“I have always wanted to go to an all-bear town,” Blayne sighed.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I keep thinking the streets would be flowing with honey and the streams with salmon.”

“Grizzlies aren’t the only ones who live there, ya know. I’m not a big honey fan.”

“How can you not like honey? How can anyone not like honey? That’s crazy talk!”

“Even though you know what grizzlies are, you still think of them as cute teddy bears, don’t you?”

“I do.”

Bo began to shake his head but ended up yawning.

“I’ve kept you up too late.”

“Nah.” He glanced at his watch, eyes going wide. “Okay. Maybe a little. I better go.”

“Sleep here.”

The way his whole body tensed and he didn’t look at her made Blayne realize how that probably sounded.

“On the couch,” she quickly added.

They both looked at the oversized loveseat she kept telling people was a couch. “It is a tad small, huh?”

“It’ll be fine. But I need to be up at five thirty. I have that breakfast with my agent at six fifteen.”

Blayne jumped up and ran into her room, quickly programming her digital alarm clock. She checked it twice, headed back to the living room, ran back and checked it again. She wanted to make sure she would not be the cause of him being late to any meetings.

“All done,” she said, walking back out with a pillow and several blankets. He took the pillow and stared at the blankets. “Oh. I turn the heat down at night, so my bill’s not so high.”

“Thank you, ’cause I’m melting right now.”

“Oh! I’m sorry. Right . . . polar.”

He dropped the pillow on the couch. “Don’t worry. Polar shifters can adjust to any temperature if we have to; we’re just more comfortable in the cold.”

“Well, no worries. I’ll turn the heat down and there’s ice water or whatever in the fridge.”

“I know. I cleaned the fridge out. It’s like you had experiments going on in some of that Tupperware.”

“Are we back to that?” she asked, using one of Gwen’s favorite sayings. “Really?”

“I’m just saying if you took care of those things on a weekly basis—”

“Sha-sha-sha.” She covered his face with the blankets. “Don’t make me hate you.”

“I thought you liked me,” he said around the blankets, so she lowered them since they didn’t seem to be quite effective.

“I do.” She leaned in, using her “fierce” expression. “But that can change on a dime, mister.”

Seemingly unimpressed with her fierceness—and she’d worked hard on that look for years!—he said, “I’ll keep that inmind.”

“See you in the morning,” she said after turning down the heat as much as she dared without risking hypothermia for herself.

“Night, Blayne.”

Blayne closed her bedroom door and quickly changed into thermal underwear, sweatpants, sweatshirt, and extra thick wool socks. She loaded up her bed with blankets and burrowed beneath them.

And, as she sat in the dark, and stared out her window at the brick building next door, it suddenly occurred to her that she had a guy she didn’t know very well asleep in her living room—and that she’d never felt safer.

That night, Blayne fell asleep smiling.

CHAPTER 12

Bo’s eyes opened exactly at five twenty-five a.m., but unlike most days when he woke up five minutes before his alarm went off . . . things were different. Not “I’m staying in a hotel due to an out-of-town game” different but “there’s a wolfdog clinging to me” different.

Without moving his body, Bo studied where he was, which would be the floor. He didn’t normally sleep on the floor, but he was definitely on the floor. He was also fully clothed, as was Blayne. In fact, she had on so many clothes, he felt confident in ruling out a wild night of sexual abandon that he couldn’t remember.

A good thing, too, since Bo liked remembering past sexual encounters. Less chance of the awkward morning-after moment where one doesn’t remember his or her partner’s name.

Still, none of that explained why he was sleeping on the floor with Blayne . . . or why they were cuddling.

It was definitely cuddling, too. He had his arms around her and she had her head buried in his chest. They were on their side, facing each other, so he’d wrapped one leg around hers. He’d had sex with women and still never woke up in this position before. He didn’t mind waking up this way, it was just not knowing how they got here that was worrying him.

An alarm went off in the bedroom and Blayne groaned, drew her arm back, and slapped Bo right in the face.

Lying there, wondering what he’d done to deserve that, Blayne snarled and said, “Off!” Then she hit him again. When that didn’t seem to shut off the alarm that was in another room, Blayne lifted her head. Her eyes blinked wide when she saw him.

“Oh, God . . . was that you I hit?”

“Twice.”

“Oh. Oh! I’m so . . .” Then she burst out laughing.

Unable to take the sound of that damn alarm clock anymore, Bo pulled away from Blayne and stood. He went into her bedroom and turned it off. Letting out a sigh, he went back to the living room. And, yeah, she was still laughing.

“Get up,” he said. “Get showered, get dressed. We’ll go into the city together.” He reached down and lifted her off the floor. “The longer you take, the more you’re screwing with my schedule.”