The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)(61)

‘Hmm.’

He chuckled and grabbed her hand and she realized it was freezing cold and had been for some time but she’d been too preoccupied with not dying to pay attention. Now that they were relatively, sorta safe, she was cold and stiff.

‘Come on, let’s warm you up.’

Noah opened the sneaky trap door he’d shown her earlier and gestured down the few steps into the living space below deck.

‘After you.’

Hazel didn’t love the idea of going further into the boat while the waves tossed them about but she also didn’t love the idea of staying above deck and freezing her butt off, so she went down the steps.

There was about two square feet of standing room in the cabin. The rest of the space was taken up by a bed that was the shape of the front of the boat, sort of like a triangle with rounded sides, two small benches at the foot of the bed, and a small cabinet with the one burner stove on top.

‘Just strip that wet stuff off and toss it under the bench. Open the other bench up and there’s some dry clothing in there you can put on,’ Noah instructed, his head poked in the doorway and then he closed it to keep the rain and wind out.

Hazel quickly changed into a pair of sweatpants that she had to roll five times just to be able to stick her feet out of the bottom, an equally large T-shirt and a sweatshirt. She kicked her wet clothes under the other bench and then crawled onto the bed to make space for Noah to come down.

He peeked his head in a moment later. ‘All good?’

‘Yeah, get in here. You’ll catch your death.’

He stepped down, laughing as he closed the hatch. ‘Okay, that sounded like an old lady.’

Hazel managed a small laugh even as the boat swayed in the water. ‘That’s what I was shooting for.’ There was a skylight above her on the bed, but she couldn’t see anything besides the rain pelting the outside of it. A few small lights glowed around the tiny cabin.

Noah shucked his wet shirt, he’d already left the wet coat he’d been wearing above deck, and Hazel barely had time to catch her breath before his jeans were gone, too. He stood at the end of the bed in nothing but his boxer briefs and the braided bracelets around his wrist. His hair was wet and looked dark brown in the low light. He grabbed a towel from the storage bench and ran it over his hair, leaving it standing up in places.

She watched the muscles in his arms and back bunch and flex as he moved, remembering how he’d moved to get them here, to keep her safe.

She swallowed hard. ‘I’m wearing all your clothes.’

He sent her a lopsided grin. ‘Guess you’ll have to keep me warm.’ He crawled up onto the bed next to her and she quickly lifted the blanket to let him underneath. His skin was cool to the touch when he wrapped his arms around her and she hugged him back, nestling her face in the crook of his neck.

‘I think this might have been a little bit too much adventure for me.’

‘Nah,’ he spoke to the top of her head, his breath rustling her curls. ‘You did great.’ His arms tightened around her. ‘Haven’t you learned to stop underestimating yourself yet, Haze?’

She pulled back far enough to see his face. Even in the low light, he was bright; the way he looked at her warmed her completely.

‘You’re Hazel freaking Kelly. Smart.’ He brushed a kiss across her cheek. ‘Funny.’ A kiss to her other cheek. ‘Sweet.’ The tip of her nose. ‘And sexy as hell.’ Her lips, soft and warm. She sighed, letting her body relax against his. Even the storm seemed to quiet.

‘You didn’t need me to help you discover any of that,’ he said.

‘Maybe. But I’m glad you were here for all of it.’

‘Yeah?’

‘I really like you, Noah.’

‘Yeah?’

She smiled, pulling him closer, feeling him respond to her touch even through the baggy clothes she was wearing.

‘Mmm. A lot.’ So much that she wondered if ‘like’ was even the right word anymore, that maybe at some point between the drunken blueberry-patch night and this crazy storm Hazel’s feelings for Noah had catapulted straight from like to something much stronger.

Something that Noah certainly hadn’t signed on for.

Something she sure as hell would be keeping to herself for the moment, until she was on dry land and had properly sorted out this alarming escalation. It probably had something to do with her recent near-death experience.

‘I really like you too, Hazel Kelly.’

‘Yeah?’ She didn’t hate hearing that, though. If she had leapfrogged from like to ... something else ... then maybe Noah could, too?

Noah grinned. ‘Yeah.’ He rolled on top of her. ‘A lot.’ He pressed the word into her skin with his lips. ‘But if I’m going to properly show you, these things have got to go.’

He was tugging on the giant pants she was wearing and she laughed. ‘You told me to put them on!’

‘I was feeling chivalrous at the time.’

‘And now?’

‘And now I’m feeling like I want you out of these damn pants.’

Hazel giggled, his words tickling her neck. She helped him, wriggling out of them and yanking the sweatshirt over her head. Her glasses came with it and Noah rescued them from her hair, placing them on the little shelf built into the side of the boat.