Page 35 of Sanctuary

He adjusts his body against mine, not pulling away but likely getting more comfortable. He wraps both arms around me loosely. “Good it stopped snowing.”

“Yeah. But way too much sun for first thing in the morning.” I rub my face against the fabric of the robe he’s still wearing. It smells faintly musty and a lot like Aidan.

“Can’t be too early if the sun is already up above the mountains.”

I grumble wordlessly since he’s making too much logical sense for this time of day. I used to love to sleep in whenever I could, and something about today feels kind of like it used to when I could stay cozy in bed without any burdens or responsibilities compelling me to my feet.

After a minute, his body starts changing. Getting less cozy. Almost tense. I don’t know why, but I don’t like it. I grumble again and shift restlessly against him.

That’s when I discover something new. Brushing against my middle as I move.

“Oops,” I say.

He lets out a surprised huff of amusement. “Oops, is it?”

“Well, you weren’t like that when you woke up, and I assume you didn’t intend to randomly get hard first thing in the morning.

“No. I didn’t. It was entirely involuntary.”

“That’s what I thought. So ‘oops’ was appropriate.”

“Quite right.”

I snicker and loosen my grip on him. He doesn’t appear to have any ideas about sex with me in his plans for this morning, but there’s no reason to keep rubbing against him.

That doesn’t seem very sportsmanlike.

“Thanks, but distance isn’t going to take care of it in this condition.” He groans and sits up. “I’m going to have to get up. Damn it.

I giggle. I don’t know why exactly. Something about the self-deprecating dryness of his tone. “Okay. Well, have fun with that. I’m going back to sleep.”

He scowls down at me without any heat. “Thanks very much for the sympathy.”

“I’m supposed to sympathized with an erection? You’re not one of those guys who believe the urges of your dick should be the world’s priority, are you?”

“No, of course not. But I’ve got to go outside in the freezing cold to deal with it.”

I can’t seem to stop laughing. “You don’t really have to go outside. Go into one of the back rooms.”

“I thought it might bother you.”

I pause, realizing despite his morning grumpiness, he’s being genuinely considerate of me. He knows I have issues with sex—he heard my story and witnessed my response to overhearing Del and Cole going at it a few weeks ago—and he’s willing to make himself incredibly uncomfortable in order to keep something sexual away from me. “It won’t. Unless you’re in the habit of shouting or banging on the wall as you jerk it, then I won’t have a problem.”

He chokes on a laugh. “Why would I bang on the wall?”

“I have no idea. But some men are weird. Seriously, don’t freeze to death on my account. The back room is fine.”

“All right. Thanks.”

I’m still kind of smiling as he walks rather stiffly down to the front of the sanctuary and then through the side door.

In truth, I’m not at all uncomfortable with this visceral reminder of sex. I’m not vaguely disgusted or annoyed or impatient or compelled to push it out of my mind.

I’m a little bit excited.

Not turned on. Just excited.

Because Aidan didn’t wake up with that erection. He got aroused after he was conscious, while he was snuggled up against me.

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