Cabin fever, p.16
Cabin Fever, page 16
When Shelby released her to close the cabin door, Morgan remained standing, but she was shivering so badly she looked like she was having a seizure. More than that, she looked a real mess. Every piece of her clothing was drenched and covered in melting snow. She held all her weight on her right foot, her left toe tapping against the floor as she shook. If Shelby waited too long, she would fall down and she doubted Morgan would be able to get back up.
Moving with renewed purpose despite the exhaustion of their trip, Shelby threw more wood on the glowing coals in the fireplace. The logs lit immediately, roaring to life and bathing the room in heat. It wouldn’t be enough though, not with how wet and cold Morgan was. She could never warm up while wearing clothes that were at least fifty percent melted snow.
Morgan didn’t protest as Shelby peeled off her coat and two shirts. When Shelby told her to sit on the rug in front of the fire, she practically crumbled. Shelby sent boots and socks and jeans flying in her haste. She forced herself to be clinical when she reached to pull off Morgan’s underwear and it wasn’t difficult since her skin was deathly, frighteningly pale. Morgan, however, came to life when she realized what Shelby was doing. She tried to swat Shelby’s hands away.
“I have to take them off. They’re soaking wet. Your bra, too,” Shelby said.
Morgan probably wanted to continue struggling, but she was clearly too cold to have much fight in her. She did, however, curl into a fetal position once she was naked, but whether that was modesty or hypothermia, it was impossible to tell.
Shelby grabbed a thin blanket off the couch and tossed it over Morgan. She tried to rub some warmth into her limbs, but it didn’t seem to be helping. Morgan was shivering worse than ever and it didn’t help that Shelby’s shirt was wet, too. Now that she was inside, she could feel the chill herself.
As she was unbuttoning her soaked flannel shirt, Shelby finally identified the harsh whistling she’d heard since returning to the cabin. The kettle on the stove must’ve boiled while she was helping Morgan and her mug, tea bag already waiting at the bottom, was next to it equally forgotten. She tossed her flannel aside as she entered the kitchen. She needed to get Morgan warm and some hot, sweet tea seemed just the ticket.
“Sit up and drink this, okay?” Shelby asked gently.
When Morgan didn’t respond, Shelby dropped down next to her and pulled her into a sitting position. The way Morgan moved, like a complacent if tense rag doll, did not inspire confidence. Neither did the bone-deep chill of her skin when Shelby touched her. The fire and blanket weren’t helping, and though she did get Morgan to drink some of the tea, it wasn’t enough. Not that Shelby was that surprised. Even with the wet flannel off, she was still too cold herself and she’d only been in the snow for a few minutes.
“In for a penny, in for a pound.” Shelby kicked off her shoes.
After she’d stripped down to bra and panties, Shelby climbed under the blanket with Morgan. She hissed in shock when her bare skin touched Morgan’s. She’d never felt anything like it before. How was Morgan even alive when she was this cold? As she pressed the length of her body against Morgan and tried again to rub warmth into her skin, she realized how close she’d come to losing her. If she’d waited five more minutes to go to the window it might’ve been too dark to see her. If Morgan had collapsed just five feet farther from the cabin, she wouldn’t have been visible. She had come shockingly close to dying out there.
Scenes played unbidden in Shelby’s mind. Finding Morgan’s body after it was too late. Never finding her at all and having to explain everything to her family. And if that had happened, Morgan would never know how sorry Shelby was for her earlier outburst. Tears pooled in Shelby’s eyes and she squeezed them shut, burrowing her face into Morgan’s neck. She hardly knew this woman at all, but she was so afraid of losing her she could hardly breathe.
As Morgan’s body warmed, her shivering lessened. After a little while, a soft, contented sigh brushed against Shelby’s collarbone. Morgan snuggled in closer. Her eyes were shut, but she nuzzled into Shelby’s neck. She was whispering something that might have been a name, and the movement made her lips slide against Shelby’s neck in a way that sent a pleasant shiver through her body.
Just when Shelby thought Morgan had fallen asleep, her hand started to move. It was subtle at first, a fumbling swipe of fingertips across Shelby’s side. She thought maybe Morgan was subconsciously mimicking her own movements as she tried to warm her up, but Morgan’s touch lingered on Shelby’s hip. When Morgan’s touch moved up her ribs, Shelby had to bite her lip to keep from groaning.
There was something decidedly intimate in the caress and Shelby knew she should shut it down. She should stop Morgan. After all, she was definitely too out of it to know what she was doing. But Shelby couldn’t bring herself to stop her. She wasn’t touching anywhere risqué yet and it had been so damn long since Shelby had been touched by a naked woman. What would it hurt to let Morgan stroke her side?
Morgan pushed her chin up higher and the press of her lips against Shelby’s neck was far more like a kiss now. Her touch was more sure, her thumb stroking across the point of Shelby’s hip. God, it felt good. Morgan’s breast pressed between Shelby’s, her nipple hard against her skin. Her thigh pressed against Shelby’s, soft and firm even if her skin was still frigid. Shelby let her eyes flutter shut, hoping that Morgan’s hand and leg and lips didn’t wander too far. If they did Shelby would have to stop her and she didn’t want this to stop. She didn’t want to end the tingling under her skin and the quickening of her breath.
Just when things were getting interesting, Morgan groaned and pulled her body away a fraction of an inch. Her shivering actually seemed worse now, and it made her words almost indecipherable.
“Cold. So cold,” she stuttered.
“I know.” Shelby rubbed her palm harder against Morgan’s skin. “I know. We’ll get you warm.”
“Please. Too cold.”
Morgan was right. She was too cold. Far too cold and nothing was working. Shelby looked around the cabin, desperate to find a solution. First aid for hypothermia wasn’t something she’d thought to learn about growing up in North Carolina. She looked over at the mug of tea, half drunk and abandoned on the brick hearth with coils of steam rising from the surface of the liquid. It could help, but Morgan needed more. She needed to be warmed from the inside and the outside. Shelby’s mind caught on the tea and whirled through a million disjointed thoughts. For some reason, it landed on her tea back home. The delicious Kusmi Earl Grey. Sometimes she treated herself to an indulgent Sunday morning with a cup of milky tea and a bubble bath.
“Bath!”
Morgan jumped at her outburst and Shelby slipped out from under the blanket. Morgan made an adorable whimper at the loss of her body heat, but Shelby couldn’t focus on that now. In fact, she thought as she sprinted to the tiny bathroom at the back of the cabin, it would be best for her to not think any positive thoughts about Morgan right now.
Water roared from the tub faucet, turning from ice cold to steaming hot quicker than Shelby thought possible. Once she had the stopper down and the tub started to fill, she hurried back to the living room, bracing herself mentally for what she was about to do. This bathroom seemed destined to be the scene of many an awkward naked encounter between them. But unlike their first morning when Morgan had walked in on her fresh out of the shower, Shelby wasn’t the one who had to worry about her modesty.
“Morgan, I need you to stand up, okay?”
Morgan’s eyes were unfocused and full of confusion, but they stayed fixed on Shelby even as she shivered.
“We need to get you in a hot bath.” Shelby forced herself not to think about Morgan naked, but they had been so intimate just a moment ago, it wasn’t easy. “Just to warm you up.”
Morgan’s eyes sharpened slightly at the mention of warmth, and she was much more helpful in moving for herself this time. Shelby did her best to keep Morgan from putting weight on her injured leg as they shuffled down the hall, but she wasn’t sure Morgan could really feel the pain through the cold. Lowering her to the edge of the tub wasn’t hard either, but she lost her balance and splashed down hard into the water. Shelby was soaked from head to foot, but at least it was warm water this time. Morgan didn’t seem overly perturbed either. She sank into the warm water with another sigh of contentment. She didn’t even protest when Shelby held her up to make sure her chin didn’t slip under.
Morgan soaked for a long moment with her eyes closed, but the shivering stopped almost immediately. Her injured ankle was an angry red against the shocking white of Morgan’s skin. Shelby lifted the foot out of the water and propped it on a folded towel to keep it elevated. One arm was also out of the water, and Shelby lifted it to place it in the water, but she noticed a bruise forming on Morgan’s forearm. In fact, as she studied Morgan’s body under the water, she saw a few injuries.
The most obvious was the one from the seat belt crossing her chest. It was yellowing now, but still looked painful. Morgan hadn’t complained about it, but she was a stubborn woman. It probably didn’t feel great. Fresher bruises were showing themselves on Morgan’s calf above the swollen ankle and, worse than the rest, an angry red patch on the ribs of her right side. Shelby reached under the water to touch the spot and Morgan hissed the moment her fingertips made contact.
“Hurts,” Morgan said without opening her eyes.
“Hurts how much? Can you take a deep breath? Any sharp pains?”
Morgan’s response was a mumble, but it sounded like a negative mumble. Shelby pressed a little at the spot and didn’t feel any shifting bones. Just a bruise then, not a broken rib. Still, it must’ve been a nasty fall that caused all this. Scanning the rest of Morgan’s visible flesh, she didn’t see any other bruises or blood.
Satisfied that Morgan wouldn’t die on her just yet, Shelby sat back on the tile floor. She told herself to look away from Morgan’s body—that this was not the time or appropriate moment to ogle—but she couldn’t help herself. Morgan was soft in all the places Shelby liked her women soft and lightly muscled everywhere else. It was a remarkable body. One that had felt extraordinarily nice against her own.
She’d thought about Morgan’s body, of course. Hell, they’d been sharing a bed for the past three nights and Shelby had fallen asleep and woken up all too aware of the warm presence beside her. Her dreams had been full of tantalizing fantasies and she had halfway hoped to wake up one morning with Morgan spooning her in her sleep. To her disappointment, they had both been perfectly appropriate while unconscious. But now, with Morgan’s naked body laid out before her eyes, she couldn’t help but take it all in. After all, Morgan had gotten an eyeful of her their first morning. Wasn’t she allowed a little peek?
Morgan stirred, turning slightly in the bath, her eyes still firmly shut. Shelby was grateful for the movement, though. It reminded her to stop being a creep. Shelby decided to give her another few minutes in there to warm up before wrestling her to bed, but she took the precaution of wedging herself against the wall between the sink and the tub. Sitting there, she couldn’t see more than Morgan’s feet, and that was definitely the most appropriate view for right then.
Chapter Fifteen
The first thing Morgan noticed when she woke up was the throbbing in her ankle. The intensity of the ache took her breath away and she very nearly gasped out loud. She took a few deep breaths, willing herself to relax, knowing that would lessen the pain. Sure enough, the throb eventually settled into something a bit more bearable.
With the pain sorted, she became aware of a naked thigh between hers, pressed lightly against her center. Then she noticed the silky swell of a breast cupped in her hand. That sent the throb from her ankle zinging directly to her core.
Morgan’s eyes flashed open, taking in her surroundings with brutal swiftness. She was lying on her side, face to face with a sleeping Shelby. It was Shelby’s thigh pressed against her core and Shelby’s breast in her hand. If it hadn’t been for the insistent and growing desire pulsing through her, Morgan wouldn’t have believed her eyes.
Her mind was a complete blank and not just because it was clouded with lust. She had no memory of the previous night. How did she get here? Had she and Shelby had sex? Their positions told a pretty clear story, but wouldn’t she know if she’d spent the night getting intimate with her least favorite colleague? She didn’t have the stale taste of alcohol on her tongue, so this compromising position wasn’t the result of their stock of bourbon. But what the hell had happened?
The last thing she remembered was struggling through the snow on her hands and knees because she couldn’t walk on her busted ankle. The cold had seeped so deep into her that she could barely move, but she’d seen the lights from the cabin. They were coming closer and closer and she kept telling herself to keep going. Gail kept telling her she was strong and she had to keep going. She’d been talking to Gail. She’d been apologizing for letting her down. She’d promised to keep going and the cabin lights got closer and brighter.
Morgan was still struggling with her brain, trying to force it to remember, when Shelby snuffled and shifted in her sleep. She leaned forward and the movement pressed her thigh hard against Morgan. A jolt of pleasure shot through her and her eyes rolled back.
That was the moment Morgan realized she was completely naked. Shelby’s thigh was pressing hard into Morgan’s clit and she was one more sleepy adjustment away from an orgasm. Morgan’s shock made her jerk backward, away from the enticing thigh and lacy bra-clad breast. Unfortunately, the movement put weight against her injured ankle and the shift from blinding pleasure to blinding pain made her cry out.
Morgan’s yell of pain woke Shelby, who scrambled away in the opposite direction, popping to her feet beside the bed. The duvet pulled off Shelby and Morgan couldn’t decide if she was relieved or disappointed to see that Shelby wasn’t naked. Not that the lace bra the same blue as her eyes and simple cotton bikini-cut panties left much to the imagination, but they did seem to indicate they hadn’t had sex last night.
Several quiet moments passed before Morgan realized she was spending a little too much time tracing the lines of Shelby’s underwear with her gaze. Apparently, Shelby hadn’t noticed the inspection, though.
“What the hell is going on?” Morgan asked, her voice scratchy and her throat painfully dry.
“Don’t worry, you’re okay now.” Shelby propped her hands on her hips, making no effort to cover up her body as a look of concern washed over her face. “You are okay, right? Are you in pain?”
Morgan had a hard time thinking straight while her clit was still throbbing, but Shelby didn’t seem affected by their intimate position. She seemed far more concerned about Morgan’s well-being, which was probably natural.
“My ankle hurts.”
Shelby reached down and grabbed a blanket from the top of the pile of blankets and sheets. After she wrapped the blanket around herself like a bath towel, she circled to Morgan’s side of the bed, reaching for her ankle. Morgan pulled her foot away, ignoring the slice of pain the movement caused, and tucked the covers more securely around herself.
“Do you remember anything from last night?” Shelby asked.
“Not how I got back here.”
“What do you remember? What happened to your foot?”
Morgan grimaced in pain just thinking about it. A chill went through her whole body and she pulled the covers tighter around herself. She knew she wasn’t really as cold as she’d been last night, but the memory was far too vivid to dispel right now.
“I found the car and it was covered in snow. Completely buried.” Morgan couldn’t help a little smirk at that. She’d been rude, impulsive, and stupid yesterday, but she’d also been right. That didn’t make her ankle hurt any less, though. She described trying to get the suitcase out of the trunk and losing her balance. Shelby winced along with her as she explained getting her foot caught under the tire and the popping sound she’d heard. And the pain. She couldn’t adequately describe the pain, of course, but Shelby could see how swollen and bruised it was.
“It hurt and the swelling was making it hard to walk, so I took my shoe off to relieve the pressure.” Morgan waited for Shelby to call her an idiot for that, but she didn’t. “Which was a bad idea cause then I couldn’t get it back on and the rain boots filled up with snow.”
“And you still didn’t have gloves,” Shelby said.
“Right. Which was a problem because I had to crawl on my hands and knees because of my ankle.”
“Which is how you got so cold.” Shelby nodded and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching again for Morgan’s ankle. When she pulled it away again, Shelby snapped at her. “Stop being stubborn. You’re hurt and we need to do something about it.”
“What if it’s broken?”
“It’s not,” Shelby said flatly.
“How can you possibly know?”
“Two reasons. First, you heard a pop, not a crack. Second, you wouldn’t be able to walk at all with a break and it would most likely be numb, not painful.”
Arguing seemed pointless since Morgan didn’t know if that was true, but she didn’t think Shelby would lie about it. She nodded to Shelby and didn’t move as she lifted her ankle. Shelby’s touch was incredibly gentle. She settled Morgan’s ankle in her lap and pressed on the flesh, but not enough to hurt. In fact, it was sort of sexy the way she was touching Morgan and the intensity with which she focused on the examination.
“I know it doesn’t look great, but you’re going to be just fine. I’m going to go look for a bandage. Don’t move.”
Shelby sprang to her feet, the blanket still wrapped around her body like an oversized towel, and marched out of the bedroom without another word. Honestly, Morgan was glad she had a moment alone to settle her hormones. The intimate way they’d woken up mixed with Shelby’s confidence during the examination was really fucking with Morgan’s head. This was the second time she’d seen Shelby naked and her body definitely didn’t want that to stop, no matter how much her brain screamed that she hated this woman.
