What had happened to her that, even mostly unconscious, she would still viscerally recoil like that? Who had hurt her?
And if a shifter’s bite hadn’t killed her, how was it that she was still human? The only person Cooper knew who had survived that kind of a bite without gaining a new shape had been Roger, and, of course, Roger was already a shifter.
Shifters can’t turn other shifters, his griffin confirmed. Then it sounded uncertain: But Gretchen said she was human.
Cooper couldn’t understand what had happened, but he could still understand the pain on her face. He kissed her hair.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’ll stay away from it, I promise.”
Her tensed-up expression softened into the same sleepy smile as before, and once again, she opened her eyes. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but Cooper was sure there was a little more spark of alertness there than there had been before.
“This is nice,” Gretchen said. She moved back, cuddling up a little more against his chest. “It must be my birthday.”
“It’s the one-hour anniversary of you almost dying from hypothermia, actually.” He tried to keep his voice light, but he could still hear the raw relief in it, and he knew she could too. “That’s why we’re—you know. I had to be able to warm you up, and your clothes were getting in the way.”
“A likely story,” she teased. “You were just trying to steal my quick-change secrets.” Then she blinked, confusion crossing her face and making her look a little more alert. “Why are you duct-taped?”
“I tore my stitches a little. This should hold me until the wounds heal on their own.”
She caressed around the gauze, her fingers delicate. “I didn’t want you to get hurt even more.”
“It’s not that bad. And it was worth it.”
A playful smile crossed Gretchen’s face. “Hey, you said I was a painkiller, right? Let me see if I can help you out.”
She shifted, her thawing body moving against his, and he was now incredibly aware of how silky and lush her bare body was.
It had been bad enough trying to resist her during Snowbound Cuddling Adventure: Part One, and she had at least still been wearing a T-shirt then, and they’d had the discomfort of the car to distract them. Now they had a warm, safe bed—and he had a warm, safe Gretchen. One who was moving languorously against him with a full, delighted awareness of the results she was getting.
Her smile deepened, now looking downright mischievous. Nobody looking at her now—including Cooper himself—would be able to believe that she’d been lifeless and icy just a few minutes ago.
That was strange, too. Any second of her being in danger terrified him, but he could still recognize that her recovery had been almost uncannily fast. Of course, he knew he wasn’t completely in tune with how quickly humans tended to heal, and, as he’d had ample opportunity to remember lately, he wasn’t a doctor or a paramedic. Maybe he didn’t know what he was talking about.
But all the same, he was sure that it should have taken longer for her to come back to this kind of vivid, warm, energetic life.
Then she moved against him, and Cooper forgot all his questions.
In fact, he forgot how to think at all.
He had stripped down to just his boxers, and the silken rub of Gretchen’s skin against his made him rue every bit of cloth that came between them. She was tantalizingly soft and warm against the slivers of his exposed body, trailing her hand along the edge of his thigh right where the boxers ended. It was like she was leaving a trail of sparks in her wake.
He’d thought her handshake had made him come apart at the seams? That her kiss had knocked him out? This was reducing him to rubble.
This was his mate, touching him with a sweet, sexy smile on her face; this was his heart, body, and mind working in perfect accord to appreciate everything she was giving him.
“Gretchen—”
He didn’t know what he was asking her for.
It didn’t matter. She knew what he wanted. She pressed her lips against his, letting him draw a gorgeous moan out of her as he licked into her mouth.
She drew away only for them both to gasp in air, and that was when some ability to think finally came back to him.
“The door.”
She looked over her shoulder at the open door and promptly turned scarlet.
He kissed one of her newly burning cheeks. “Glad to see your blood flow’s working right again.”
Gretchen raised her eyebrows. “Mine’s working fine.” And then slowly, deliberately, she canted her thigh in between his, brushing the round curve of it against his cock.
Outside of their tangle of blankets, it wouldn’t have looked like anything. The visible parts of her body had barely moved at all.
“How’s your blood flow?” Gretchen inquired pleasantly.
Cooper was about to say he’d learned his lesson and he wouldn’t tease her again—and then her hand closed over his cock, drawing him out of his boxer shorts.
God.
“Seems okay,” she said in the same bright, cheerful voice. “Everything feels like it’s in good working order.”
Cooper tucked his mouth against her ear so he didn’t have to worry about being overheard. “You’re killing me here.”
“You were the one who thought it was a good idea for us to take our clothes off,” she whispered back.
“I was trying to save your life!”
She tightened her hand around him, drawing out a noise that he thankfully managed to catch before it escaped his lips. “Consider it saved.”
“There’s a—ah—very nice old man—fuck—named Ford out there, who could hear—”
Gretchen kissed him again, but more softly this time. “I’ll take care of it.”
She peeled off the comforter, leaving him wrapped in just the quilt, and wrapped it around her shoulders. It made her look like a queen in a long white winter cloak. She padded over to the open door, moving in small glides so she could keep herself covered, and called
