Page 42 of Crossing the Line
"I should apologize." Her voice was softer, but it was steady.
"Apologize for what?"
Her hand moved along his side and her nails teased along his skin, sending chills through him.
"I didn't mean to fall asleep out here with you. I sat down and well," she sighed, the vibrations of her breath moved through both of them, "now here we are."
He didn't know if he felt the way he did because he was still half asleep or was he finally waking up.
"I have to admit," he smiled and moved a hand to her back, settling low and gently rubbing up and down her spine, "it's nice- No, better than nice, waking up to you."
Janice stretched, looking more like a cat than he remembered in the past. "I'd forgotten how warm you are in the mornings."
"I remember how you'd wrap yourself around me when you had cramps."
She turned her head, laying her cheek on his chest. "There were times when you didn't really appreciate waking up to me wrapped around like one of those koala clips from the eighties."
He laughed, a soft chuckle rolling through him and he felt her start to laugh, a syncopated rhythm to his own. "Yeah, well, you sometimes squeezed me almost to death."
Janice groaned softly and lifted her head, poking her chin into his chest. "It's not fun when your uterus is trying to twist itself into a pretzel. And really, it wasn't intentional."
"Hugging me?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "Trying to squish you like a grape." She laughed. "I've always loved hugging you."
Her words hit him, sucker punched him right in the chest.
Right in his heart.
Bixby shifted, wrapping his arms around her. "You're not so bad yourself." He gave her a wink that almost... almost saved him from a pinch in his side.
"Ow!"
"You're a silly man, Bixby Landy."
"You know what else I like about you?"
JANICE
What else?
She smiled and her fingers gently rubbed over the place where she'd pinched him.
"What else?" She was dying to know.
He didn't say a word.
He reached down and grabbed a hold of her, just above the very tops of her thighs.
At first, she tensed up. The unexpected embrace had her off-balance in more ways than one, but once she recognized his touch, relaxed into it, things changed.
She relaxed against him, felt the heat of his hands on her.
Her favorite butter-soft jeans?
They didn't offer much of a barrier between them.
And he'd always had strong hands.
