Very nice.
And she should definitely not be in his bed, uninvited.
But if she moved, would that wake him? What was she going to say? What was he going to think? Did he know she was here already? Was he going to think she’d climbed into bed with him on purpose?And would that be a bad thing?
Yes, yes, it would. If she was ever going to move beyond friends—were they even friends yet?—with Yarrow, then she wasn’t going to do it by being sneaky. He deserved to have a choice.
Yarrow shifted in his sleep, curling around her. His breath warmed the back of her neck. She felt like she fit within his arms, like a book properly shelved.
She dithered so long about whether to stay or move that Yarrow woke up.
“Um, hi?” he said.
“Hi.”
“You’re in my bed.”
“Yes, I am.” She winced at herself. “I got up in the middle of the night and… uh, missed my bed.”
“Ahh,” he said.
He didn’t move his arm from around her.
Terlu searched for what to say. “Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, very well,” he said gravely. “You?”
“Very well.” Her voice squeaked a bit.
“Good.”
“I’m glad you slept well too,” Terlu babbled. “It was… warmer this way, even if it was a mistake. Because of the cold outside. There must be a draft from the window, but I couldn’t feel it. Because it’s warmer with two.”Oh, for the love of the sea, stop talking!
“It is warmer,” he agreed. Then: “It was a mistake?”
“Yes,” she said.
Should I have said no?
He began to withdraw his arm.
“No,” she said. Then winced. “I mean, yes, it was a mistake, but it was a nice mistake.”
“A warm mistake?”
“Yes,” Terlu said.
Yarrow slid his arm back around her, and she wondered what it meant. And then she wondered if she was being an idiot—and then she decided that even if shewasbeing an idiot, that didn’t mean she had to continue being one.
Terlu twisted until she was facing him, within his arms, her breasts pressed against his chest. His eyes were wide, the flecks of gold brighter than she remembered. “I’d like to kiss you,” Terlu told him, “if that would be okay with—”
He kissed her.
CHAPTER TWENTY
She had kissed and been kissed before, but never like this, like she was the most precious jewel in all the Crescent Islands. His lips were warm and soft and tasted like honey—how did anyone taste like honey when they first woke? His hands were on her back, pulling her so close that she could feel his heart beat through the fabric of their shirts, and she wanted to be closer, to be enveloped by him—
A thud thumped on the door. “Yarrow! Terlu!” Lotti called from outside.
