18. Kelli

18

KELLI

Kelli gasped at what she saw—the couch was shrinking.

It was getting smaller and smaller right under her. Already it was only half as big as it had been before and any minute it would be a third as big.

Hastily , she got off the rapidly shrinking cushions and jumped away.

“ Hey ? What in the Seven Hells is happening?” Klaus growled.

“ I don’t know.” Kelli shook her head. But then she remembered another thing on the Maximum Romance checklist. Hadn’t it said something about “only one bed?” She was almost sure it had. Maybe the cabin had heard Klaus saying he would sleep on the couch and decided to remove it from the equation.

“ Look , there it goes,” Klaus said, just as the couch shrank away to nothing and disappeared completely. “ Why the fuck would this fucked-up cabin take the couch away?”

“ Er , I think it’s trying to make us sleep together,” Kelli said. “ I mean not sleep together, sleep together. Just sleep in the same bed.”

“ Huh . Trying the same tricks it pulled in the shower, you think?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“ I don’t know.” Kelli shook her head. “ But I do know it’s a trope in romance books where the man and woman wind up snowed in and there’s only one bed so they have to share it.”

“ The list!” he exclaimed, snapping his fingers. “ This must be what ‘forced proximity’ means.”

Kelli nodded.

“ I think you’re right.” She cleared her throat. “ The bed really is plenty big enough to share without, uh, touching if you don’t want to.”

She felt like she had to add the last part about him not wanting to touch. For a moment there on the couch, it had seemed like they were about to fall into bed together and do more than just sleep. But then Klaus had suddenly gotten cold and distant—she didn’t know what to make of that. It was almost like he couldn’t decide if he liked her or not. Either way, Kelli wasn’t going to push it.

Right now he seemed to be deliberating. She watched as he ran a hand through his hair and puffed out an impatient sigh.

“ I guess you’re right—the bed’s big enough to share,” he said at last. “ As long as they don’t shrink away to nothing while we’re in it.”

“ I don’t think they’ll do that,” Kelli said thoughtfully. “ I think they want us to sleep in the same bed together—not on the floor.”

“ Okay .” He sighed. “ Well , should we go to bed then?”

As he spoke, his eyes ran up and down her body for a long moment, giving Kelli a tingle. She could almost feel his gaze like a touch and he smelled so good. She’d really enjoyed cuddling with her big Protector on the couch. She just wished she knew what was going on with him and why he was so hot and cold.

“ Sure ,” she said and made herself yawn. “ I’m tired—it’s been a long day.”

“ Let’s get some sleep and hope that the snow melts by the morning so we can get the fuck out of here,” Klaus said.

Together they headed for the bedroom.