For the second time that night, she eased out of Dylan’s arms.
One large warm hand suddenly gripped her hip as she tried to slide off the mattress.
“Alice?”
“Yeah?”
“Weren’t you going to wake me?”
“What?” she asked, confused by the steel in his tone. He sounded very awake and alert for someone who had just seemed fast asleep … for someone who’d had little rest because he’d been making her scream in pleasure all night. “I thought you should just sleep—”
“Are you forgetting that I don’t want you to wander around this property alone?” His hand left her hip and she heard movement and the rustling of sheets. “I’ll walk you back every morning.”
“Every morning?” she asked dubiously.
“Yeah. You’ll come back. Tonight. And the night after that. Right?” he said, his tone implying this was going to be a regular practice. Despite her uncertainty and doubt, she melted a little at the sound of his sexy sleep-roughened voice emanating from the darkness. She longed to cuddle back against him … to forget that other world … to trust what was happening between them. But then again—
“Don’t you think we’re being stupid?” she blurted out.
“No,” he said, his voice firmer. “I won’t be able to rest, knowing you’re sleeping so close and yet separate. Will you?”
She paused, her mouth hanging open as his words painted a picture in her head of tossing and turning in her bed in the cabin. Tortured.
Burning.
“No,” she whispered after a moment.
“There you have it. Getting some decent sleep isn’t stupid. Not accepting the obvious is.” She blinked when he switched on the bedside lamp. He looked good. He leaned on one elbow, his back to her, but had twisted his torso around to pin her with his stare. The sheet rode low on his trim hips. His broad well-muscled back beckoned her. She wanted to muss his smooth sexy hair even more than lovemaking and sleep had. “I want you to remember what I said. About not wandering off by yourself,” he repeated.
“So the ghosts don’t get me?” she asked, using sarcasm to defray the alarmingly strong desire she experienced at that moment. She dragged her gaze off the vision of him and stood next to the bed. Her determination was halfhearted at best. She cast him a sideways, covetous glance. His stare lowered over her naked body, making her skin prickle.
“There are much worse things on earth than a ghost,” he said grimly after a moment, turning away and throwing the sheet off of his naked body.
THAT afternoon, she and Thad fell in step side by side as they vacated the field behind the stables that was used for football and soccer. The kids had rushed ahead of them along the wooded trail toward their cabins to wash up for dinner. She and Thad had stayed behind to gather up the equipment and scrimmage vests.
“You were being modest about your skills. As usual,” Thad teased her, referring to Alice’s sixty-yard run for a touchdown just minutes ago.
“It was pure survival. Judith Arnold looked like she was going to mow me down. I think she considered it a rare opportunity to flatten me without getting into trouble.”
“We were playing touch football,” Thad said.
“I doubt that’d stop Judith,” Alice muttered under her breath. She noticed Thad’s sideways glance. “The girl hates me, plain and simple.”
“Weren’t you the one who suggested it’d take a while for them to get to know us? Trust us?” Thad asked.
“Yeah. I guess you’re right,” Alice admitted as they walked off the field slowly. She didn’t know about Thad, but she was exhausted after the first full day of camp.
After a total of only three or four hours of sleep in Dylan’s bed. At least the sleep she’d gotten had been deep and solid.
Getting some decent sleep isn’t stupid. Not accepting the obvious is.
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nbsp; Graphic memories of being in his arms, of moments of intense intimate pleasure swamped her brain. It felt odd having those memories, as if they belonged to another person’s experience. Yet at the same time … she’d never felt anything so deeply. So personally. Her body heated of its own accord at the vivid memories. An ache mounted between her thighs. Something rose in her, a powerful craving like she’d never before known. It alarmed her, but she couldn’t deny it.
Despite a head full of uncertainties, she couldn’t wait to see Dylan again tonight.
When a brisk wind came off the lake, she turned her face into it, hoping to cool her flushed cheeks.