Rory pulled out of me, then gently tucked me into the sheets before getting up to deal with the condom.
“Is this what lust drunk is?” Even I could hear how dazed my voice sounded.
He climbed back into bed behind me, this time with his boxers on. “No drunk I’ve ever been has felt that good.”
I smiled into the firelight. I liked the sound of that. “Me neither,” I whispered into the quiet.
He drew little circles on my belly with his fingertips until I was just about ready to drift off. But I had one more thing to say. “If I don’t see you before you leave in the morning, just know I loved every part of this.”
It might’ve been my imagination, but I thought he murmured, “Me too.”
Six
Rolling awayfrom Ivy near sunrise to go to Kellan seemed like cruel and unusual punishment.
He’d texted me a bit ago, saying the kid seemed better. Loosely interpreted to mean:come now or don’t come at all.
So, I showered and got dressed and left a note behind for Ivy to enjoy the room while I was working. It still seemed like a dick move, ducking out with a note on the bedside table. But I couldn’t miss this appointment. It was the very reason I’d come this far in the first place.
Being with Ivy had been fun. More than I’d had in a lifetime. I still had no illusions that she’d be there when I returned.
One-nighters weren’t meant to extend past daylight. That was best for her—and for me.
She was a small town girl and I was a big city guy. By choice. By lifestyle. The walls of the town had been closing in on me since I arrived.
Even if everything looked a lot different with the soft light of morning and a night spent so pleasurably behind me. My muscles were still loose from the hot shower.
And from Ivy.
I scraped the snow and icy shite off my windshield with a credit card and my jacket sleeve. I might be in a better mood for obvious reasons, but I was no more enamored of snow.
Playing with Ivy in it had been entertaining. She was like a candle in the darkness. Snow itself, however, was vile.
I got behind the wheel and started the engine and the heater. I still needed gas and would take care of that before I set off for Kellan’s.
Pumping gas when it was nearly subzero bloody well sucked. At least the storm had finally mostly ended.
Bright side? It was much easier to find Kellan’s cabin in the woods when the road wasn’t fully obscured by a curtain of white. Fancy that.
I parked at the end of the driveway behind a hulking Jeep and a mini SUV and got out to more snow pelting me in the face, this time from the branches of the tree above me. A peeved-looking squirrel shook the branch again just for spite.
I tipped my hand to him. “Try getting laid, mate. I’ve found it brightens the mood.”
Something came flying at me and landed on my sneaker.
A nut.
I laughed out loud.
“Don’t give up faith. I had to wait too. Gotta watch for opportunities.”
“Who the hell are you talking to?” Kellan’s voice boomed from the little porch behind me. I turned and found him looming in the doorway, massive and broad-shouldered and blue faux-hawked as always. Only difference from his publicity snaps was the baby clad in a snuggly sweater, jeans, and boots in his arms.
The kid was crying. Surprise.
“Does that child ever stop squalling?” It was a better question than explaining I’d just been conversing with a squirrel about sex.
At least the squirrel hadn’t conversed back. That would’ve been problematic.