Page 27 of When Monsters Fight
“Yes. I can.” I peeled myself off him, legs folding under me as soon as my boots hit the rafters. “I’m good. I’m just going to…to sit here.”
His jaw ticked, and he looked as if he wanted to argue, but then he gave me a curt nod and set to work moving boxes and arranging sacks to make a snug sleeping area.
I didn’t protest as he scooped me up and carried me to my makeshift bed. Lying down sounded like bliss even if the sack was rough and smelled funky. A shiver ran over me, and my teeth began to chatter.
Gabriel pressed his palm to my cheek, then my neck. “You’re as cold as ice.”
“I feel like shit.”
“Gabriel?” Asbeel appeared by the balcony nursing a mug of something. “They have broth, or something that resembles it.”
Gabriel brought the mug over to me. “Try this.”
“What if it’s poisonous to me?”
“Shit. I hadn’t considered that.” He set it down. “Bastian packed supplies?”
I managed a nod. “Jilyana has them.”
He brushed a tendril of hair off my cheek, his emerald gaze dark with concern. “I’ll be right back.”
It was as if his absence made the chill inside me stronger, forcing me to curl up for warmth.
“Rue? Here, eat this. Rue?” Gabriel patted my cheek.
I forced my eyes open. “Too tired.”
His jaw tensed. “Rue, do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Good, because what I’m going to suggest might sound unseemly, but I think it will help immensely.”
“What is it?”
“Body heat,” he said. “Skin-on-skin contact.”
Heat sounded good. “Okay.”
He blinked sharply. “You’ll have to be naked. We both will. You understand that?”
He really didn’t know me yet. “You want to get naked and cuddle so I can stop feeling like I have ice in my veins.”
“Yes.”
“I’m good with that.”
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. “You never fail to surprise me.”
“And you’re taking too long to strip and share your heat.”
He put a blanket over me, too light to help stave off the chill much. “Take off your clothes.”
But my fingers were clumsy, still tingly and numb from the chill. “Help me.”
His throat bobbed, but he nodded. “Let me just…” He shrugged off his shirt and pushed down his pants so that he was naked except for his underwear. Part of my mind registered the hard flat planes of his chest and torso, lines curving and meeting to create perfection, but it was difficult to enjoy the view when my teeth were chattering.
He climbed onto the makeshift bed behind me and got under the blanket. His body heat beat at my clothes, promising blessed relief that galvanized me into action. I fumbled with my shirt, desperate to pull my arms free, but stuck. “Urgh.”
