Page 56 of Stubborn as a Shadow

He stared at the poker in his hand for a long moment, like he couldn’t remember what to do with it, before crouching in front of the fire. Phew. His actions had nothing to do with me. That was a relief.

He poked at the fire. Sparks erupted as the logs jostled against one another. I hoped we had enough logs to get through this. If not, we might have to raid some of the other cabins. Or we could move to a different cabin each night and see which one we liked best. I’d always thought having a cabin by a lake sounded romantic. In my dreams, my ideal house had always had a bit of a cabin-esque feel to it. This would be a perfect opportunity to try a few and see if I needed to tweak my vision board.

I wouldn’t want to live in the wilderness all the time, though. I liked sitcoms too much to go without having access to a streaming service.

Nelson added two logs to the others before coming over to perch on the edge of the sofa. No one should be that tense. It wasn’t healthy. I wondered what I could do to get him to relax.

As I pondered that very important question, I scrubbed my fingers through my hair again. It did feel really good.

Hmm… maybe I could offer him a head massage.

20

WISHING FOR EUPHEMISMS

NELSON

Morgan moaned again. He’d been rubbing his head and moaning for at least three minutes, although it felt closer to three hours. I didn’t know him well enough to hear him make noises like that.

When the moaningfinallychanged to a rather satisfied sigh, I dared to glance over at him again. Without the cloak, the makeup, and the harsh black wig, Morgan appeared very different from when I’d first met him at the hotel. Now he looked a lot like one of the oracle’s paintings, the one where he was in a cage.

Would Venus, the wolf, or the hunter assholes recognize him like this? I hoped not. The fewer people who could identify him the better. Because we may have escaped the market, but I didn’t think Morgan was safe yet.

I glanced at my phone. I needed to update Gage. I didn’t have a lot of information to pass along, but I could at least let him know we’d made it to Chinook Pines.

Morgan inched a little closer to me again. What was he up to?

“Are you cold?”

“Is that a euphemism? Like asking someone in for coffee but what you're really talking about is sex?” He waggled his eyebrows. “Are you going to offer to warm me up?”

“Uh… No?” I cleared my throat. “No euphemism. Just wondering if we should build a bigger fire.”

“Darn, I was hoping for euphemisms.” He frowned and tilted his head to the side as he considered my question. “No, I’m warm enough, I think. But, if you had been talking about sex, the answer would have been yes.”

I stared at him, barely biting back a bark of surprise.

“Do you think we should strip out of our wet clothes?” He reached for the zipper on his jacket. “That’s what they say to do, right? Take off wet clothes. Dry them by the fire.”

He was right. We should shed our wet clothing, but the alternative…

Oh shit, he was tugging the zipper down.

“Stop.” Was I begging? I sounded too breathless for it to be a command.

He crawled closer. When our gazes met, he tried batting his eyelashes again. It was ridiculous, but at the same time, kind of adorable. And now that the makeup and wig were gone, I could see how attractive he was, and that wasn’t helping at all.

In the glow of the firelight, his irises appeared wreathed in opal-like sparkles, although as a unicorn, his eyes might always look like that. His front teeth were a little crooked, but in an endearing sort of way. And when he smiled, his whole face embraced the joy. He had little crinkles at the sides of his eyes, and deep smile lines bracketed his mouth.

After scratching his head so much, his hair stuck up in all directions. His messy curls had a faint iridescent sheen to the light brown locks, making his face appear wreathed in rainbows. I followed the wavy locks with my eyes all the way down to thedelicate shell of his ear, and from there to the soft cashmere of the scarf I’d lent him. At some point he’d tugged it away from his throat, so my gaze could trace the long, thin column of his neck and the bump of his Adam’s apple.

I licked my lips, imagining how soft his skin would feel under my mouth. Would he taste sweet? How warm would his skin be? He moved, and my gaze shot up to meet his. His grin, somehow, widened even more. He’d caught me ogling him, and now he obviously had the wrong idea…

“We need to talk,” I said, pressing into the corner of the couch, away from him.

“Again? Why do you keep doing this to me?” He rubbed his chest as if my words had physically hurt him. “Or is this going to be a sex talk? Because I know about the birds and the bees and the succubus.”

“I don’t want to talk about sex,” I assured him.