“Naked?” My voice squeaked.
Another self-deprecating laugh. “Horrific, isn’t it? I wish I could say that was Stella at her worst, but it wasn’t.”
“Oh… Wow.”
“I love my mother, but she’s… not well. It can be hard to talk about because people judge her based on rumors. Someday, I will tell you about my life, but not tonight. I want to enjoy this with you.”
He kissed me again, and I let him.
It was slow, mostly chaste, but perfect. The kiss came to a natural end a few minutes later. His warm breath ghosted my lips as he sighed. I sensed he was falling asleep.
We lay like that, face to face, wrapped around one another, until Ozrik’s breathing slowed and his hold on me loosened. I wasn’t ready for the night to end, but my eyelids grew heavy. I told myself I would go back to my room in five minutes. I wanted five more minutes to enjoy the sensations of being in another man’s arms.
Five minutes.
Just five more…
A pounding on the door jolted me awake an indeterminant amount of time later. I opened my eyes to daylight streaming through the window and a naked Ozrik beside me.
“Oh shit!”
More pounding.
Someone shouted, “Oz! Wake the fuck up. It’s ten o’clock, and we’ve got a problem.” It sounded like Vern.
Ozrik stirred.
I instantly panicked, flying from bed in a frenzy, tripping over my feet as I tried to locate my clothes.
“No, no, no, no…”
“What the…” More pounding and shouting. Ozrik must have registered what was happening. He tumbled from bed and snagged my arm before I could escape. “Whoa. Gale. Relax. It’s ok. He doesn’t know you’re here.”
It was not okay. I fell asleep in Ozrik’s room. It was daytime. I had to get away before someone found out.
More pounding. Then the voice shouted to someone else. “Could you go around and wake this fucker up? He could sleep through the goddamn apocalypse.”
Frantically tugging on my underwear, I scrambled for the door with my pajama pants and T-shirt in hand.
When Ozrik wouldn’t release my arm, I shoved him away. “Let go of me.”
“Stop, for fuck’s sake. Don’t go that way. Bathroom. Hide in the—”
The door between our rooms opened before he finished the sentence, and Noah walked in. “Oz, wake up. We can’t find—” The words died on Noah’s lips when his gaze landed on me. A momentary pause ensued as he seemed to process what he was seeing. “Oh. You’re here.”
My blood turned to ice. Bile rose up my throat as my knees threatened to buckle.
Noah flicked his gaze between me and Ozrik—who was as naked as the day he was born—before backing up a step. “Shit. I didn’t mean to intrude.” To me, he said, “We’ve been looking for you all morning. We thought you took off in the night, but your Jeep’s still here, so… Fuck. I’m so sorry.”
Vern banged and yelled from beyond the other door. “Noah? Are you in there? Open the fucking door. Oz, you motherfucker. Wake up.”
More banging.
More voices arose outside.
Ozrik, who had snagged a towel from the bathroom to cover up, shoved me aside and caught Noah by the T-shirt as he was about to slip into the next room. “Stop. You saw nothing. Do you hear me? Nothing. And if you say a fucking word to anyone, I will beat your ass so bad your mother won’t be able to identify the body.”
“Jesus.” Noah shoved against Ozrik, anger flaring in his eyes.
