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I was clutching the blanket and nibbling on my bottom lip. Well, it hadn’t been the comfiest, nor was it uncomfy. But the temptation of his big bouncy bed was alluring. I swallowed hard, pushing down my wild fantasies. “If we sleep in the same bed, we’re sleeping head to toe.”
His lip twitched into an arrogant smile. “Head to toe?”
“Yes. That way we’re not tempted by any… unsavory business.”
He threw his head back laughing as he strode toward the wall, switching off the lights. By way of the flickering flames from the fireplace, I could still see his outline and the way he patted the end of the bed. “As you wish.”
Thoughtfully, I dropped the blanket on the sofa and grabbed my pillow. I cautiously stepped around the bed and he growled. “I’m not going to bite you, Cassidy, even if that’s all you can think about.”
“I am not!” I was.
Another laugh. How was he not effected in the same way that I was? Or was that simply my foolish girly heart betraying me again?
“Wait I have a term,” I said pointedly as he slid under the blankets, his sheer enormity filling the space. I hadn’t done head to toe since sleepovers as a child. And even then it’d never been necessary, but I’d seen it on movies and it looked fun.
“What’s your condition, Cassidy?” he growled. Those penetrating green eyes glimmered from the dark via the flickering flames. But I could see him… all of him, including the curled hair on his bare chest. I pushed down my temptation to feather my fingers through it.
I inhaled. No man was left behind. “Shadow gets to sleep on the bed too.”
I pointed to the dog curled up on his own pillow on the floor. If there was a dog in the bed, I was certain that would be the best kind of buffer to anything happening. Not that I was assuming something was going to happen… but I didn’t entirely trust this heated thrumming in my core. Or my chest.
“Shadow doesn’t sleep on the bed,” Eric said gruffly.
“Neither did I, up until two minutes ago.”
As if understanding and hopeful, Shadow propped his head up staring at me.
“He can even share my side of the bed, so he doesn’t take up too much of yours,” I encouraged, like he was really lucking out here. Silence filled the room, and I could sense Eric’s displeasure.
“Fine,” Eric gritted out eventually. I squealed excitedly, tapping on the bed and encouraging Shadow to jump up. He seemed perplexed but it didn’t take him long to join me as I shuffled underneath the blanket, then spooned Shadow like some giant teddy.
I wriggled comfortably around him, casually patting his fur.
Silence. Nothing but pure masculine heat radiated next to me. He shuffled slightly, his thigh pressing against my leg. My attention and focus drew toward to that spot and I closed my eyes. Why was I acting like a teenager? I’d slept in the same bed with many men before.
“Are you comfy?” he eventually asked, his voice a husky whisper.
“Mhmm,” I lied. The bed itself was divine, like a soft marshmallow. The proximity however… was too much to handle. I opened my eyes again, staring at an already snoozing Shadow. In my peripheral was the dark but beautiful view of the mountains beyond the window. Trying to take my mind off the palpable tension, I asked, “Why did you call him Shadow?” We’d already been laying here for ten minutes, and I felt more alert then when I’d originally set the intentions to sleep.
“You’ll laugh,” Eric said flatly.
A smile curved my lips. “Now that sounds promising.” I continued patting Shadow’s head, trailing a finger down his nose and between his eyes.
“You ever heard of Sonic the Hedgehog?”
I scrunched up my nose. “Vaguely. Wasn’t it some arcade game?”
He sighed. “It’s moments like this I realize how old I’m getting.”
I laughed. “You’re forty-two, that’s not old. Stop being dramatic.” I nudged him with my leg.
He sighed as if disbelieving. “I used to play it as a teen all the time and Shadow was the character I’d often select. I adopted Shadow when he was already six months old from a shelter, he didn’t have any history, they’d found him malnourished on the streets, so he hadn’t been given a new name at the time. It was Lori who dragged me to the shelter six years ago and it was her idea that I adopted, actually. When I refused… she did it on my behalf. I woke up in my Chicago apartment with a six-month-old German shepherd mix Christmas morning. In the end… it turned out she might’ve been right. And the only name I could think of at the time for an animal was Shadow. Not a very spectacular story is it?”
I patted Shadow thoughtfully and considered Lori. I wondered if she thought Eric was lonely and that’s why she adopted a companion for him. Granted, I didn’t know what Eric’s life looked like in Chicago but I doubted he was a social butterfly. I would fall back in surprise if he was.
“Your sister really cares about you and I think the name suits him fine.” Although it was hard to envision Eric as a teenager who played video games, it was endearing to think of.
“She’s also meddlesome,” he gritted out. I smiled. From the few friends I’d had over the years with siblings, I thought that was normal because they all said the same thing. It was nice to look in on from time to time.
