Page 43 of Alaska Lights

I sit up with a gasp, frantically looking to my left and right to see I truly am alone.

I didn’t fall asleep alone. I begged Alaska to stay with me last night. Begged.

I have no regrets because I slept better than I have in my entire life. He played with my hair, and I remember falling asleep to the beat of his unusually slow heart.

Every fear melted away from me. The nightmare no longer clung to my mind. All I felt was his body against mine, and he regulated me. I fell asleep so fast, I can’t remember shutting my eyes.

I’ve never felt that way with anyone before. He calms me in the wake of absolute terror. No one has ever been able to do that before.

I’m starting to wonder if Alaska is everything I didn’t know I needed.

I roll out of bed, wincing when I smell myself. My clothes are still damp, and my skin itches from the dried sweat.

A knock on the door has me lifting my head. Alaska is there, peeking his head through the crack.

I smile from ear to ear when I see him.

“Good morning,” his deep voice greets me in a way that has lust pooling in my stomach.

“Hi. Good morning,” I reply, my cheeks burning because apparently this man plants a fever into my body and turns me bashful.

My cock hardens, pressing against Soren’s sweatpants with Alaska standing there.

He swings the door open and steps closer.

His shirt is off, showing thick hair covering his chest, then tapering down his stomach to a well-groomed happy trail.

I’m noticing his happy trail.

And fuck me, his body is all I want all over me. He is beefy and muscular. The kind of build that takes years of manual labor to get. His pecs are firm, and his shoulders are so wide, I don’t think my arms would fully wrap around him.

His arms are clearly strong. Those veins climbing up his arms have my breath hitching and my tongue flicking over my lips.

Oh, I didn’t know I liked that.

I could climb him, and he’d be able to carry me easily. Why is that so damn attractive to me? He makes me feel so small, and I didn’t think that mattered to me at all.

But it does.

And I find myself wanting…more.

“Um”—he shuffles his feet and takes a step back into the doorway—“breakfast is ready.”

I perk up, my stomach growling so loud that Alaska hears it, and he laughs.

Oh.

I like it when he laughs. It’s loud, with a baritone that wraps around me like a blanket right out of the dryer.

Fuck.

I’m a goner.

“I’ll take it as a yes that you’re hungry then?” He grabs onto the doorframe, his body stretched and on display.

Oh, come on.

I grab a pillow from beside me and pretend I’m just holding it, my heart racing with the excitement of what Alaska does to me.