Rule Breaker. Joanne Rock

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       Three

      Sunlight pried at April’s eyes the next morning.

      Too early, she thought, for it to be so bright. Her body was exhausted. And hot.

      Pulling herself from layers of sleep, she struggled to figure out why she’d be so warm. Her limbs were pinned by a heavy weight on one side. Her nose was buried against...a man?

      Memories of the night before returned in a moment as blinding as the sun streaming across one side of her face. The avalanche threat. The trudge through deep snow only to make camp with Weston. Falling asleep in his arms.

      Which was a spot she’d clearly enjoyed, based on the way she was wrapped around him now like a second skin. How had her sleeping bag unzipped enough to allow so much proximity? She had one arm threaded under his to splay across his strong back. One thigh tucked between his. Her cheek and nose were pressed tight to his chest, where his heartbeat slugged. The fabric of the thermal shirt he wore hugged every inch of him as tightly as she did.

      But the point of all the heat she felt was focused in the cradle of her hips, where the most intriguing part of his anatomy stirred.

      Her breath caught in a strangled gasp as she scrambled back.

      Weston let go of her immediately, making her realize he’d been awake the whole time. Which only added to her flustered state.

      “Good morning.” His voice was rough from sleep, his tone polite and reasonable, though she detected a hint of mild amusement.

      “Is it?” she asked, confused to note her covers twisted around one knee while the rest of her remained under the warmth of his heavy coat.

      Her gaze went to his body, where she caught a glimpse of his powerful legs and narrow hips before he shifted his own sleeping bag over him like a blanket.

      “We’re still here,” he reminded her. “Whole and warm, ready for another day. I’d call that good news after the weather conditions we faced last night.”

      Belatedly, she noticed the snowdrift on one side of the tent was almost halfway up the canvas wall. No doubt that had helped insulate them against the cold, along with the natural body heat they’d gained by wrapping themselves around each other.

      “I don’t know how my sleeping bag unzipped.” She couldn’t help but raise the issue, since it embarrassed her to think she’d helped herself to Weston’s body during the night.

      She liked to think she had a stronger-than-average sense of personal space. Healthy boundaries. And while she’d been fine with pressing together through the fabric of two down barriers when they’d been trying to go to sleep, she felt completely undone at the idea of waking up with her leg between his thighs.

      Lifting her gaze to his face, she was stunned all over again to notice how little space still separated them. During the night, at least, it had been dark enough that she couldn’t see his perceptive hazel gaze on her.

      “You probably did that in your sleep.” He was a kind man to give her a face-saving excuse for why she was attached to him like a barnacle this morning. “I woke up a couple of hours into the storm and realized I was burning up, so I unzipped my sleeping bag and used it like a blanket.”

      “Hmm.” She was all too aware of how hot things had gotten during the coldest night she’d ever spent outdoors.

      Talking about it wasn’t going to make her any less flustered.

      If anything, her body still tingled with awareness everywhere she’d touched him. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so alive, like every nerve ending had been awakened at the hands of this man. Why did he have to be someone so important to her investigation? For a moment, she wondered what might have happened between them if she didn’t have that professional duty holding her back.

      Well, that and the fact that Weston was anxious for her to take her questions and leave Mesa Falls Ranch. She couldn’t do that until she’d tracked down answers, and she’d do well to remember that barrier between them since she’d been so quick to tear down the physical ones. Her subconscious obviously wanted him, even if the rest of her knew that was a very bad idea. She needed this job. The order, the respectability had saved her in so many ways. Without it? Hell, she couldn’t even consider risking her job for anyone.

      “How do you feel this morning, April?” he asked, jarring her from her worries. “Are you ready to try the descent now that the snow has stopped?”

      Sunlight beckoned.

      And so did the chance to resurrect boundaries with the compelling man next to her.

      She nodded, already mentally ticking through today’s to-do list to keep herself from thinking about Weston. “I can have my gear packed in five minutes.”