"I'm not surprised. I, too, would want to be your fake social media girlfriend. Except this is complicated enough as it is! Speaking of which." Sabrina took a deep breath and turned her back to him. "I don't want to make it weird, but could you unzip me?"
Luke's hands went icy cold and trembly with anticipation, which was the worst possible way to unzip somebody. He flexed them and rubbed them together, trying to warm them up and stop their shaking. Sabrina looked over her shoulder at him, eyebrows lifted. "You okay?"
"Cold hands. Don't want to freeze you to death."
"You're the warmest person I've ever slept beside," Sabrina said incredulously. "I cannotbelieveyour h—EEEEP!"
That was Luke putting his genuinely surprisingly cold hand against her exposed back. She wastiny: his hand covered a considerable amount of her skin, which erupted in goosebumps. She jumped up and away, then turned with an absolutely betrayed expression. "That wasmean!"
"Well, you didn't believe me!"
"I would have been happy going on in ignorance!"
Luke laughed out loud. "Yeah, that's fair. Come back over here and I'll unzip you without being a cold-handed monster about it."
Sabrina returned with an air of overblown distrust, and kept eyeing him as he unzipped her. "There," he said, triumphant. "No cold hands."
"Thank you." She retreated to the bathroom, holding her dress up, then came back from it still holding the dress in place and, muttering, got her pajamas. "This issomuch more difficult than I imagined."
"I promise not to look if you just want to get undressed out here." Luke actually meant it, although promising not to look and notwantingto look were very different things.
"I'm already in here, so…"
So he should probably take advantage of the moment and change clothes himself. He did, pulling a lightweight sleeping shirt and shorts on before hanging his suit in the closet. Sabrina had the water running, and, more curious than judgy, he said, "Are you taking athirdshower today?"
"No, just washing the makeup off my face. And if I'd thought clearly about the fact that we were going to go jump in a lake, I wouldn't have showered first thing this morning either," Sabrina said through splashes and things banging around. "Although I really need that morning shower to wake up."
"Ah, yeah, makeup. I forgot about that." He thought it was safer not to comment on the necessity of the morning shower, and traded places with Sabrina in the bathroom when she came out, so he could brush his teeth and do other business.
She was sitting primly in the bed with the covers pulled up to her waist when he came back out. He paused at the foot of the bed, hesitant, and she looked wry. "This is much more awkward when it's going to bed properly, isn't it? It was fine falling intobed at four in the morning like a couple of reprobates, but the formality of bedtime makes it weird."
"I can sleep on the floor," Luke offered. "There's no need to make it weirder than it has to be."
"No, that makes it weirder," Sabrina said firmly. "I don't even know why it's weird in the first place!"
The answer was obviously 'because you are a wildly attractive woman and also my fated mate,' but that probably wasn't the right thing to say. Especially since Luke was pretty sure that explaining shifters and fated mates would keep them up half the night, and they had a wedding to attend tomorrow. To participate in, in Sabrina's case. Delivering her to the wedding party with hollow sleepless eyes wouldn't be nice at all.
So Luke only said, "Because we're not used to sleeping beside people we don't know well," with relative cheer, and held his hand up in a Scout's oath. "I promise not to be a creep about it."
Sabrina's gaze latched on his uplifted hand. "Wh…aaaat. What are you doing?"
He turned his hand around to look at his splayed fingers. "The Boy Scout's oath?"
"That," Sabrina said, clearly struggling not to laugh, "isthis." She held three fingers up with her thumb and pinky fingers folded down. "Youare doing a Vulcan salute." She split her fingers into the same V Luke was doing, her thumb extended, and said, "Live long and prosper," before sinking down into the bed and pulling the covers over her head, as if that would muffle her gales of laughter.
Luke mumbled, "Oh," and stood there waiting for her to stop laughing. When it became clear she mightneverstop, he mumbled again, wordlessly this time, and crawled into bed. At leastoneof them didn't feel awkward anymore, he figured, and went to sleep to the sounds of Sabrina's giggles.
CHAPTER 13
Sabrina woke up cheerful, couldn't figure out why, and rolled out of bed to head for the shower before remembering Luke's solemnly sworn Vulcan oath. She muffled renewed laughter before she even hit the bathroom, and was showered and out of the bathroom to make Luke a cup of coffee before he even woke up. The scent of it brewing did waken him, though, and he lifted his head with sleepy blinks that turned into surprised eyebrows. "You're up first?"
"Apparently going to sleep beside somebody who makes me laugh is good! Coffee's almost ready. I'm surprised you'd didn't get up to go to the gym."
"Me too," he said a bit hoarsely before sitting up and rubbing his hand over his eyes. "Coffee smells good, though. Thanks. What time is it?"
"Almost nine. I think I slept for eight hours straight. That never happens."
"Maybethat'swhy you're chipper." Luke yawned and stretched, making his sleep shirt cling and press against his body. For three or four seconds, Sabrina forgot entirely that she probably shouldn't be gawking at her fake boyfriend, and…well…gawked.
