of our own time and away from all our problems?”
“Kind of.” She eyed him curiously. “What are you getting at?”
“That being said, maybe we could do what we both want?”
“Which is?”
He reached forward, cupped her chin, and kissed her mouth. “This.”
“I thought I was the one who owed you a kiss.”
“Oh, you do.” He kissed her again, running the tip of his tongue along the seam of her lips. “I’ll make you pay up very soon, honey, don’t you ever doubt it.”
She pushed gently on his chest and he immediately let her go.
“You’re suggesting we give in to our . . . needs?”
“Oh, yeah.” He kissed her ear and down her throat. “All of them.”
“And, then when we go back we forget it ever happened?”
He met her gaze. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to forget you, but I certainly won’t hold it over you, or have any expectations of more.”
He held his breath as she considered him, her expression serious.
“I’m not sure,” she whispered. “It sounds impossible.”
Even as his faint hopes died, he offered her a smile, moved away, and gestured at the bed. “If we put the two fleece blankets down on top of the mattress, and spread the unzipped sleeping bag over us, we should be warm enough.” He paused. “That is, if you’re okay with us sharing the space. I can go sleep in my truck if you want.”
“Don’t be silly, you’d freeze out there.” Julia stood and brought their mugs over to the sink. “I’ll just finish this washing up, and then I’ll be ready for bed.”
* * *
Julia took off her jeans and wiggled out of her bra without removing her shirt and sweater, and walked over to the bed where Kaiden was unzipping the sleeping bag.
“It’s a good one.” He nodded for her to get in. “Should keep us nice and warm.”
“Great.” Julia crawled across the space and waited as Kaiden did his final check around the cabin. He tested the locked door, built up the fire so that it hopefully would stay alight all night, and extinguished all the lamps except one, which he brought to sit beside the bed.
“Anything you need before we turn in?” he asked, his expression inscrutable in the shadows cast by the lantern.
“I think I’m good.” She smiled up at him, but he didn’t respond, as he was busy shucking his jeans and thick fleece jacket.
He climbed in next to her and the suddenly roomy bed took on the dimensions of a dollhouse. She often forgot how broad his shoulders and biceps were. She tried to squeeze farther into the corner, but there was no way she wasn’t going to be touching at least some part of him while they slept.
“You okay?” he asked as he drew the sleeping bag over them both.
“Great,” she whispered. “Just peachy.”
“If you don’t mind me saying so, you don’t sound peachy.”
She resolutely closed her eyes. “Shut up and go to sleep, Kaiden Miller.”
“Okay, good night, honey.”
“And, don’t call me that.”
Time slowed along with Kaiden’s breathing until Julia ended up wide awake and counting every second in her head. The storm ebbed and flowed above her making the cabin rock and shift. She could only hope that whoever had built it had done a good job and reminded herself that it had stood for at least fifty years without a problem.
Her treacherous mind kept circling back to Kaiden’s offer of time-out-of-mind sex. He’d been totally respectful of her decision not to go along with him, which she appreciated more than she could say. But the longer she lay there, in such an unfamiliar and unexpected environment, the easier it became to believe that anything they did together here would be such an anomaly that they could return to their regular lives afterward without any remorse or guilt.
She turned on her side and studied him. He lay on his back, one hand cradling his head, the other trailing over the side of the bed. Even in his sleep, his face was mobile and alive. He exuded a kind of restless energy that kept her off guard, which was an unfamiliar sensation for the girl voted “most prepared for any emergency” in high school. Was she making excuses for herself because she already knew she wanted to go ahead? Touching him, breathing in his smell just made her want him so badly.
“If you think any louder you’ll wake the spiders,” he murmured without opening his eyes.
She came up on one elbow and stared