“No, it’s—I’m fine.”
“All right. I’ll check the boxes to see what else we have to make ourselves comfortable. We don’t know how long it will take before the rain eases up.”
Gray walked away but shot a concerned glance over his shoulder. I dropped my gaze and waited until he was busy searching through the boxes before I removed my boots. I grimaced. Two hundred dollars for a pair of boots didn’t make them immune to water. My toes were wrinkled and cold. But as soon as the warmth rushed into them, they tingled, growing pink again.
Gray’s footsteps were hard to ignore. He was spreading hay on the floor.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Making a bed.” He didn’t look up as he carried on with his task.
“I can help.”
“It’s fine.”
“Please. I’m not worthless, you know. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I can lay out hay to make a bed.”
I tucked in the corners of the blanket to make a toga and approached him.
“All right, then.” He pointed at a box. “The blankets are in there. Mind you, there are only a few traditional blankets. Thehorse blankets we’ll spread at the bottom and the others we put on top. The more layers, the less prickly the bed will be.”
“Okay.”
We worked in silence to create a cozy spot while the rain drummed on the rooftop of the barn and its wooden walls. When the building held up under the onslaught, the tension slowly eased from my body. Gray had been correct that the barn was well insulated. With all my moving around, the cold faded from my stiff limbs.
We performed our tasks mechanically. Gray finished laying out the hay, and I brought over the blankets. We spread them over the hay, one on top of the other. When we were done, we stepped back. Was it just me, or did the bed look too small for both of us?
“It’ll do,” Gray said as though reading my mind. “Soon, the rain will stop, and we can go back to the house.”
“Yeah.”
But neither of us moved toward the bed. An awkward silence stretched between us, broken only by the torrential downpour.
“Go on, then,” Gray said. “I’ll check how bad it is outside.”
“I don’t think you need to check. You can hear how bad it is.”
“True.” He scratched his head. “I guess we’ll have to wait it out.” He gestured to the hay bed. I hadn’t wanted to make the first move, but I couldn’t come up with a reason to turn him down.
“This will make one heck of a story one day,” I said, aiming for humor to lighten the mood. I took a step toward the bed, but my foot slipped on the wet floor.
“Ozzie!”
I grabbed for Gray at the same time he lunged forward. We both caught each other by the blankets, and relief washed through me. But then my blanket became undone, and I criedout as I toppled backward, Gray’s blanket still clutched in my hand. And mine in his.
With an oof, I fell to the hay bed. Even though I was out of breath, my limbs were still intact. My very naked limbs. I raised my head and found Gray staring at my body, his lips parted.
You have a blanket in your hand. Cover yourself.
I swallowed painfully and willed my eyes to look ahead, but as if they had a mind of their own, they slowly lowered past washboard abs, a taut belly and landed on well-defined cum gutters.
Don’t look any lower. You can still salvage this.
I looked.
The urge was too strong. Heat rushed up my face and spread throughout my body. Gray was semihard. Under my gaze, his cock thickened. It was as huge as the rest of him. Mine hardened in response. My chest rose and fell heavily, and my breathing sounded labored in the quiet barn.
“You have my blanket,” he murmured, his face red.
