Page 67 of The Reluctant Roommate

“No, you drove.” Heidi pulled out her credit card—the Aussie one. She’d let her brother know she’d used it. “The deal was you drove, but I’d pay meals and accommodation. After all, this trip is for my benefit.”

“Just your benefit?” Morgan smiled a slow, wicked smile, and instantly, Heidi’s pulse spiked again.

Maybe their evening was not over yet.

They shrugged into their coats and left into the sharp cold outside. It had stopped snowing, but the plows were yet to clear the main street. The few cars on the road crawled through the inches of snow that had accumulated.

Heidi pulled her beanie more firmly over her head and turned up the collar of her coat, hunching into it. Her feet were already cold, but her body burned hot with anticipation. “At least we haven’t far to go.”

Morgan jammed her hands into her coat pockets and set a fast pace down the street. Heidi’s breath came fast and shallow as she walked next to Morgan. “Can you slow down a little?”

“Sorry.” Morgan slowed. “We’re at two miles high here. Even though you’re used to Denver at a mile high, the change in altitude affects most people.”

“I didn’t expect it to make so much difference.” Heidi tucked her arm through Morgan’s. She told herself it was to steady them both on the snowy sidewalk, or to ground her in her lightheadedness—altitude or alcohol, she wasn’t sure which. But really, it was because she wanted to. Wanted that connection to Morgan and didn’t want to lose it on the short walk to their motel.

Chapter 31

And What They Do in It

No matter what she’d said when they’d left the Silver Dollar, it seemed a long walk back. Heidi’s breath came in shallow pants, her toes were numb with cold, and she slipped a couple of times in the snow. Morgan seemed firm, her breathing even, and she steadied Heidi when she slipped, waiting until she’d found her footing.

Heidi fumbled for the keycard with gloved fingers, getting it into the slot on the third try. The room was warm, the heat pumping. She shed her outerwear, and when she stood in her Henley, jeans, and socks, she turned to Morgan. What would happen now? Would Morgan avoid her eyes, use the bathroom, change into sleepwear, claim her side of the bed, turn her back, and go to sleep? Or was there more to be had between them?

Morgan, too, now stood in jeans and her sweater.

For long moments, they stared at each other, an expanse of carpet between them.

How had it become so awkward? The kiss in the bar should have them now falling into each other. It was like the last time they’d kissed—in the kitchen at home—when they’d gone from kissing to stacking the dishwasher. Heidi’s lips twitched. So prosaic. But they were roommates. And while she wanted them to be more, it had to be both of them willing to change up their easy arrangement. After all, it would upend so many things.

Morgan’s tongue touched her lower lip. “This is awkward.”

Heidi nodded.

“We should talk about it.”

She couldn’t bring herself to agree. Talking? What good would talking do now? She took a step forward, picked up Morgan’s hand and set it on her waist. Picked up her other hand and clasped it between her own. “Haven’t we talked enough?”

Morgan stared at her, and, for a moment, Heidi thought she’d turn and walk into the bathroom.

“We have,” Morgan replied.

“I know what I want,” Heidi said. “And I hope you want the same. But it’s your call, Morgan. You make the first move, if that’s what you—”

Morgan lunged forward, and Heidi’s breath slammed out of her as their bodies crashed together. Morgan freed her hand from Heidi’s and pushed it into her hair, bringing them closer together. Heidi’s hair caught in Morgan’s fingers, which pulled on her scalp, but she didn’t care. For now, right now, her body was lit from within, and she knew that this time there was no stopping.

And it was neutral ground. Not her bed, not Morgan’s. Maybe that was the difference. It might be different when they got back home, but right now, she didn’t care.

Morgan kissed her hard, parting her lips, sliding her tongue into Heidi’s mouth. She tasted sharp: of lime, of tequila, of lust. For long moments, they kissed, tongues caressing, a press of mouths, a lift away to change the angle, and then the kiss returned, deeper, more desirous, until Heidi was drowning in the taste of Morgan and how she felt under her hands.

She dropped her hand to Morgan’s waist, pushed underneath her fleece, under the T-shirt beneath to find soft skin. Her fingers ran gently along the waistband of Morgan’s jeans, over the skin that she just knew would be pale and unblemished.

Morgan shuddered and moved to allow Heidi better access. Now she could stroke up and down her rib cage until her thumb brushed the underside of Morgan’s breast, encased in somethingsmooth, no doubt shiny, and almost certainly, Heidi guessed, a pale oyster color. Something refined and delicate, a world away from Heidi’s sturdy white cotton.

She broke the kiss, trailing her lips from Morgan’s mouth to her firm jawline, pressing small kisses up to her ear. A gentle nip on Morgan’s earlobe made her shudder, and her hands tightened in Heidi’s hair.

Heidi’s heart pounded from more than altitude as she slid her lips down Morgan’s neck, finding where the pulse pounded wildly. Then she moved on, pushing aside the neck of Morgan’s sweater to expose her soft throat. A kiss there, another, then she withdrew.

She held Morgan’s gaze as she pulled her own top over her head.