Novel Jumper

Chapter Eighteen

 Lilia awoke slowly. Sunlight streamed across her face, entering from the grimy inn room window. She yawned, running a hand over her face to further wake herself up.

She suddenly became aware of a warmth against her back. She heard Connor sigh and felt her hair ruffle...from his breath. Lilia froze, realizing what was happening.

Connor was pressed against her, his face nestled in her hair. She felt him shift and realized their legs were twined together. She felt a deep blush rise to her cheeks and her heart speeding up. Oh, my mother would murder both of us, she thought, unsure of the protocol for this situation. Did she move? Wake him up? Try to free herself?

But, truth be told, she didn't want to be freed. She wanted to lie here and pretend that everything was going to be all right. That Connor was sleeping like this because he liked her, not because he had shifted in his sleep. For all she knew, she had positioned herself against him, not the other way around.

Deciding that she wasn't going to be the one to make a decision, Lilia closed her eyes and rested, enjoying the closeness while it lasted.

Soon, she felt Connor starting to shift and knew he was waking up. She lay perfectly still, trying to keep her breathing pattern calm and steady.

Slowly, incredibly carefully, Connor untangled himself from her. She felt the sudden cold air on her back as he rose and continued to feign sleep.

"Crap," Connor muttered, and her heart dropped. Oh, so that's how it is. She fought the urge to curl into herself and try to disappear.

He obviously doesn't feel the same way. The sooner we reach the Wizard of Improbability, the better.

"Lilia?" Connor asked softly.

Lilia started slightly, as if he had dragged her from slumber. She turned lazily over to face him, making a small noise in the back of her throat and rubbing her eyes.

"Morning," Connor said. "Ready to get going?"

"Let me just get dressed," Lilia said, amazed at how calm she was being when, moments before, she and Connor had been pressed together like an actual couple. She bent her head and busied herself with fixing her hair so that Connor wouldn't see how red her cheeks were.

"I'll wait right outside," Connor replied. As soon as she heard the door close, Lilia stood up, stretched, and tried to forget the feeling of Connor's body against hers as she changed.

Who would have thought that I'd only have to travel to an alternate planet in order to get a boy into bed? she thought, snorting at the innuendo.

"Okay," she called once she was fully clothed in a new outfit and had her dagger strapped to her waist.. "You can come back in."

Connor did so, and she faced the window as he changed. She was too afraid to go anywhere out of Connor's sight with all of these miners around, men who surely hadn't forgotten about her overnight.

Sure enough, as she and Connor returned their room key and left the inn, work halted as they passed through the camp. Men stopped to watch their approach, and Lilia remembered just in time to lower her head as one of the miners swaggered up to them.

"Leaving so soon?" he asked. He had a slight accent. Lilia wondered what was so bad about his former home to bring him to a place like this.

"Yes," Connor said tightly.

"Let me escort you out," the man said, a hint of a threat in his voice. He left his true meaning unsaid: Let me escort you out or else things won't go well for you.