Page 60 of Stubborn as a Shadow

“Try to get some sleep,” he said quietly. “It’s been a long day.”

Then he reached over and pulled the blanket up to my neck. Through the quilt, I could feel his light touch as he adjusted it and tucked it around me.

I hadn’t shivered because I was cold, but I wasn’t about to correct him. Getting tucked in by Nuzzly Nelson (or at least I wished he was nuzzly) was too nice. I sighed again. This one was a happier sigh. I was feeling better already. It was never good to get caught up in the scary parts of any situation.

The mattress jostled a little as Nelson settled down on his side of the bed again. I wasn’t alone in this. The parts of my body closest to him felt warmer, even though we weren’t touching.

After the stress of the day’s events and the excitement of being in bed, albeit platonically, with Nelson, I hadn’t expected to sleep. But it crept over me faster than I’d have thought possible. And as the edges of reality and dream blurred, it was almost as if I could feel the bed shifting slightly, and then something brushing against my hair. In my deepening dreamlike state, I imagined Nelson had brushed his lips against my temple.

What a perfect fantasy to usher me to sleep.

22

GOOD NEWS AND HORRIBLE NEWS

NELSON

My nose and toes were cold. That’s what woke me.

The rest of me was hot, sweaty even.

Huh?

I tried moving more of my leg out of the covers, but I couldn’t.

Uh oh.

My brain finally jumped online and…Morgan.

His face pressed against my neck. His steady breaths whispered across my skin. What the hell had happened? We shouldnotbe like this. I looked around for some explanation and found the blanket that’d once been rolled up between us. It was a tangled mess at Morgan’s feet. Had he kicked it down there?

No. I couldn’t blame this on him, not when my arms were wrapped around him like I was a watertight geocache container and he the precious cache.

This was bad. I had no business holding him like this.

The only people I’d ever shared a bed with were my coworkers when we’d had to crash at shitty motels. The last time that’d happened, I’d been with Adrian. When we woke, we still had our backs to one another and a gap between our bodies. No blanket wall needed. That’s what I’d expected this time too. I never would have guessed anything else was even possible.

I’d been trying my damnedest to keep my distance since I met him. So what the fuck, body? What the serious fuck?

Was exhaustion to blame? Was my subconscious acting on a deep-seated fear over how vulnerable Morgan was? Although if this was about protecting Morgan, shouldn’t I have been awake all night watching over him? Instead, blankets twisted around our entwined bodies, as if even they sought to bind us together.

If a threat came bursting through the door, I’d never untangle myself fast enough to save us.

I needed to move. Free myself from this ridiculous predicament. I knew that.

So what the hell was I waiting for?

And now that I was awake, there were things to do too. If I really was going to keep Morgan alive, we needed fire and food, or better yet, a way back to Willow Lake.

The fire had gone out in the night because I hadn’t banked it like I’d planned. I doubted there would even be any embers in the hearth, given how cold it was here. But if the storm had ended, maybe it wouldn’t matter. We could get out of here.

Yeah. That sounded good.

On the count of three, I’d move.

“One, two…” I murmured.

On three, I gradually transformed my body from human to shadow. Morgan grunted. His fingers flexed on me, as if trying to keep me close. Slowly I slipped out from under him, taking care to lower his head to the pillow gently. He sniffled. His facesquished up in a sleepy pout. Then he tucked his face into my pillow and sighed.