Page 32 of The Fire Captain's Unexpected Baby
“A little help?”
“Right,” he says, all business.
As soon as he releases my wrist from his belt, I burrow beneath the blankets.
He watches me with disapproval. “I wish you wouldn’t cover up with those. I like to see you.”
“It’s embarrassing,” I tell him, somehow still managing to feel ashamed of my body after the incredible things he did to me.
“I’ve been dreaming of doing that to you since I first laid eyes on you,” he confesses. “You have no idea how good that felt.”
“I have some idea,” I tease.
I stretch out beneath the blankets, testing my muscles, all deliciously sore. Aaron moves closer, lifting my shoulders just enough to wrap an arm around me. I snuggle against him. Heenvelops me into him, seamless, as if we were one person rather than two trying to come together.
His bare skin radiates warmth beneath the light covers, all conspiring to make me feel drowsier than I should after two cups of coffee and an almost full night of sleep.
As conversation lulls, my traitorous eyelids grow heavier than I want them to.
Aaron has every right to be exhausted. He just worked a 36-hour shift at the fire station, even if he did doze off for a little while on the clock. It’s not the same as sleeping in your own bed at home.
But me?
No excuses for falling asleep in the same bed as the man who just tied me up with his belt. We can have sex, butsleepingtogether is intimate territory. There’s nothing casual about sleeping together.
“Would it be the worst thing if we wasted the day in bed?” His words break into my reverie, echoing the threat that looms unspoken.
Only he doesn’t make it sound like a bad thing.
“Levi said he would watch Noah overnight,” I tell him. The words tumble out before I can think about their implication.
Will Aaron stay all night? It’s barely afternoon right now.
Aaron scoops me closer to him so that I’m pressed tightly up against his chest. My head falls below his collarbone, nestled in the hollow. If I’m going to pull away, this is the time to do it.
Instead, I let myself linger in the warmth. I revel in the feel of our legs entwined beneath the cotton sheets. When I tilt my head back to look up at him, his eyes are closed, and his breathing has slowed.
He’s already asleep, and I don’t want to wake him.
I’ll either have to lie here for hours or wake him up.
It feels so strange to have someone else in the bed that has only belonged to Noah and me for the last two years. But Aaron isn’t just a stranger anymore.
He’s been taking care of me. He rescued me from a horrible date, saved me from embarrassment at the wedding, and kept my house from catching fire. There is something different about him, something genuine.
Maybe that’s why I can appreciate how safe his arms feel here in this bed.
I test the waters, closing my eyes and leaning into him. Only they don’t want to reopen a few moments later. I’m being draggedinto sleep, even though I promised myself I wouldn’t. I feel like I’m crossing a line in our relationship, but I’m too tired to care.
I let myself drift off.
Chapter Eleven
Paige
Ididn’t mean to spend the entire afternoon in bed, but I did. Aaron and I got up for a little while to order pizza before we returned to bed with the greasy box. He kept one arm wrapped around me the entire time—a claim.
I wake up in the morning rested. The sunlight filters through the thin white curtains, casting shadows on Aaron’s strong jaw. I lightly run a finger along the sharp line, just enough to make him shiver in his sleep.
