Page 61 of Worth the Ruin
I nod and scoop the game pieces back into the box and set it on the side table. We both settle into our respective sides of the bed. I lie on my back and put one hand behind my head, staring at the ceiling, my other hand resting on my chest. I blink in surprise when Melody reaches over and grabs my arm, tugging me towards her. I don’t know exactly what’s happening, but I know better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. I close the distance between us, rolling onto my side, and she pulls my arm around her. My eyes slid shut in bliss as she snuggles back against me, pulling my arm tighter around her stomach and putting her back firmly against my chest.
“Don’t read anything into it,” she says quietly, the smile obvious in her voice.
I’m not going to press my luck for anything more than this for tonight, but I can’t stop myself from leaning down and whispering low in her ear, “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
She inhales quietly and a slow shiver works its way through her body, but I just chuckle and lay my head down. I honestly figure I’ll stay up all night, strung too tightly with our bodies so close, with her wrapped in my arms, with her smell enveloping me. But within minutes, I feel so relaxed, more relaxed than I have in damn near ten years, that I drift off into a deep, blissful sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
MELODY
That wasthe best sleep I’ve gotten in years. I’m not actually sure how I’d managed to sleep with Traeger without, well,sleepingwith him, but it seemed like both of us had needed the closeness and vulnerability of lying with someone through the night more than anything else, and we’d both drifted off before anything could even start to move towards more.
We’d shifted at some point during the night, and I woke with my head on his chest, one leg thrown over his thigh. His arm is still wrapped around me, holding me tightly against him even in sleep. I take the opportunity to study him as he sleeps, and am struck all over again how damn handsome he is. I study the hard line of his jaw; the small scar above his eyebrow that you have to be very, very close to even notice; the soft curve of his lips as they part slightly. I remember what they felt like against mine, soft and warm, but demanding and sure, and promising so much more with every touch. I barely stop myself from leaning in and kissing him again now. I also barely stop myself from waking him up with a good old fashioned morning blow job, but quickly slide from the bed quietly before I decide to just say fuck it.
I shake myself, forcing all dirty thoughts away…or at least, to the side. They’re stillverymuch there. I make my way down the stairs, shivering in the cold of the workshop. My ankle is mostly fine now, still a little sore and stiff, but I can walk again, so now the only thing keeping us here is the snow. If I’m being honest, I really don’t mind. I even kind of wish that the snow would never melt. Things are becoming so easy here between us, shut away from the world, free from all the expectations and responsibilities waiting for us back home.
I head outside, walking around the small area that Traeger had cleared the day after the snow had stopped. The plumbing is working fine for the shower, but neither of us want to risk trying to flush the toilet and fucking things up royally. So, after those first few days of the lovely bucket-in-the-bathroom situation while my ankle healed enough that I could easily go up and down the stairs, we’d carved out a little area outside in the snow to take care of business. I do my thing, surrounded by walls of white, and then dart back inside. I hop up on top of the workbench in the middle of the room and bring the walkie up to my mouth.
“Wynn? You awake?” A few seconds later his voice crackles over the line.
“Hey Mel. You holding up ok out there in the cabin in the woods that is definitely not something out of a horror movie?”
“Har har. And it’s more of an apartment over a barn than a cabin, thank you very much. But we’re good. Ankle is sore but not too bad. Are y’all ok?”
“We’re good here too. Trying to make our way back there to get you and the supplies, but scouts are saying snow is still pretty piled up on the roads farther north.”
“Yeah, we’re still pretty much buried out here.”
“Well…maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”
“And what exactly isthatsupposed to mean? Don’t you miss me, Landry?” I ask with mock indignation.
“Oh you know damn well what it means, couyon.”
My mouth pops open. “I am not!”
“You are,” he says simply, but I can hear the smile in his voice.
“I’m going to smother you with a pillow when I get back.”
He laughs and I smile, kicking my legs back and forth over the edge of the table.
“Look, I’m just saying, maybe this little romance novel-esque snowed in scenario might be just what you needed to get over your little hissy fit.”
“My hissy—Ok you are definitely getting smothered. Maybe even stabbed. Don’t worry, it won’t be fatal, but it’ll hurt like a bitch. It wasnota hissy fit. I had very valid reasons to be upset.”
“That’s true, but you know damn well that all that anger and blame was a little misplaced.”
I roll my eyes and pick up a scrap piece of wood from the table, drumming it lightly on my knee.
“You sound just like Jonah, you know that? You’re not allowed to hang out with him when you go to The Cove anymore.”
“Uh huh, you’re telling me thatnothinghas happened?”
“I…” I bite my lip. “We’re not fighting anymore,” I hedge.
“Ahhhhh sookie sookie now,” he says in a sing-song voice and I can just see him in my mind, grinning and dancing like an idiot.
