The first thing Emma heard was howling. She blinked her eyes open and instinctively stretched, only to realize—and immediately recall every last detail of the fact—that she was in bed with Trevor. Naked, in bed. With a naked Trevor. A naked Trevor who had made love to her last night like she was the last woman on earth, or maybe the only woman for him.
She closed her eyes, wanting to hold onto the fantasy that surely must be. But Jack was howling, the fire had gone out, and the thin gray light coming in through the tall, floor-to-ceiling windows announced that bad weather was still continuing. And the warm, hard body next to her, along with the wide, firm palm cupping her backside, were all far too real for her to pretend that any of this was a dream.
“Jack needs to be put out of his misery,” Trevor said, his body still heavy against hers, his eyes still closed, and his voice deliciously gravelly.
“He just needs to go out,” Emma said, hearing the roughness in her own voice as well.
“Not if he was dead he wouldn’t.”
She smiled even as she gently pinched his waist. “Not funny.”
“Neither is a howling dog at o’dark-thirty.”
“I think it’s later than that, but outside isn’t looking so good.”
“All the more reason we shouldn’t have dogs.”
“We don’t have dogs. Lionel has dogs. And I need to go take them outside.”
Trevor clamped his arm down more firmly around her waist and pulled her more snugly into the very warm and wonderful body heat he was also wrapping around her. “You need to stay here and keep the real world from intruding.”
That sounded like a great idea. Jack howled even more mournfully, which made her groan. “Keep that thought. I’ll be right back.”
What she was, however, was on her back. For a sleepy, drowsy guy, he moved remarkably fast when he wanted to. Something to make note of, she thought, then smiled at the idea that keeping track of his habits might be something she needed to be doing at all. It was the morning after…and there had been no crash landing yet.
In fact, this felt pretty remarkably…normal. And nice. And…something she’d like to keep doing. With him. For a very long time.
Jack’s howl took on a particularly plaintive tone, and Emma found herself thinking that Trevor had a point about owning dogs. But then, the only thing keeping her warm at night, up until the last one anyway, was her grandmother’s frayed quilt. So she could be excused for not being overly enthusiastic about her stubby-legged charge since it meant leaving Trevor’s delectable warmth, and what felt like a…growing interest in keeping her tucked away for at least a little while longer this morning.
“I love dogs, I love dogs, I love dogs,” she repeated under her breath as she very reluctantly disengaged herself from Trevor’s arms.
“Then I love big backyards with well-built fences and self-serve doggy doors,” Trevor said, rolling over to cover the spot she’d just vacated with his amazingly stunning body and burying his face in her pillow.
She had to curl her fingers into her palms until the bite of her nails proved that yes, in fact, she really was awake. And that remarkably fine ass she was staring at, had, just recently, been cupped into the curve of her body. Really. She didn’t get this lucky. Except she just had. And, if she played her cards right, was about to get lucky again. And maybe again.
Merry Christmas, indeed.
He turned just enough to cock one eye open to look at her. “You’re staring.”
“Sue me,” she said. “You have a world-class backside, and I get to have my hands all over it again. So, I’m going to stare. You’ll have to get used to it from me. Promise me you won’t move and I’ll be the fastest little dog-walker in Virginia.”
“As long as those hands are warm when you get back, you have a deal.”
But a moment later, before she could scramble around and find her clothes, shivering in the morning cold—still no electricity apparently—Trevor was dragging himself into an upright sitting position and raking his hand through his hair. He did rumpled, morning-after beard stubble really well, too. “Wait a second, and I’ll go with you.”
“You don’t have to do that. Enjoy the warm bed. It’s freezing out here. We should probably rebuild the fire. I think the dogs will be okay in the house while it’s light outside, but if we keep the fire going in the parlor, too, I’m betting they’ll just stay up here where it’s warmer. I can put Cicero in his smaller, portable cage and move him in there, too. He shouldn’t be anywhere drafty.”
“Which is why I’m going to go with you and help.”
“Trevor—”
“Emma,” he said, only it was quite adorable and she had to admit, she rather liked hearing him say her name, in any tone.
“Would it help if I said my willingness to help you was entirely selfish in motivation?”
“A great deal. I guilt very easily.”
He grinned at that. “I am not a greedy man when it comes to money or possessions, however, it’s becoming apparent I am going to be a very greedy man when it comes to you.”
She smiled. “I’m listening.”
“So, if I help with critter control and fire patrol, then that means I get you back here sooner rather than later.”
“What about your search?” She put the question out there quite deliberately. The real world was going to come back, and she didn’t think she could bear keeping this wonderful cocoon of cozy perfection going any longer without poking a little bit to see how sturdy a cocoon it was going to be.
“It’ll be waiting for us—if you want to join me, that is—.”
She hurried to button her jeans. “I’ll walk the dogs and move Cicero if you rebuild the fires and dig up something to eat.”
“A deal which I’d be a fool not to take, but I guilt easily, too. And I can’t have you turning into popsicles with the pupsicles, while I’m all warm inside. Doesn’t seem right.”
“Except I’m getting paid to take them out. It’s not like I’m being the altruistic one.”
“Meaning if they were our dogs, you’d just say screw it and jump back into bed with me?”
“Well, no, because then I’d be obligated as their owner to take care of them. If we had dogs, which we don’t.”
“Do you? Have dogs, I mean?”
“No. I can’t where I live. Which I hate, but I’ll get my own place eventually. So, I have everybody else’s dogs. And cats. The occasional guinea pig. I’m an all-service pet provider, you see.”
He looked over her as she tugged on her sweater. “I happen to like what I see.”
“I’m sure I look rather frightening at the moment, but you lie really well. You must really be feeling…greedy.”
“I never lie.” He scooted his legs off the edge of the bed, still quite beautifully naked, and snaked out a hand, snagging her wrist, and tugging her into his lap. “Not about you. Not about this.”
“This?” she asked, this time knowing exactly what he meant, but delighting in letting him express it.
He smiled, and he was such a beautiful man, in ways that went far past his surface beauty, it made her heart catch a little.
“Yeah,” he said, softly. “This.” And he tipped her chin up and claimed her mouth with a kiss that was unlike any they’d shared yet, and they’d shared many during their night together. It was morning, and there had been no bathroom-toothbrush run, so she should have been cringing, but the fairy tale continued and it was simply warm, sweet, and magically wonderful. She really, really didn’t want the real world reality check that was likely in store.
She sighed as he lifted his mouth from hers, and kissed the tip of her nose, then the corner of her eye, then her temple, before pulling her more deeply into his arms. Tended to, indeed. She’d always been the caregiver—strong, healthy, and never thinking about needing it herself. And she was still all those things…but this touched her on a level, soothed her on a level she hadn’t realized needed soothing. Maybe everybody needed tending to, in some way. Maybe he’d been right, about finding your path in life, then sharing it with the person who would enhance the joy already found in it.
Jack’s howl reached new heights of discomfort, making them both laugh. She got up from Trevor’s lap, and liked that he reluctantly let her go, but did, indeed, let her go. He might be greedy—which she heartily endorsed—but he wasn’t selfish. Another trait to admire and respect.
“I’m on dog patrol, you’re fire captain. We’ll meet back here in, say, twenty minutes?”
“You drive a hard bargain.”
She grinned. “No, I believe you’re the one who will have to do that.”
“Cute.”
She leaned in and kissed the tip of his nose, surprising him, and maybe delighting him a little with the unexpected move. “Yes, you are. And after the hard bargain, we can arm wrestle over who has to figure out what to have for breakfast.”
“I’ll help.”
“I’ll let you. I’ll feed the dogs. Then we’ll hunt. And if we can get the power back on, I believe there is a game on later today that has stakes attached to it. If you’re very lucky, you’ll win, and I won’t have to cook.”
“How is it lucky for me to end up cooking?”
She walked to the door. “Did I mention I make really good dessert?”
“Maybe, but I’m thinking you’d make a really a good dessert, so we’ll arm wrestle for that later, too.”
She was smiling when she left the room. And despite the fact that the air in the house was downright frigid, she all but danced down the hallway, let two very anxious dogs out of the parlor, then floated down the stairs and got all three of them into their outdoor winter gear, and out into the frigid, gray morning…still smiling all the while.
And the smile was still on her face right up until the moment she stepped back into the Florida room, and faced a no-longer-smiling Trevor.
Apparently the reality check had begun.