he was paying for the other. He’d insisted on both, but I arranged with the front desk to split it when the shower first started.
His hair was spiky when he came out of the bathroom. The way his shirt plastered against his chest should be illegal, but the real crime was how I stared at him. Call me a stalker and lock me up. Only I didn’t have to stalk him when he was so close to me in bed that I wouldn’t have to reach far to touch him.
He paused at the foot of the bed. “Were you going to read or anything, or should I shut the lamp off?”
“You can shut it off.”
The room went dark, and the bed dipped when he climbed in. The butterflies in my stomach rose in a cloud and veered all over. I should’ve been building immunity to Van after so many nights sleeping next to him and not touching him. There was a comfort between us that I hadn’t been able to sleep without last night.
But now?
My breasts grew tender, only it wasn’t pregnancy related. Hormones, yes. And stronger than ever. Licks of desire curled through my blood, tucking themselves in places that should be stone cold next to my ex’s brother.
