Page 250 of Cross Checked
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Bliss
I woke up warm.
Not the kind of warm that came from blankets or heat vents rattling through old walls during brutal Upper Peninsula mornings. This was heavier than that. Bigger. A living kind of warmth wrapped around me so completely it took my still-sleepy brain a few seconds to understand why I couldn’t move.
Then Cade’s arm tightened around my waist in his sleep.
My entire body melted instantly.
Oh.
A smile pulled at my mouth before I even opened my eyes.
Morning light spilled softly through the cracked blinds in Cade’s room at Hockey House, pale gold cutting across the walls in thin stripes and catching on the disaster we’d made of his top-floor bedroom. His comforter was half on the floor. My Fury shirt had somehow landed near his dresser. One of Cade’s black hoodies hung over the back of his desk chair, and his pants were abandoned in a heap beside the bed like we’d been attacked by horny raccoons in the middle of the night.
Honestly?
Fair.
Because the second my brain fully caught up to the fact that I was in Cade Mercer’s bed at Hockey House after everything we’d done to each other last night, heat flooded into my cheeks so fast I buried my face deeper into the pillow to hide from absolutely nobody.
A low laugh rumbled behind me immediately. “You’re smiling.”
I groaned dramatically without turning around. “Go back to sleep.”
“Nope.” His voice came rough with sleep and smugness, and somehow that combination alone almost made my thighs clench together beneath the blankets. “I wanna hear why you’re smiling like that.”
“I’m not.”
“Pip.”
I finally rolled over in his arms, and the sight of him almost knocked the air out of me all over again.
Cade looked devastating in the morning.
His dark hair was messy from sleep and my fingers, curls flattened on one side while the other stuck up slightly in a way that should have looked ridiculous on someone that pretty but somehow only made him hotter. Stubble shadowed his jaw darker than usual after the long night, and there were faint red marks down his neck and collarbone where I’d apparently lost my mind enough to bite the captain of the Fury hockey team like I was trying to leave forensic evidence.
My gaze dropped lower to his chest.
Oh my goodness.
My face immediately heated harder.
Cade caught the exact second my eyes snagged on the scratches running over his shoulder and chest and grinned lazily. “You admiring your work?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Mm.” He glanced down at himself. “Interesting. Looks like a tiny blonde raccoon attacked me.”
I shoved his shoulder weakly, already laughing. “Stop.”
“Not happening.” His hand slid beneath the oversized shirt I’d stolen from him sometime around three in the morning, fingers spreading over my bare waist under the fabric. “You arenever escaping the fact that you climbed me like a jungle gym last night.”
A horrified sound left me. “Cade.”
“What?” His mouth twitched. “You did.”
